Sick Days

Our whole family has come down with The Bug. I have no idea what it is but it's going around. It's a nasty little mess and if my husband's experience is any indication it's hard to shake off. Froggy has fought it long and hard and managed to hold it off for a while, but it seems to have taken hold of her and me both over the last few days.

She missed school Friday because she wouldn't stop screaming at us after we got her up. She fought us through every step of getting ready, so we figured it wasn't fair to make her teacher deal with her. By around 9 AM she decided she wanted to go to school but by then it was too late. She and I took a long nap and when we got up she was a whole different kid.

Today was strange. She was good all morning, even laying in our bed and watching TV while we slept. She was an angel for her daddy, which was no surprise. The biggest problem I had with her was my futile attempts to get her to eat lunch. Once her daddy left for work she stopped being so nice. She refused to eat supper, even though my bribes and threats. She lost some of her favorite toys for the evening on account of it. Here's what I posted on Facebook, if it gives you any idea how supper went:

If she's given me one excuse she's given me a hundred as for why she won't eat. It started out that she was sooooo tired. Then she was sooooo sick. Then it was because she has "a bump". Then it was how she has "a ankle". Then she started telling me how the little ants are making her frustrated. Then it was a headache, how her tummy hurts, how her tissue ran away, and that bump again. Now she's telling me she got busy. She's been sitting at the table maybe fifteen minutes and all I want her to do is taste the food I put in front of her. Show of hands: How many people think I'll actually get her to taste it?

Eventually I gave up on getting her to eat. I put her in the bath and the rest of the evening wasn't as bad, but still not as smooth as last night. She fussed about getting dressed for bed but actually going to bed was easy enough. Poor thing is so pooped.

Her daddy called after I got her laid down and in talking to him I realized just what a, well, "autistic" day this was for her. Every time she got the slightest bit excited or upset she would start jumping up and down and flapping her hands. She repeated herself over, and over, and over...and over... She actually stuttered a lot today, which is completely new but not totally unexpected (my brother is a bad stutterer, even as an adult). The smallest deviation in the day from the norm or from what she deemed appropriate resulted in a meltdown, and since I'm not well myself today wasn't a typical day. We had lots of meltdowns. I think her refusal to eat was just an extension of her normal picky eating habits, but it was difficult to say the least. She was antsy and whiny and despite her recent progress in expressing herself she refused to tell us just what was wrong. Everything just seemed "off" with her today.

So yeah. Definitely strange, at least to me. I didn't realize just how much being sick would affect her. And I'm hoping that all of this is just being sick and not the beginning of some new trend. She used to be really snuggley when she'd get sick but this time was different. Maybe she's just growing up.

ASD moms, feel free to chime in: How do your kids act when they get sick?