EatRight

5 TIPS FOR PARENTS FOR AN AUTISM-FRIENDLY SUMMER

The summer holidays are here and, of course, many of us are getting ready to have some fun, relax and meet lots of interesting people. However, for families with children with autism, summer can be a particularly challenging time. Keeping children on the spectrum busy and entertained during the holidays can be exhausting, expensive and stressful. As one mother said to me: “I wish my son’s school would work all year around without any holidays”. So, how can you make your holiday less stressful and more enjoyable? And what is an easy way for you to make the most of your time together and keep your child on the spectrum learning and further developing their skills? Here are my five tips for an AUTISM-FRIENDLY SUMMER.

Nature is the best therapist

Nature is a great healer for all of us but especially for children with autism who have many sensory issues. Spending more time in nature and getting away from the noises, smells and perhaps even electro-magnetic pollution of every day life, could be very calming and relaxing for your child. Leave all your electronic gadgets behind and just enjoy the real world! Stimulate your child’s curiosity and draw their attention to different plants, insects and birds. You may discover your child likes to draw or play with sticks or maybe create something with the flowers. All these activities improve sleep and normalise the day-night rhythm of hormones and, therefore, enhance overall health and behaviour.

Increase your child’s amount of “Vitamin G”

Allow your child to walk bare foot in the garden and along the beach as much as possible. Grounding is the best anti-oxidant to neutralise any free radicals in the body. If your child is not ready to walk with bare feet, they can begin by wearing socks. Grounding reduces stress, provides great support for the immune system and restores energy levels.

Experience new activities

The holidays are a great opportunity to explore what other possible activities your child may really enjoy doing. For example, you could try introducing them to different sports. Maybe you never had the chance to see if your little one likes horse-riding or even “horse-sitting”, which is more acceptable for some children with autism, at least to start with. Or, perhaps you never had the opportunity to try taking them to an art, music or drama class. Now is the perfect time to try just that and to see if your child enjoys themselves. It is very important to find an activity your child likes, as hobbies are definitely very therapeutic on many different levels.

Water therapy

Summer is the perfect time to enjoy water in whatever form and amount your child accepts. Even if it’s a quick dip in an inflatable pool or a simple paddle in the sea. Please keep in mind that I am not talking about a swimming pool with chlorinated water, but real, fresh water from a natural source. You could even let your child play under the warm rain or give them buckets to collect water that they can later splash about in. Water can be a sensational sensory integration experience and releases stress and tension.

Teach your child how to cook

Of course, summer is a great moment to have some fun and quality time in the kitchen and teach your child some basic, but essential, cooking skills. This is particularly beneficial because cooking addresses many important issues. When you teach your child with autism to cook, you also address their sensory issues, motor skill, ability to follow instructions, eating habits and social skills.

Just think about it, your child may well experience certain sensory challenges when faced with the different textures, smells and colours found in the kitchen. This is important to realise and prepare for. Avoid unpleasant sensations! Simply do not use products that posess any qualities your child doesn’t like. For example, if your child dislikes slimy textures, avoid giving them fish or a peeled boiled egg. Alternatively, you could suggest using gloves, which may actually resolve this particular issue.

Motor skills are very important and often under-addressed in children with autism. By engaging your child in the different steps of food preparation, you focus on their fine motor skills on different levels. You can help your child control the pressure of a knife when they are slicing a tomato or pealing an apple. They may produce big chunks to start with, but with time the presentation will improve.

Processing information and following instructions could be difficult for your child. That is why, it is a great idea to first discuss with them what you will be making together, draw a picture for each small step and, of course, include a nice illustration of the final product. You can even find special picture recipes for people with autism. What a great idea!

You can start by cooking something your child really likes to eat. The home-made version will always be better than the ready-made processed alternative you get in the supermarket. Then, when your child is engaged in the process, you could suggest a little experiment with other ingredients and explain why they might be better and tastier. This process is hugely educational about food and will lead to gradual changes in eating habits. You can progress as slowly as you like, but very often, at a certain stage, kids actually start to be more advanced than their parents. For example, one of my clients, a 16 years old boy with autism has developed a much more advanced taste for herbs and spices then his parents. His favourite dish is different types of home-made sausage, which he loves to make and cook with his mother. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Finally, cooking and sharing a meal with other people, decorating and serving it to the family is a fantastic way to develop the social skills of your child. They communicate with you while you cook together, then explain to the others what the meal is. Of course, listening to compliments and receiving lots of positive feedback will boost your child’s self-esteem and confidence enormously.

