I am always a bit skeptical with meds at this age. Not sure if a formal evaluation has occurred but I certainly think one should be done. Behavioral therapy may also be very helpful here. Please discuss further with your pediatrician.

Dr. J

oh sounds like when my son was younger! he could not learn because he did not sit still enough to focus. He got on meds, now i can not recall what we started on.
I understand it is hard to accept that your child may need a medication to focus. It is an OK thing if your childs Doctor reommends meds. It is worth a safe try. I still sometimes shake my head at what my son takes today. Antiphycotic Drugs sounds pretty heavy and it is. I think its part of the whole acceptence of Autism and what will help our children. Not our needs but Thier needs.

My daughter was on many different meds for ADHD and they seemed to make her worse. Of course she never had ADHD, but at the time we were told she did. She still has a huge problem sitting still and not able to pay attention for very long at all. We just found out not too long ago that she has AS, which is a form of autism. She is completely without meds. The problem I have with putting her on meds was that I didn't feel comfortable with medicating her so the teachers would have an easier time trying to teach her. It seemed like a cop out to me. Your son may just need to be placed in a smaller classroom setting where there is more one on one time. He may be like my daughter and get to distracted by the goings on in the class. Try to have an IEP meeting with his school and see where that leads you.

Is your son verbal??? If he is, I would try the medications because the thing I found with my son is that he hated it that he could NOT sit still and he could NOT play with his toys or watch a t.v. program.

When he was two we put him on the Feingold Diet. After about a week one night we were sitting in the living room and noticed that Kristopher sat and watched almost an hour long television show. I didn't even realize it at first.

I never got interested in anything on t.v. because I could never sit down long enough to enjoy it because Kris was terrorizing the house, scattering toys everywhere, but never playing.

Ironically, the diet helped alot at first. By the time he was in school, though, we did have him on meds and he is better for it.

I was like you and didn't want to medicate my child. My biggest objection to doing so, however, was that I was afraid that he could NOT tell me how the medication was making him feel. Once he was more verbal we went with medication and it's made a world of difference for Kris.

In fact, at one point about a year or so ago we decided to wean him off of all of his medications and see where we were at. It didn't take long for me to call the doctor saying, "enough already!!! I'm going nutso!!!"

When Kris started back on the meds he was actually happy and smiled alot, where before he was always just "on the go".

Kristopher has ADHD, Asperger's Syndrome, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

The one thing I love is that his behavioral m.d. is wonderful about not adding so many medications one on top of the other. When she adds one she tries to take another away. Right now he is only on 3 different medications.

I'm grateful to her for that. And, while things could be better, they would be ALOT worse without the meds.

And, some parents wean their kids off of meds during the summertime. NOT ME!!! I'm a glutton for punishment, but NOT that big of a glutton!!! LOL!!!

Both Kris and I believe he is better served with medication that without.

That is what works for us. If your child canNOT slow down, it will be much harder for him to learn. So, whatever you choose to do, behavior modification, specialized diets, medication or (as in our case) combos of all three, you have to help your child if you want him to learn and to grow up to "play" with his toys.

Kris does play with his toys now and he reads books, and he watches his favorite t.v. show, "SpongeBob" so, all in all, the three things we chose have made all the difference in our child.

Remember that your child's teacher may NOT be looking for "the easy way out" as you think. If you can't get him to settle down long enough to watch t.v. and play with his toys, how can you expect his teacher to do otherwise.

Not critizing just giving you food for thought.

hugs,

gaylek11

My son is almost 3 and has had a PDD-NOS diagnosis since January. He, too, seems to be in constant motion, and "stims" almost incessantly, although as of now, he doesn't have an ADD-ADHD diagnosis. I am adverse to the idea of him being medicated (which has not even been mentioned by his dr's) as I view medication (and this is just my opinion, mind you) as being counterproductive to treatment. I feel that medicating the "disorder" simply masks its symptoms and while moderating the severity, it does not address the underlying cause which goes un-looked at or treated as long as the symptoms are subdued. It's like giving aspirin for a fever, the fever subsides, but the infection the body was trying to rid itself of is suppressed and comes back once the aspirin wears off. (Of course if the fever is severve, by all means take aspirin, but once the fever is back to a manageable level-99 or 100 degrees, let the body burn out the toxin so real healing can begin). I know this may anger some out here and that's not my intent. I'm just voicing my beliefs. I believe that as parents we all make the choices that we deem to be best for our children. If you do decide to use medication, please educate yourself first so you know what the side effects nd/or counter symptoms may be. I know parents who have had great success with medication. I'm just not ready to go there yet.
Best of luck to you.
Tracey

