re: Medication for Autistic Meltdowns?

I’m sorry. I can only imagine how it must be terrible not being able to help him during one these attacks.

Hope he is well.

Sport, you’ve been heavy on my thoughts. Keep on keeping on. And you’ll have the chance eventually to make amends with your Pop. Thanks for what you add here. It is noticed and appreciated.

Some of your excellent photography is always welcomed.

Do you use the joint massage technique?

Try beating his arse. Worked on me. Throwing a fit is one thing. Hurting others during it is belt worthy.

God bless your family

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ducktale

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get lost Bozo

Daily meds: guanfacine, citalopram, risperdal at night, listed in order of least to most psychiatrically invasive.

you can try prn hydroxyzine (vistaril) or even a low dose benzo for extreme situations (i.e. meltdowns mid airplane flight).

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Is Scruffy having reading comprehension issues this morning?

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Were you having reading comprehension issues?

The entire discussion is about medications to give during an episode of agitation.

Why would you believe my comments had anything to do with anything beyond that?

I saw a lot of posters mention CBD oil or gummies. In our experience they did appear to decrease the frequency and severity of meltdowns, and we’ve never seen any negatives to using them (although the good ones are not cheap, so there’s that).

The other question I’d ask — which would probably sound ridiculous if I didn’t have kid on the spectrum myself —is do you notice (or have you ever looked for) any sort of pattern in relation to his meal or snack times? My ASD kid is highly verbal, but it took us years (like, A LOT) to figure out that she literally could not tell us when she was getting hungry or thirsty, or when her blood sugar was wonky. It was like everything was fine, and then *blam* … she went straight from zero to hangry. But I’m talking hangry on steroids, not the grumpy, crying, or even tantrum-y thing that most kids would have going on.

So eventually it started to dawn on me that these out-of-nowhere meltdowns tended to happen when she’d gone a little longer without food or juice or whatever. The problem at first was that once the cycle began, there was still no way to interrupt it because it was freaking impossible to get her eat or drink anything in that state, even if you thought you were catching the whole implosion in its first few seconds. You were just doomed to an hour or more of absolute hell no matter what you did.

What I ended up doing until she probably hit 12-13 years old was to basically set a schedule where I just put something out for her (meal, light snack, juice box, etc.) at least every couple hours, regardless of what she said or how she acted. I didn’t even really comment on it other than, “Here, I thought you might be ready for this soon.” Interestingly, if I just acted very matter-of-fact and set it down within reach, within a minute or two she’d pick it up and eat or drink. At school, we explained all this to teachers and admin, and they were always accommodating even without “formal” documentation because it was such an easy thing to do and it made such a big difference in classroom management.

She’s in high school now and I still do it occasionally, because it just keeps things 1000 times more stable overall. It’s utterly bizarre when I think about it, because this kid was speaking in complex sentences at like 16 months old and is an extremely gifted writer … but she either couldn’t understand or couldn’t express something as fundamental as hunger pangs, which children who were far younger and less articulate do with relative ease. She’s made great progress since then, but communicating anything that’s happening within her own mind or body still presents a struggle and likely always will.

There were still some meltdowns at times, obviously, but they were easier to anticipate (and sometimes prevent) once we figured out how to counteract one of the biggest and most ethereal antecedents. This strategy may or may not have the same effect on your son, but I would think it’s at least worth a try — especially since there just aren’t that many great alternatives, sadly. There’s also a chance it could spark a similar “lightbulb” moment for you that would make a difference.

Wishing you and your family the best. My kid with ASD is wise, good-hearted, hilarious, and highly talented in a lot of surprising and unique ways, but you can wholeheartedly love and appreciate your kids just as they are and still acknowledge that the road you’re all traveling together can be an exceptionally demanding one too.

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A belt?

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I know you think you are being cute, that’s probably the worst thing you can do with autistic kids.
Plenty ways to discipline without beating them.