We have a bottle of a red liquid in our shower. It might be shampoo, and we are using it as such. However, the bottle size matches that of many body washes we buy, and the consistency of this liquid seems a little different from what we are used to with shampoo. We may never know which it is unless we go to a store and look for an identical item, because Anthony opened the cabinet and peeled off labels on several products. We do have another bottle there that we are certain is a different brand of body wash despite any writing.

A significant focus of the meeting with Anthony's school staff was how to prevent him from pulling labels and stickers off anything in sight. I readily understood why that would be a concern after seeing how items, drawers, and cabinets were marked there. Anthony has been taking a medication prescribed to lower his level of obsessiveness, but it clearly either does not work or has yet to produce the intended effect. Anthony's teacher has created a small board with stickers for the express purpose of re-directing his energies. This nevertheless appears to be meeting with only limited success.

This fetish may sound like just a minor nuisance. However, we have other items around the house that are essentially useless because of Anthony. The ice/water dispenser on our refrigerator has a black panel with six red lights, for example, but what are they for? The remote controls for both an oscillating fan and our daughter's boom box (a birthday present) similarly have no markings, and we no longer have any idea how far to turn the dial to produce the desired temperature on our griddle.

Beyond his existing victims, what if Anthony starts to target cleaning solutions? What if our medicine cabinet, with some prescriptions, comes to his attention? Unlike dealing with a small child, he does have enough awareness--and height--to discover objects of interest virtually anywhere in the house. We won't make the mistake of attempting to use them without labels, so we may potentially be left with a lot of worthless stock that requires additional expense to replace. It may also be difficult to convince a pharmacy of the legitimate need to replace a prescription before it should have been used. We might ultimately invest in a locking cabinet in which to hide these things if it comes to that.