AllStressedOut

New Member
My youngest difficult child has resorted to hitting again lately. He use to do this before medications and I believe stopped (maybe the boys just weren't telling me), but now hes doing it again. I wanted him to wear out yesterday so he would sleep so I had him run around the back yard some. Silly I know, but I don't know what else to do. The sleep medications just aren't working and he's beating up on his brothers at night if hes awake. I'm worried the neighbors think I'm abusive because I'm having him run around, but I am clueless. If he doesn't get this energy out and the sleep medications aren't working, he spends the night hitting and jumping on his older two brothers. Today they're at camp, but his little sister is home and I'm afraid to let him out of my site. I just have him go from room to room with me so I know she's safe. I can't trust him to let him go play out of my site and I'm exhausted from playing referree all night. We're hoping to get him into the neuropsychologist soon. The psychiatrist just keeps upping doses on medications. This kid is too small to be this medicated and the medications don't seem to help anyways. I don't want to take him out anywhere because he's so aggressive and typically sneaky when he hurts someone. He'll do something in the 2 seconds I turn my head to count for my other kids at the park. He also tends to play on other people with his size (he looks 4-5) so if he does something in public and you reprimand (verbally not physically) he will cry really loud like you just hit him. What do I do?
 

JJJ

Active Member
been there done that. I remember those days (we still have them sometimes). What medications is he on?
 

smallworld

Moderator
The medications could be activating your difficult child instead of calming him down. A dose of 30 mg Focalin XR is hefty for a little guy and more than the FDA recommends as the highest dose.
 

AllStressedOut

New Member
Behavior wise its like hes not even on medications, except he stays up even later than he use to. So the medications seems to just be making it worse.
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
Having him run around the yard is a really good idea. Why would the neighbors find a problem with-that? That's what kids DO! The neighbors need to bug off.
So sorry he's hitting again.
Maybe you could have him do something physical with-his brothers like three-legged races, if they will permit it, so he's touching them and using up energy, but not directly hitting them.
While you're gently pulling him off of his brothers, tell him while he's in the middle of it, that if he stops immediately, he can do something physical with-them in the a.m. as a reward. I emphasize gently because it's easy to get into it and have him actually enjoy fighting you and then it becomes a foursome!

If he's hypoglycemic, you could try feeding him turkey (tryptophan) and warm milk (yes, it works! but only warm!) b4 bed. (No bread or potatoes--too many carbs to keep him awake).

In re: to screaming in public, I always take an exaggerated pose, like with my hand on my hip and my other hand on my forehead, or my other hand looking at my watch in a very exaggerated fashion, and I stand about 3 ft away, so it's clear I'm not touching him. People come over to see what's going on and then they see me and roll their eyes and walk away. Works for me!

Good luck.
 

Steely

Active Member
Yeah, not only does Focalin seem high...but also the Zoloft! I was on 75mg, and that was the most my doctor let me take, so 50mg for a little guy is a lot. Zoloft can also activate the brain, not allowing sleep, and increasing impulsivity, i.e. hitting. Can you ask the psychiatrist to possibly lower these medications, and see if that helps? Maybe nothing at this time would be better than this?
 

AllStressedOut

New Member
The reason I say I worry about the neighbors is there was actually a guy walking his dog in the alley who stopped to watch/listen through the fence. I just kept telling difficult child to keep up the running and explained to difficult child why he was doing it. I was hoping the nosey neighbor would hear me and realize I wasn't trying to be mean. The problem is, my youngest difficult child will cry if he thinks someone else is listening, just like he does at the store. I was sitting under the covered area and he was in the yard running around, so I was anywhere from 3-20 feet away from him depending on what part of the yard he was in. But the guy just heard him doing his drama cry and thought I was beating the kid. He and my oldest difficult child are pros at this. After 2 scares with CPS I always worry someone thinks I'm hurting my kids. I just don't know what else to do to wear him out. I am going to slowly decrease his Foclin. His Zoloft is 1 pill though, I guess he can do half of it.

Our psychiatrist is such a quack! I've learned more on this board than I have from him in the year I've been taking my kids there. Our GP thought I was wrong on the kids dosages because they were so high, but he said he doesn't feel comfortable telling me to change the dosages. He said psychiatrists always use higher levels than regular GPs.

I feel like I'm stuck in limbo right now. I want things to be better, but I feel like I have to wait for permission from the dr's before I change anything and it takes weeks to get appts.
 

