WATER....and his aversion.....

Have been resisting posting since I have been experiencing trouble with this "machine" but I keep thinking about Dakota and how much WATER has been a main component of many of the battles and issues we both struggle with when it comes to Autism..

In short somewhere many years ago around middle school Dakota developed some kind of objection to drinking water...
His world consists of refusing to drink water unless he can drink it for a water fountain or a hose or the spigot  of the sink......no bottled water, no water for the large bottled water like the sparkletts dispenser,Not from a glass ..NO WATER ....
I believe I think I know where it started but I cannot say for sure....a sprayer bottle had been used to wake him up to go to school < not me> and I ASSUME. This may be the root of the problem.

The aversion to the water has grown before it became so pervasive he would in Fact drink water from one specific glass at home and then one day the glass which was plastic developed a crack and started leaking and the was the beginning of the end...believe me I tried to replace the glass with every glass imagineable that was similar...he was just not buying it...I got so mad one day I threatened to throw away all the glasses I had bought (all Disney characters on them) and he cried and said he would drink water but eventually it faded to resistance....
To augment his water intake I have now developed an alternate ....a pitcher of decaf tea is made everyday and YES he has a specific glass for that too,but he drinks a huge amount of ice tea everyday,in fact I just broke the last glass he drank tea from and YES it was a disaster .....from friends and family on Facebook I was able to find replacements and now have plenty of glasses to last hopefully thru his life time???as a side note one would say why not use plastic and I would say to them the specific glass was used way before I realize the obsession ..or it would NOT have ever  picked that container.


So back to the water...he cannot express why and he is so rigid about it, that it just has become a part of life in this house. Honestly it became one of those "pick your battles" things and I choose not to fight this one...so many other things that are more important!

One more thing about the water, he's totally ok with bathing or swimming ..water is no issue BUT GET ONE DROP ON CLOTHING and he FREAKS OUT... It can trigger severe behavior. With the glass the behavior is more about just not drinking it ; but use a sprayer bottle on his hair or try to wash his face with a wash cloth or louvage his ears O M G ....it can turn into a "Release the Cracken" moment. Often offering an immediate replacement Tshirt will aleviate a behavior
NOT ALWAYS

It's just another challenge here but certainly apart of this house...if you are struggling with something like this the only advice I can give is : Always take a breath, analyze the situation, see if you can
concoct a solution, Roll with it and never let it get the best of you or your child. Theres always something more important to address and it is never so important that your child needs to think that it makes him less perfect just because he can't handle a situation..AFTER ALL ITS AUTISM!