WonderfulWednesday: @GrumpyCarer searches for a sippy cup

A fab dad took to social media this week to try and find a replacement little blue cup for his son with autism. Marc Carter's 14 year old son, Ben, has severe autism and will only drink out of a specific sippy cup that is on it's last legs. The cup is no longer made so with the fear that without it, his son will simply stop drinking altogether, Marc asked Twitter for help.  And Twitter responded.

Apart from the obviously and wonderful kindess that is (as I type, now probably much more than) 15,000 shares from one of Marc's tweets alone, this story is wonderful in many ways.  Yes, people have rallied to the cause.  According to the BBC website people across the country have been emptying their cupboards and Tommy Tippee have staff trawling through their stored samples looking for the elusive cup.  Several cups have been located and are making their way to Devon to be used and safely stored for future use.

Wouldn't it also be wonderful if in searching for a cup for Ben, people found some understanding and awareness about what this means. Ben may only drink out of his cup for several reasons.  It may be that it's routine and he can't comprehend drinking from another receptical or source,  It may be that there is a sensory connection and feeling he gets from this particular cup.  He may only feel safe drinking from this cup. He may simply not recognise anything else as a beverage. And these kind of things can be the case for many other children with autism.

Our son David has a restricted diet.  Like Ben won't drink from another cup, David won't eat many different food items and then only one's from specific places. Yes, he eats chicken nuggets - but only Tesco own brand breaded ones. Yes, he ate garlic bread... but then Tesco changed the recipe.  How do I know?  David stopped eating it.  And so on.  Just like Marc thinks Ben would become dehydrated to a life threatening point rather than drink from another cup, David too would rather go hungry, and I mean really hungry than eat something he wasn't sure about.  One day he only ate breakfast and ate nothing else until the next morning.

It's really hard to explain to someone. We went through a period last year of force feeding David in an effort to expand his diet.  It was awful and mostly unsuccessful. We take snacks with us when we go out.  I've had some looks when I'm in a cafe and I hand David something out of my bag.  And this is just us talking about David and food.  This kind of thing can filter into many parts of his life.

It can take David weeks to try on new shoes because they aren't the ones he has.  We tend to buy some shoes in packs of increasing sizes.

David's older brother, Anthony, is also on the autistic spectrum.  Some would consider him 'mild' as apposed to 'severe' though I'm not sure I agree entirely with those terms.  I tend to consider how well they function in society (low vs high functioning).  Anthony has some difficulty with food but he has similar problems in other areas too.  Don't get me started on what happens if we go out and it starts raining.... and we don't have his raincoat with us.  And these are just two tiny tales from their lives.

So I guess it's a wonderful story of a wonderful dad, and wonderful people helping out - and hopefully the wonderful kindness and support will be felt by other families dealing with similar issues in cafes, shops, playgrounds and everywhere really. That would be great and undoubtedly make the world a better place for Ben and for many others too.

You can read about Marc, Ben and the blue cup here.  If you've found a cup for Ben you can contact via twitter @PMPProject.

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