Therefore, LEARNING HOW TO COOK IS A LIFE SKILL; a technique for developing many other important abilities. This is the way to build your child’s independence and to help them discover a practical hobby that could possibly even, one day, become a profession. However, please remember that whatever the result of this exercise, it is perfect! Even if it doesn’t look like the meal on the picture you have. During this process, you must provide your child with support, but certainly not criticism. Always keep things positive!

So, my message for you today is: YOUR SUMMER HOLIDAY CAN BE LESS STRESSFUL THAN YOU THINK! IT CAN EVEN BE VERY BENEFICIAL FOR YOU AND YOUR CHILD!

Have a great holiday!

I look forward to receiving your ever-valuable questions, comments and feedback.

Please contact me at www.liveright.eu or email me at irina@liveright.eu.

Photo: http://www.epicurious.com/archive/everydaycooking/family/cooking-with-kids

HOW TO UNLOCK YOUR CHILD’S POTENTIAL – The Solution For Parents Of A Child With ASD

Have you ever thought about how children with autism are actually the best teachers for all of us? They are very sensitive to many of the harmful substances and elements around us and manifest their negative reactions to them very clearly. For instance, they try to isolate themselves from the noisy and polluted environment, full of chemicals and toxins. They often develop picky eating as their digestive system is sensitive to many different foods leading them to look for comforting and rewarding substances like sugary products. They immediately run away from unnecessary communication and activities that they do not enjoy doing and preserve their energy for necessary and enjoyable things.

HOW TO SAVE MONEY and HELP YOUR CHILD WITH AUTISM EFFECTIVELY – Mind-Opening Strategy For Parents of Children With Autism

Do you know how much money parents spend when they have a child with autism? Of course, it is very difficult to give an exact amount, as each situation is very different, but it is clear that such families with a child with autism have much more financial pressure to provide their little loved one with adequate support. Back in 2014, a study was published in the American magazine “JAMA Paediatrics” that suggested THE TOTAL LIFETIME COST OF SUPPORTING AN INDIVIDUAL WITH AN ASD IN THE US IS $1.4 MILLION. And this number increases significantly if the person is also intellectually disabled; to a sum of up to $2.4 million. These are serious expenses! At the same time, due to any number of reasons, families with autistic children generally earn approximately 28% less than families with non-autistic children. Can you relate to this situation? However, these astronomical sums can be greatly reduced! Would you like to know how? Let’s explore.

How to Help Children With Regressive Autism!

In my last blog (https://liverighteu.wordpress.com/2017/04/13/are-you-aware-that-autism-recovery-is-possible/), I shared two wonderful real stories of children who recovered from autism. I told you about two mothers who managed to help their kids overcome lots of problems and recover from autism completely. But did you notice that both of these cases were about regressive autism? Are you aware that up to 30% of all autistic children have this specific type of autism? And this number keeps on growing! So, what exactly is regressive autism and how can we help children with this type of autism?

ARE YOU AWARE THAT AUTISM RECOVERY IS POSSIBLE?

Are you aware that 1 in 50 children in the US are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and that the number of children affected keeps increasing with a 10% annual growth, making Autism the fastest growing neurodevelopmental condition? Is this not astonishing? However, what is even more striking is the fact that AUTISM IS A REVERSIBLE CONDITION. We do not know the exact statistics, but about 10% of children recover from ASD! And this is fantastic!

7 Energy Restoring Tips For Exhausted Mothers of Children With Autism

How often do you hear mothers of children with autism saying things like: “I am so exhausted because my son is having such a hard time with his behaviour”, “I had a very rough night with my husband losing his temper and my children crying”, “I am emotionally tired and physically drained”? Probably very often! Such expressions are very common among parents of children with autism. And, of course, there is no surprise here! Parents face never-ending challenges, worries, chronic stress and lack of sleep. They take their kids to endless therapy sessions, doctors, schools, teachers, assessments and evaluations! They simply do not have the time to recharge their own “batteries”, to think about their own health and their personal needs! Therefore, it is no surprise that these mothers are simply exhausted and chronically tired. Are you one of them? Do you feel this energy drain? Can you relate to this situation?

