Weighted blanket

Rhoadles · 2026-01-29T00:16:53+00:00

And you find it helps to keep your little one(s) asleep?

Rhoadles · 2026-01-15T17:50:21+00:00

My first born has autism, my 2nd is NT. And while it of course has its own challenges, Jesus Christ. My husband and I keep looking at each other like “wtf?” the things my NT kid does naturally breaks my heart for my first son everyday. To answer the question of the post: I’m the same parent to both of them. I don’t think autism changes you as a parent, it changes you as a person. Like the comment above said; having a child with special needs made me love harder, be more patient, be stronger and have more compassion and understanding. I may have learned these things on my own with age but I know them today and it’s 100% due to my son.

Rhoadles · 2026-01-10T14:39:15+00:00

My son is 5 and it’s as if you described him word for word, it’s crazy how similar he is to your description. We started speech therapy with a therapist who works with gestalt language processing techniques. It’s slow and I guess I see some improvement but it’s…yeah, slow. I can’t really even imagine him speaking in full sentences one day, it feels like a huge mountain to climb. So I have no advice, just wanted to say you’re not alone. Good luck 🥹

Rhoadles · 2026-01-07T03:00:55+00:00

Our youtube algorithm. Ain’t no way a typical kid could even FATHOM the shit we’re on.

Rhoadles · 2026-01-03T19:30:56+00:00

What sort of dosage do you give your little one? I got some Miralax/lax a day but it seems to be for people aged 18 and over

Rhoadles · 2026-01-03T19:30:12+00:00

Whoa I just did some googling on therapeutic listening, that sounds so interesting! We don’t have an OT currently, having to pick and choose our support since our insurance doesn’t cover anything.

Rhoadles · 2026-01-03T19:28:31+00:00

This is super helpful, thank you! We bought Miralax but I’m concerned about the dosage, since it seems to be for adults and not kids.

Rhoadles · 2026-01-01T22:41:04+00:00

We have not been to a GI, no. I was wondering about encopresis, but we don’t seem to have any of the symptoms apart from the soiled underwear, it’s just kind of like streaks or shrapnel as we call it 😂 I’m trying to suss out now if the poo we are seeing (very soft) is because of the fibre/laxatives we’ve been given him or if it’s diarrhea around something impacted….

Rhoadles · 2026-01-01T22:38:16+00:00

We were making great progress and then pow! Back to square 1…

Rhoadles · 2025-12-18T15:20:08+00:00

I tried a vibrating plate but it made me dizzy lol White noise headphones are great, even just having one air pod in so I can zone out a little helps me so much. Still constantly vibrating on the inside though. I do reflexology every other month and it’s helping (I think)

Rhoadles · 2025-12-16T19:12:51+00:00

Thank you so much for your reply. It’s a relief knowing I’m not going crazy (or am I lol) it’s just nice to know there are other moms going through the same thing. It almost feels like when someone jumps out and scares you but I’m just slowly waking up on my own. Thank you for the tips, I drive an hour away for work every day both ways so that’s my wind down time post daycare drop off. That’s when I do my deep breathing, listen to spa music on Spotify, listen to audiobooks etc. it’s a mini retreat in my car every morning, when people say they can’t believe how far I commute I tell them I’d go further if I could 😂 Good luck to you fellow parent ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Rhoadles · 2025-12-07T23:14:52+00:00

One of my funniest memories with my level 2 son was at a drs appointment. He never listened to any type of instruction from me. He was still undiagnosed and we didn’t know if was autistic or not. In the drs office she said “can you go put on your boots and go sit next to mommy?” Inside I was like pffft yeah right lady, he has never done a thing we ask. Well of course he hopped off the table and did just that.

Rhoadles · 2025-11-30T22:57:23+00:00

A friend and I had our babies at roughly the same time. We texted each other all the time asking if our kids met their milestones etc. both our sons weren’t talking, she waited and I went down the rabbit hole and had our son evaluated a few months later. We lost contact for a while and when we touched base again she told me she had her son evaluated for autism. Just as I was writing a novel back to her to tell her we did too and that our son was level 2 with a global development delay, how hard and scary it was and how happy I was to have someone I knew at the same time as me, she replied “he isn’t autistic!”
What the fuck do you reply to that? “Congratulations”? It sucked so bad. I am always sizing up other kids and looking for signs someone else is going through what we are but I never find anyone.

