Comments on: Is Medication Use in Autistic Children Increasing? http://www.blisstree.com/articles/is-medication-use-in-autistic-children-increasing/ Family, Health, Home and Lifestyles Sun, 06 Dec 2009 23:34:16 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: kathy http://www.blisstree.com/articles/is-medication-use-in-autistic-children-increasing/comment-page-1/#comment-563776 kathy Fri, 27 Feb 2009 19:51:10 +0000 http://www.autismvox.com/is-medication-use-in-autistic-children-increasing/#comment-563776 does anyone know of a vitamin for a child with autism? my son won't chew gummis, flinstones or any other kind. the adult ones are to toxic. he is 5 years old. he has not been diagnosed yet. we see someone on march 18th. i suspect this is what ails him. he has been taking adderal for about 2 months. he does not eat. and has lost weight and does not sleep. i try to only give it to him every other day. so he can get some nutrition in between doses. plesa help if anyone can. it will be so appreciated. thank you, kathy does anyone know of a vitamin for a child with autism? my son won’t chew gummis, flinstones or any other kind. the adult ones are to toxic. he is 5 years old. he has not been diagnosed yet. we see someone on march 18th. i suspect this is what ails him. he has been taking adderal for about 2 months. he does not eat. and has lost weight and does not sleep. i try to only give it to him every other day. so he can get some nutrition in between doses. plesa help if anyone can. it will be so appreciated. thank you, kathy

]]> By: Melody http://www.blisstree.com/articles/is-medication-use-in-autistic-children-increasing/comment-page-1/#comment-563338 Melody Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:22:22 +0000 http://www.autismvox.com/is-medication-use-in-autistic-children-increasing/#comment-563338 My son is 2 1/2 and diagnosed with ASD and started receiving treatment over a year ago. He is a very sweet loving boy but has the social and communication delays. Our big problem right now is his lack of sleep. He will stay up some nights until 6am and he might sleep 6 hours then wake or 30 minutes then wake for the rest of the day. After trying Melatonin with no luck, I finally made an appointment to see his doctor to get a prescription to help him sleep. I was relieved that he gave him a prescription and an extremely small dose to start him on. When I got home with the prescription I realized it was not a sleep aid, but was an antidepressant. He prescribed 12.5 mg at night, 30mins before bedtime. I read the side effects of the trazadone and was quite concerned. One is priapism which occurs in 33% of males taking it and could cause ED later. The other is that it can cause increase thoughts of suicide in teens. My son is only 2 1/2 but the doctor said that he may require this to sleep for a long time, possibly permanently because his body will rely on the medication to put him to sleep. I don't want to have to worry about him 10 years from now having suicidal thoughts. It's after 1am and he's still going strong and I'm really confused about what to do. I've read about Clonidine being prescribed for sleep disorders and would like some opinions or maybe more trustworthy info about sleep medications than what I can google. I am pregnant and would like to have my son on a normal sleep schedule before the baby is born or I feel that I will end up having a nervous breakdown from lack of sleep. I can barely function as it is. Thanks in advance for any information or advice. My son is 2 1/2 and diagnosed with ASD and started receiving treatment over a year ago. He is a very sweet loving boy but has the social and communication delays. Our big problem right now is his lack of sleep. He will stay up some nights until 6am and he might sleep 6 hours then wake or 30 minutes then wake for the rest of the day. After trying Melatonin with no luck, I finally made an appointment to see his doctor to get a prescription to help him sleep. I was relieved that he gave him a prescription and an extremely small dose to start him on. When I got home with the prescription I realized it was not a sleep aid, but was an antidepressant. He prescribed 12.5 mg at night, 30mins before bedtime. I read the side effects of the trazadone and was quite concerned. One is priapism which occurs in 33% of males taking it and could cause ED later. The other is that it can cause increase thoughts of suicide in teens. My son is only 2 1/2 but the doctor said that he may require this to sleep for a long time, possibly permanently because his body will rely on the medication to put him to sleep. I don’t want to have to worry about him 10 years from now having suicidal thoughts. It’s after 1am and he’s still going strong and I’m really confused about what to do. I’ve read about Clonidine being prescribed for sleep disorders and would like some opinions or maybe more trustworthy info about sleep medications than what I can google. I am pregnant and would like to have my son on a normal sleep schedule before the baby is born or I feel that I will end up having a nervous breakdown from lack of sleep. I can barely function as it is. Thanks in advance for any information or advice.