AllStressedOut

New Member
Oh, Terry, I forgot to mention, I don't pull him off. If he hears husband or I coming, he stops himself. Which to me makes it seem like he can rationalize and knows what hes doing is wrong. As of yet, I've not had to physically restrain him, but if I'm not there to come to the rescue, one of the older boys has to pull him off.
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
Oh, Terry, I forgot to mention, I don't pull him off. If he hears husband or I coming, he stops himself. Which to me makes it seem like he can rationalize and knows what hes doing is wrong. As of yet, I've not had to physically restrain him, but if I'm not there to come to the rescue, one of the older boys has to pull him off.

Ohhhh, that's interesting!
 

JJJ

Active Member
Wow, that Zoloft does is huge! My 8 year old is on 5-mg and when we tried him on 10mg he got violent. And, as smallworld said, that Focalin does is high too. I'd talk to your psychiatrist about this being a reaction to the medications. I'm not familiar with Rozerum. Have you tried 3mg of Melatonin at night? It's OTC.
 

AllStressedOut

New Member
Yes, hes on that too. At first we thought he had a reaction, but realized it was his diet that gave him a rash. So we put him back on the melatonin, but he's still wide awake.
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
My difficult child 2 had a similar problem -- it looked like he was developing a tolerance to stims, and the higher we went the more it acted like water (even at 30mg Focalin... and much higher on Focalin XR, Concerta, you name it). Finally it got to where he was just too tense and anxious, and the other supporting medications seemed to make things work. That's why we stopped everything and he's on this trial of Depakote right now. So far, he's much less aggressive and angry, although the hyperactivity is still there and so is the very poor impulse control. He has moments where things look pretty good, but if he gets bored, watch out!

Hope you are able to figure things out for your little guy soon!
 

AllStressedOut

New Member
Well, we sent him back outside to run around, but he kept up with the fake crying and would just stand there. So husband went out there to tell him to run around and difficult child screamed Ouch, like husband hurt him. husband hadn't even touched him, he just went over to him and bent down to his eye level to tell him to run around. I was standing right there watching it all in amazement. The neighbors are going to end up calling CPS on us, I just know it. What else besides running around? His brothers do not want to play with him at all. He cries when he doesn't get his way, he hits them and he does the same thing with them he does to us. If they come up to him when hes annoyed he screams Ouch like they hurt him when they didn't touch him.
 

Sara PA

New Member
If he's not doing better on the medications and in fact doing worse, why spend the money on them or put them in his body?

Not only could he be having rebound effects from the high dose of Focalin, the Zoloft could be causing mania, anger, aggression, hostility, etc. The Rozerum won't change either of those things.
 

AllStressedOut

New Member
I think we decided tonight we're going to start wheaning him off of both Foclin and Zoloft. He doesn't behave either way and now he's hearing things and screaming out like we're killing him when we're not even touching him. He definately has gotten worse recently.
 

Sara PA

New Member
Do the Zoloft very slowly. You may want to do some research on antidepressant withdrawal. Discontinuation of any drugs seems to make a lot of our kids worse for a time -- the antidepressants and antipsychotics more so than others and abrupt discontinuation can be very unpleasant all around.
 

Sara PA

New Member
You might want to half it for two weeks then give it every other day for a week or so. Some think that's too fast. There are sites that give dosing recommendations for people trying to withdraw from an AD but I don't have any links.

My son threw his Celexa Klonopin across the room one day and refused to take it again. He had physical withdrawal issues for two weeks -- nausea, dizziness and headaches. However, he didn't have any psychiatric withdrawal issues -- I credit the Lamictal he was taking for that.

Zoloft has a long half life compared to some of the other ADs so if you discontinue it slowly he shouldn't have too much of a problem. It will take 5-6 days for it to completely leave the system then a few weeks (or months in some cases) for his body to adjust to not having it anymore.

The Focalin will be completely out of the body very quickly; matter of fact, that "rebound" is actually a form of withdrawal illness. But again, once it's completely out of body, the body will have a period of adjustment to not having the drug.
 

Steely

Active Member
What about a trampoline? My difficult child loved his, and the jumping seemed to calm him as well as release energy. Also swinging can be soothing, as well playing in a sandbox. All of those activities release that kinesthetic energy, and seem to relax the body. You could have his consequence for hyper or aggressive behavior be "outside" time instead of running - and maybe that would eliminate some of his drama. I think I would also make it be "his" outside time - no siblings around to exacerbate things - and maybe he could find some peace just playing alone. Can you keep an eye on him from a window while playing card or something with the other kids inside, so that he can really connects with himself in his outside time?

I think it sounds like a good plan to wean him off of the 2 medications. My son just went off an anti-depressant, and as long as you do it slowly, you will not see too many of the physical symptoms.
 
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