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Re:Ask HN: How to keep water-obsessed autistic child from wa... by DoingIsLearning on Friday July 22, 2022 @07:56AM (#32190981)
For a 'recycled tub' implementation, you can easily source a water pump from an aquarium supplier, if they sell gear for salt water aquariums they will most likely have large enough pumps.

Nevertheless, and I hope this sounds constructive, this is the kind of topic that you should really be discussing with an occupational therapist or child psychologist with experience in autism.

For some topics the internet can be a terrible place for advice.

Re:Ask HN: How to keep water-obsessed autistic child from wa... by bryanrasmussen on Friday July 22, 2022 @01:28PM (#32194643)
I mean sure, but none of our therapists know anything about how to construct a solution where the water recycles so we don't end up paying 300 dollars a month in water while trying to get him to not fixate on running water all day long. It actually seemed like the kind of thing that HN might be good at, thumbs up for the aquarium idea which I wouldn't have thought of.

on edit: changed a no to know, was multitasking.

Re:Ask HN: How to keep water-obsessed autistic child from wa... by skyyler on Friday July 22, 2022 @03:10PM (#32195947)
This seems like treating a symptom and not the underlying cause.
Re:Ask HN: How to keep water-obsessed autistic child from wa... by chownie on Friday July 22, 2022 @03:31PM (#32196149)
There's no disease to cure, running water is a toy and the child is upset when it's not available.

What exactly do you expect a medical professional to do here?

Re:Ask HN: How to keep water-obsessed autistic child from wa... by justWells on Saturday July 23, 2022 @02:55AM (#32201042)
A professional therapist can help a child detach from an unhealthy attachment and coping mechanism.

There’s definitely a problem with a child wasting resources without being able to be stopped.

How is there not a problem here?

Re:Ask HN: How to keep water-obsessed autistic child from wa... by bryanrasmussen on Saturday July 23, 2022 @07:04AM (#32202226)
sure, however my child is

1. nonverbal, which makes dealing with issues difficult and time consuming.

2. and has a number of problematic behaviors that might actually be more worth focusing on than their wasting water, since it is often difficult to fix multiple behavioral problems at once when dealing with autism.

at any rate, if it takes him half a year to get off of wasting water I would like to have a temporary fix in that half a year as well. Sometimes it's better to ship a quick solution than to wait for the perfect one, losing money the whole time.

Re:Ask HN: How to keep water-obsessed autistic child from wa... by freemint on Friday July 22, 2022 @08:48AM (#32191346)
> water pump

Some water pump models will break if they do not pump water but air. Only buy pumps which are able to handle air in take.

Re:Ask HN: How to keep water-obsessed autistic child from wa... by metadat on Friday July 22, 2022 @03:37PM (#32196208)
A fishtank or fountain water pump will be inexpensive to the point that it shouldn't be much of a concern, they can take some abuse and won't break instantaneously, even when used improperly.