liquids - Autism Spectrum Message Board

tinymom05 · 01-21-2007, 05:14 PM

wondering if this is typical or not and any suggestions? my son will act like he is dying of thirst and we give him a drink and he lets it fall out of his mouth the sides, we have even cut his drink down to half a cup at a time. well now he is sick and we have been giving him more liquids to find his shirt soaking wet when he is done with his cup. i feel like i always have to have my eye on him when he drinks. i dont know what else to do, i have been taking his cup away the minute i see him doing this, sometimes he looks like he knew it was wrong and hands his cup over. other times he will scream bloody murder that we took it away but he is soaking wet. He has PDD and destructive behavior disorder. any ideas would be great, thanks!

elmhar · 01-21-2007, 07:54 PM

Hi tinymom,

I'm wondering whether you feel this is a purposeful behavior on the part of your son, or whether you are wondering if there could be some physical component.

Some of our kids have oral apraxia & swallowing on demand can be difficult. Is your son verbal? And how old?

But if it's behavioral ... what about a sipper cup? And LOTS of praise when the liquids go down, not out?

Kids can go through a phase when they live for water play. Make sure there are bath toys like a funnel, a low pressure squirt-toy, pouring containers, sponges to squeeze etc. so that there's an outlet for water play. And reward/reinforce gentle water play in the tub.

Best wishes.