Autism & Halloween

Because my 7.5-year-old son is on the autism spectrum and the gluten-free casein-free diet holidays are always difficult. It's very hard to schedule outings with family and friends, because we never now when Taz will hyper-stim or worse: meltdown.

I have to say that this year he did very well. We attended 2 Halloween Parties:

Trunk or Treating at our Church: This year we opted not to decorate the car and stay the whole time, because last year Taz lost it after an hour or so.

Georgia A-Scary-Um: We checked Taz out of school at noon and met up with another family to ride downtown together after grabbing a quick lunch at McDonald's. Taz was fed and calm for the most part. Of course the aquarium itself is very overstimulating, but we let the kids chase around and collect candy for an hour or so and left before things got out of hand.

Tonight, Taz dressed back up in his astronaut costume and spent about 30 minutes walking around the immediate neighborhood with dh; not too far or for too long.

Afterwards, he happily sorted out the candy, which he can eat (GFCF candy), and distributed the rest to myself, Dh and 13yo Jessie, who opted out this year. Then Taz proceeded to answer the door for us and distribute candy at regular intervals to our local trick-or-treaters. That's Taz's job and has been for the past 3 years.

I have to say I'm very proud of him. No tears, except for his mini-panic that I did not rush downstairs to answer the door when dh took him out. He was very afraid that someone would miss their candy, while he was making the rounds.

Happy Halloween
Nianya