Advice on medication for 7 year old

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My 7 year old daughter is pending an appointment regarding assessment, she exhibits a huge amount of autistic traits and the most likely diagnosis would be Asperger's or possibly HFA. She had some loss of "speech" and went through a period of only saying 'mmm' in answer to everything, but she was very small and I don't think it would be significant enough to be diagnosed autistic.

I am at my wits end with her behaviour, she has so many meltdowns caused by sensory issues and other things, obsessive questioning, phobias, breaking down everything you say obsessively and saying you shouldn't have said it like that etc. and many other things. She's highly intelligent but just can't seem to wind down mentally. She can concentrate for long periods and isn't all over the place, so I doubt it's ADHD.

I know that there will be a waiting list for her to be seen and to be assessed, this is the NHS after all. I am at the point of taking her to the GP to ask for medication that will calm her down while we wait.

I am very scared of her having medication, she's only young and I worry about the effects and side-effects, but I don't know what else to do.

What experiences have you had for a similarly aged child and what medication worked for this type of behaviour?

Thanks.

Hi, I can't comment on medication, as I've never gone down that route, except for a mild herbal supplement (advertised as the natural alternative to ritalin) and a multi-vitamin.

Anyway, I'm in the UK too. The wait is long, but my daughter has been through the assessment process a whole year quicker than we were told it would be. The speech & language team here have been working a lot of over-time to get through the backlog. They do the bulk of the assessment work, so that has been a great help. Hopefully the same will happen for you. In my experience, GPs are reluctant to intervene in any way. I've been to two different GPs. One to ask for an initial referral (which didn't happen and I had to ask at the school instead) and once to ask for support with her poor eating (and got no support at all, not even a blood test to check she wasn't malnourished). I doubt very much that they would have prescribed anything for anxiety or sleep disturbance or anything else related to Aspergers.

My daughter now has a diagnosis of Aspergers. I'd just like to say that you daughter sounds an awful lot like mine (nit picking at everything we say, obsessive thoughts and phobias, etc). She is kind of ADHD like, but the assessments for autism and specifically Aspergers were quite conclusive.

Good luck

Hi, I'm not a parent. But I do live the life of a person on the spectrum and try and be a pretty good guy.

And I know that feeling of not being able to wind down mentally.

About moderating her obsessive questions, social skills, and that there's different ways of saying things and people don't need to say things perfectly. This most likely is not her nature strong suit. So it probably will take a number of matter-of-fact reminders, and even then, perhaps only medium benefits, although one just never knows.

And maybe sports like tennis to get out some of her excess energy?

I kind of like your idea of going to a GP. I sometimes struggle with bouts of depression, haven't yet tried antidepressants, but they're kind of my ace in the hole. What I've read is that everyone's biochem tends to be a little different, and so it's all hit and miss and trial and error in a respectable sense anyway. And no doctor in the world can predict in advance. That there's a lot to be said for kind of a country doctor type, who's a good observer and who has a sense of touch, willing to try different medications in a medium way, and not get married to any one medication. This typically trumps "genius." (And it's also sometimes important to step down from an antidepressant in stages even if it doesn't seem to be working.)

I've got to think a lot of this is true with other medications as well.

I currently give my daughter herbal tablets too (Stressless: http://www.nhs.uk/medicine-guides/pages ... %20tablets) but they don't seem to have any benefit, at least I don't notice any difference. The only benefit is that they seem to reassure her if she has one before bed, so it's a placebo really.



That's depressing. Even though I'm so reluctant, I don't know what else to do, especially if there is a long wait. I was on medication for anxiety at the age of twelve myself after some epileptic-style episodes, but that's five years older than my daughter and when they are so little you worry about their little bodies. She does have problems sleeping, she can't sleep at night easily and stays awake really late, frequently driving us mad calling down the stairs about things on her mind. She frequently wakes in the middle of the night too and wakes quite early again in the morning. So all of this must leave her sleep deprived. The amount of meltdowns she has is hard to deal with too, I feel like I can barely take her anywhere any more. Recently she's identified herself that often (although not always) the cause for her meltdowns (which have gone on for at least 2 years) is due to busy places, noise and lots of people. She's aware of having a problem and it really upsets her as she's usually contrite afterwards and sometimes says she's horrid and a bad person. Obviously it's affecting her psychologically too. I can't believe a GP can't prescribe something to calm her down.



I pray in that case we don't have to wait too long and get the diagnosis. I feel unable to apply for support until we have it on paper, even though there is no doubt in my mind she has it.

Thanks.

Hi AardvarkGoodSwimmer,

thanks for your reply.

I feel sure that adults on the spectrum can be shown the logic of different types of answers to questions being acceptable, but with a seven year old it's a whole different ball game. When she's in that mode there is nothing on earth that will change her from it. Sometimes distraction with stop her getting to that stage, but otherwise, forget it. It's like she needs to go through it and come out the other side. Social skills is really hard. I'm on the spectrum myself (awaiting assessment) so I'm sadly not the best person to teach her these. All I can do is explain some skills that I have learned are true (even if I could never always apply them myself!) and explain things to her logically. Once we have a diagnosis I want to seek professional help with her behaviour as I can't change it myself and I get overwhelmed with it. Hence I'm now desperately considering medication.

