Did You Use Medication with Your ADD/ADHD Child? Advice Needed!

my now 8 year old has ADHD and was diagnosed when she was in k-4 and her doctor put her on vyvanse and I noticed a change within in a month she has no side affects the only advise I would need to give you is about once every 4 years or so you might have to up the dosage

My 11yr old was diagnosed by his pediatrician when he was 6. We put him on Concerta right away and it did wonders for him. He also has the impulsive control problem which causes him to get into trouble. The meds definitely help him with this. They also help him to focus at school and when doing homework or sports. As he has gotten older and grown he has had to have his meds increased and had another med added to help with the afternoon. The only side effect we have encountered is lack of appetite. Putting my son on meds was the best thing we did.

I have heard really good things from families who have worked with homeopaths. It is a different kind of medication, and I know many who have not had to be on meds very long and/or take them very often. That might be a different way to go.

Good luck!

There are plenty of families with success stories, but those don't make for interesting reading!

I was a school psychologist for many years and counseled parents through this process and it is not an easy decision. A couple of things to keep in mind:
1. ADHD is a "real" condition and it can be treated effectively with a COMBINATION of medication and behavioral therapy. To maximize the impact and increase your ability to fade-out both interventions, you need to do both with consistency.
2. Medications that are prescribed today are far "softer" on the body than when we were children.
3. There are always side effects when you introduce a chemical into the body. You have to weigh-out the costs and benefits. Your son will likely have a decreased appetite, but if he is able to make and sustain friendships it may be worth a try.
4. Work with your child's school to develop an accommodation plan (Section 504 Plan) that will allow them to carry-over the behavioral strategies in school with consistency.
5. Sign consent for your son's teacher/school psychologist to speak with the therapist and the pediatrician. ALL clinicians must be able to communicate for the interventions to integrate. You are your son's parent, but you are not a medical or behavioral "expert". We use different language and terminology and parents are inaccurate reporters (not intentionally in most cases).
6. Medications have a short half-life, meaning that if the side effects are bad and you take him off of the meds his system will be "clean" within 24-48 hours.
7. If your son is unhappy and unsuccessful despite the behavioral interventions, try something else!

I attended an ADHD conference several years ago and the psychiatrist on the panel made a really interesting analogy,which I have "stolen" and used with many parents. I simply ask them the question, "If you child was diagnosed with diabetes and dietary changes weren't managing his sugars would you hesitate to use insulin?" The answer is typically "No, but..". They're both medical conditions and can both be managed with behavioral changes and medications.

Good luck!

Hello. My daughter was diagnosed with ADHD about 3 years ago. She is now 8. I was confused on what to do as well. I had spoke to the doctor concerning it. I wasn't too keen on the medication route but after dealing with her behavior while doing behavior modification (a lot of positive reinforcement) I started to realize that we may need the extra help. ADHD is a neurological disorder, there is a chemical imbalance and that is where the meds can help. The dr told me about a study that was done with about 100 adhd kids awhile back. They divided them up into 3 groups. One group did just behavior modification. Second group did just medication. The third group did both. After a year of this they reevaluated the kids. They found the group that had the most improvement was the third group that did both. It makes sense if you think about it. With behavior modification, you are talking about everyone who is in the child's life to be doing this and doing it all the time. That is extremely difficult to do. Medication is not a cure all it is meant to help only. Too many people rely on the meds to take care of it all but it doesn't. Doing both does help and is the best bet. It may take awhile to find the right med but once you do, you will see an improvement. It helps take the edge off. We have our daughter on vyvanse which seems to be working great. We also have her in counseling due to the impulsive behavior that goes along with it. And we continue to do positive reinforcement. I will tell you this, she struggled majorly in school due to the inability to focus but once she started on the medication her work improved dramatically. She went from a reading level of one to a level 3 within a month and she is now in all regular classes and making straight A's. So it does help a lot. We still have behavior issues at home but that is expected. Good luck with your son!

Our son has severe ADHD and isn't functional without medication. It allows him to be a normal kid in society.

This is a condition you can't wish away through parenting, diet, removing cleaning chemicals from the home or taking vitamins. If any of those things work, it's not ADHD, but a misdiagnosis or a side issue (for instance, some kids with ADHD, like the general public, are sensitive to food colorings ... however, there is no link between food coloring and ADHD). The scientific data out there has proven this. I recommend joining CHADD and reading ADDitude magazine to stay up on the latest reliable information.

