So J and his headbutting. Something I have blogged a few times about before.
Lately it has become a daily occurrence and one that he does when he does not get his own way.
It centres around food and his demand for his favourite (or rather the only limited foods he will eat) foods.
As I have also mentioned before, albeit briefly, he has no stop mechanism when eating. If he were to be supplied with a never ending supply of chips or chocolate (yes not good foods to be in your limited intake I know) he would eat them until he was sick, then eat more.
As we are awaiting the genetic testing to be done we are in limbo over the other possibilities of the root cause of his disability.
It has been suggested that he has Smith Magenis Syndrome. (find out more here - http://smith-magenis.co.uk/index.php?page=what-is-sms ) This is closely similar to autism and its traits, although there are differences in facial appearance (not in all SMS children/adults).
With SMS there is a general problem of food intake being too great and the inability to not feel full or to stop eating. This is not pica, where the person will eat anything, this is more to do with gorging on favourite foods.
A lot of SMS people are overweight/obese because of this.
J has 'weight issues' but as he is also very tall for his age (at age nine he wears 12-13 year trousers and a medium in adult t-shirts (more for the shoulder width as they always hang too low) he is not considered to be vastly overweight, although I do have to keep a close eye on this, and which is why the kitchen has a lock on the door.
Until the genetic tests are completed we will not have an answer, and so I will not wax on about SMS until there is a confirmation.
Anyway back to the head banging....
The other morning before school, he was all dressed and ready to go, we were just waiting for the transport vehicle to come and collect him. He wanted some biscuits he had spied in the cupboard. I said no. So he went and banged his head on his favourite object, the door frame of the front room/lounge. I ignored him - as per the psychologist suggestion. So he went into the dining room, which has a door at the back that leads into the backroom/conservatory. This door has glass panels in to allow light in through from the back room. I heard glass shatter. I knew what had happened. He had head butted one of the panes. Now amid me trying to keep dogs and children away from the shards of glass all over the floor, I had J who now decided he would run back and forth panicking about what he had done.
I managed to clear the mess up safely, and I now have the cardboard from a Rice Krispie box brown taped up over the broken pane on either side.
So I can add another expense to the ever growing pile of things that need to be done. At least he didn't hurt himself, or anyone else.
