Appointments and autism the second

Did you think medical appointments were finished with the very first post?  Well now you know I wasn’t!

One of the things you will discover is that when you have a child with autism, it’s hard to leave them with other people.  Sometimes it can be that it’s hard for the adult to understand them, or doesn’t have the time to devote to them as they have other kids, or a MULTIPLE of reasons.

So, you may have hospital appointments and cannot get anyone to babysit your child.  WHAT are you going to do?  Well, firstly, you have to think about what you might need.  Games, drink, plushie, blanket, food, change of clothes, nappies or diapers if the child is still using them…..and whatever it is, you have to be able to put them down and whatever you have needs to be quiet so that you can speak to the doctor/nurse/whoever and you can hear them and vice versa.  You don’t want the child to NEED to disturb you and you know they are happily occupied.

I will admit that sometimes when it was an appointment for Johnathan, and the doctor might have to examine him, I would get Kevin’s Mum to come with us.  It meant she could concentrate on him and I wouldn’t have him wanting to sit on me and start distracting me when his examination was over.

Now once Johnathan has finished being examined, if the bed the doctor assesses you on goes up and down with an electric device, he will go and sit on it and take the bed up and down.  I will admit I DO keep my eye on him when he does this and tell him to take it down if he gets too high and I am ready to spring into action if he goes too high up and get him to take it down or do so myself.

Sometimes doctors understand the difficulty involved with keeping someone on the spectrum busy so that you can concentrate on them and other times you get medical professionals do not.  And you have to be aware of this and react accordingly.  

The other thing is, you need to give your child warning of what is going to happen and when - if they’re really young after breakfast or whatever is sufficient.  As they get older, you can give them a time and let them choose (from a limited selection chosen BY YOU) what they can take with them.  

Let them know who we are going to see and tell them EXACTLY how you expect them to behave and what treat they can have IF they behave as expected.  THEN you tell them this all again just before you go in.

Happy appointments (I hope).  Any other ideas, please do let me know.