I found this topic interesting as my 13 yr. old son has ADHD and my 3 yr. old is on the Autism Spectrum. I did try medication with my 13 yr old, but I started him on it in third grade. We tried ridilin, concerta, and adderall over the course if 3 years. All of them seemed to have worse side effects than benefits. He had an upset stomach, insomnia, dizziness, and insomnia. Now that he's older we don't use medication but he still has a lot of trouble focusing at school. Have you tried a weighted vest with your son? The extra pressure may clam him down a bit. I think it's a very personal choice to medicate your child or not. I would certainly investigate all the possible side effects of different medicines before administering them to your son. Also go with your instincts.

nannymomof3, we, too, tried all of the medications you have listed here and more and they did NOT work for our son either. Dexadrine did work and continues to work fairly well to control ADHD. Our son is also on lamictal to help ease the meltdowns. It is working pretty well, too. The last medication he is on is Geodon.

If you ever get interested in looking into any other meds for your son, you might wanna look to those. They have worked to make our son able to settle down enough to learn in school.

hugs,

gaylek11

Hi,

First off, hence the word spectrum, autism is a bunch of disorders in one, so its not uncommon for the doctors to say I think he also his ADHD, etc. Autism is all of those in one.

Also, sometimes medicines are good, I tried a couple that were ok, one Abilify that is supposed to be really good for Autism- The other ones the more anti-psychotic ones really affect a person on the autism spectrum...I have had baby doses and passed out or been not afraid of danger or in pain or I get the rare effects...so does my cousin who has aspergers. Some autistic kids have a bigger chemical imbalance in some parts than others...thats why some medicines would really help too, but have to be careful with dosage.

Kris

PS: also he can try fidgets and therapies throughout the day to calm him naturally that way too.

There are a lot of autism professionals out there who believe that ADD-ADHD should be added to the group of autism spectrum disorders. I haven't really done my homework on this yet as Zach hasn't been diagnosed ADD-ADHD, but on the surface, it seems plausible.
Anyway, food for thought...
Tracey

Personally, Kristopher first had the "probable" diagnosis of fetal alcohol syndrome. (He is adopted so lots of unknowns.) Then, the "worst case of ADHD" the therapists had ever seen. Then ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder) and then Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder) and finally Asperger's Syndrome.

So, I think it's very possible that all of these things are interconnected, may not be issues for all children on the spectrum. . . but, certainly occur with enough frequency that they are prolly all interconnected.

It was like "pulling teeth" for us to get to the final diagnosis. When he was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, all the other pieces of the puzzle that didn't fit, finally made sense and came together.

Hugs,

gaylek11

Talk to your teacher. Our son was allowed to stand by his desk. But he was not allowed to move around the room. It helped him a lot.

We had a problem much the same as yours but more towards add/asperger.we found a program called Dore in Dallas which has really helped our son.Dore has programs right across the US...They have a web site its worth a look.l

How old is your son???

I did NOT want to medicate my son when he was little because his speech was not good and he could not tell me how the meds were making him feel.

Then when he started kindergarten we put him on meds and I have never looked back. The meds help make our lives much more manageable.

I wish it wasn't necessary. We even did a diet called Feingold and it was rigorous but we did it until about a year ago when Kris through the diet out the window and refused to abide by it.

I canNOT control everything he does these days so we no longer use the diet. But, we definitely do use the meds which help him to settle down and learn during the day and help him to sleep during the night. And, whew, that helps me to sleep, too.

: ) hugs,

gaylek11

Just to add my wee opinion Max started on Concerta low dose around 3 weeks ago and now asks for his "tablet" every morning. I asked him if it made him feel better and he said " yeeeeessssssss" I was VERY reluctant to medicate but guess Max knows it helps him stay calm and it's his choice to take it.