wondering and water

[woodsie]

I'm sure some of you heard the terrible news about the eight year old boy with autism found drowned in Florida. At first they thought he had been abducted, but now they are not sure since he was found not far from home with no apparent signs of a struggle. His mom supposed he was still sleeping on the couch for a nap when he went missing.
This brings up the subject of the inclination of some autistic children to wonder away. This is scarey enough, but compound that with their unknown attraction to water. I have probably heard of two other cases of drowned autistic children in the past six years.
Does anyone have experience with their child wondering and are there any good teaching tools to combat this. And does anyone know if there is a reason for the attraction to water.

[Lonestarmomof2]

Hi,

I haven't posted in ages, but just had to express just how sad I feel about hearing this news!

It's sad, regardless if the child is autistic or not, but because I have an autistic son, it hits me in a personal way, as does, I'm sure, all of you.

My "wonderful" son, who is in the 9th grade never did have a fascination with water, nor did he wander off out of the house, thank goodness!!
We are fortunate in that he is extremely high functioning and we never had to deal with a lot of behaviors that most parents have to deal with.

A friend of mine whose son is now the same age as my son used to wander out of the house when he was young...even though he is low-functioning, he was still smart as a whip and could figure out the lock system; one particular time when he was about 7, he left the house in the wee hours of the night...my friend and her husband were sleeping when they got a phone call from someone who was driving home from work and noticed a boy walking along the creek which was about a mile from his house. They were lucky he didn't attempt to go into the water, it is so dark at night they were lucky someone even noticed him...my friend had to buy one of those alarm systems that sound-off if anyone leaves the house.


Debbie

[StrictNon-Confo]

I recall in the story that he had been put on new meds. I believe most people have no clue how badly the meds they give their children to make them "compliant" mess up their ability to think, and their states of consciousness, and their reaction times. Having been put on phenobarbitol at 2.5 years old (my parents weaned me off it at about 4 because they didn't like what they saw it doing to me, and I distinctly recall not liking it, either) due to having a seizure when I contracted strep throat from my brother and running a high fever, and having the experience of not being capable of remembering how I got to the current point in time and space from a different one 5 minutes ago, combined with reports of my sometimes severely delayed responses to things (I'm talking days, not merely fractions of a second or seconds) I'm very wary of what all these prescribed drugs do immediately to thought processes and long-term to neurological development. It is vital to remember that no matter how hard they try, no testing can decipher exactly what effects many drugs have on the mind and thought processes by outside observation, and nobody in their right mind can claim that they can tell exactly what someone is thinking in any circumstance.

[lacey@alex]

I have a low functioning 7 year old boy who has a deep attraction to water. The story of the little boy who drowned scares me. Luckily I don't live near any body of water. But a couple of weeks ago he escaped the playard outside. I eventually found him playing on my neighbors property in a large hole filled with rain water. The water and mud was up to his waste.

In the house he likes to play with the facet water so I have to turn it completely off so he can't turn it on. In the bath I can't fill it up so he just sits under the running water to get cleaned up. He also swims everyday at school and if he isn't in his specialized float tube he will compusively drink the water and throw up. I think it will only get harder before it gets better. Maybe. Just a little info from a parent who can relate.

[ZMW]

My daughter (Zoe) will wander off if we do not keep an eye on her. We've had a gate put in to go across our drive way. We've blocked off pathways with high grass, because she doesn't like the grass to brush against her skin. My wife and I have to go on high alert if we go to a party outside. It's not uncommon to excuse ourselves from conversation because she is not in our site. People always tell us that they'll keep an eye on her for us so we can relax and enjoy the party. That will never happen. When we do leave our kids with sitters we can’t stress enough of the fact that they cannot lose site of her. She has been doing less of this though.

She also loves water. At times We have to shut the valves off to the sink off or she’ll stand there and play with the water. We have a water table for her outside and a small wading pool. At bath time she can be difficult to remove from the tub. After the water has completely drained usually ice cream can get her out.

[lacey@alex]

:) I'm glad I'm not the only one turning the faucet completly off. Sounds like your daughter and my son are like "Peas and Carrots". It can be exhausting having to constantly keep an eye on these kids. It's so hard to let someone else take over for even a couple of minutes just so you can take a break. My son goes everywhere with me and i mean everywhere. The bathroom included.
My house is so childproofed that most people who dare come into my home feel like their in a cage. And still he manages to get into trouble. He loves to twist the caps off bottles of soda, laundry soap, maple syrup, lotions, soaps, shampoo, toothpaste ect. He loves to take allmost everything and anything apart or break it. Everything in my home is either broken, taped or super glued together, falling apart, chewed up, torn into shredds, or no longer in my home because he wouldn't leave it alone. He is so busy that it makes me dizzy just watching him. It's just nice to know that your not alone in this isolated world of autism.

[Steph E.]

Hi! Fairly new to this site--posted thread b-4 about obsessions. Our 7 year old, autistic and diabetic, used to run--& I mean RUN like greased lightning--he's broke into neighbor's houses, etc. Once I turned my back for 30 seconds, and he was halfway down the next street on his big wheel, which was almost to Lake Erie! Yes, he loves the water, and he knows the way. We have a privacy-fenced in backyard & high locks with inside keys on all our doors. He hasn't done it for awhile, but I certainly wouldn't put it past him to do it again--he's tried, that's for sure, only we've caught him in time. Totally oblivious to cars, also, of course. Drowning is the leading cause of death in autistic children--my husband heard on the news. I saw this new tracking system in the Autism Advocate magazine, where your kid wears a bracelet--if you can get him to wear it!! That's a big if for a lot of these kids. Our boy wears his medical/autism ID (dog tag) attached to his shoe. Anyways, this tracking system goes up to a mile--more info at caretrak.com. Hope that helps some of you.

[Vanessa]

Hi, I can definately sympathise with you. I have a 12 yr old runner. Luckily I don't live near any large bodies of water, but I do live near a busy intersection, and like your son, mine is not afraid of cars.
Though he doesn't have a bigwheel (I won't get him one for that same reason). His favorite place is the library, and his other favorite place is Walmart, it's two miles from home, but he knows the way cause I've had to walk down there a couple of times, so I'm just waiting for the day one day when he gets it in his head to take off to do a little shopping.....and the problem with this is, he'll have no money on him, in fact the clothes he has on him will me a pair of boxer shorts and maybe a pair of sandals.
He walks out of the library without checking things out, so I don't doubt that he'll walk out of Walmart.
The only good thing here is that my husband and I used to work at the local Walmart, and most of the people there know our kids, and they know about AJ and his problem.

Anyway, I think the point I'm tryin' to make here is that some of us other parents also have runners or as I call them little "Houdini's" We do have a bracelet on him, that can be tracked for two miles, the local sherrif station operates this. It cost's me a mere $10 a month. A small price to pay, and worth every penny.
They come and change it either at home or at his school. We also have chickenwire nailed to the bottom part of our windows, if we need to get out incase of a fire, they can be easily kicked out, but it's a deterent, and though it may not completely keep him from escaping, it'll certainly buy us time to catch him before he gets away.

I hope that helps. That's a good idea about the id tags on the shoes, if I could only find a place on his boxer shorts. LOL