Encouraging story for parents flying with kids with autism

[kahblue]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shane...-16c_b_4585865.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009

Love this! I know how this mother feels. Justin has flown many, many times since he was a little baby. About 3 years ago we had became very anxious when flying for about 2-3 trips. When flying Southwest, we always chose the very front rows with someone directly behind him (he rocks the chair). I gave him the window seat and the shade became his "friend". Whenever someone chose to sit next to meet in the isle seat I would have to explain that he might be a little loud and will rock a lot. Some chose to move on and some said that was OK. God bless those "OK" people BTW, we just flew Delta and had assigned seats and he did AWESOME!

I hope this story gives you hope that you can fly with kids who have autism. My son has Down syndrome as well. We fly (direct flight) to Disney every year and to Oklahoma (about 6 hours) every other year. It can be done!

 

[sukhakuli]

We've flown with our son with autism, as well. He has coping mechanisms for when he's in public that we use, and those have evolved over time. When he was young, a hat, sunglasses, blanket to hide under, and headphones kept him pretty calm. I flew with 3 of my kids by myself, and the flight attendant wouldn't allow us all to sit in the same row, so she put my older 2, including my autistic son, in a row by himself. He's kind of between moderate and high functioning, and has other diagnosis as well, and he did OK. He perseverated on his Nintendo most of the flight.

This is kind of funny, one time we were flying to Disney and ds was into Cars. So we had a bag full of his favorite Cars. He always had to have 2 of everything so we had a lot. As we went through security, suddenly we got swarmed, taken aside and questioned sternly about what was in the bag. They finally got the special team in to search the bag, and it was just the Cars. They had happened to line up in such a way on the Xray that they looked like a handgun, lol.

 

[roadtripper]

Great story--thanks for sharing the link. The last time we flew with DS16 it was a last minute trip, so a connecting flight (NEVER again!).

DS had a complete meltdown when we were descending--screaming, swearing, biting himself, biting me. It may have been 15 minutes, but it seemed like hours. Every single person around us was amazing. As we deplaned, people made a point of making eye contact--asking what they could do to help, telling me not to worry about it--it was no big deal (it was though). I started crying then out of gratitude. Meanwhile, DH (who had whisked DS off the plane to wait for the w/c in the gangway) got a business card from a woman who noticed their Red Sox gear and said she wanted to send us Red Sox tix (her son works for them). So we all went to the Red Sox courtesy of DS' meltdown--maybe not the best lesson for him to learn...

We didn't write a viral blog, but we did send a thank you note with pics, and the Sox took the Series this year. Coincidence? I think not