Mike Carr – who has a profoundly autistic 34-year-old son, reviews products he’s used and provides insight for parents of severely or profoundly autistic children. He highlights a recent article in Neuroscience News about the interaction between CNTN4 and APP proteins, suggesting potential benefits for autism research from Alzheimer’s funding. He updates on the Acura door lock, praising its app integration and security features, and advises against using a specific wireless sleep sensor due to its ineffectiveness, recommending Ring portable cameras instead. He shares a humorous anecdote about a diaper alarm that went off in public, while emphasizing its utility for autistic bedwetting. Despite ongoing challenges with his son’s bedwetting, he finds M4 super thick diapers somewhat helpful and seeks further solutions from the community. Future episodes will continue to explore both low tech and high tech solutions for parents.
6 Tech Solutions That Helped Us Navigate Life with a Severely Autistic Child: From Bedwetting Alarms to Door Locks
Welcome back to Autism Labs! In today’s episode, I want to take you through six tools and solutions that have made a huge difference in managing the challenges we face as parents of a profoundly autistic son. These aren’t just theoretical suggestions; these are real, practical tools that have worked for us over the years. From sleep monitoring to securing our home and managing bedwetting, these solutions have given us peace of mind and made daily life a little easier. Let’s dive into the story behind each one.
1. A Breakthrough in Autism Research: The Connection Between Two Proteins
Before we dive into the tech stuff, I just had to share some cool news from neuroscience that I stumbled upon. There’s this article I read in Neuroscience News about a really interesting discovery – they found that two proteins are actually connected: CNTN4 (which is tied to autism) and PP (involved in Alzheimer’s). What blew my mind was seeing this connection between the two, which means Alzheimer’s research could potentially help create better autism treatments. For families like ours, this could be huge! If you’re curious, the full article is up on our Autism Labs Facebook page. I honestly think this discovery could be a game-changer for autism care down the road.
2. Securing Our Home: The Aqara Door Lock System
God, trying to keep your house secure when you’ve got a profoundly autistic kid is just… it never ends, you know? We’ve all heard those nightmare stories about kids wandering off or getting into stuff they shouldn’t, and honestly, it haunts you. That’s why we finally broke down and got the Aqara Door Lock System—and I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s been a total lifesaver.
The thing I love most is this app that shows exactly who’s coming and going. We set it up so anyone working with our son can use their thumbprint or phone number to get in, which means we always know who’s with him and when. And the auto-lock feature? Absolute game-changer for those hectic mornings when you’re rushing out and can’t remember if you locked up.
It’s worked great for our situation, but if you need something more customized, there are definitely systems out there where you can set different access levels for different people. It just depends on what you’re dealing with at home, right?
3. Sleep Monitoring: Finding What Works
Listen, sleep is just… it’s everything, right? For you and your kids. But man, when your kid has special needs, getting decent sleep can be such a nightmare.
So we tried this fancy wireless sleep sensor thing that sticks on the wall and supposedly tracks movement. Sounded amazing on paper. Total bust in reality. The damn thing only worked if our son was laying in exactly the right position. Move an inch? Nothing. We ditched that pretty quick.
What actually saved our sanity were those Ring portable cameras. They’re these little guys with crazy good resolutions. We can see everything in his room, hear what’s going on, and—this is the best part—we can actually talk to him through them. So when he’s up at 3 AM wandering around (because of course he is), we can just say, “Hey buddy, back to bed” without even getting up. Or sometimes just a quick “You’re okay?” is all he needs.
Honestly, it’s been a total game-changer for keeping tabs on him at night. Worth every penny for the peace of mind alone, you know?
4. The Bedwetting Dilemma: A Solution That Works
So, our son’s 34 now, and honestly, the bedwetting thing just never went away. It’s exhausting, you know? Both physically and… well, emotionally too. We’ve literally tried everything—diapers, those bedwetting alarms, you name it. Progress has been frustratingly slow, but there’s been some wins along the way.
That bedwetting alarm actually does work pretty well. We stick the sensor in his diaper and when it gets wet—BZZZZT!—we get the alert. Simple but effective, especially for younger kids still figuring out the whole staying-dry-at-night business. Though, I still crack up thinking about the time I totally spaced and forgot to take the sensor out before my wife took him to Target. There they are, standing in the checkout line, when suddenly BEEEEEP! Yep, he’d wet his diaper. My wife wanted to crawl under a rock, but hey—that’s life, right?
We’ve also had decent luck with those M4 adult diapers. They hold a ton more pee than the regular ones, which is a game-changer. But honestly, we’re always on the lookout for something better.
5. Helpful Tips for Parents of Severely Autistic Children
You know what I’ve figured out after all these years? It’s not about going all-in on fancy gadgets or sticking with just the basics. It’s about finding that sweet spot in between. Some stuff you can fix with the simplest tweaks, and other times, yeah, you need the high-tech solution.
Here’s what’s actually worked for us:
- Routine is absolutely freaking EVERYTHING. I can’t stress this enough. Kids with autism, they just… they need to know what’s coming next, period. When we stick to the same schedule day in and day out, my son’s anxiety just melts away. Dinner at 6, bath at 7:30, bed by 8:30 – it’s boring as hell for us sometimes, but man, it makes life so much easier for him.
