
Autism / Autism Spectrum Support Group
Autism is classified as a neurodevelopmental disorder which manifests itself in markedly abnormal social interaction, communication ability, patterns of interests, and patterns of behavior. Although the specific etiology of autism is unknown, many researchers suspect that autism results from genetically mediated vulnerabilities to environmental triggers.
tell me about your exper. with meds.

deleted_user
AS many of you may know, I am very hesitant where drugs, and medical intervention is involved. I hesitate to even take an aspirin or advil for a headache or cramps etc. However, for the last 2 days, my son has been ill from a stomach bug and his whole body/mind speed has slowed down to such a rate that you hardly would notice the ASD. His words and behaviour is unbelievable, really calm, relaxed natural, and verbal.
NOw from this I can see why parents might choose to medicate their children to slow them down enough to see the "typical" in their child and to help them concentrate. I'm still really hesitant to medicate and my son is very crafty, he knows when I'm trying to sneak something by him. The Nordic Naturals stawberry omega 3 went over like a lead baloon. He just smelled it, and smirked, like "what do you think your trying to pull?"
And I tried yesterday to give him childrens advil drops to lower his mild fever and he wouldn't take it. It was grape flavour and I put into his grape juice box and he looked at me like," yeah, I can guess, what you're up to"
Please share with me the good, the bad and the ugly with regard to your experience with your kids meds. Help me decide if this may or may not be the right decision.
NOw from this I can see why parents might choose to medicate their children to slow them down enough to see the "typical" in their child and to help them concentrate. I'm still really hesitant to medicate and my son is very crafty, he knows when I'm trying to sneak something by him. The Nordic Naturals stawberry omega 3 went over like a lead baloon. He just smelled it, and smirked, like "what do you think your trying to pull?"
And I tried yesterday to give him childrens advil drops to lower his mild fever and he wouldn't take it. It was grape flavour and I put into his grape juice box and he looked at me like," yeah, I can guess, what you're up to"
Please share with me the good, the bad and the ugly with regard to your experience with your kids meds. Help me decide if this may or may not be the right decision.
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He learned in about a week and it worked like a charm.
he still hates anything liquid but readily takes his medication which he HAS TO take due to his Bipolar, there is no choice.
As for your experience I have a close friend whose son has Autism (due to an autoimmune reaction to his MMR Vaccine) and EVERY TIME he gets sick, which isn't often he always acts much more "normal." This has to due with his immune system functioning in a more normal way.
It is SO INTERESTING that our kids have these weird reactions to being ill and I think it is all connected to why they have autism to begin with
Steven was also so hyped he could not sit at school to learn, so we also tried risperdol and it worked very well. I did not like giving it to him either, it took me along time and being very tired out to accept well this is no way for him to live always bouncing around.
Its hard it still is every nite when i give him his Geodon, but HE is so much happier and calm.
He takes his pills straight up.
I just tell him what it is, he takes it usally chews them and i offer water.
when i tried to hide them... thats when he wouldnt take them. But I have to hide antibiotics, he will NOT do childrens flavored ones.
so I break it up and last week it worked with pudding.
One little piece at a time.
He likes the orange motrin or berry tylenol slow melt.
He does take him strawberry omega like a man I give him V8 to wash it down with .
Good luck on your choices.
adam without methylin (liquid rittalin) is easily agitated, not just a little, a lot! you can say his name and he will lose control. its like you are interupting him in his own world, his comfort zone, which is ok, but he cant live in that world all the time. it is a balancing act, he wants to learn and play and do things so it is a compromise, he knows he needs to focus to do things so that helps.
