Hi all, I would love to hear from parents of kids with Autism/Asperger's and your experiences with having more than one child with the condition. We have a 7 year old who is ok and our 3 year old who is Autistic, he was diagnosed in April this year. First of all hubby and I are seriously considering having another baby, hubby isn't at all concerned and says if we have another child with ASD we will just deal with it, me on the other hand is left wondering what are the chances! We are going to speak with a genetics counciller to get some advice also but I was hoping to hear from parents who have been there done that already. Who has more than one child with an ASD and who has multiple children and only one child with an ASD?

Also another question which is a little off topic, my 3.5 is currently still not toilet trained and wears nappies full time, can someone please give me some advice on how I could go about starting to potty train my boy and have any of you got any success stories and how old were your child/ren when they finally understood what toilet training was all about.

Sorry for all the questions, I am still very new to all of this and any advice would be fanstastic.

Thankyou!

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As a preschool teacher with a bit of experience with ASD we have found visuals really helpful with toilet training. We step out a very clear and systematic routine for the child which can be followed each time and have photos showing what to do. With one child who was a very early reader the most effective way to communicate with him was through written instructions. Hence we have stepped out the process with photos and written instructions and stuck it up on the bathroom wall. This of course benefits ALL children.
We recently discovered a humorous glitch in the system. The child had been following the instructions to the letter with great success however we had left out the vital "Pull your pants up" upon finishing. So he was running out of the bathroom thinking he had done it all with his pants around his ankles. Very funny and showed how much he relied on the chart too.

Thanks for that bucket,you are lucky to have gone on to have children without the condition, I guess I'm just very worried about having another child with Autism or worse next time around so it's nice to hear some positive experiences out there.

STB that is so cute lol , I can just imagine this little fella running out like that hehe I never thought of using the visuals silly me, our speech therapist has told us so many times to use them on him and that it's very important if I want Jeremy to understand, I do use makaton a little at home but I also find that he understands me without it a fait bit too, mostly the simple instructions with less words. Maybe I could print some visuals out on the net for toilet training and put them up in the bathroom

Hi, it appears in my family that all my 4 are asd, but we had them all before we found out. when we decided to get pregnant with barry (the youngest), we only had a diagnosis for rose, although we were having probs with angus at the time. Cat was still too young. We have since decided not to have anymore, we were wanting a large family (6+). One or two on the spectrum I could handle, now with all 4 - the chances of having another child with the condition is too great. I have freinds who have 6 kids, with only one ASD & she's not the youngest either. Oh dear, thunderstorm approaches... the dr's were a little surprised that all of the kids seem to be ASD, but given family history etc., they weren't in the end. There is a strong family history of problems along one of the gene lines, every generation being affected differently - if I were to re-consider having another child, I would be talking to a genetisist, if anything they'll help in putting your mind at rest.

Thanks for that barc4, I can see that everyone is different, there is no guarantee that my next child will or will not have ASD, I think I will just have to speak with the Genetisist that we were recommended and go from there, thanks to everyone for your input I really appreciate it.

Oh and yesterday I went to this great little website www.do2learn.com they have printable sheets of visual aids for almost everything, I printed some out for "toileting" and stuck them in the bathroom, hopefully this will aid our little one into using the loo. Thankyou to STB for that idea:)

Bedazz

Harrison wasn't dx'ed until after Tyler was born, but Tyler is developing OK and has great social skills. It took a lot for me to decide to TTC the one I am pg with, but dh was the one that convinced me it would be OK. I don't know what our chances are of getting another with ASD are but seeing there is not a huge family history we are hopeful that there are other factors at play. We have coped well so far though and will again if we have to, as tough as it might be .

My oldest has ASD and the other 2 boys do not. My youngest has extreme food intollerance and the other 2 do not, you cant really tell what will happen in some circumstances.

I am pregnant again and I am petrified I will have another reflux/food intollerance child. I have talked to my sons gastro surgeon about it and she has me taking some stuff to decrease the chances but time will only tell.

Good luck with your decision, it is a hard one isnt it.