My autistic daughter age 9 won’t stop screaming

Hi can anyone help me with any advice about my daughter she is nearly 10 in August and in the last 3 months her behaviour, personality and general well-being has gradually worsened.  It’s started 4 months ago with not wanting to go to school and having meltdowns over it.  She also has a limited food intake and previously been on a milk formula scandishake, but school has managed to get her to eat some foods but I have not been able to replicate this at home.  Her behaviour at school seems mostly ok but my daughter at home has become totally not herself, first she started screaming fits which at first were so loud I thought my ears and hers Would burst, but I could not work out what the trigger was for this except the food causing her stress.  Then my daughter stopped going outside on her favourite pass time her trampoline, but she does go out to play at school but never at home.  She cannot play with any other children at present as she is too controlling of the game whatever they are doing, and the few children now who may have played now refuse point blank which makes her more upset as she can’t understand why they won’t.  At the present time she has not left the house well her bedroom for 4 months other than going to school.  If I try and take her anywhere she has a meltdown.  Previously she Would be able to go to the cinema most weekends and play in the garden and visit a few friends and go for a short walk.  But since the screaming started her life has come to a stand still, all she will do is lie down in her bed in her bedroom with her iPad or play with her toys, rarely coming downstairs.  She was previously quite a happy child, but over last 4 months every aspect of her life is very difficult and she seems withdrawn and unhappy at home but school say she seems ok mostly.  All I can think is school is the stress of learning and eating food, or the lack of nutrition is effecting her mind as for years she has not eaten any real food.  Other behaviour she has started I think are linked with stress are licking her lips and touching her tongue side to side causing sores on the corners of her mouth, also she makes minute shakes head movements, I’m not sure if these are ticks related to severe stress.  She also has stomach pain and headache all the time due to the stress and screaming every 15 seconds until she goes to sleep and from the moment she wakes up.  She also has from a toddler been poor at sleeping currently she goes to sleep at 11.30-1am and is wake for school at 7am but I don’t think it’s connected to her behaviour or it would have started before.  School have suggested it’s hormones but I don’t think it’s the answer, but I understand it could be a contributing factor??  Any suggestions mostly about how to reduce the screaming as it’s become unbearable an effecting all areas of our life’s, and well I’m worried about the damage long term to her vocal chords because she won’t stop !

  • Hello. My son was diagnosed with ASD and I used to have a problem with him hurting himself. I brought him to an occupational therapist and we worked on it for a year. He improved and now, no more self-harming ways. He is hyperactive as well, and when he gets that way, all we do is make him aware of his actions. But yeah, therapy helped a lot.

  • Hello and welcome.

    Have you been in touch with your local CAMHS? It may seem a bit early, but it almost sounds like there could be an autism-related eating disorder. Are you worried her lack of eating is affecting he health? What does she say if you ask about why she's started screaming?

    I wonder if the head shakes and lip licking are stimming (check out this forum and the web for autistic people's descriptions of their stims), in which case it may be a self-soothing way of dealing with some worry or stress, and not a problem in itself. Screaming would not be a form of stimming I've ever heard of, but maybe she has a hyposensitivity with hearing or it helps her feel her body, and there may be a better way of dealing with that. I'm not an expert in any of this, just repeating what I've heard.

    By the way, you may want to have a look in the 'parent and carers' section of these forums, where more parents hang out. Also, you might want to set a nickname or profile picture on this site, which would help other people here recognise you. Just click on the button up the top right of the screen, then go to Profile, click on Edit profile and then on the name or image to change them.