]]> By: Norah http://www.blisstree.com/articles/is-medication-use-in-autistic-children-increasing/comment-page-1/#comment-561698 Norah Thu, 06 Nov 2008 02:01:26 +0000 http://www.autismvox.com/is-medication-use-in-autistic-children-increasing/#comment-561698 When I get very upset over things like my food or TV, and such, that means my stress levels were already very high. In a stable situation, when things are going smoothly, I will be able to deal with my food not being exactly right, or not being able to watch a TV show that I had planned on watching. But when things are stressful (like, is she going to a school, or something like that, regularly? I'd also check if things are going well at wherever she goes, if she goes anywhere), like when I have to go to an office every day to work, I get upset very frequently and very loudly (and physically, but not to other people) over the smallest things. And then it seems to just come out of nowhere, triggered by small things, but really there's something big going on underneath. I can also get upset when I cannot communicate something that I feel a great need to communicate, but that should be pretty easy to spot. There can be so many reasons for people to react in so many ways, it can be hard to figure out. Anger, frustration, fear, overload (sensory or stress), physical pain? Something bad happened somewhere? But if you approach it sort of like a puzzle, like you're a detective, there's a good chance you will find out. There should be ways of sort of testing or following the clues. My little brother (also diagnosed and an adult by now) had a speech delay, and it took a long time for anyone to figure out that he had chronic ear infections. Also that he wasn't seeing very well. But my parents did figure it out eventually (not as fast as they'd like, but fast enough, mostly before he was 4 or 5). There are also lots of other adult autistic people out there blogging and such about why they react the way they do, and why they reacted the way they did back when they were little. That might help. When I get very upset over things like my food or TV, and such, that means my stress levels were already very high. In a stable situation, when things are going smoothly, I will be able to deal with my food not being exactly right, or not being able to watch a TV show that I had planned on watching. But when things are stressful (like, is she going to a school, or something like that, regularly? I’d also check if things are going well at wherever she goes, if she goes anywhere), like when I have to go to an office every day to work, I get upset very frequently and very loudly (and physically, but not to other people) over the smallest things.

And then it seems to just come out of nowhere, triggered by small things, but really there’s something big going on underneath.

I can also get upset when I cannot communicate something that I feel a great need to communicate, but that should be pretty easy to spot.

There can be so many reasons for people to react in so many ways, it can be hard to figure out. Anger, frustration, fear, overload (sensory or stress), physical pain? Something bad happened somewhere? But if you approach it sort of like a puzzle, like you’re a detective, there’s a good chance you will find out. There should be ways of sort of testing or following the clues.

My little brother (also diagnosed and an adult by now) had a speech delay, and it took a long time for anyone to figure out that he had chronic ear infections. Also that he wasn’t seeing very well. But my parents did figure it out eventually (not as fast as they’d like, but fast enough, mostly before he was 4 or 5).

There are also lots of other adult autistic people out there blogging and such about why they react the way they do, and why they reacted the way they did back when they were little. That might help.

]]> By: Jackie http://www.blisstree.com/articles/is-medication-use-in-autistic-children-increasing/comment-page-1/#comment-558425 Jackie Wed, 05 Nov 2008 06:40:09 +0000 http://www.autismvox.com/is-medication-use-in-autistic-children-increasing/#comment-558425 Hi Norah and Kristina, wow is it amazing to have adults to talk to, lol. Norah, your input is really great, I wish I could telll you what I think might triger her outbursts, but I haven't gotten that down yet. She gets upset during the most simple things (to me). And most of it revolves around either; A. her favorite TV show ending, and I am not starting it over fast enough (for the 200th time in a day) B. her brother is making noises, baby talk OR C. she is scolded for doing something she is not allowed to do. Mostly she has a few things she does over and over. Like taking the dry dog food out of the bowl piece by piece and putting it into the water dish, throwing anything, like her diapers all over the room, or tapping the lamp to make it hit the wall over and over. SO I guess if you can see anything in that behavior that may explain her anger or outbursts, I more than welcome the input. Kristina, Lily was on early intervention with a local org that helps children with delays, but none were trained for children with autism. Then we went onto a waiting list for another program, and we have gone through the evaluation, but the therapy hasn't started yet. We also went to the Olsen Huff center in NC, they just told us what we already know. So I guess to answer you, she really is having nothing right this moment. One of the speech therapists started sign with her, she picked up "more", but I am unsure if it is understod because she does the sign for everything and anything. Lily will bring me her bottle when thirsty, or the pack of oreos when she is hungry. She communicates her show is ending by bringing me the tv changer. But that is about it. I really don;t know what to do next. I thought of medication the other day because she is getting so violent with her brother, at times me, she mostly ignored the therapists. Sorry I wrote a book, lol. Thanks again for listening and input. There are really Angels out there. :) Hi Norah and Kristina, wow is it amazing to have adults to talk to, lol. Norah, your input is really great, I wish I could telll you what I think might triger her outbursts, but I haven’t gotten that down yet. She gets upset during the most simple things (to me). And most of it revolves around either; A. her favorite TV show ending, and I am not starting it over fast enough (for the 200th time in a day) B. her brother is making noises, baby talk OR C. she is scolded for doing something she is not allowed to do. Mostly she has a few things she does over and over. Like taking the dry dog food out of the bowl piece by piece and putting it into the water dish, throwing anything, like her diapers all over the room, or tapping the lamp to make it hit the wall over and over. SO I guess if you can see anything in that behavior that may explain her anger or outbursts, I more than welcome the input.
Kristina, Lily was on early intervention with a local org that helps children with delays, but none were trained for children with autism. Then we went onto a waiting list for another program, and we have gone through the evaluation, but the therapy hasn’t started yet. We also went to the Olsen Huff center in NC, they just told us what we already know. So I guess to answer you, she really is having nothing right this moment. One of the speech therapists started sign with her, she picked up “more”, but I am unsure if it is understod because she does the sign for everything and anything. Lily will bring me her bottle when thirsty, or the pack of oreos when she is hungry. She communicates her show is ending by bringing me the tv changer. But that is about it. I really don;t know what to do next. I thought of medication the other day because she is getting so violent with her brother, at times me, she mostly ignored the therapists. Sorry I wrote a book, lol. Thanks again for listening and input. There are really Angels out there. :)

