All of the atypical antipsychotics have weight gain as a side effect. Geodon is what we switched Wiz to when the risperdal stopped working as well. Geodon is supposed to be less of an appetite magnifier.
Part of the problem is that you actually feel hungrier, and if you don't eat you can have pretty severe hunger pangs. I was on one of the atypical antipsychotics while I was in the hospital last Sept. Shots of it every 4 hours. I had gone cold turkey on the lyrica by having a major migraine and not keeping anything down. The hospital misdx'd the problem as meth OD!!! In reality it was a false positive on the test and a doctor who wouldn't listen to anyone.
Anywho, for about a week after I got out of the hospital my stomach actually would cramp if I went too long with-o eating. It really opened my mind up about how bad a side effect it is. The cramps would double me over.
If you can keep lots of fresh fruit (or canned in juice or the big bags of frozen mixed fruit from Sam's) and fresh veggies it can really help this. If he will eat lettuce you can get a lot of crunch and the volume of the food can be huge without having much of a calorie impact. And the spray pump bottles of salad dressing are great for adding that punch of flavor while not adding tons of calories.
If he will eat popcorn that is a good snack also. Instead of the bags of microwave popcorn with their fat and sodium and artificial stuff we bought a Presto microwave popcorn maker. It is a special bowl that a paper tray sits in the bottom of it. You put one third cup popcorn in it, nuke for about 3 minutes and it is awesome. You can control the fat and sodium intake also.
thank you has been operating this on his own for about 2 years now. I find it to be incredibly cheaper than the microwave popcorn bags. You do have to periodically change the paper cup thingy, but it is like every 20 batches of popcorn. And 8 filters are under $2 ordered from Presto. I just got 8 packs of 8 cups each and WITH fast shipping it was under $20.
Here is a link to the popcorn thing:
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&ke...aps&hvadid=18528330011&ref=pd_sl_6fne64phyx_b
It shows several items - the actual popper is the same, at least the top 2 items listed are. And the paper cup thingys are cheaper ordered from Presto.
I hope this gives some ideas for making healthy snacks available. Because the increased hunger can get to be painful if you don't have something to put in your tummy. Always have something in the car or your purse or whatever so if you are out and hunger hits then your kiddo isn't in pain.
Sorry if I seem to push the hunger pain, but it truly and honestly SHOCKED me how I felt during the time those medications were in my system. I hate knowing that I brushed Wiz off at times about this when he was on these medications.