Published on 12, July, 2020
I have a 9 year old daughter who is going through the process of being diagnosed as autism.
Evalyn has always been unique. It's quite a lot to explain but the school mentioned that they feel Evalyn has autism last year.
We moved house which meant a change of school. Coming from a school with 11 children in the whole school to a big city school which has 27 children in each class. The new school feels the autism was masked with being in a smaller school.
Anyway the more we research autism the more we are positive Evalyn has this so we are putting in steps now to try and help her.
Along with this Evalyn has other health issues such as sight problems. This is a deterioration in her eye sight. She was once perfect eyesight in 2020 and now -3.75 in one eye and -4.0 in another eye. Evalyn also now has vacant episodes and the pediatrician thinks she is having childhood mini seizures.
So with all this going on Evalyn started her period this week and is not coping with it very well.
Does anyone have any ideas on how I can help her understand this and the steps she has to take. I have told her, I have shown her and I have made lists for her to read but she doesn't seem to have taken it in. She does have issues with following sequences and she struggles emotionally. It's like her brain goes into flight or fight mode.
I just want to comfort her so badly but she can't even handle a hug of me or anyone.
How do I comfort her?
Please help. I just need help to help her.
Bless her it’s such a change and at 9 I imagine she hasn’t had much warning about it? I don’t remember being told much if anything until towards the end of year 6. If she is struggling with pads and knowing what to do with them maybe a small size of period knickers might fit her? Primary schools may not have the proper facilities for disposing of the pads or maybe only in a couple of cubicles , at least they didn’t at my school but that was a long time ago! The book Ausomely Autistic mentioned might be good for her to read over and process at her own pace, it was written by an autistic research associate at UCL
Thank you for your reply. Her sister who is 10 started hers in the summer holiday so I sat them both down and had the discussion. Importance of personal hygiene, what to expect ect. Its was so difficult talking to them about it. The elder one got what I was saying but Evalyn didn't quite get what I was saying or seemed like she Wasing grasping it. I figured I had another year until I needed to worry.
My biggest fear for her is...... her not changing regular enough while at school and having an accident and other kids teasing her about it. So far the kids in her class are good and don't tease her about being different but if that happened i think they would tease her.
Soooooo many changes for her.
I made evalyn a period basket with all the essentials, including a hot water bottle, hot chocolate, her favourite fiddling things, sanitary products, a blanket and that book that was suggested. It all went down well.
Fingers crossed the next time it goes smoother.