What we did was decide on what the most important issue was. That was aggression for John so we are treating that with risperdal. However, with all meds you get side effects. With John he gets up REALLY early. We could give him something to sleep but we will not treat other lesser issues or side effects with another med. I refuse to get trapped in the medication carousel as I call it. So for us, picking one issue and one med was the best way to go. I just deal with the smaller issues behaviorally.
Hi Everyone,
The love of my life is a six year old sweetie pie. I have a burining question that I am struggling with. My little guy has been diagnosed with bipolar, adhd, and recently pdd-nos. His psychiatrist has put him on 7mg of abilify and he is doing well for the most part. He is less agressive but is easily frustrated by simple things like not being able to zip a zipper, undo lace, etc.
Psy. suggested I put him on adderall for the adhd. In fact I was actually the one that mentioned his serious lack of focus as it was/is a major concern to me, more so because I know it is affecting him academicly. She clearly explained to me that the adderall was an anphetamine before she even wrote the prescription. I filled it, gave it to him the first day and couldn't give him another pill because I was deathly afraid that I was setting him up for a future drug addiction
After reading message after message. I notice that most of the parents have children like mine who have been diagnosed with more than one disorder. I also notice that the children are on more than one medication. Now here is where I need some major insight. I battle with myself because I want the best for my little guy. I see how hard he struggles to express himself and to learn and make sense of the world around him but on the other hand I am so petrified of setting him up for future failures by over medicating him- whatever that means. I guess what I am trying to say, is how do I know if this is the right thing for him? I love this child to pieces and there is nothing I would not do for him. If I knew for sure that putting him on the adderall would make him a better person, I would do it but I am so scared that I may be doing more harm than good. Reading what many of you have said about your children and how the medication has affected their lives, they all sound like they are doing really well. If anyone could give me some insight on how you came to the medication conclusions please respond. I am so confused. Oh, one other thing I forgot to mention. I had placed him on concerta, but it did nothing for his academics. He became lethargic and extremely depressed. Moreover, he has very large tonsils, adenoid glands and very inflamed adenoid glands as well wich affects the quality of his sleep. I am wondering if this has an affect on the quality of his sleep, wich affects the quality of his concentration. Please share your ideas on this matter with me. Thank you all so much for being such a great support system. When my son was 7, we started him on Ritalin because he couldn't focus on the page. He could read fine, but he would lose his place easily and get frustrated. We could see that this was going to very negatively affect his academics. Of course, his hyperactivity was an issue, too, but behavioral intervention and sensory integration helped somewhat with that. Nothing could help his focus issues besides medication. The way I felt at the time was that there were lots of things about autism that would COULDN'T help him with so if we could help him with the ADHD part by getting him medication that worked well, we'd go for it. He was on Ritalin for 2 years until we had to take him off because he developed Tourette's and the Ritalin (and ANY stimulant medication) would exacerbate the already severe tics. He had to be put on Risperdal (first cousin to Abilify) to control the tics. It did. However, when he entered puberty, he started experiencing aggression as well as much more severe tics. The doc raised his Risperdal to help with both. However, he was approaching the 6mg level and our doc is not comfortable going beyond that level, so we tried a couple of other meds that could reduce some of the anxiety that made the tics worse, allowing us to keep him on a lower level of Risperdal. That is how we ended up with a cocktail. I think that it's always good to try behavioral approaches to help before medication is tried. But medication can make a child's disability MUCH more manageable so I think it's worth trying meds after other approaches have been shown to not work enough. Our 16yo is not aggressive, is fully cooperative in school and is a happy boy who makes us proud every day (between bouts of exasperation, of course).
That is EXACTLY why it's vital for us parents to choose a doctor who is an expert in autism. Kids on the autism spectrum can have very atypical reactions to meds. THe doctor has to have had LOTS of hands-on experience. Yes, doctoring is a science but in the case of medicating ASD kids, it's at least equally and art.
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