Every doctor we meet always ask us the same questions~ What was he like as a baby? Did he have any delay in walking, talking or potty training? How would you describe him? etc.
Tyler was always "Tyler". What I mean by that is he was the child that was different, but not in a bad way. I would always say "thats just Tyler" or "he is set in his way". I never thought there was anything wrong. He was a very colicky baby. He would cry a lot and seemed to never want to give in. I just thought he was a stubborn, stand strong kind of baby. In some ways you would admire your child growing up like that. Then he would only say the word Mama for a long time. His speech was delayed. When we would mention this to the doctors, they would just say, "he will catch up and its nothing to worry about". I did have that thought in the back of my head that my other children did not grow up this way, but they are doctors and know more then me. Now when you look back at things you start to notice the Aspergers side of Tyler. I remember in Pre-K he was told to cut paper anyway he wanted. It was the teachers way of building the muscles in the children's hands for writing. He refused to do it. He asked the teacher why should I cut white paper just to cut it. He refused because he didn't see a purpose to cut. Later on she would draw shapes and he would cut them out. This was a big deal to him. He did not understand why anyone would just cut paper unless there was a task at hand to do... like cutting shapes. He sees things differently and there has to be a reason why for almost everything in his mind. You can see how hard that was for us. Everything was "why" and needed a reason behind it. In kindergarten and first grade he was lucky to have a wonderful teacher that took her time with Tyler. She worked well with him and gave him the space he needed. She use to tell me that Tyler has his good days and bad days. When there was a bad day, she would have him just put his head on the desk and relax. This worked well for Tyler and even though he had some bad days, he was doing very well in school. He is a smart child. In first grade we started to notice Tyler wanting to wear gloves all the time. The glove habit got so bad, we had to fight with him to not wear the gloves to school. I finally took the gloves away for good and he was not happy about it. Even now he wants to wear gloves when he sees them, but we tell him no. Then he started to always have his socks on and this is still going on today. He will sleep in them. I have tried so many ways to make him take the socks off. I even tried to sneak in at night to take them off his feet, but in the morning I would go in to wake him up and he would have socks on again. He would get up in the middle of the night to find a pair of socks. Then it was his jeans. Tyler has to always have jeans on. We live in FL, it gets very hot and he will still wear jeans. He tells us he likes the jeans to cover his legs. He has even refused to swim in the pool because he doesn't like to wear swim shorts. For a while he would sit by the pool, wearing his jeans and watching us swim. He would ask me if he can come in with his jeans, but I said no. Now there are times he will put on swim shorts and go in. When this happens it is a huge accomplishment.
We started to notice the tics around age 7. The pediatrician was the first one to point it out. She recommended Tyler see a Neurologist. The first Nero we did see told us to ignore it. I was a little taken back by her approach to dealing with the tics. We tried to do this, but it was not easy to ignore your child doing things he can not control. We decided to see another Nero. We were told it is a Tic Disorder, it is not very uncommon for children to have and he will grow out of it. We tried to not put Tyler on any medication until the tics started to interfere with his daily life. At first Tyler was very good at hiding the tics. He would make it seem as if he was doing something at the same time as the tics. It worked for a while. Then they got worse. We tried a medication called Clonidine. We honestly did not see any change in the tics, but he did get very angry at times. We decided to stop the medications for a while. We would check in with the Nero from time to time. Tyler's tics were still around and they would change every few months. As a parent seeing your child have these uncontrollable movements that are affecting him and not being able to do a damn thing about it, it is the hardest thing to deal with. Tyler would ask me and his Dad to fix him. It broke our hearts.
After a while we decided we would try another medication. The Nero we were seeing was well recommended, but that was also the problem. It was very hard to get an appointment. We had to make appointments months in advance and even then they would cancel the appointment. We ended up finding a new Nero for Tyler. We finally feel comfortable with this doctor. He takes his time with us and answers all of our questions. He is great with Tyler and Tyler really interacts with him. He started Tyler on Intuniv 2mg at first. After a few months the doctor decided to go up to 3mg. Medication will only help the tics be mild, but they will not go away.
Tyler in the past has had panic attacks. We have been able to find ways to calm him down when it happens. He actually knows when he is starting to have the panic feeling and tells us before it happens. The Psychologist decided to put Tyler on Zoloft 25mg for the panic/anxiety disorder. He has only been taking Zoloft for a week now. We hope it will help him feel more comfortable out of the house and and around people. We are trying to have Tyler understand that we are in the process of making things better and easier for him, but it takes time. We have to do it one day at a time.