]]> By: Kristina Chew, PhD http://www.blisstree.com/articles/is-medication-use-in-autistic-children-increasing/comment-page-1/#comment-563544 Kristina Chew, PhD Tue, 04 Nov 2008 20:10:55 +0000 http://www.autismvox.com/is-medication-use-in-autistic-children-increasing/#comment-563544 @Jackie, That's a lot plus----and then some---what kind of therapy is she receiving, Early Intervention? Does she show aggression with the therapists or you? What efforts are being made to teach her to communicate? We started my son in an Applied Behavior Analysis program when he was just over 2 years old and have, ever after, been in contact with some kind of behaviorist, or psychologist, and have been able to address these behaviors. Difficulties in communicating have often been one reason for my son's frustrations and behaviors----is there any mention of PECS or sign language for your daughter? Hang in, really, days can be really really long but there is a light. @Jackie,
That’s a lot plus—-and then some—what kind of therapy is she receiving, Early Intervention? Does she show aggression with the therapists or you? What efforts are being made to teach her to communicate?

We started my son in an Applied Behavior Analysis program when he was just over 2 years old and have, ever after, been in contact with some kind of behaviorist, or psychologist, and have been able to address these behaviors. Difficulties in communicating have often been one reason for my son’s frustrations and behaviors—-is there any mention of PECS or sign language for your daughter?

Hang in, really, days can be really really long but there is a light.

]]> By: Robin H. Morris http://www.blisstree.com/articles/is-medication-use-in-autistic-children-increasing/comment-page-1/#comment-564192 Robin H. Morris Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:30:58 +0000 http://www.autismvox.com/is-medication-use-in-autistic-children-increasing/#comment-564192 Given that my son is 21, I dallied with the prospect of medication for years, as previously shared here. Initially the search for something to help with obsessive behavior was a bust. I wrote about it. http://www.revolutionhealth.com/blogs/resilientmom/obsessive-compulsions-4764 A few years later, we had to try something, and it was a slippery slope. http://www.revolutionhealth.com/blogs/resilientmom/suicide-death-of-burt-5829 Now, Abilify seems to be the drug of choice for us, but I sometimes want to wean him from it to see if there is a difference. Hope this helps. xRobin Given that my son is 21, I dallied with the prospect of medication for years, as previously shared here. Initially the search for something to help with obsessive behavior was a bust. I wrote about it.
http://www.revolutionhealth.com/blogs/resilientmom/obsessive-compulsions-4764
A few years later, we had to try something, and it was a slippery slope.
http://www.revolutionhealth.com/blogs/resilientmom/suicide-death-of-burt-5829
Now, Abilify seems to be the drug of choice for us, but I sometimes want to wean him from it to see if there is a difference.
Hope this helps.
xRobin

]]> By: Norah http://www.blisstree.com/articles/is-medication-use-in-autistic-children-increasing/comment-page-1/#comment-564166 Norah Tue, 04 Nov 2008 10:31:25 +0000 http://www.autismvox.com/is-medication-use-in-autistic-children-increasing/#comment-564166 This sounds a lot like me when something is draining me so much, that I don't have any functioning left NOT to fly off the walls (meltdown) when something little goes wrong (or not as planned). Though I don't hurt other people now, I probably would have when I was younger. I don't know if there is something that is extremely stressful for her going on right now, or something bad in any other way? Or even something good that might just be too much to handle. For example: I had a new job for the past few months, that I liked, but it took every single bit of me that I had to give, so at home I was a disaster. When that ended, everything slowly turned back to a lot more pleasant. Of course, she might not be anything like me and there might be something different going on, but at least it might be an area to explore if you haven't already? This sounds a lot like me when something is draining me so much, that I don’t have any functioning left NOT to fly off the walls (meltdown) when something little goes wrong (or not as planned). Though I don’t hurt other people now, I probably would have when I was younger.

