Does my son have Asperger's?

[angelgurlie1999]

My son is 6 years old.  Im at the end of my rope, Ive been to three psychologists, and two psychiatrists.  Two of the three psychologists told me my son was "out of their league", one says there is nothing wrong with him and one of the psychiatrists says my son only has ADHD but has him on: seroquel, clonidine, resperidone, and adderall he is currently on the last two recently switched from seroquel and concerta to resperidone and adderall and is doing much better.  My son lacks any sense of reality, is very anxious to play and make friends, even with things that are not real, ie; tornadoes, our back deck, his clothes or shoes.  which he actually punishes when they are "naughty' like spanking (which is odd because we do not spank) and putting his shoes, toys, clothes in time out.  He lacks almost any empathy he killed a friends puppy while they were babysitting him, repeatedly smashing its head against a concrete wall, and i found my 9 month old banging his head repeatedly against his crib at 2 am to find that my son had wrapped a fitted sheet around his head around and around his head over a dozen times where his face was blue when i got him untangled! he used to keep his feces and roll them into balls and hide it in his window sills or under his bed, he wakes up at all hours of the night grabs food but does not always eat but instead hides it under our tv stand or under his bed or behind the toilet.  he constantly thinks people (everyone) is his friend, two little boys ganged up on him at school and beat him so badly he came home with a bloody nose and bruises all over and still gave them voluntarily his toys later that day saying one of them was his best friend even though the child was telling him he hated him over and over.  he has very very good vocab, using words like:  currently instead of now, will return soon enough instead of il be back soon and my husband and i only graduated high school at the bottom of our class i dont even use words or know the meaning of some of the things he says or also he will go on and on even if nobody is listening to him.  he constantly is trying to take off his pants and shoes and/socks, because they are "getting him, or being naughty".  or covers his ears when i start the dishwasher or "freaks out" if he hears an ambulance.  he thinks he sees tornadoes or spiders every where and wont even sleep in his bed because the spiders will get him.  he walks kind of an odd way but nobody finds anything wrong with his legs?  he doesnt seem to know how to take turns talking, if he isnt done saying what he is saying he will literally have a melt down, or if he doesnt finish certain things that he supposedly has to do.  for the longest time he spoke in the third person but i finally got him out of that habit.  he is very smart when it comes to stuff to do with fixing cars, trains, snakes, tornadoes, figuring out puzzles.  he seems like he doesnt know how to stand or sit sometimes or looks weird doing it.  i also am getting either notes or calls home from the teacher almost on a daily basis, i dont know what to do please help me!!!  my husband and i are very stressed out.

[benjimom]

glad you finally got some answers, it's tough and I think none of us want to put our children on meds, but sometimes in order for them to get through life and thru school it's necessary.  

[littlehill]

I feel your pain, your story (minus the puppy) is exactly like our 6 year old son, he has been on Respridone for almost a year now & he is a changed boy, we still go to counseling once a week & he still has outbursts. I would have never dreamed to put one of our children on medication but until you live with something like this don't judge. (I ran into someone who actually scolded me for medicating him, so touch subject.) Anyway, the point is there's others out there. For the longest time I thought we were alone, and thank God I'm not going crazy myself. It got so bad that it was affecting our marriage. Now I am so thankful for this medication and to see others with similar stories. Good Luck, if you ever need to vent I'm here.

[angelgurlie1999]

thank you! i got a referral to bring my son to someone that specializes in just children, and we found out that he is on the Autism spectrum, now that we know we can better suit his needs.  so finally things are looking up thank you everyone for your help!

[anonymous1514]

This is definitely more than ADD, I would get an expert to observe him at school. Surely your son's school has outside resources that they can bring in to evaluate. If not, call the ECE (early childhood Education department and ask them. I don't know if Early Intervention will come to the school in your state, but worth seeing. Or you could have them evaluate him at home. The behavior involving feces, the puppy, and strangling his brother sound very serious. He needs more help than he is getting. Start with those suggestions, but also, what has the school suggested? Good luck

[angelgurlie1999]

thank you for your interest in helping me, to tell you the truth i am trying to switch doctors because when i told him about the puppy and everything else i have put in here and even about him telling me he did all these things because his "breath told him to do it" and he told me it was normal ADHD behavior! I dont want anything serious to be wrong with my son, but i have this feeling in my gut that something is wrong and i dont think it is ADHD!

[angelgurlie1999]

thank you for your comment, i guess i forgot to mention, my son is actually on aderall and risperidone now and is actually a LOT better the behaviors i was listing above were actually before ANY medications!

[benjimom]

What did the doctor say when you told him about killing the puppy?  

I would write down and keep good records of what is exactly happening.  To me, I'm no expert, but this sounds more than just adhd.

[Natta1980]

certainly seems like a lot of things are going on with him.....he may need more supervision that he currently gets so you can re-direct him.....

While meds may be helfpul with aggression and impulsive behaviors, they will do very little to correct things. I have heard that stimulants that are prescribed routinely for ADD/ADHD can actually make children on autism spectrum worse...

I think the most important thing would be to concentrate your attention on sleep problems and aggression - and honestly, until you get sleep under control it would be hard to work on anything. I would start with a sleep clinic. Do not focus on what the diagnosis is - many principles of working with children are similar for ADD/ADHD/behavior problems/mood disorders/you name it

Write down all of his "behaviors" and ask school to do the same, also write down time, duration, what precedes it, what happends afterwards.

Depending on what the school situation is, it may make sense to put behavior plan in place


Good luck by all means