She's really unsporty. We do go roller skating, she's just learning that, but that's only a distraction for the period of time she's doing it! She's a really indoors child, I've put all sorts of equipment in the back garden: a climbing frame with slide, a see-saw, a swing and just recently a trampoline. She barely ever goes out there, she's scared of flies and bees, and when the moon is visible in daylight out there she's scared of that too!

We are currently taking GABA, Calms for Kids and Frutol. This combo seems to be taking the edge off DS's anxiety with no noticeable side effects (he's 6 yo diagnosed HFA). These are all OTC and we are doing this under the supervision of a naturopathic doc so I feel confident about the safety factor.

Meltdowns and sensory issues can often be addressed by discovering triggers and learning how to avoid or mitigate them. It can take a lot of time and effort but might prove to be a better long term solution than meds. For other behaviors you mentioned, take things one at a time.

Hi Bombaloo,

I've Googled and found stuff called either Berry Frutol or Original Frutol, is that the one?

I've also Googled and found GABA is essential for brain metabolism, so I can understand that one.

I'm in the UK, and we have "Kalms" with a 'K', but they are not recommended for children under 12. We don't seem to have anything called Calms for Kids.

I would like to provide the medication view that might be offered from GP.

Our son is 16 now. At around 8 or 9, we began with Ritalin, which was helpful for a while -- even though our son wasn't hyperactive.

We've been through a lot of medications over the years to help with paying attention. Our son is probably closest to a diagnosis of inattentive ADD, where he has problem concentrating at school (and on homework) but no problem with hyperactivity. He's actually been the opposite of hyper -- he seemed like he could fall asleep in school.

This may not sound like your daughter's problem, but my point is that now, at 16 years old, my son has this combination of stimulants, anti-anxiety meds, and anti-tic medication that really honestly WORKS. It took a while to get to this point, and things really turned around when we found an ADD specialist. Even with this specialist, we had to manipulate the meds around multiple times to get the right timing and mix. I was about to quit, I was so frustrated. I just wanted to get my son so that he could pay attention, but he was acting like himself. We currently have that, and it's really great. So, my point is that you may have some work ahead of you trying to find the medications that will work for your daughter, but it is well worth the time and effort. It seems weird to have to medicate a child so young, but the good side of this is that you have time to figure it out.

I hope things turn out positively for your family!

We are taking the Original Frutol. It is a liquid flavored with mangoes and pineapple. Not sure what the berry flavor would taste like.

Calms Forte for Kids
http://www.hylands.com/products/calms4kids.php

Thanks for telling me your experience schleppenheimer.

Thanks Bombaloo.

I was (and kind of still am) of the impression that kids are medicated too easily these days. Because of my rigidity with this belief, I resisted getting my son assessed for medications until he became completely unglued and in a panic, I finally gave in and let him be medicated. He was 7 at the time.

It was one of the best decisions I ever made for him. I really feel like I could have saved my son 6-9 months of trauma if I would have not been so pig-headed.

I am not necessarily saying you should medicate her, just do your best to be open minded and really hear out the various options. Do your due diligence through research before making your final decision. But be open to researching all potential possibilities with equal curiosity and open-mindedness.

Good luck.

Thanks InThisTogether,

I agree with all you said.

Your welcome. I hope I helped.

I wish someone would have given me that advice when I was in your shoes, but as I already stated, I was being very pig-headed and rigid, so I probably wouldn't have heard it.

my 7yo son is a lot like your daughter. EXPECIALLY the non stop questioning, I even posted a thread here not too long ago about that! I tried him on 2 meds, neither were a good fit. The one that helped with his anxiety and OCD casued him to be hyperactive and the doc didnt like that so he came off it. The other never worked. I am now hoping to get some help in the area of his ADD symptoms with meds. I have several freinds and family members kids who are helped via ADHD meds. THey are even aware that they feel better on the meds and know the difference when off. I hope my son gets to that place, and eventually can learn how to cope and not need the meds, but for right now, he does.

good luck!! !

My son's doc explained that when there is a combination of ADHD and anxiety, it is difficult to find the balance for several reasons. First - she likes to introduce only one medicaiton at a time and get it right- see the full effects. Second - most of the anti-anxiety meds increase hyperactivity and most of the ADHD meds increase anxiety. So by treating only one, you increase the symptoms of the other. We decided to start with the anxiety. Yes, it increased my son's hyperactivity - nearly drove me bonkers, but we found that additionally the med he is on increases the effects of caffeine - so cutting him off all caffeine helped tremendously. After we go the anxiety meds at the right balance (this took about 6 months) we addressed the ADHD with a nonstimulant medication. This worked well for my son. Additionally at the same time, he continued with social skills therapy and some CBT therapy to provide him some skills to handle situations. With the meds, he seemed to better able to follow through, not stay upset so long, not get "stuck" so easily, and reason more clearly.