Our son has had good and bad experiences on medication. He did absolutely terrible with the Adderall group of medications (which are known for triggering anger in some kids, and boy did it in ours). However, he does fantastic in the Ritalin group. He's on Concerta right now and doing great. No side effects for him, although his existing tics get worse if he's on too high a dosage. For our son, Concerta is amazing and I would hold a parade in honor of the makers of it.

Our son went from being kicked out of preschool at three (had aggression, impulsivity, no focus, inability to sit still/extreme hyperactivity, you name it on the ADHD symptom list) and having a grand total of one friend to blending in with the other kids in kindergarten and being known for how smart he is instead. Medication totally transformed his world and ours. He's about to start 3rd grade in August.

The downside with medication is it can take trial and error to find just the right one for your child. What's great, though, is that if you hate anything about a stimulant on day one, you can stop it immediately. It's out of the child's system by the end of the day. You're in control.

Medication and therapy is the ideal combo. Our son also sees a behavioral therapist regularly.

Best of luck to you!

ETA: A psychiatrist is the one who treats our son's ADHD. His pediatrician specializes in ADHD, but still doesn't oversee the care. You really do want to get in with a specialist if you can. They know this condition inside-out.

Hello K.. My son is 11 and was diagnosed with ADHD at age 6. We were hesitante about the medications so it took us awhile before trying them. When we started him the doctor put him on ADDERAL XR 5mg. We noticed a slight difference in his behavior and then bumped his does up to 10 mg. WHAT AN IMPROVEMENT it made. It was like night and day. The side effect that my son has to deal with is also the loss of appetite and sleeping issues. We make sure he eats a good breakfast before he takes his meds and then he doesnt eat the best at lunch time but then eats a great dinner. He has never had a problem with weight loss while on the meds. Sleeping on the other hand is still a slight problem. Some nights he has a harder time than others falling asleep. When others in the family questioned us for medicating him we did our ouwn little experiment with the family. We would set it up for him to visit at their house 2 days in a row. The first day with NO meds and the second with them. They could not believe the difference it made with him. It changed the families opinion on medicating my son. The best thing to me is that he knows how much it helps him and he doesnt like to go without taking it. He also told me before I realized it that the meds were not working as well and that it was time to up the dose again and that was at age 8. He is 11 like I said and still on 20mg dose and still working great for him. Hope this helps.

Our son Logan has been on medication for about a year. We had to try several before we found one that "fit" him. People will make you feel guilty about it, but only you know in your heart what is right for your child. Our son is now on Intuniv (a non-stimulant) and it has been a blessing. We can tell he FEELS better. He actually plays constructively now instead of destructive. He will sit and listen to us read books. It is definitely a good thing. If you ever want to check out our blog it is: thelewisfamilyjourney.blogspot.com I try and post what we notice, the changes, good and bad! Hope this has helped.

Based on the explanations I've read on ADHD, my oldest had it. We tackled it from a dietary direction first before we would have gone to medication.

Also, in the last 3 months, I heard a news story about a study of ADHD by a Dutch origanization. It was a 20 year study. What they found was that 64% of children diagnosed with ADHD could be TAKEN OFF MEDICATION by changes in diet.

We took our son to a doctor for help. The doctor put him through tests to see what he was allergic to. He was allergic to FD&C yellow #5, FD&C red #?, FD&C blue #?, anything processed/made with fermentation. We started reading labels and were astonished by the number of things that had artificial colors in it. We thought we were safe from fermentation made products. Anything with vinegar in it has been fermented. That means no mustard (fermented, FD&C yellow #5), no pickles, no hot sauce, no soy sauce, no teryaki sauce, and lots of fruit juices have various artifical colors in them, as do the sugary "drinks" sold. Orange juice has FD&C yellow #5 and FD&C red #? to make it more "orange". Grape soda has FD&C red #40 and blue #1.

What happened to our son? We took him off all that chemical stuff he was allergic to. We also didn't have it in our home. We quit buying it. We did more gardening and used no pesticides. Not only did the son with the symptoms of ADHD calm down, so did my other kids. Not all of them had the same reaction. Some we hardly noticed an change at all. But there was a change for the better ! ! !

My suggestion: Take your son in to a doctor to see what he is allergic to. Then eliminate those things in your pantry and diet. Then start a garden and grow tomatoes and greens (swiss chard, spinach, various types of lettuce). Tomatoes are coated with wax, some times, to retard spoilage. You can even grow spinach through out your winters if you put pots on the window sills of south facing windows. (If you want some suggestions e-mail me, or go to your state agricultural department and ask for help.)

