Wishing

New Member
Our psychiatrist ordered the atypical antipsychotics(zyprexa,abilify resperidol) for very wound up behavior and it helped with the aggressiveness.
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
In regard to the manipulation, i.e. saying "ouch" to alert the neighbors, I would tell him in no uncertain terms that he gets xyz taken away for a month if he says it again in public for no good reason. Take away whatever means a lot to him, i.e. GameBoy, TV, baseball cards, etc.
Expect a major meltdown but stick to your guns.
If necessary, talk to the neighbors beforehand. by the way, we've done some strange things and so have our neighbors--and we talk to one another directly about it. No one would think of call Soc. Svcs. Why wouldn't they just talk to you?
 

AllStressedOut

New Member
Unfortunately Terry, he isn't really attached to anything. Taking items away just doesn't work on any of my difficult children, we've tried it several times.

I love the idea of a trampoline, but our backyard is the size of a closet. Maybe two closets. Its not big enough. We have a dog that would use a sandbox as a toilet. I think sending him out there just to be out there might work. I'm going to try that this afternoon.

We had more problems at bedtime lastnight. I think I'm going to move my middle difficult child out of the same room. He's having to be the tattle tail and lastnight they started picking on him.

I'm at a loss.
 

Marguerite

Active Member
What about a jogging trampoline? I used one with difficult child 1. I would send him to jump on it if he was just too uncontrollably hyperactive. With a jogging tramp, you can unscrew the little legs on it and roll it behind a cupboard.

Marg
 

Liahona

Active Member
difficult child 1 has to sleep in a room by himself. This ment he was sleeping in the living room because we just didn't have enough bedrooms. We had his bed instead of a couch. Still don't have a couch even though we've moved to a bigger place and he has a room now. It was really inconvient, but he just wouldn't stop hurting difficult child 2. Of course their age differences and diagnosis's are different then your kids. We had to watch/listen for him close too, so he wouldn't sneak around at night. I had planned on only doing this for a short time; until he got stable enough to be trusted with his brothers, but its been a few years and I still can't trust him. And, we have to do the keep him in sight as well. We call it being a shadow. Good luck getting him stable.
 

AllStressedOut

New Member
Debbie, yes he was on that much for a little less than a week. His psychiatrist just kept upping it. I thought something was wrong and researched it. He is not on any now, we have since stopped seeing this psychiatrist and started with a new doctor. This doctor seriously overmedicated all of my kids (my opinion) and I no longer feel like I can trust a Dr. to do the right thing and really know more than me. Now I will research any drug and dosage prior to giving it to my kids. I've never had any experience with psychiatrists until now, I always thought that someone who went to school and received a medical degree would know more about these medications than I could ever find out. I know better now.

Emily, I don't know what else to do. We have 4 BR, 3 boys in 1, 2 in another and my daughter in another. Fortunately we have a hall door, so at night, we all get stuck back here to keep kids from stealing stuff out there and sneaking out. I don't know what I'm going to do once they figure out they have a window.
 

blb

New Member
According to the Focalin XR literature, (and I'm not sure if you're on the XR, but I checked the regular Focalin and it says the same)
The maximum recommended dose is 20 mg/day for pediatric and adult patients.
I can't imagine that a seven year old, unless he weighs as much as an adult, should be on that dosage. I'm not a doctor, but I would really be questioning this.

And the zoloft, this is taken from the literature I found online
Dosage for Pediatric Population (Children and Adolescents)
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder–ZOLOFT treatment should be initiated with a dose of 25 mg once daily in children (ages 6-12 and at a dose of 50 mg once daily in adolescents (ages 13-17).

While a relationship between dose and effect has not been established for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), patients were dosed in a range of 25-200 mg/day in the clinical trials demonstrating the effectiveness of
ZOLOFT for pediatric patients (6-17 years) with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

Patients not responding to an initial dose of 25 or 50 mg/day may benefit from dose increases up to a maximum of 200 mg/day. For
children with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), their generally lower body weights compared to adults should be taken into consideration in advancing the dose, in order to avoid excess dosing.

Given the 24 hour elimination half-life of ZOLOFT, dose changes should not occur at intervals of less than 1 week.

Additionally, since Zoloft is an SSRI, taking both the focalin and zoloft together can increase the plasma concentration of the zoloft. They are not contraindicated, meaning they shouldn't be taken together, but they do say in the literature that caution is advised because of the increase to the concentration of zoloft.

My take on this--and remember, you get what you pay for :wink: is that the medications may be too high and his aggressiveness could actually be a byproduct of the high dose medications--possibly inducing mania, which in kids can just present as irritability, and a lot of it. Also would explain his hearing voices.

I would make a call to the pediatrician tomorrow to find out more information and see what you need to do as far as weaning him off his medications if those levels are too high. DO NOT DO IT WITHOUT CONSULTING A DR--zoloft needs to be decreased in increments over weeks. Let the MD tell you how much and for how long.

If the pediatrician tells you what I think he/she will, then I would find a new psychiatrist.
 

Fran

Former desparate mom
Please consult your doctor and speak to him/her about withdrawing medications. It's not something that should be done without medical input.
Medications should make them better and not worse. Getting the info to your doctor and telling him what you want to do is an informed way of going about weaning with less chance of complications.
 

AllStressedOut

New Member
The original post on this was from 7/19/07, someone replied to it asking about the Zoloft lastnight and bumped it up. We had previously discussed wheaning them off with psychiatrist and were given instructions back then, so we did it in the manner he explained prior, probably did it for a little longer on the oldest difficult child. It was more difficult on the younger two difficult children because they had 1 pill that was 50 mg. They are now off all medications and we are in the process of having them evaluated by a new set of docs. We felt our old psychiatrist was seriously over medicating and when discussing it with the therapist and the new docs, they state that many of their patients who came from this psychiatrist had the same opinion.
 

blb

New Member
ohhhhhhh......
didn't see that post:hammer:
whew/phew

welp, glad he's off the medications then; hope a new doctor brings your difficult child some relief.
 

AllStressedOut

New Member
Unfortunately its meant constant problems especially at night. Their sleep medication was the first to go, rozerum. Melatonin doesn't work on any of them. Sending them outside to work off energy seems to be too harsh for the neighbors. I swear they've (neighbors) spent more time outside in the last few days than they have the entire time we've lived here just to spy. The kids go out and come in, but if they start seeming like they're about to fall asleep during the day, I send them back out. I want them to work off energy, but I certainly don't want them cat napping during the day and making it even harder to sleep at night. I just feel like my hands are tied and I feel like everyone around me, dad included, thinks I'm over doing it. What other natural way do I get them worn out though?
 
Top