Comments on: Check the Front Door Lock

By: Bonnie Sayers

Bonnie Sayers — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:01:00 +0000

My son can push the screen out of the window also and then the cat jumped out and was gone one afternoon.

My son bangs on the inside door screen and this could open it so I only leave that door open later in the evening when we need that air to come in and no sun coming in and then we can keep a better eye on him.

I have computer here in kitchen and I can see him from here and dash into the room in a few steps to catch the door. Luckily he just likes to run in the front yard and scare cats and does not know how to open the gate to get out.

By: cavamil

cavamil — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:01:24 +0000

Regan,

Don’t worry. I didn’t take it that way.

And yeah, fire safety is something we’re starting to do with ours as well. Our training right now is on the back sliding glass door since it’s the most difficult to open and the one I want the lock off the most, plus it has a fenced backyard in case our girls decide to go out without permission. I’m trying to find a good sensor/bell/alarm that I can install myself in our funky doors instead of going back to having a house-wide alarm through a service (which is probably what we’ll end up doing anyway even though we rent now instead of owning).

Thank you for letting me know it’s possible to train them to understand this concept. It’s appreciated more than you know.

By: feebee

feebee — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 19:10:09 +0000

We have an effective but homely solution for our autistic escape artist: a combination padlock with a hasp on our front door. No key to lose and very secure.

By: navi

navi — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 14:23:19 +0000

we have to keep things closed/blocked. He seems to obey a closed outside door, but if it’s in any way open… We have to close our windows too, he’s figured out how to push the screen out – I don’t get why he won’t open the door (he can, he just won’t), but he’ll push the screen out. Maybe he doesn’t view the screen as a barrier. The whole balance between fire safety and flight risk safety is a tricky one, though I think flight risk trumps, as that is a much, much greater possibility. I think the only way to keep my son truly safe would be to have him in the same room with us 24/7, which isn’t always doable.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 22:04:17 +0000

Gus has gotten better about running out, but we still have to keep the locks on because he’s just unpredictable. We’ve got locks on the door, which because he has pretty low tone in his hands he can’t open, and also on the screen doors so we can get some air in here on days like today. The lock is high so he’d have to climb on a chair to reach it. By then we’d notice.I don’t leave the kids downstairs with the doors open anyway, even with the screen locks.

By: TLC

TLC — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 02:53:08 +0000

I have a friend whose son is severely affected and he scales WALLS. She has found him by the freeway, miles away. She is in the process of getting a GPS locator for him to wear and of turning her house into a stalag to keep him safe.

Regional Center has done NOTHING.

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 21:44:19 +0000

@farmwifetwo, sorry, is there a post you can’t comment on?

I should probably be knocking on some wood, but Charlie is pretty good about knowing to stay inside. We used to try to hide the keys — we had installed a deadbolt and it could only be opened with a key— but he could always find them and sensed our straining to find new hiding places.

It also helped that we had a chime on the door of our old house so that you knew when it opened and closed. Very important.

But now you’ve all got me thinking about fire safety issues……

By: Chuck

Chuck — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 21:18:23 +0000

farmwifetwo,

According to CDC, first dose of Hib is not necessary until 2 months. Although any loss is tragic, this death would not have been prevented according to CDC guidelines.

By: Regan

Regan — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 20:35:38 +0000

cavamil,
I wanted to clarify and apologize if it sounded like I was making a specific judgement in reaction to the use of the keyed locks; I don’t think your post had come up when I was composing mine.
It’s just what we have, and the comment was just from what we’ve been told about fire safety. Sorry.

By: farmwifetwo

farmwifetwo — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 20:09:02 +0000

It won’t let me post above.

Just today on another bb (not an autism one), a woman posted that a collegues 3wk old baby had died from bacterial menigitus. #1 – I wondered why it wasn’t at home but you don’t get our year long mat leave so it was probably at daycare.
#2 – guess what happens when you don’t vaccinate children??

This is going to become the norm for a while. Until it becomes common place that children are harmed/killed/birth defects etc… b/c they aren’t vacinated.