Considering medication for my son with Autism

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Hi, all this is my first post on this group or any board regarding my

son with Autism. I want to give a bit of background first.

I have a 6 year old with what was labeled as mild/moderate autism

under the PDD label. I also have a typically developing 3 year old

boy. My 6 year old son is quite high functioning. He can toast his own

bread, make a sandwich, use the toilet, dress himself (although

usually needs lots of verbal cues due to being inattentive) so I

usually do it to speed things up (He needs to be on the bus to school

at @ 7:45 am) He knows his numbers pretty well, colors, and speaks

well although he is random on his topics and does not usually use his

words in a social context, more like demands for something or telling

us what objects are.

As I'm sure you have all experienced, people with autism have

behaviors that seem odd. My son is currently into putting a rubber

stopper in a plastic bag, filling up a sink with water, pipes (water

pipes and ducts), and standing on top of a basketball in the house.

These issues are not the problem, it's his improper social behaviors

such as:

Hitting me, relatives the teachers and teacher aides at his school

Saying the word Penis repeatedly (not as much as he used to though)in

school and other public places

Pulling his pants down and exposing himself, which he thinks is

humorous. He has done this at his old and current school several times

Urinating and defecating on his bedroom floor in our house after

putting him to bed - He has also done this in the playground at

school, but he is now in new school and no new reports of that. He has

not done this in a week or so, hopefully this issue will go away.

Angry outbursts that seem to have no predictability - He can be

sitting watching a movie quietly and then all of the sudden, have a

rage where he yells out. This usually lasts only a few minutes.

When he does these behaviors, I place him in the corner of the room,

and inform him that the behavior is naughty, or I try to redirect him

by replacing the Penis word to try to get him to say another word

instead.

My wife and I are seriously considering medication to see if it can

control these behaviors, because nothing else seems to be working. We

get almost daily reports of poor social behavior from the school and

he does most of these things I mentioned above almost every day.

We are not sure the best and fastest way to approach this. I guess I

will call his pediatric doctor today and see what she recommends. Does

anyone have other similar experiences with these types of behaviors

and if medication was successful in controlling this. Thanks to all

for any advice.