We are at our wit's end with Skyler.  We are running out of options as to how to help him; suddenly the possibility of having him placed into a home for children with special needs is looking more and more likely.

Our son is six years old.  Nonverbal: he doesn't talk.  He was diagnosed as having severe autism when he was two years old when he started exhibiting the signs; before then he was starting to talk and express himself.  Now he doesn't even do that.  He screams if provoked; seems that this happens with alarming regularity.

If he is upset or annoyed in any way, he will bang his head repeatedly, often raising huge, red welts that linger for hours, often bruising his face badly.  It is getting to be very embarrassing because if we take Skyler out in public, people stare or accuse us of abusing our son, when we are not doing anything of the sort.

To prevent our son from injuring himself, we have him wear a bicycle helmet. 

In addition to the above, he is tube fed because he just won't eat.  Add to this, not being toilet-trained: he wears diapers.  So you are talking major challenges here.

What makes the situation even more dire is that we have a two-year-old daughter.  We are so scared that Skyler will end up severely hurting Savannah Marie whenever he goes into one of his rages.  So this is why Nick (husband) and myself (Anna) have been discussing the looming likelihood of having Skyler placed into a home where professionals trained to deal with his needs can monitor and (hopefully) help him because as I said earlier, we are quickly running out of options.

~To be continued; end of part one~