Good luck to you and yours.

We're having an excellent experience with a non-stimulant medication since our daughter is ADD (as associated with her Autism and other related issues). It took us a long time to feel comfortable with the idea of medicating her for this because we also have to medicate her seizure disorder, but it's turned out to be the best decision we could have made regarding medication in our specific situation.

We're using Intuniv.

I can't speak from a parent's perspective, but I can give you a teacher's perspective. I have had many students who have taken meds for ADD. In my 11 years in the classroom I think I have only seen a handful of kids who did not benefit from meds. I had three students just this year who were taking ADD meds. One of them started meds about half way through the year. The change in his academics was incredible. He went from never completing his work and earning Cs and Ds, to never missing an assignment and earning Bs. He told me, without solicitation, that he could really tell a difference. Another of my students, who has been on meds for half of his life, missed his meds a couple of times this year. I didn't have to ask if he had missed his meds because his behavior was so different. He was much more impulsive, yelling out in class, interrupting, avoiding work, giving immature and inappropriate responses. He would get frustrated with himself and cry because he couldn't control what he was doing. The third boy didn't take his meds on a day that he took a reading test to measure progress. His score dropped over 300 points from the previos test. When he retook the test a week later, his score went up over 100 points. I know that meds aren't for everyone, but I would encourage you to try it with your son. It may take a little while to find the right dose, so don't give up too soon. I know a lot of people accuse teachers of wanting to medicate kids so there aren't as many discipline problems. That may be the case with some teachers, however I think the majority of teachers are more concerned with students' academic success. That is where I see the greatest benefit in meds. It helps those students focus, helps them to be more successful in school, and helps them to feel better about themselves.

There are FAR more people using meds reeeeeally happily than aren't. But (like marriages) no one complains about the good ones. So you don't hear so much about them.

DO try www.additudemag.com, which is the best online resource I've found, period.

For myself and my son (both adhd-c) we don't take meds, but would be lost without stimulants. Which is a pretty big caveat. But as long as espresso and coca cola are legal and easily obtainable... AND we can organize our lives to suit ourselves (ex: we homeschool, so we can hyperfocus on interesting things as needed, add in a lot of physicality as needed,... my job I'll return to eventually -technically 3 jobs that interrelate- are PERFECTLY suited for ADHD/moi, part of kiddo's education includes consciously and creatively looking for a 'life' that suits him, instead of square peg & round hole)... we haven't found it necessary to go the daily Rx route. But if our lives changed, as they're wont to? I'm sure, absolutely, that we'd have to reevaluate.

As someone who has ADD and takes medication nothing will remove the symptoms, nothing!! but medication makes you functional. Between how I structure my life and my meds I function better than a "normal" person.

There are two things I hate, those that say this diet will fix it, nope, if it fixed it then you weren't dealing with ADD. By the way there is no real "test" for ADD. You answer questions and if you answer enough the right way they say you are. A lot of things can cause the symptoms. I digress, the second thing is people who think I will give them this pill and they will be perfect. It is not a disease it is a disorder, there is no cure, only things that will make life a little easier.

So I second those that say meds and behavior management. You would be amazed what someone with ADD can do if they can control it.

My 6 year old son has been on Methylphenadate (Ritalin) for nearly 2 years , for ADHD.He did try a number of different medications before finding the right fit for him. He was ridiculously out of control before medications, but such a HUGE difference now! The only downside is the long acting meds had more side effects for him, and these meds only last 4 hours, so whenever we go somewhere we have to make sure to have extras with, in case we aren't home in time.The only real side effects he has is a bit of weight loss, since it is supresses the appetite, but when it wears off, he makes up for it! Also, he has a hard time going to sleep at bedtime, so he takes melatonin, which is all natural, and it helps him fall asleep at a normal time. I definetely was worried when he was diagnosed with ADHD, but once we got into a routine and found meds that work for him, it has made things so much better!! Good luck!!

