advice or help needed

[Guest guest]

Sorry for the cross-posting and long post. Here's the background. Greg 8

years old diagnosed autism 3.9 yrs old. Diagnosed anxiety disorder 11/ 00.

Put on Prozac. Helped somewhat but at higher dosage made him extremely

hyper. Kept him on a low dosage until August 2001. August 2001 we go on

vacation Greg has an explosion of obbsessive compulsive behaviors.

Rearranging all the shoes of everyone on the beach:) Some movement

behaviors (walking into the bedroom stopping in the corner, turning around

and walking back out.) But once we got home from vacation YIKES he

developed multi-step behaviors. Thirty or so things he had to do or touch

to get from his bedroom to his chair in the kitchen in the morning. Within

a half hour of being anywhere new he developed a routine. This all

culminated with Greg being hit by a bus At West Point during a tailgate

party in early September. Fortunately Greg is okay. Mom on the other hand

is not. Doctor took him off Prozac and let it wash from his system for

three weeks then we tried Paxil. Within three days multi-step rituals gone.

Some residua touching remained for several weeks and then was gone. TSS and

behavior specialist note that at school Greg cannot sit still and appears to

struggle to sit still. Greg does not sit still at home in the evenings when

we watch TV. Greg had never appeared hyper before but we see Doctor and

agree to a trial of ritalin. Wonderful reports from school. After few

weeks doctor asks if we should try Metadate a time release stimulant

medication. It seems to be working. Three and a half weeks in call from

school regarding excessive hyper behavior. Could be reaction to riatalin.

At the same time January-February some of Greg's obsessive behavs. coming

back. Need to adjust Paxil suspension however Glaxo Klein not

shipping suspension to pharmacies. In march after several phone calls from

school (Greg attends parochial school for kids with special needs) regarding

increase in aggression, Sib and screeching we agree to try a test of

increasing the Paxil. At the time Greg's dose was 2.5 cc the equivilent of

5mg pill. We were cutting the pills in half. So we increased to 10mg. My

son became Spiderman and literally climbed the walls. WE put him back down

to 5mg and last week we took him off the Paxil altogether.

Today I get a call from his occupational therapist who has been recording

behaviors she sees in Greg and she is wondering if he could possibly have

Tourette's.

Is it possible to have a kid with autism,anxiety, OCB, ADHD and

Tourettes????

I question the validity of the anxiety because the original behaviors were

related to bedtime and the inability to calm down and go to sleep unless I

was in the room with him. Greg had never had sleep issues before and was the

kind of kid who would ask to go to bed. Now off Paxil is not having great

difficulty falling asleep.

Do any of you have kids with these disorders?.. What did you do?

Currently he's only taking ritalin. I'm tempted to take him off that as

well and see what issues we have but won't until summer. His school has

asked us to find a new placement for fall (remember private Catholic School)

I don't need to be told to take him out now.

As always I thank you all for your support and advice in the past and ask

anyone who has experienced this of has advice for me to e-mail me.

Thank you,

Marge Foti