I don’t know if there is something that is extremely stressful for her going on right now, or something bad in any other way? Or even something good that might just be too much to handle. For example: I had a new job for the past few months, that I liked, but it took every single bit of me that I had to give, so at home I was a disaster. When that ended, everything slowly turned back to a lot more pleasant.

Of course, she might not be anything like me and there might be something different going on, but at least it might be an area to explore if you haven’t already?

]]> By: Jackie http://www.blisstree.com/articles/is-medication-use-in-autistic-children-increasing/comment-page-1/#comment-559595 Jackie Tue, 04 Nov 2008 07:15:49 +0000 http://www.autismvox.com/is-medication-use-in-autistic-children-increasing/#comment-559595 Thanks Kristina, I appreciate the response. Lily (daughter) isn't getting much help. She has therapy twice a week, but she doesn't pay attention long enough to benifit from it. She is hurting him and herself when she is upset that something isn't being done she wants done; TV changed, certain food given, or something I can't even figure out. My son shows no signs of autism as of yet, and he tries so hard to go to her during her episodes, he wants to help, which in turn makes her lash out on him. I fear for his safety, I am a stay at home mom, but I can't possibly watch her every second. It is scary. It is so hard with her, I am just trying to go day by day, but it seems to be getting worse. Medication is an option, but not if it can hurt her. I just want everyone to be okay... never going to happen is it? Thanks Kristina, I appreciate the response. Lily (daughter) isn’t getting much help. She has therapy twice a week, but she doesn’t pay attention long enough to benifit from it. She is hurting him and herself when she is upset that something isn’t being done she wants done; TV changed, certain food given, or something I can’t even figure out. My son shows no signs of autism as of yet, and he tries so hard to go to her during her episodes, he wants to help, which in turn makes her lash out on him. I fear for his safety, I am a stay at home mom, but I can’t possibly watch her every second. It is scary. It is so hard with her, I am just trying to go day by day, but it seems to be getting worse. Medication is an option, but not if it can hurt her. I just want everyone to be okay… never going to happen is it?

]]> By: Kristina Chew, PhD http://www.blisstree.com/articles/is-medication-use-in-autistic-children-increasing/comment-page-1/#comment-563480 Kristina Chew, PhD Tue, 04 Nov 2008 06:36:54 +0000 http://www.autismvox.com/is-medication-use-in-autistic-children-increasing/#comment-563480 @Jackie, Hang in----what kind of educational or other therapies is your daughter doing? Is she seeking attention, as far as the behaviors towards her brother? Medication an individual choice of course----my son seemed so young when he started it, and he was a few years older than your daughter. What have others suggested you do? You can also email me at autismvox [at] gmail [dot] com------ @Jackie,
Hang in—-what kind of educational or other therapies is your daughter doing? Is she seeking attention, as far as the behaviors towards her brother? Medication an individual choice of course—-my son seemed so young when he started it, and he was a few years older than your daughter. What have others suggested you do? You can also email me at autismvox [at] gmail [dot] com——

]]> By: Jackie http://www.blisstree.com/articles/is-medication-use-in-autistic-children-increasing/comment-page-1/#comment-559590 Jackie Tue, 04 Nov 2008 06:15:12 +0000 http://www.autismvox.com/is-medication-use-in-autistic-children-increasing/#comment-559590 Hi, ANY input or opinion is greatly appreciated. My daughter is 2 1/2 she is autistic and I have a 9 month old son. She has always has her outbursts, but now they are getting violent towards her brother. She has tried to bite the top of his head and I have seen her try to force her thumbs into his eyes. She kicks and hits items to hurt herself and pulls out her hair. She has no communication at all. I want to ask for help, medication. What should I do, please help. Hi, ANY input or opinion is greatly appreciated. My daughter is 2 1/2 she is autistic and I have a 9 month old son. She has always has her outbursts, but now they are getting violent towards her brother. She has tried to bite the top of his head and I have seen her try to force her thumbs into his eyes. She kicks and hits items to hurt herself and pulls out her hair. She has no communication at all. I want to ask for help, medication. What should I do, please help.

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