Im kinda late on my response but I have a now 17yr old and he has had trouble in school for MANY years and we had him checked at school and the pedi. but no one thought he had ADD. We had him tutored for years and nothing helped. long story short in high school we took him to a counselor because of school grades and attitude and after seeing him and listening to what see at home and what the teachers had to say (that he was just lazy) our counselor referred us to a psychiatrist who test him and sure enough he had all the symptoms. We have tried a few different meds and when he takes them the difference in his ability to concentrate is 100 times better. The only draw back is that he hates the side effects (says it makes him feel shakey and not himself) so he takes them when he has a test or finals.
My advise is to try meds now while he is young so he will not fall behind in school and grades. They do not have to take it forever. We wish he would have had some help in the earlier years.
hope this helps in some way, its a hard decision and only want whats best for our kids :)

Hi K.,
I know my pediatrician said she wouldn't diagnose my son (8yrs). She said he need to be seen by a specialist. We took him out to Fraser child and family center in Mpls. He seen a neuropsychologist at Fraser's . They did 2 days of testing to make sure that this is what it was and not something else or a combo of things. They did find a combo of things and the ADD. We did have a long talk about meds. We all agreed to wait on meds and try a few things over the summer to see if they would help. If we don't see a change we will start him on meds in the middle of Aug. so that he is use to them by the time school starts back up. They are wonderful out at Fraser. We have been out there many times as our 11yr old has autism, they are the best. I hope you find what works for your son and family.

I have read some of your responses, and I agree with a number of them. As for if diet shows whether something is real ADD/ADHD, that may be true. For our family following the Feingold diet and getting rid of Artificial colors, flavors and the preservatives TBHQ, BHA, and BHT and salicylates, they changed our life incredibly. Our DD and DH was never formally dx'd but she's only 4. Most of the stuff that you have mentioned are your issues were fixed for us by following Feingold. It's worth the try and you'll see changes in about a week if this is going to help.

I believe that there is a percentage of people that are really ADHD, but not the 1 in 10 that's seen now. Our foods are so laden with chemicals and so are the things that we wash with that I believe that's what most of the ADHD dx's are. It's been a life saver for us and I know that I will not have to ever put my DD on medication if I just keep a balance on her foods. One other note is that most ADHD meds are colored and so you are putting even more of that junk in their bodies.

H.

Minnesota Public Radio just aired a 45-minute show about ADD/ADHD and the effects of medication. Kerri Miller hosted 2 doctors, who know a lot about ADHD (one doctor has to take meds himself).

Here's the archived show:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/06/20/m...

I'm glad you're really looking deep into the question of putting your son on meds. Like you, I've heard lots of bad effects about meds. Most disturbingly, Dr. Leonard Sax's findings that ADHD meds stifle the development of the child's brain in the motivation centers (the effects don't show up until your child is in his 20's and experiencing a "failure to launch.") Dr. Sax also gets into the case that many pharmaceutical companies are getting rich from over-diagnoses of ADD.

However, since you are looking deep for answers, listen to Kerrie Miller's show. It's quite enlightening and positive toward meds. What I got out of it most is make darn sure your child really has ADD or ADHD (many pediatricians to too generalist to know accurately). Bottom line: If your son truly has ADD/ADHD, then meds are a must.

If you choose to go that route I see nothing wrong with it. Each person is different. For us we chose not to at this time. I have a friend that uses medication during the week, and stops it for her son on the week-ends, breaks from school, and during the summer.

Our now 6 year old daughter was diagnosed with ADD at 5. She was not paying attention in kindergarten. We took her to see a child psychologist. The doctor told us at this age she does not feel it would be a good idea. The goal for us is to allow her to know how to deal with her ADD. Her teacher worked closely with her by using a reward system in class. So did the school psychologist. They kind of streamlined things for her. We don't want her to rely on medication at this age then for some reason if she doesn't have it then she won't know how to cope. In a few years when she knows what "her normal" is then maybe we will consider it. She needs LOTS of structure and routine. It's been working for us so far. Sure we have set backs but everything about her issue is on the table and everyone is aware and we can make adjustments.

I say if you are looking to use it then go for it! Everyone is different and no one can judge anyone else. Meds may greatly benefit your son.

Good Luck with your decision!

My son was just recently tested and diagnosed for the inattentive part of ADHD and they wanted us to medicate him. He is inattentive at school but not extreme so for other reasons also we opt to not medicate at this time. There are other options out there that you can try also before using medication so I would suggest talking with friends (it is amazing how many of your friends may have gone thru the same things as I found out afterward) and looking online for ideas. Once the school term starts again for my son I am going to try a few ideas I found may be helpful such as a special seat cushion that he can twist around a little on but it is quiet and not disturbing to others. I was also told a chiropractor may be able to help so I am going to talk with my family chiropractor and see what she has to say. There is also believe it or not but chewing gum if the teacher allows it. They say a child chewing gum may help distract them enough that the other jitters may subside and he will be more attentive in school. I know these ideas sound crazy but I am going to give them a shot before I try medication. I suggest you try other alternatives first and if not then there is always the medication you can try! Good luck, i understand it is not an easy choice!

