J has started skin picking on his arms. Little patches have started appearing where his nails have dug in and caused the skin to break and bleed.
I have a battle to keep his nails short, which results in him screaming at me and trying to push me away with all of his large 9 year old frame (and those that know him will understand he is very strong). Somehow he is still able to pick at his skin but I am sure it is not through him biting as the marks are too small.
The head banging is also everyday now. Several episodes every afternoon and evening that result in the whole family becoming stressed as it is impacting now on W who is 20 months old now and wonders what the heck is going on.
He is still asking for and eating his peas and carrots and I even got him to eat scrambled egg the other day! He has'nt touched that since he was about two years old.
On a different subject there has been a little bit of press about Ricky Gervais and his use of the word 'mong' when updating his Twitter statuses.
The comic has refused to apologise after he repeatedly used the word "mong" in jokes and online messages to fans on the social networking site Twitter.
Gervais insisted the meaning of the word has changed over time, saying it is now used to describe an idiot, rather than being a derogatory term for those suffering from the chromosome disorder.
But the funnyman came under fire from disability groups and Down's syndrome campaigners, who said his use of the term was insensitive and distressing.
Gervais, who has more than 440,000 followers on Twitter, used phrases including: "two mongs don't make a right" and "good monging everyone".
He also used the term to describe the thousands of people who lined the streets of London to watch the royal wedding on April 29 this year.
This morning on The Wright Stuff a panel member, Steve Furst (actor/writer/comedian), talked about this during the newspaper section and made a very valid point - " the more you say it does not mean it is right....he is playing to the gallery, he does enjoy it.....I think it's unnaceptable....he is an intelligent man he should find another word to use... unfortunately jokes about the disabled (and even homophobia) is still accepted".
I took that from a conversation he had with the actor (and Spandau Ballet) Martin Kemp during the debate and Martin Kemp made a valid point also during that bit - "its a word that used to be used in the playground when I was a kid, but the reason it was okay to use it then was that we did'nt know what it meant, but he's old enough to know what it means"
