An Alternative To A Narcotic Medication?

Today I have to e-mail Kiddo's doctor and let him know how/if a new medication that was given to him is working. He has been having an increasingly difficult time with distractability, focusing, paying attention, and the ever increasing argumentative behavior. The doctor added Concerta, used to treat ADHD symptoms, to go along with his Abilify, which is used for his extremely high anxiety level. He says that these two meds normally work well together. Well, normally doesn't work in our home. Our kids seem to have idiosyncrisies (sp?) with certain medicines. Benedryl WIRES our kids up beyond belief!!! We told the doctor that we had tried 8 different ADHD medicines before Kiddo was diagnosed with Asperger's because that is what they believed he had. The school just said he was a "behavior problem." Meds that were supposed to take weeks before you would notice any change, were noticeable right out of the starting gate!!! OH MY GOSH.................he went from a sweet little boy to an aggressive time bomb that would bang his fists on windows or anything else within his reach to banging his fists on his older sister. Needless to say, he was IMMEDIATELY taken off of it. Maybe the doctor was right this time when he said, "Kiddo's body metabolism, his brain function, and his medications were all different back then when he was in 3rd grade. I believe we will have a different response to these now. Let's give it two weeks and see how it goes." Well, we were more than a little apprehensive about starting him on another ADHD med, but as long as Kiddo was willing to try it, we would.

Well, the two weeks were over on Wednesday and has there been a change? I certainly was praying that there would be, but unfortunately, I hardly saw any change for the better. In fact, what I did see was him become more argumentative, but now with an attitude! This is NOT him as he is one of the most lovable, gentle souls I have ever met!!! Thank God at least this time there were no fists involved!

Yesterday, while I was random blogging, I came across the BEAUTIFUL blog of hugs4Him. She had a link to Autism In The Christian Home. This owner of this site is a doctor and has children of her own that are on the autism spectrum. Her information is abundant!! She talks about the different types of autism, therapies, and medications as well as books, homeschooling, and the various types of curriculum that are available.

I read the following passage and was amazed.........

VITAMIN B6 AND MAGNESIUM SUPPLEMENTATION

At least 18 studies have been performed which show that about half of individuals with autism improve with vitamin B6 and magnesium supplementation. These results are phenomenal!

Improvements occurred in behavior, stimming, tantrums, eye contact, learning, attention, language, speech, and brain wave activity.

Was it possible that it could be this simple? That there was something we could try that was not only natural but it wouldn't drain our wallet dry to boot? If you have looked it up further on the internet and have found this same information on many, many sites. How come the doctors have never suggested this?

I don't know if it will work or not, but I tell you what, WE ARE CERTAINLY GOING TO GIVE IT A TRY!

Please keep us in your prayers as I e-mail the doctor with this information, and that this truly helps Kiddo!