Otto von Bismark
Member
For us.....it could actually be working.
My difficult child son has had 13 our of 14 really good days in a row, at home and at school.
We are keeping a reward chart split into 4 1-week sections. At the end of each week, he gets to choose a couple of cool rewards (Jamba juice, a visit to H&H Gregg, renting a movie of his choice, etc...). He could NEVER complete a reward chart for even 2 days before.
He was sent out of class only 1 time in the past 13 days, and it used to be 3 or four times per day. He had "recordings" on his chart that numbered 12 + every day, and he made it through a week with one or two total. These are easily recognizable positive signs. At home, he is not flying off the handle and his sisters are much better able to communicate with him. Sibling relationships are not perfect, but are improving, slowly.
At first, when we were struggling and had just started the medication, the director of our school said he "hated" Intuniv, and said it was repackaged from an adult beta-blocker ( which I knew) and the only reason the kids behaved better on it was because they were exhausted and walking around like zombies. But I read an explanation here of how it acts on the brain and it seems to be more than a tranquilizer.
We are holding steady at 2 mg, after taking ten days, instead of seven to increase dose. I have no interest in going higher, because there are side effects we do not like as it is.
The cons of Intuniv: he is really, really, really tired. He sometimes sleeps on the way to school, takes a nap after school, and goes to bed early. By 7:30 he is too wiped for homework, although he does stay up and interact. He is also really quiet. He is usually a stimmy chatterbox, so this is odd for him to be so quiet, but really, he is no MORE quiet than his big brothers were at that age. He speaks when he has something to say. Also, he gets up every day around 4 am and can't fall back to sleep, and it scares him since it was the middle of the night when he had his Abilify hallucination and huge fright.
He also says he is sleepy enough during school to zone out during material. But then again, he is aware enough to actually report things like this to us....huge improvement.
We hate to see him like this. I kind of miss his presence. However, he is meeting with such success in school (his teachers and peers can stand him, his grades haven't gone down), success socially with people being able to praise him for the many things he does, instead of constantly correcting him, and lecturing him, and being afraid of him. We think it is worth it. For now. The mommy in me hates it, but my pragmatic husband says that for now, it is fantastic for him to learn what it is like to not be that kid who is constantly in trouble, constantly giving in to bad impulses.
And if you know our story from other threads, his impulse control problem was getting to be really dangerous.
Anyone have any Intuniv experience? Any thoughts about staying on a medication with side effects that seem to change the kid? Any thoughts on that link I shared above?
Thanks....
My difficult child son has had 13 our of 14 really good days in a row, at home and at school.
We are keeping a reward chart split into 4 1-week sections. At the end of each week, he gets to choose a couple of cool rewards (Jamba juice, a visit to H&H Gregg, renting a movie of his choice, etc...). He could NEVER complete a reward chart for even 2 days before.
He was sent out of class only 1 time in the past 13 days, and it used to be 3 or four times per day. He had "recordings" on his chart that numbered 12 + every day, and he made it through a week with one or two total. These are easily recognizable positive signs. At home, he is not flying off the handle and his sisters are much better able to communicate with him. Sibling relationships are not perfect, but are improving, slowly.
At first, when we were struggling and had just started the medication, the director of our school said he "hated" Intuniv, and said it was repackaged from an adult beta-blocker ( which I knew) and the only reason the kids behaved better on it was because they were exhausted and walking around like zombies. But I read an explanation here of how it acts on the brain and it seems to be more than a tranquilizer.
We are holding steady at 2 mg, after taking ten days, instead of seven to increase dose. I have no interest in going higher, because there are side effects we do not like as it is.
The cons of Intuniv: he is really, really, really tired. He sometimes sleeps on the way to school, takes a nap after school, and goes to bed early. By 7:30 he is too wiped for homework, although he does stay up and interact. He is also really quiet. He is usually a stimmy chatterbox, so this is odd for him to be so quiet, but really, he is no MORE quiet than his big brothers were at that age. He speaks when he has something to say. Also, he gets up every day around 4 am and can't fall back to sleep, and it scares him since it was the middle of the night when he had his Abilify hallucination and huge fright.
He also says he is sleepy enough during school to zone out during material. But then again, he is aware enough to actually report things like this to us....huge improvement.
We hate to see him like this. I kind of miss his presence. However, he is meeting with such success in school (his teachers and peers can stand him, his grades haven't gone down), success socially with people being able to praise him for the many things he does, instead of constantly correcting him, and lecturing him, and being afraid of him. We think it is worth it. For now. The mommy in me hates it, but my pragmatic husband says that for now, it is fantastic for him to learn what it is like to not be that kid who is constantly in trouble, constantly giving in to bad impulses.
And if you know our story from other threads, his impulse control problem was getting to be really dangerous.
Anyone have any Intuniv experience? Any thoughts about staying on a medication with side effects that seem to change the kid? Any thoughts on that link I shared above?
Thanks....