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So happy to be finishing the day with a much more positive blog!

We went to Kidz Rock this afternoon which is the final day of the Somerock weekend which is a big music festival in Bridgwater, Somerset (Google it!).

Two tribute acts were playing – Ed Sheeran and Little Mix which the kids were both excited for.

As we approached the site, the familiar shaking started and panic was setting in. Worrying that people were looking at her, that it was busy etc, etc.  Thankfully another lane opened up as we joined the queue to get in so that was one hurdle quickly jumped. I could see that Ellie felt anxious at the size of the circus ‘big top’ and the few thousand people at the ground, but once the ear defenders went on, the stress seem to settle. Continue reading “Happy Sunday! 😊😊”

Oooooh, that sounds a bit deep…. probably is for a Sunday morning tbh, but then I’ve had a good night’s sleep to recharge so this blog may be a little more coherent than it would’ve been last night (and not because of drink for a change!).

I have to be honest, we’ve probably had the worse start to a six weeks holiday in terms of Ellie’s behaviour… and its really starting to take its toll. Continue reading “Autism, Meltdowns and Mental Health… An honest view of not dealing with it!”

Wow! That’s a cynical title if ever I saw one!   This picture of the kids sums up our feelings of the whole process… and it makes me chuckle every time I see it!

It took two and a half years of consultants appointments before we had Ellie diagnosed at age five. During that time, only one consultant, the last one we saw, had some idea of what we were talking about in terms of Ellie’s virus, her food intolerances and her regression, but even then she couldn’t really explain it. Continue reading “Consulting Consultants and what they either don’t know… or don’t tell you!”

So, its Sunday evening here in rainy Somerset and we have survived week one of the six weeks holidays.  I’m not going to lie… I’m wondering how I’m going to keep my head for the next five weeks!   I don’t want to be a ‘Negative Nelly’ but I think this has been the hardest start to the holidays so far.

We’ve had multiple meltdowns from Ellie – sometimes not even knowing why which usually ends in her screaming and crying, saying we don’t love her, she is ugly and stupid …. you get the idea.  These have occurred more regularly lately and are more extreme than ever! There have even been points in the week where we have wondered if she needs some kind of help – whether that be some form of counselling, or medication to help her with her anxiety.  I truly can’t believe we are thinking this way but we have a few more weeks before I have a GP appointment booked (which was actually to discuss the RSI in my hand!). Continue reading “A ‘sugar-free’ six weeks holiday?”

As you may have seen, on Friday we had our YorkTest results back for Ellie which indicated she had a Yeast intolerance.

First of all, how naive was I to flippantly say “I can do Yeast”, thinking it would be a case of withdrawing bread and a few other things! I mean, she’s already Wheat, Gluten, Dairy and Soya free… surely this can’t be too bad! Wrong! It’s found in vinegar which is in bloody everything! Well, anything you might want to put on top of your dinner… and Ellie loves ketchup and salad cream! There are also a whole host of foods that aggravate the Yeast production in the gut! Continue reading “Research on Yeast Intolerance… OMG!!”

So, back to the story and it’s April 2008 and we have a trip to Orlando to go on. Obviously, when we booked it some 11 months earlier, we didn’t envisage that we would have to navigate a restrictive diet along with the regressive behaviour of our two year old daughter. It was a real worry thinking how Ellie was going to manage.

I remember doing a lot of planning!  Literally, organising food for every eventuality.   Hand luggage was full of treats, special sandwiches, plain crisps etc to keep Ellie busy on the flight.  We’d gone up to the airport the same day so didn’t have to worry about overnight food before the flight. Continue reading “Fun Finding ‘Free From’ Food In Florida!”

I’ve been trying hard to remember the order in which everything happened during that first year of Ellie’s illness. So much went on that it’s all a bit of a blur to be honest.  Well, imagine the joy when I looked through the filing cabinet to find two files (‘Ellie Medical’ & ‘Ellie Food’) crammed full of paperwork including a typed up food diary and ‘Sequence of Events’ for the first year! Yay! Continue reading “‘Sequence of Events’  Hurrah for paperwork and filing cabinets!”

So, back to the story.  Its January 2007 and what we know so far is that from a two day vomiting virus, Ellie started to lose all forms of communication… which then improved when we switched her milk… but then got worse again a couple of weeks later.

I hadn’t meant to tell hubby while he was away for work that Mum had asked if Ellie might have autism… but I’d been so worried, it just came out!  Of course, this suggestion was ‘absurd and ridiculous’ … I couldn’t believe I was saying it myself!  I’d got home from work and Ellie was in a confused state and making this awful moaning noise and shaking her hands frantically.  I remember ringing the doctor in a panic and getting an appointment that afternoon (those were the days!).  An hour later Ellie had calmed down and I called them back and booked an appointment for the following week.  At least now we had some time to research. Continue reading “Our child… the two year old drug addict!”

Back in the present day now and I’ve been wondering …Will we ever nail the morning routine? Whatever we do, it always ends in stress and anguish… and that’s just me!!

We’ve tried all sorts in the past – countdown traffic light timers, ticklists, social stories etc etc and I’m sure I’ll come back to those in later blogs.

This week we have changed around the order of breakfast and getting ready – we’ve been doing breakfast first and then ready for school. This seems to be going a little better because it means Ellie is downstairs eating (her favourite thing to do in life!) whilst I and hubby are upstairs getting ready. Continue reading “Morning routine! Arrrggghh! (Present day ramblings!)”