- Those noise-canceling headphones? Total lifesaver. My son used to have complete meltdowns at family gatherings or the mall – all those sounds just overwhelmed him. Now he slaps those headphones on, and he’s good to go. Best I’ve ever spent, seriously.
- And don’t laugh, but sometimes the simplest thing works best. We made this super basic visual schedule with pictures of each activity – breakfast, therapy, park, whatever. Just seeing what’s coming next gives him this… I don’t know, this sense of control? Like he’s not constantly being blindsided. It’s just laminated cards on a board, but it’s been a total game-changer for his mood.
6. Closing Thoughts: Embracing Innovation and Finding What Works
Look, raising a kid with profound autism? It’s a freaking rollercoaster every single day, and I’ll be the first to tell you there’s no magic bullet. But honestly, what’s helped us stay sane is just grabbing whatever works – whether it’s some fancy tech gadget or just a DIY solution we cobbled together.
Those smart locks, sleep cameras, bedwetting alarms… yeah, they’ve been lifesavers for us. Not because they’re perfect, but because they give us a fighting chance to get through the day without losing our minds.
I really hope some of these ideas help you guys too. But here’s the thing – what works for us might be a total disaster for you, and that’s totally fine. It’s all about trying stuff until something sticks, y’know?
Anyway, we’ll be back next week with more real talk on Autism Labs. This community has kept me going on my worst days, so please – if you’ve got questions or your own hacks, drop us a line. We’re all just figuring this out together.
Hang in there, everyone. This gig ain’t easy, but you’re not doing it alone.
Transcript:
Mike Carr (00:12):
Well, welcome back to Autism Labs. This week we’re going to cover six different things that might be of interest to parents with severely or profoundly autistic kiddos living at home. There was an article yesterday in the neuroscience news that talked about the interaction between two proteins. One protein is called CNTN four, and that has to do with neurological development problems related to autism, and then a PP is a different protein. It’s related to neurodegeneration. In Alzheimer’s patients, there might be some more research funding available for Alzheimer’s patients that will then also benefit autism patients. Since these two proteins seem to interact with one another in the brain. If you want more information, I did a post yesterday on the Autism labs Facebook page. Just go to Facebook, look up autism labs, and you’ll see a post from 5 15 24 where I give you the actual link to the article in neuroscience news.
(01:11):
The second thing is an update on door locks. I’ve mentioned this last week that we have this Acura, a door lock or a car door lock. It’s worked great. We’ve been testing it now for a couple of weeks, but there are other varieties that are out there, but this one has an app. We’ve given all our colleagues that work with our son, both a thumbprint entry as well as their phone number. It’s really easy for us to see who’s with our son when they showed up, when they left to make sure the door’s locked. It has an auto lock feature highly recommended. However, another device not so good. This was the wireless sensor that we were using for monitoring our son’s sleep. It doesn’t have to wear anything at all. This thing just fits on the wall and it goes over his head. We thought this would be so cool.
(01:54):
The problem we’ve discovered is if he doesn’t sleep in a vertical line, right, so the sensor’s right over him, looking down on his chest, it doesn’t work. Plus, it’s a bit of a pain to install, so we’re not going to recommend that. Unfortunately. However, there’s something that we’ve used for quite a while, and I think you guys probably are aware of this, these little ring portable cameras. These things are awesome, and so you can put it in his bedroom, make sure that he or she’s asleep. It’s color, it’s high resolution and it’s sound, right, and you can talk to ’em. So it’s like this idea that, Hey, Michael, go back to bed. If he gets up right, he may or may not listen to you, but at least you can talk to him. You can also listen, and so you get the audio cue if he or she gets up and you can see.
(02:42):
So I highly recommend these portable things. You can move around as you need them, living room, kitchen, wherever. Okay, funny story. So we’ve been trying to get our son to stop wetting the bed and when he was littler, stop wetting his pants so we’d have a diaper on him, but we actually were using some of the portable alarms for his diaper and it worked great. The way it works is you put the sensor down inside his diaper. If he wets his diaper, the sensor goes off with a loud sound or a buzzing or whatever the problem is. I forgot to take it out before my wife took him to Target. So she’s standing in the line ready to check out, and this thing goes off because he wet his diaper, so they work great. Just be sure and take it out of the diaper if you’re going to take your son or daughter out, and of course, you can also use this as an alarm for bedwetting at night if that’s something that you want to do.
(03:37):
We have not had 34 years old. We still can’t prevent him from laying to bed at night. What we have though, tried to do and what’s worked reasonably well for us is you can get these big diapers. They come in different sizes. The key thing here is the M four. That’s a super thick diaper that tends to absorb more of the urine at night. If you have a better solution for how to solve this problem, please post me or DM me autism labs. You can go to and get information there about how to get ahold of me. That would really be helpful. Best of luck to you this week, and we’ll be back next week with some more information on both low tech and high tech solutions. For those folks that have profoundly or severely autistic individuals, see you.
