Our family is like any other family who has kids and realized that children don't come with manuals. In fact, not only do they not come with manuals but you can't purchase them either. Being raised in a family of 7 kids I had an idea of what normal behavior and development was. I also knew of abnormal and I could tell from the beginning our son was abnormal. There was nothing visibly wrong with him. He did everything he should before schedule but there was something wrong. A lot of people including our pediatrician passed it off as us being first time parents but that changed one day.
I brought my son in for his 3rd yr check up. He was going bizzerk right in her office. He was climbing up the cupboards, ripping the paper off the table, trying to escape and into everything. She was shocked needless to say as I tried to get him to calm down with no results. She asked me if this was 'normal' and I told her this is HIS normal but this is not normal. I could tell she was thinking about it but I had ammo this time. I had to some degree proof and it was strong enough she couldn't stay it was just I was a worried over reactive first time parent.
I began telling her how I when I was 7 months pregnant just 3 months prior my son left the house. I heard the lock being played with and the door and believe me I was on my feet buy my son was GONE. He had walked out the back door and wouldn't respond. This wasn't the first time this had happened that he'd escaped and so I went to the front. He wasn't there. I returned to the back thinking he'd respond. He didn't. I jumped in the car as I couldn't go tromping everywhere 7 months pregnant and hitting pre-eclampsia. I drove up the hill looking and calling for him asking people. He hadn't been seen. I ended up calling 9-1-1 and telling them I had lost my son. Thankfully he was found after the police department, sheriff's department, and search and rescue had been dispatched. He had wondered about 5 blocks from home through empty properties and lots from our unfenced back yard (we rented). He was muddy and scratched up but safe. Then to our suprise we found CPS at our door a few days later which quickly was dismissed.
I had also gone to a WIC appointment after the baby was born and the WIC staff were shocked at what they were seeing. After they asked if this was normal and I told them yes they asked if my pediatrican was aware of what was going on.
It took all of this to get us on a trail to begin getting help for our son. We have gone through Children's Hosptial, we have gone through PCIT (Parent Child Interaction Training), we have seen counselors and psychiatrists to get no real answers or solutions. It took a lady at our church who has a son very simular to mine who happens to have Asperger's to point out that he had sensory issues. I am forever greatful because it started us out on a road that while it didn't give us the answers we desired it gave us something to work with. It helped us understand WHY although we did not and still don't know the WHAT because in reality he is not really diagnosed with anything firmly. We seem to at this point be bouncing around Sensory Integreation Disorder, ADHD, the Autism Spectrum (extreme high functioning), and possibly a mood disorder. He falls somewhere within those lines but we're not sure where at this point.
Right now we're just working on helping him no matter what it takes. Currently we have an incredible counselor who really understands what we're going through and in spite of not having a firm diagnosis has helped us so much. We also have a neurologist who is one of the doctors who deals with Autism working with us prescribing medications rather than a psychiatrist. We have put him into non-competitive sports to deal with his high activity level as well as his much needed sensory input. He is also on one medication which seems at this point to work okay.
