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Questions......

Danielle65721

New Member
I posted this as my intro but thought I may get more responses if I posted here also! :)))

Hi! I am the momma of a wonderful Asperger (high functioning) son who is 8 years old. He was diagnosed when he was 4 and we tried Guanfacine to help his rages/tantrums. It did not work (actually made it worse). The doctor decided to try Risperidone (after my son was hurting himself) which is what he was on from 2011 - this past summer. He had only 1 increase to 1mg several years ago so his doctor thought maybe we should wean him from it to see if it was actually doing anything. For a month everything was GREAT! Same ol same ol. Then he started having issues in school. We have escalated to a couple of tantrums/rages a week at school and maybe several a week at home. He cant seem to hold still and has issues concentrating. His anxiety is SEVERE. He is fully aware of his surroundings and seems embarrassed after he has a tantrum. Now he is wetting himself. He was potty trained by the time he was 5. He was a bit behind with that.


My question is - how many kids diagnosed with autism have rages/tantrums around 8 years old? Is this something that many kiddos have issues with? Ive been researching the web and it seems to be an issue but I just dont know if I want to believe everything I read!

Also, the doctor we have does not want him to go back on Risperidone due to the side effects, but would like to try 10mg Prozac. Does anyone have any experience with this??

Thank you all!! I appreciate any thoughts and info!!! Dani
 
Hi Dani,
Um I had a lot of those issues around that age. Tantrums or meltdowns are very common with younger kids. I still struggle with meltdowns and issues related to that. Medication can help, but be careful with dosage. Sometimes negative effects can happen if the dosage is too high. Every person is different, so just be extra alert to things. As far as your son goes, I would try to make sure that you love him for who he is and not for who he is not. Don't try to fix too much because you may confuse him if you overload him. Meltdowns can be caused by overstimulation, so watch out for that. If you have further questions, you can ask. We can probably answer you. In my experience with Neurotypicals (NTs), those without autism, is that they like to change too much about their child and their child has even more problems. Just keep in mind that he is part of the community and should be supported in his life. Don't worry too much about tantrums. Sometimes they do get better as they mature. I know I did that. I am now 20 years old and help parents on a regular basis connect with their child. I also have Asperger Syndrome, so feel free to private message me if you need more info on what I am talking about. Sometimes I lose people because they don't understand. I don't want to confuse you, so if I have please PM me and let me know. Hope this helped a little.
 
Hi Dani,
Um I had a lot of those issues around that age. Tantrums or meltdowns are very common with younger kids. I still struggle with meltdowns and issues related to that. Medication can help, but be careful with dosage. Sometimes negative effects can happen if the dosage is too high. Every person is different, so just be extra alert to things. As far as your son goes, I would try to make sure that you love him for who he is and not for who he is not. Don't try to fix too much because you may confuse him if you overload him. Meltdowns can be caused by overstimulation, so watch out for that. If you have further questions, you can ask. We can probably answer you. In my experience with Neurotypicals (NTs), those without autism, is that they like to change too much about their child and their child has even more problems. Just keep in mind that he is part of the community and should be supported in his life. Don't worry too much about tantrums. Sometimes they do get better as they mature. I know I did that. I am now 20 years old and help parents on a regular basis connect with their child. I also have Asperger Syndrome, so feel free to private message me if you need more info on what I am talking about. Sometimes I lose people because they don't understand. I don't want to confuse you, so if I have please PM me and let me know. Hope this helped a little.

Hi! Thank you for the reply. I completely agree with you about loving him and just going with the flow. Basically tho my questions was to ask if tantrums are something that a majority of the autistic kiddos go through (for varies reasons) as I have read they go hand and hand but really wanted to gauge how accurate that was. If there were 100 people that replied to my post and only 10 of those people said that tantrums still happen around this age, but the rest of the people said that they didnt have issues with tantrums I would then be able to see where my kiddo may be at and maybe we had something ELSE going on. Before medication he had meltdowns several times a day EVERY day. When medication was taken he rarely had any. He was very mellow, anxiety was decreased, etc. He has now been off medication since last August and he is having more and more meltdowns as the months pass. My only hope is to have this wonderful little boy be HAPPY and educated to the best of his ability. I, as his mom only want to research and find out more info about him and his needs. If his anxiety could be lessened, more concentration, less rocking, and tantrums could be cut down to a minimum by taking medications - Id definitely do my part and get him on the best medication I could for HIM. I am a nurse, and as I would do for any of my patients - I would research everything I could. Which is what I was hoping to do to learn more about Prozac and its pros and cons when dealing with Autism.

Both of these I am still in search of answers so Id love to hear from anyone with a background in them! :)
 
is there a pattern to his outbursts? Do they generally happen after something that is either a sensory issue for him happens or, after a day of stimuli that might be overloading him?

I ask because it really sounds like meltdowns and, that is not a tantrum. it looks like one but, it's not because we are angry or didn't get our way or anything like that. it's because we are overloaded, we've received more input and stimuli than our brains can process and that is the result, it's really a means of venting and burning of all of that anxious energy our brains have managed to store up.

As we get older, we learn ways to minimize meltdowns and, learn to know when we need a break, need to stop as much stimuli and input as we possibly can for a while before we have a meltdown. Still happens to us, even as adults but, not nearly so often.

If it's meltdowns, maybe you can find the pattern and work with your son and his doctors, find a way to give him more down time, time alone and quiet in a familiar environment that is free of TV's, Stereos and, talking people before he has a meltdown. He may even be able to learn to tell you when he's had enough and, begin learning to manage meltdowns a bit.

Talk to his doctors and see if that might be what's going on.
 
hi i am just be nice thare is a company called vibranz and one of the thing it sells a thing called love you put some on your forehead and in about a minute or so you feel 100% better i hope it helps i wish you the best day ever
 

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