adam without the risperdal was psychotic, he saw people and things that were not there that frightened him to the point that he would become violent towards anyone in his way. scream, kick, cry, throw things, for hours on end, this happened everyday, almost all day, even in school. the risperdal put that to a complete halt. adam has not had a meltdown or tantrum since he started risperdal. not a single one. he has 6 yr old "i want what i want when i want it" fits, we will take that :)
he talks now, he plays now, he plays with more toys now, he is reasonable most of the time now. he is learning alot more now that he is not so out of focus. he is social now. the methylin is fast acting, we give it to him 1 tsp in the morning, 1 tsp at lunch (can give it to him late afternoon but very rarely do, only if he is in an unfamiliar situation that he shows sure signs of distress) it also killed his appetite. the risperdal, he gets 10 drops every night at bedtime and 16 drops every morning, at first he had only one side effect, constipation, but that is now gone. can not be sure it was the risperdal because another side effect is increased appetite, which in adams case is great because he never ate, underweight, now eats great, i am leaning towards the constipation possibly being a combination of the risperdal AND his body adjusting to having more solid food, something it rarely got for many yrs. anothing thing i have been told is risperdal will help him sleep at night, but, adam has never had sleep issues so that did not factor in the decision to give it to him. you know your child, you know what is best for him. if you think meds may help you give it to him, if you think it will not help then you dont, it is something you must look at the pros and cons and do what is right for your child. maybe talk to dr, see what they think. you can always just try it, and if you son does not react well to meds, then stop them. getting him to take them may not be too hard. what i did at first was have a cup of adams favorite drink right with him at med time, he took his med and got a drink. might have to bribe at first with favorite snack, whatever works! i know this is a really long reply but you asked for the details :) one more thing, adams dr made all the possible side effects very clear to me and then made it clear to me that he had never seen any of the really bad ones happen to any child in the 33 yrs he has taken care of kids with autism. ask lots of questions about any med. it took the risperdal about 10 days to really make a difference, oh and if you do give meds, make sure you let his teacher know so they can give you input on how he does at school. i am not trying to talk you into meds, just trying to give you all the info i personally know. good luck and hope he feels better soon!
I can tell you that I fought medicating my son for quite awhile, especially when he was non-verbal.
We did Feingold, GF, etc. but when Kristopher turned 11 or so he stopped complying and these diets only work if they are 100% compliant.
So, we started more and more experimenting with medications.
For Kristopher, his developmental m.d. gives him one new med and usually takes him off of one old med. This way we don't have him on too many things at once.
He's always had alot of luck for ADHD with the dexadrine spansules. However, recently she switched him to a new med called Vyvanse that seems to be working well. He also takes Lamitcal and Geodon to help with obsessive compulsive behaviors and melt downs. The Geodon helps him to sleep so we moved that medication to nighttime. We have done pretty well. Even when he was being bullied he didn't totally melt down. That is a great thing.
We have Kris on Omega 3s, multi-vits, and magnesium citrate (for constipation) and he has done pretty well lately.
Yesterday he was a mess. It was my SIL's birthday so we took him out to eat. Kris was almost obnoxious. I just could NOT figure out what the problem was with him.
When we got home and it was time for night meds I found his morning meds still in the container.
Sometimes my mornings get so hectic. Kris is NOT a morning person and he is grumpy and he puts off and fights having to take his medication just because he's grumpy (he also fights eating breakfast, getting dressed, etc. so it's not about being against the meds or anything).
Yesterday morning I had to go to the dentist early so I had to get up and get myself ready, too. So, I just thought he'd already taken those darn pills. He hadn't. I put them in individual containers with his daily meds in each container. So, I realized late last night, "Aw, this is why Kris was so obnoxious tonight."
It makes me appreciate the medication every single day.
Without it Kristopher canNOT function. His life is much better with meds than without them.
hugs,
gaylek11
My partner has Borderline Personality Disorder and takes Risperdal for her anxiety and it's made a big difference.
I know a lot of parents at our school don't want to medicate and I myself only suggest it as a possibility as a last resort, but it does have an effect for the better on the children, so sometimes it's a necessary evil.
These children have enough problems coping and understanding our world. So if there is something we can do to help them with that, we need to do it.
We have some of our kids that are reluctant to take medication and it's just a matter of trial and error until you find a way to get him to take it.
Try giving him just water from a syringe or his favourite juice from a syringe etc. don't know what you've already tried.
Good luck in whatever decision you take.
You are a good mom and never forget it. You take all the time you need. You will do what is right for your child. We all have to be cautious about what we do or don't do because our children are counting on us to make the right decisions.
hugs,
gaylek11