Is medicating 2 year olds with autism common?

[Guest guest]

I just got back from my first visit with a pediatric neurologist and I'm

baffled. I've known that my son was autistic since June of last year when he

lost all of his receptive and expressive skills along with all of his social

skills. I did not choose to pay to have him officially diagnosed, but instead

just moved forward and started therapy to try and help my son regain his skills.

Once I felt like I had achieved a good therapy schedule for him, I started

making phone calls to doctors to get tests run, etc. He's had the gamut of

allergy and metals testing done with Dr. Rao, and I was relieved to finally

(after over a 2 month wait) get in to see a pediatric neurologist. As a

newcomer, it hasn't ever made sense to me that the pediatric neurologists

weren't leading the march of progress in autism. If it's a neurological

disorder, they ought to be able to figure out (after over 40 years) how to

effectively treat it. Instead, I've heard parents talking about their DAN

doctors and their therapists, but not a lot of mention of the neurologist. I

wondered if I was missing something.

So, as I said, I just got back from our first visit at Texas Child Neurology. I

walked in to turn in my paperwork while leaving in the car with Daddy

for a while, figuring it would be a long wait. What I noticed first as I entered

the office was a huge wall of brochures. Hoping to find something on autism, I

quickly scanned through the 2 dozen or so stacks of them......adhd drug company

brochure, adhd drug company brochure, adhd drug company

brochure......hmmmm....surely, there's something else. Yes! One brochure on a

pediatric sleep center (where EEGs are done). The rest were seriously all drug

company brochures. Nothing educational....nothing informative.....all brochures

trying to sell you drugs for your kids.

Now, let me say right here that I am not opposed to adhd drugs as a rule. I did

see WAY too many kids in my class (I taught Kindergarten for 13 years before

staying home with ) who were being recommended adhd meds by their

doctors. In only one case (in 13 years) did I see that a child would probably

have likely benefited (at that age) from medication. He just could not control

himself, and HE was miserable because of it. Anyway, I digress.....my point was

that I'm not generally opposed to adhd meds, but I do feel like in a lot of

cases they were being overprescribed (for children in my class) at too young of

an age when really, 5 year old boys should be active. JMHO

So, on to the visit. The neurologist asks me a number of questions, types her

notes and glances at from time to time. She had a very good bedside

manner, and answered all of my questions and concerns thoroughly. Well, all but

one.....but that one can be a subject for a different post.

When she's done and has finished her general once over with , she says

that she'd recommend an adhd medication....a stimulant....Focalin.

Now, maybe I've not been looking in the right places, or reading the right

articles, but am I wrong in being shocked and dismayed at the immediate decision

to drug my TWO year old son? Is this common practice? After picking my jaw up

off of the floor, I had an intelligent conversation with her about my feelings

with regard to medicating young children, and then my feelings about it when it

pertained to my son in particular. Then, still completely miffed at the

suggestion that I just jump to meds, I asked her the following. What percentage

of your autistic patients do you make a recommendation of adhd drugs for? Caught

off guard, she repeated my question and then pondered it for a moment, and came

back with....... " 80-90%. "

So, am I naive? Have I missed something? Is this normal? Am I right to be

shocked at the suggestion? Is it common practice to medicate two year old

autistic children with adhd drugs?

Let me also say that my son is affected with moderate autism, is non verbal, had

a huge regression back in June of last year, and is very mild mannered with no

anxiety issues, does not tantrum, harm himself, nor is he aggressive. The doctor

basically said that I was wasting my time with speech at this point because

until he could attend, he wasn't going to learn. When I mentioned that my P/T

and O/T had said the same but their recommendation was yo do sensory activities

before speech she scoffed.

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Serena