Where Does Autism Recovery Begin? – A Message to All the Anxious Mothers of Children With Autism

Recently I read this mother’s very touching words:

“My child is very loved, but as a mother I get drained from the fight. I fight for him daily to be the best he can be. Autism isn’t all sunshine, rainbows and unicorns. It’s rough and I have no doubt we will make it. I am his N1 supporter.”

Every time I come across a message similar to this, my heart beats a little bit faster! I really feel for these mothers who are trying their best, day and night, to support their children. This is never an easy process, but when your child has autism, it is much, much more challenging. And it is even more demanding if the parent in question has more than one child! It is a tough position to be in and not all parents are able to handle such circumstances. In many cases, mothers go through everything completely alone, accumulating exhaustion, tremendous stress and chronic fatigue while trying to be, and do, their best for their dearest child.

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR THE ANSWER TO WHY YOUR CHILD ISN’T SLEEPING? 3 Tips For Mothers of Children With Autism to Help Their Little Ones Get a Better Night’s Sleep

How quiet and peaceful is your sleep? Do you manage to get quality rest during the night time? If you are a mother of a child with autism, then it is very likely that your answer to these questions will be negative! 80% of children with ASD have sleep problems and this, of course, affects the whole family and especially the mothers. These sleepless, restless nights when your child can not sleep for a long time or when even during sleep he is constantly moving and kicking, can easily drive you crazy. Have you been through this type of frustration? You are tired, you hide your head under the pillow, you try to use headphones, but nothing helps! And proper rest when your child has finally stopped wandering around or persistently tossing and turning and has fallen asleep is but a dream. THIS EXHAUSTION DUE TO LACK OF SLEEP IS NOT HEALTHY FOR ANYONE. Night rest is a very special period of time when our body is not just resting, but also detoxifying, restoring and healing itself. If you start to abuse this pattern of rest, so vital to our health, very quickly you will generate misbalance in your body, which may then result in any number of chronic health conditions. But how can you help your child to overcome these sleep disturbances? If you are searching for such a solution then this article is for you!

DO YOU DREAM OF A MELTDOWN FREE DAY? – Three Steps For Mothers of Children With Autism to Achieve This Dream

As a mother of a child with autism, how often do you witness your child experiencing an outburst where he shouts, screams and cries or where he kicks, bites and lashes out or maybe even everything at once? What comes to mind when your child reaches the point where you can no longer control his behaviour? Are you afraid of him hurting himself or somebody else? Are you scared that he might run away? Are you terrified that your little loved one will be sent away from school or even arrested because of such violent unpredictable behaviour? How confident are you when you look into the future of your dearest child and when you see that he is becoming more stubborn and more aggressive with age because his hormonal changes and physical development are adding up to heighten any already existing problems? Are you emotionally drained? Then this article is for you!

The 3 Key Points For Mothers of Autistic Children to Succeed In the Dietary Programme

By now, you will have probably come across the nutritional and dietary approach to autism., It has been in the media many times recently and you may have seen articles such as, “The miracle that cured my son’s autism in our kitchen” or “Autism recovery with the GAPS diet: one mother’s story”. As a mother of a child with autism, what do you think when you see articles like these? Interesting? Impossible? Nonsense? Another garbage? What flashes through your overwhelmed brain? When you are drained and tired from dealing with your special child 24/7 when you are overwhelmed from visiting different specialists and trying different techniques that may work but by no means dramatically improve the situation when you are afraid to think about the future of your child because you are not sure how he/she will cope in this uneasy world by himself when you experience all of these feelings and then somebody tells you that some diet could actually be the miracle treatment for your child… Of course, you may well be very sceptical or even angry towards such opinions and you, probably would not even click on any of the articles listed above to read through. You feel fed up with these ridicules media adverts!

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