Janna
New Member
I'll jump in with MidwestMom on the Autism end. I, too, have an Autistic child that was once diagnosis'ed Bipolar Disorder (still carrying Mood Disorder-not otherwise specified).
I will tell you a story from my own personal experience. When my son, Dylan, was 9 (he is 12 now) he was diagnosed Bipolar Disorder-not otherwise specified. Put on Bipolar medications and did well for, ohh, about 8 or 9 months on the drugs. The psychiatrist (Board Certified M.D. psychiatrist of 20+ years) says to me he's Bipolar. During the course of this 9 months with this psychiatrist, I take Dylan to a neuropsychologist, with expertise in Autism studies, 20+ years experience here, too. He does all the Autism testing, spends a ton of time with my son, and meets with us when he's done. He says to me, "I don't know what to tell you about the Bipolar, I don't see any of that, but your son is Autistic and should be given Autism interventions" and gave us a boatload of Autism recommendations. I take this neuropsychologists 14 page report to our psychiatrist and you know what he says to me? "He's crazy, there's no Autism, your son is Bipolar".
Who do you believe? They've both been doing this their entire career. One sees one thing, one sees another.
The thing I've learned about doctors is, they make their best educated guess. They all work from the same book, they all take the same information from the parents, but until they are living in your house, listening to your child, seeing how you deal with your child, and being WITH the child (for more than a 15 min medication check) they don't REALLY know.
Have you looked into any types of interventions? In home therapy, maybe. Behavior modification (maybe reading Ross Greene's book, trying charts, things of that nature). What kinds of things trigger your child? What interventions are currently in place? Are they working? Things could be happening at the sitter that may seem so silly or stupid to the sitter, or to you, that could be HUGE issues with your child that you may not even realize. My son, he cannot handle little kids. I had to quit my job to stay home so he didn't have to interact with them. It's just one of those things that, he could be playing on the floor with something and a 4 year old could walk up and grab it from him and it would set him off into so much anger! And, if the babysitter is busy, didn't see it, and he's screaming - she's concentrating on the screaming, not the incidents that led up to it. Just looked like he was being a pain in the you-know-what and a big brat, when that just wasn't the case. And, that's hard to decipher when you aren't there.
I don't have advice on the medications. I wish I did. My kid's been on them all. Every mood stabilizer, every antipsychotic and every stimulant. Antidepressants, too. Were any of them really beneficial? A couple, for a little while. In the end, I wish I was more cautious. Does he need something? Yes. Did he need to try over 30 of them? No. Just be aware and educated. Make sure you get online, read all the side effects, consider your options. Most of the drug manufacturers have their prescribing info right online for you in Adobe format, so you can educate yourself before you take that step. And, every single child is different. My son had hallucinations with Rispderal. My very good friend has her son on it, been on it for 3 years, with excellent results. Just an example.
Good luck with the diet. I've heard it helps alot of kids. We didn't have the guts to do that here LOL!
I will tell you a story from my own personal experience. When my son, Dylan, was 9 (he is 12 now) he was diagnosed Bipolar Disorder-not otherwise specified. Put on Bipolar medications and did well for, ohh, about 8 or 9 months on the drugs. The psychiatrist (Board Certified M.D. psychiatrist of 20+ years) says to me he's Bipolar. During the course of this 9 months with this psychiatrist, I take Dylan to a neuropsychologist, with expertise in Autism studies, 20+ years experience here, too. He does all the Autism testing, spends a ton of time with my son, and meets with us when he's done. He says to me, "I don't know what to tell you about the Bipolar, I don't see any of that, but your son is Autistic and should be given Autism interventions" and gave us a boatload of Autism recommendations. I take this neuropsychologists 14 page report to our psychiatrist and you know what he says to me? "He's crazy, there's no Autism, your son is Bipolar".
Who do you believe? They've both been doing this their entire career. One sees one thing, one sees another.
The thing I've learned about doctors is, they make their best educated guess. They all work from the same book, they all take the same information from the parents, but until they are living in your house, listening to your child, seeing how you deal with your child, and being WITH the child (for more than a 15 min medication check) they don't REALLY know.
Have you looked into any types of interventions? In home therapy, maybe. Behavior modification (maybe reading Ross Greene's book, trying charts, things of that nature). What kinds of things trigger your child? What interventions are currently in place? Are they working? Things could be happening at the sitter that may seem so silly or stupid to the sitter, or to you, that could be HUGE issues with your child that you may not even realize. My son, he cannot handle little kids. I had to quit my job to stay home so he didn't have to interact with them. It's just one of those things that, he could be playing on the floor with something and a 4 year old could walk up and grab it from him and it would set him off into so much anger! And, if the babysitter is busy, didn't see it, and he's screaming - she's concentrating on the screaming, not the incidents that led up to it. Just looked like he was being a pain in the you-know-what and a big brat, when that just wasn't the case. And, that's hard to decipher when you aren't there.
I don't have advice on the medications. I wish I did. My kid's been on them all. Every mood stabilizer, every antipsychotic and every stimulant. Antidepressants, too. Were any of them really beneficial? A couple, for a little while. In the end, I wish I was more cautious. Does he need something? Yes. Did he need to try over 30 of them? No. Just be aware and educated. Make sure you get online, read all the side effects, consider your options. Most of the drug manufacturers have their prescribing info right online for you in Adobe format, so you can educate yourself before you take that step. And, every single child is different. My son had hallucinations with Rispderal. My very good friend has her son on it, been on it for 3 years, with excellent results. Just an example.
Good luck with the diet. I've heard it helps alot of kids. We didn't have the guts to do that here LOL!