Tyler was always "Tyler". What I mean by that is he was the child that was different, but not in a bad way. I would always say "thats just Tyler" or "he is set in his way". I never thought there was anything wrong. He was a very colicky baby. He would cry a lot and seemed to never want to give in. I just thought he was a stubborn, stand strong kind of baby. In some ways you would admire your child growing up like that. Then he would only say the word Mama for a long time. His speech was delayed. When we would mention this to the doctors, they would just say, "he will catch up and its nothing to worry about". I did have that thought in the back of my head that my other children did not grow up this way, but they are doctors and know more then me. Now when you look back at things you start to notice the Aspergers side of Tyler. I remember in Pre-K he was told to cut paper anyway he wanted. It was the teachers way of building the muscles in the children's hands for writing. He refused to do it. He asked the teacher why should I cut white paper just to cut it. He refused because he didn't see a purpose to cut. Later on she would draw shapes and he would cut them out. This was a big deal to him. He did not understand why anyone would just cut paper unless there was a task at hand to do... like cutting shapes. He sees things differently and there has to be a reason why for almost everything in his mind. You can see how hard that was for us. Everything was "why" and needed a reason behind it. In kindergarten and first grade he was lucky to have a wonderful teacher that took her time with Tyler. She worked well with him and gave him the space he needed. She use to tell me that Tyler has his good days and bad days. When there was a bad day, she would have him just put his head on the desk and relax. This worked well for Tyler and even though he had some bad days, he was doing very well in school. He is a smart child. In first grade we started to notice Tyler wanting to wear gloves all the time. The glove habit got so bad, we had to fight with him to not wear the gloves to school. I finally took the gloves away for good and he was not happy about it. Even now he wants to wear gloves when he sees them, but we tell him no. Then he started to always have his socks on and this is still going on today. He will sleep in them. I have tried so many ways to make him take the socks off. I even tried to sneak in at night to take them off his feet, but in the morning I would go in to wake him up and he would have socks on again. He would get up in the middle of the night to find a pair of socks. Then it was his jeans. Tyler has to always have jeans on. We live in FL, it gets very hot and he will still wear jeans. He tells us he likes the jeans to cover his legs. He has even refused to swim in the pool because he doesn't like to wear swim shorts. For a while he would sit by the pool, wearing his jeans and watching us swim. He would ask me if he can come in with his jeans, but I said no. Now there are times he will put on swim shorts and go in. When this happens it is a huge accomplishment.
We started to notice the tics around age 7. The pediatrician was the first one to point it out. She recommended Tyler see a Neurologist. The first Nero we did see told us to ignore it. I was a little taken back by her approach to dealing with the tics. We tried to do this, but it was not easy to ignore your child doing things he can not control. We decided to see another Nero. We were told it is a Tic Disorder, it is not very uncommon for children to have and he will grow out of it. We tried to not put Tyler on any medication until the tics started to interfere with his daily life. At first Tyler was very good at hiding the tics. He would make it seem as if he was doing something at the same time as the tics. It worked for a while. Then they got worse. We tried a medication called Clonidine. We honestly did not see any change in the tics, but he did get very angry at times. We decided to stop the medications for a while. We would check in with the Nero from time to time. Tyler's tics were still around and they would change every few months. As a parent seeing your child have these uncontrollable movements that are affecting him and not being able to do a damn thing about it, it is the hardest thing to deal with. Tyler would ask me and his Dad to fix him. It broke our hearts.
After a while we decided we would try another medication. The Nero we were seeing was well recommended, but that was also the problem. It was very hard to get an appointment. We had to make appointments months in advance and even then they would cancel the appointment. We ended up finding a new Nero for Tyler. We finally feel comfortable with this doctor. He takes his time with us and answers all of our questions. He is great with Tyler and Tyler really interacts with him. He started Tyler on Intuniv 2mg at first. After a few months the doctor decided to go up to 3mg. Medication will only help the tics be mild, but they will not go away.
Tyler in the past has had panic attacks. We have been able to find ways to calm him down when it happens. He actually knows when he is starting to have the panic feeling and tells us before it happens. The Psychologist decided to put Tyler on Zoloft 25mg for the panic/anxiety disorder. He has only been taking Zoloft for a week now. We hope it will help him feel more comfortable out of the house and and around people. We are trying to have Tyler understand that we are in the process of making things better and easier for him, but it takes time. We have to do it one day at a time.
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