We want to make Drews room into a "big boys room". Right now its still "baby". Does anyone know how long he should be out of the house? We know about the fumes not being good for anyone. But for Drew should it be longer? His DAN! Dr. is out of town. We plan on keeping the door shut and having all of his windows open. Fans going and such. Any advice would be appreciated.:confused:

Hi Drew's Gram,

You might look into low-VOC paints. Those give off less fumes. BUT, some of them have casein pigment. Not sure whether that might be an issue.

Most paints do de-gas over a period of MONTHS. The 'dry' you feel on the surface after a couple of hours with a latex paint isn't dry all the way through. Having said that, it's generally better to paint in nice weather when you can keep pushing the fresh air through.

If you are doing any form of chelation, even oral or TD, the DAN! doc may have an opinion on whether to continue that while the paint is settling in. For some kids it's a matter of toxic load ... how much the body can cope with.

When my son on the spectrum was 14 yo, he inherited the "big bedroom" when his sis went off to college. We painted over her pale pink walls with the "bright white" he chose. Kept the windows open & fans on for two weeks in that room before we moved him in. He still took a dive, had a very tough yr. & we wonder in retrospect how much the paint had to do with it. We used a 'high quality scrubbable latex semigloss.' In retrospect, we would look into low-VOC paint if we were to do that again. Or keep him in his old bedroom for 6 weeks instead of 2, before moving in.

Not all kids on the spectrum have difficulty dealing with toxic stuff, but we know from testing that our DS has a glutathione knock-out problem, which definitely affects his ability to deal with everday nasty stuff.

Best wishes.

elmhar...Thank you very much for your response. I have never heard of low-VOC paint. We will be looking to buying some for his room.