The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Good things

Silas ate some popcorn! A sort of crunchy food! He didn't think too much of it but he chewed and swallowed two pieces.

I got about 15 seconds of solid eye contact from Silas at breakfast this morning. We're working on it!

He has learned to pucker up for kisses instead of doing it with a wide open slobbery mouth!

Well, it's a bit slobbery yet. Note the drop of drool on his chin! He was looking at the camera out of the corner of his eye too because this was about the 15th take and he was anticipating the camera shutter. I'm terrible at selfies! lol

We're getting a referral to an ENT who will hopefully give us some insight into what we need to do to help him hear better.

The Bad

Two weeks ago Silas started self harming again. He went two months without gouging at his cheeks. I really thought we were in the clear. So naïve I am.
There was something stressful that happened to him a couple weeks ago where he felt unsafe and scared and I think that that is the cause of this episode. He takes his thumb and just digs into his cheek and works at it until he draws blood. And then he cries because it hurts. But he doesn't cry while he's doing it. This afternoon I thought he was sleeping because it was quiet. I was going to have a shower but I thought I'd better check on him first. Good thing I did! He'd gotten out of his elbow restraints (more on that later) and had been plucking at his other cheek. So now both cheeks are a mess, though one is much worse than the other.

I ended up buying some of these elbow restraints http://snugglewraps.com/

But they will take two weeks to get here at least. So I made some of my own. They don't stay on very well but they're sort of working for now.

I'm also using essential oils on him to help calm him.

And various lotions on his face to help it heal.

The worst cheek was almost healed until last night when mom was here and I was at work. In the early morning he got both restraints off and he made a real mess of his cheek.  He must have been at it for a while because by the time he finally cried mom said there was dried blood on his face. :( 

It's just so hard to see your baby hurt himself like this.  When he has the restraints on he's pretty much his happy little self but as soon as they come off his hands go right to his face.

And that brings me to The Ugly.

Not that I'd ever call him ugly, but the wound on his face certainly doesn't look pretty! This cheek was almost healed until last night.

And to make matters worse he's now developed a cold this weekend! So his cheeks hurt, his eyes are watering and his nose is running, he's all stuffed up and can't breath AND he's got these stinking things on his arms to stop him from touching his face! I feel so bad for him. :(

This too shall pass! I love him so.