There are 2 types of stimulant meds for AD(H)D: amphetamine and methyl phenadates. My 10 year old tried Vyvanse (amphetamine) which is supposed to last 12 hours but lasted about 18 hours for her, so no sleep, which we stopped after just a few days. She then tried Clonidine (methyl phenadate) which allowed her to sleep but made her moodier and eventually depressed. We have now stopped meds and fought the school to get her on an IEP since she has dyslexia as well as inattentive ADD (not hyper). Due to the depression she will never again try the second type (methyl phen) but we do have a 3rd prescription for Adderal XR which is a less long acting (but still long acting) version of amphetamine. The older drugs (Ritalin) were short acting requiring multiple doses a day AND they caused this roller-coaster effect which in itself can make you moody. The longer acting ones has a smoother ramp up and very smooth ramp down, but unless you try it you will not know how long they act in each person. Our pediatrician is unwilling to prescribe a short acting med.
My daughter will get help next year not just with special tutoring for dyselxia (orton gillingham reading method as well as structured writing classes) but also with organizing her books and folders, with study guides, etc.
We had to fight for 2.5 years with the school to get her some help, but it was worth the work. Start keeping all communications with teachers about his struggle, his test results, sample work, etc. so you can make a case if you feel he needs special education and not just medication.

You've already gotten some great, positive feedback, so I just want to add one possibility that might help with your decision. (Our son was 5 when we began the evaluation process, nearly six when we came to the ADHD diagnosis, now nearly seven and been on meds for a year.)

We saw a developmental neurologist at Gillette who, in addition to the mountains of behavioral checklist forms, audiology eval, visual eval, occupational therapy eval, and extensive psychological evals, had us do a triple-blind medication study. The pharmacist there prepared one week of placebo, one week of a low-dose stimulant (generic Ritalin) and one week of a high-dose stimulant. Neither the doctor nor my son's teacher nor his dad and I knew which med we were getting in which week. At the end of each week his dad and I, and his teacher, filled out another set of behavior checklists, which we then compared against all the initial forms we filled out so we could see exactly how his behavior was different (or the same.) (The doctor had all sorts of nifty and *clear* charts and graphs.) Granted, my husband and I knew when we were on which dose, just based on his behavior, but it was really reassuring to see objective data that confirmed that the low-dose was the right fit. Even though the eval took a full year from initial contact w/the doctor until he was writing a prescription, it was totally worth it, because we were able to be so confident in our diagnosis. It is true that you need to make sure that it is truly ADHD, it is an easy mis-diagnosis.

Second, I totally agree that meds plus occupational therapy is the combination that really works for us. It's not just the once-a-week session with the therapist, either. She has developed a flow-chart routine of different kinds of activity choices, in a specific order, for us to do at home with our son every day (OK, we don't do it every day any more, but most days, and it's there when we need it.) We've also learned so much about what his body needs - he's a sensory seeker, and so if we front-load his day with the kinds of input that his body is seeking, he is much calmer when the meds wear off at dinner time. The meds don't change what his body needs, it still needs very specific kinds of physical movement - the meds just allow him to wait to get what his body needs until an appropriate time and in an appropriate manner, instead of following every impulse that his body has. Funny thing, before meds, it was like his body was looking for specific kinds of input, but didn't really know how to get it, so it just did things that "felt good" even if they didn't necessarily satisfy the need - the movement equivalent of junk food. Now when he gets squirrely, we have specific tools that we know truly satisfy his body needs, so he doesn't come back seeking again in five minutes. I really feel like he's also learned to listen to his own body, and can tell us what kind of activities it is craving. So yes, therapy AND meds, but the therapy has to become a part of your daily routine.

Yes, there are minimal side effects, but our confidence in the diagnosis, plus the success of the combination of meds and OT, have made those minor side effects worthwhile.

In response to "chewing gum" - it can be a successful therapy tool, but not because it's distracting. The jaw is one of the largest muscle groups in the body, and giving those muscles "work" by chewing satisfies the sensory-seeking needs.

