/Angel/Charlyne/

[Guest guest]

<<I read that if an autistic child is self abussive it is because of

something else going on. Example the child is sick, hurt, something is hurting

and

that sib...>>

Hi, Everyone.........I believe that some part of this is true. It

wasn't until Gareth was put on the Risperdal for the SIB and got some of his

speech back that he was able to tell us his esophagus hurt. If he never went

on

the Risperdal, I don't think we would have found out because he was

basically non-verbal. But on the other side of the coin, I have tried to

decrease

the Risperdal as he got older, but the aggressiveness/nastiness/non-compliance

returns. Basically, the regression occurs again.

<<when was your child dignoised with autism? >>

Angel.....Gareth was officially dx'd at age 6 (1994) but showed *issues* by

age 3.

<<the teachers do not have medical expertise to question your daughter's

diagnosis>>

Charlyne.....I had G in to a new doc on Friday.....an adult neurologist that

looked to be in his mid 50's. Well........talk about Mom educating Mr

Doc!!! " I see on his chart that he's Autistic. He looks DS to me. " My mind

was

flying.......he really had no clue!!! I explained that he was both....born

with DS and dx'd with Autism at age 6. I went on to explain that up to 7-10%

of DS kids are also autistic. We were there for a follow up on G's seizure

and I then explained how I had read that DS kids have an increase chance of

seizures, that autistic kids have a 30% chance of seizures and that UCTD can

cause seizures. I said that Gareth already had 3 strikes against him.

" Thanks....I didn't know all that. " Anyways, he was on the Depakote for 3 days

and

complained of a headache all 3 days. We start Lamictal tomorrow. The main

side effect....headaches.

<<I've taken to asking friends and people I work with for their broken

" stuff " so Jon has something to " work " on. We're awesome at taking apart but

not

worth a darn at putting back together.>>

.........do you have a Salvation Army store or Goodwill store close by.

They always throw away broken junk. I am sure they would be glad to give

it to you just so they don't have so much trash.

Take acre, Everyone.

Margaret

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