The best pets for children with Autism .”Henry's in fish heaven" "No he's not mummy, he's in the dustbin"

So emotional support animals are becoming more popular and you may be wondering what pet to get for your child. My son is a little scared of dogs , so a dog is not even an option yet. Although i’m not too sure who would be more scared of who, my son of the dog, or the dog of my son. He has been known to try and pull legs off dogs before. Don’t worry no animals were harmed. He seems to enjoy squashing bugs with his fingers too , i suspect all children go through this phase. My son however seems to enjoy it a little bit too much for my liking. I think a pet could be quite a benefit to an autistic child, but I also undertand that sometimes autistic children struggle to realise that it is a living thing and not a play thing. If you manage to find the right pet however for your child, i believe it can have such a positive impact on them. It teaches them the resposibility of caring for something and teaches them a respect for living things and also it can provide a great comfort to them in times of stress. It has been known that autistic children have formed very strong attachments to their pet and this must be something positive , right ? I have done a bit of research and it seems dogs are a popular choice for children on the spectrum. I would love to hear your stories and comments on this so please do message me and share with me.

So we tried a rabbit for our first pet for my son. This started off quite well. He seemed to enjoy stroking him and playing with him, and he even let him hop about in his bedroom. It was lovely, for a while. Then , well, it was’nt. The problem we had was the rabbit decided he no longer wanted to be confined to a run (he was an indoor rabbit)and decided he would have the free run of the house. This did not please my son, who i suspect did not like the unpredictability of having a mad rabbit running around inside. Every time the rabbit hopped out of his enclosure, my son would have a meltdown and cry for me to put him back, which of course the rabbit was having none of and just kept hopping right back out. It was fun. When i asked my son why he didnt like the rabbit running around, he replied “because he chews everything” which in fairness , he did. I remember one day, we were quite happily sat together watching television when Robbie (the rabbit) decided to join us on the sofa. Completely engaged in whatever it was we were watching, all of a sudden a big white rabbit comes flying past. He landed on on the rug and looked a little confused as to how he got there. Me and him both. I can only assume that my son gave him a little reminder to get off the sofa. So i made a tough decision to re home our beloved Robbie. He was adorable but unfortunately, my son did not really feel the same way. I could have put Robbie in the garden but he was used to being indoors. He got rehomed with a lovely family who had a little girl and a conservatory for him to run around in.He got his happy ever after.

We briefly had a budgie. Charlie was his name. He was beautiful to look at , lovely blue and white colouring. I thought my son would be ok with a bird as it was confined to its cage most of the day and didnt bother my son in any way. How wrong was i !. The problem with Charlie was that he was, as budgies are, quite vocal and noisy. Well , my son did not like the chirping and would cover his ears shouting at Charlie to shut up every time he chirped. So he had to go too. He went to a lady that had an avery overlooking the sea apparently, and finished his days out there being as noisy as he liked.

Then there were the fish. We started with a tropical fish tank then it became a bit addictive and we then got another tank with goldfish . Anyway my son shows a bit of interest in these and will offer to feed them . The only problem is instead of a pinch of food, they get half the tub ! If your little one is a little rough handed with animals as my son is , I recommend fish as they are easy to care for ( apart from cleaning the tank) and they are soothing to look at . I even considered putting them in my sons sensory corner but I just had visions of him getting them out of the biorb and squashing them in the middle of the night . He does need supervision with animals . Anyway unfortunately one of the goldfish , Henry , died the other day . I decided to soften the blow for my son and approach it with sensitivity. “Henry is in fish heaven” I explained ” No he’s not mummy , he’s in the dustbin !” Was the reply ! Well that pissed all over my bonfire.

Don’t you just love the comments our little wonders come up with . My son makes me laugh on a daily basis and I wish I had written down all the funny things he says . Maybe I will start. I could write a book ! There’s a thought ?

Why not drop me a comment or message me and share with me your little ones anecdotes and funny things they have to say ? I would love to read them . My son invited his friend round for dinner the other day and his friend who is also on the spectrum and loves telling stories was explaining to me that he was a ninja pig warrior and he wanted to zap the pig with electricity, when I asked why he explained that it’s because he likes the smell of bacon ! I can see his logic. It did make me smile . I love to listen and see the world through their eyes . Apart from today when my son decided to say in his “loud” voice while we were travelling down the escalator that his whoopee cushion he had just inflated , ” looks like your boobies mummy !”And yes there was a man standing right behind us listening to the whole conversation.

Anyway back to the subject of animals and we have decided that our best choice of pet is the guinea pig . I would recommend these adorable creatures as a pet as they are so easy to care for and so loving and very vocal . My son loves the guinea pig . Our beloved Winston is the perfect pet for my boy , until he gets mistaken for a squishy !