My son was on Adderall XR for a few years, and now he is on Vyvanse and it has made a huge difference. Side effects, the worst one was the not wanting to eat, and with that he lost a bunch of weight, another side effect is sleep disturbance, another one is the potential of what his behavior is going to be when the medication wears off. Some doctors say the side effects can be minimal, but they can also be harsh like the above, you never know what is going to happen until you try something. One word of advice (I give this to quite a few people) is when you do start thinking about medication research it, and when/if you do start, start on a low dose when my son was started on Adderall XR, I didn't know what the starting out dosage should have been, he should have started out at 5mg, the doctor put him on 30mg and he was only 3 (he has a ton of problems, behavior, developmentally and such).

Wanted to mention that a friend's son went on Ritalin for his ADD/ADHD and develped diabetes that requires insulin...they didn't discover the problem until he ended up in the hospital in a diabetic coma. They almost lost him.

My daughter has Sensory Processing Disorder (on the Autism spectrum). We suspected she had an issue when she was about two; we discovered her issue when she was five (saw a Childhood Specialist), and she is now eleven. We were adament about NOT putting her on any pharma drugs of any kind. Refuse to.

Instead, when she was seven years old I switched the entire family over to organic food. We had been tested and we discovered that, among us, we had gluten intolerance, soy intolerance, and casein allergy (with me having some other food intolerances). Just from getting off gluten and cow dairy, we noticed an almost overnight improvement in our daughter. By getting rid of/not eating foods with pesticides, herbicides, chemicals, or any factory-made foods that have preservatives, colorings or dyes, artificial flavorings, or anything else that isn't natural/organic (we eat grass-fed animal products), every one of us noticed a huge difference--not only did my daughter continue to drastically improve in how she behaved, but none of us got sick! This includes staying away from excitotoxins like MSG and other artificial sweeteners (the articifical ones, like Splenda and Aspartame and Nutrasweet; the natural sweetener Stevia (it comes from a plant) is fine to use; in fact, we use it all the time. We also use pure unrefined cane sugar.).

ADD/ADHA usually is because there is a chemical imbalance in the brain/body; once that imbalance is discovered and corrected, it's amazing how many symptoms simply go away...or improve dramatically. I would suggest finding a good Naturopathic Doctor who can help you, your son, and your family embrace a different way of looking at your son's diagnosis--as a wake up call to change your eating and lifestyle habits--and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how little you'll come to rely on allopathic doctors and/or pharma drugs (because your body will be healthy and won't need synthetic chemicals).

Also, it is highly likely that your son's body has a high level of heavy metal toxicity--both I and my daughter were tested, and my daughter was so much more toxic than me, it blew me away! (I mean, I am 32 years older than her; you'd think I would be more toxic in heavy metals than her, because I've lived longer. But it was exactly the other way around!) We both chelated, and that, again, has helped enormously with easing her symptoms (as well as my medical issues).

I can't believe any doctor, in good conscious, would want to put any child on a pharma drug that chemically alters their brain chemistry. The drugs have never been tested for use on children, and there is no way to know how the drugs will interact with a growing child's body/evolving brain.

My daughter has a boy friend in her class who went on pharma drugs to help his issues. My daughter came home from school almost every day, crying or complaining about how her friend was no longer nice to her, that all he did was talk about himself, that he wanted to drink water all the time, that he thought he was all important and wanted to be cool, that he would literally bounce on his feet and be all wired up--and then when he crashed, he was someone that no one wanted to be around. She no longer wants anything to do with him. He's not the same person he'd been before he went on the meds.

The meds physically change/alter the chemicals in the body/brain. If they do help with some of your son's issues, are you prepared for him to be a totally different person? Many children who go on meds become like zombies. Or they go the other extreme and they go high-low in their emotions. I have found it much easier to deal with my daughter by changing our diet and working with a Childhood Specialist in learning how to modify or work through any issues she has.

If you do any reading on the Autism Spectrum (and I'm giving you this area to explore, just because so much has been written about it), you'll see that many, many parents who have gone to an organic diet and cut out gluten and cow dairy from their childrens' diets have seen drastic improvements in their children--some of whom have even been "cured." (It's been thought that there are many, many people who have food allergies and/or intolerances and don't know it; food cannot only affect the body and make us ill; it can also affect our brain chemistry as well. Foods that the body has an issue with can seriously impact the body/brain and how they function.)

Having him checked for food allergies/intolerances is something I would seriously look into and investigate before thinking about putting your son on chemical pharma drugs. Investigate it, at least. A few parents I know who have children with other behavior issues (like ADD/ADHA) have seen some drastic changes/results in their own children from changing their diets--for the better.