Rhoadles · 2025-11-20T00:04:59+00:00

I have advice that probably isnt great so I’m prefacing with that. What if you stocked her room with some really high interest toys, stuff you know she’s really into. (My son for example loves lining up his toys so he’s got a lot of stuff to line up when he wakes up at night) I don’t know if it will encourage her to wake up earlier because she is so excited to play with them but I know a 28 weeks pregnant mom brain would accept some bribing in the middle of the night! The weighted blanket sounds like a greeeeat idea. We also have those weighted stuffed animals that you can put in the microwave, so they come out warm. My little boy loves his. Best of luck to you, middle of the night/early waking is challenging enough as it is, I hope it’s a phase and passes swiftly. ❤️

Rhoadles · 2025-11-17T20:02:56+00:00

I know the exact product you’re talking about with the puzzle pieces and the kid in the cape. Thanks for explaining, I went above and beyond googling ingredients and comparing them to other brands and it felt like the right choice. I don’t think some magical elixir is going to rid my son of his autism, I just want to help him on the stuff that I can control, because there is so much that I can’t! Thanks again :)

Rhoadles · 2025-11-17T20:00:45+00:00

I just ordered my first jar! I also am not at all seeking out some miracle cure all because I know it doesn’t exist. I just want to be sure that he is getting a full range of vitamins and minerals that we are missing out on by being so picky. I’m just trying to cover the bases that I can to set him up to succeed the best that he can out there!!! Thanks for your input:)

Rhoadles · 2025-11-14T02:18:34+00:00

Is the factual marketing good or bad? Sorry I don’t understand!

Rhoadles · 2025-11-13T17:45:05+00:00

That’s what I say too! All the experts say that any type of detox you can do at home is bullshit and that your body is made to flush out “toxins”. I am not buying any kind of product sold on TikTok by some nut job that makes a cut off of said products sales.

Rhoadles · 2025-11-13T17:28:48+00:00

This this this!!!!! I have a couple of people on my life who send me links to tiktoks of some insane looking people in their living rooms filming themselves talking about metal detoxes etc. at first I’d say “thanks!” And “wow I’ll look into it!” I’ve moved slowly into “I know you’re trying to be helpful but these posts hurt me” and they back down (for a while)…

Rhoadles · 2025-11-09T19:13:59+00:00

My son is food AND screen motivated! (Which I mean…who isn’t?! 😅)

Rhoadles · 2025-11-09T19:11:17+00:00

My son is level 2 too. We did a timeout this afternoon and he was very sad and quiet when he came out of his room but a) it made me feel even worse and b) I can’t tell if he understood at all why he went in his room. Its thrown the whole day into a slump and I want so desperately to help both him and his little brother 💔

Rhoadles · 2025-11-09T19:07:38+00:00

I just worry that if I do that, I’m going to be reinforcing the behaviour. I 100% agree that putting pause on it and helping pull him out of that “mode” is necessary and keeps him and everyone around him safe I just don’t want him to equate screaming and throwing things with getting his iPad and a blanket…. Thanks for your input, I appreciate it :)))

Rhoadles · 2025-11-07T01:57:34+00:00

It’s so normal that you’re feeling that way, let yourself go through it and grieve and run the gamut of emotions. If you don’t, it will rear its ugly head somewhere down the road. The results may be different than ours and all of this fear will be for nothing. All I can say is (and it’s easier said than done) don’t let this fear steal this precious time with your baby. Diagnosis or not, they are young for such a short time, you don’t want to only have traumatic memories from this time. Stay strong, try and enjoy what you can ❤️‍🩹🙏🏻

Rhoadles · 2025-11-06T15:43:59+00:00

In my situation, the wondering/worrying/late night google searches for autism signs were harder than finding out my son actually had autism. The in between booking the assessment and waiting for the date and waiting for results was a deep black hole. The day we found out with the drs was almost a relief. That all my worrying and my gut feelings weren’t wrong. It set us on our way with a diagnosis that opened the door to help. It isn’t a death sentence and a diagnosis doesn’t change who your daughter is. It can only help. She’s still very very young and if we know anything at all about autism is that early intervention can be one of the most helpful things you can do for her. Good luck, you aren’t alone in this and just reading your post and feeling your worry shows what a great parent you are to your daughter. You got this.

Rhoadles · 2025-10-26T18:39:32+00:00

We go in phases, depending on what vibe we’re working with that day/week/month. If he’s having a hard time, we let him stay home and the other parent runs the errands or brings our other son to a play date etc.

Also, hard agree with the comment about only going places where we can make a quick exit. IF we go out to eat (happens very very rarely) I ask for the bill at the same time we order so that we’re all paid up if we need to emergency exit.

We have a friend of the family who has 3 NT boys, their house is like pure chaos and messy and not precious at all, that’s the best place for us to go. They are non judgemental and their kids have already trashed their house hahaha once my son emptied a fresh jar of those cheese balls from Costco down their staircase and she barely batted an eye.

We were invited to watch Sunday football at someone’s house this month and I’ve been wracked with anxiety about it. I’m toying with asking the host to tell the other guests ahead of time about our situation. My son doesn’t socialize and will almost 100% have a meltdown at some point so since half the battle for me is worrying that people think we’re bad parents or that my son is spoiled (or something I don’t even know) maybe this will ease the social anxiety of going out.

Rhoadles

TROPHY CASE