ASD ADD? long maybe OT?

[Guest guest]

I'm at the end of me rope! If anyone has any ideas/suggestions for me I'd really

appreciate it.

I'll try to sum this up as short as I can.

My son at age 9 - 2006 I met with his ped about some really quirky behaviors.

Saving pencil shaving, fear of hurting himself (by climbing on things/sports),

fear of bees or any flying stinging insect, not wanting to sleep alone, scared

of the dark, not adventurous, very literal, little cop (follow rules), not

wanting to get rid of ANYTHING (including happy meal toy wrappers)

2007 age 10 had a private psycoeducational assessment done by child

psychologist. His dx was ADHD which I didn't believe to be right.

2007 seen a child psychiatrist she was querying PDD but didn't tell me & never

followed up on setting up biofeed back to help with his bee issue. So we only

seen her 2x's. 1 thing she did point out to me was that when we stopped him from

what he was saying so we could talk, when he was told he could finish what he

was saying he picked it up word for word a couple of sentences before he was

interrupted.

2008 age 11 school psycological assessment. His dx was communication disability.

2008 Seen an OT - she told me he has some sensory integration issues & also some

balance issues but didn't see any signs of ADHD.

2010 age 13 seen a dr that specializes in autism (not a child psychiatrist so

can't dx) She is positive that he is ASD. She sent me to some different sources

to get a dx on him. She doesn't feel he has ADHD

2010 Seen at the childrens hospital. Dr told me if we were in another country he

would be dx'd with a social disorder.

All his teachers say they would KILL to have a room full of students like my

son. His IEP always lists appropriate classroom behaviors & conflict resolution

as strengths. I have never been called by the school because of issues or

behavior.

We just finish a 2 part meeting with a dr that is the head child psychiatrist of

the ASD dept (total of almost 4 hrs – tele conference (my son & I were sitting

at one board table & the Dr was sitting at another in a different city so the 2

meetings of almost 2 hrs each were done over a TV). He feels that 70% of what's

going on with my son is ADHD inattentive type. He wants to start him on Ritalin

10mg morn & noon. I'm still not convinced 8^( I think there is a lot more going

on. Why would you pay any attention to anything when you don't think it's

important or to anything that doesn't interest you?

This is what my son is like now at 15yrs old & in grade 10.

He is still literal, still petrified of Bees - won't spend much time outdoors

once it gets warm (he begged me to close my sun roof while sitting in a parking

lot in case a bee came in), he's emotionally flat most of the time (he said he's

never looked forward to anything & that he doesn't think he's ever been truly

happy, also said he's not sad), he shows very little facial expressions, he's

never given me the gears about anything (never done the " but you said " or never

bugs for anything), will do any household chore asked of him including cleaning

toilets (he once told me the reason he does what's asked of him is so that he

doesn't have to come up with something to do), he is not interested in anything

(I asked him if there was anything I could take away from him that would bother

him & he said no), to me it seems like he's just putting in time, in the last 2

yrs he had 1 kid over once & he went there once (I think it was the other kid's

idea), he does text a couple of people - but never phones anyone nor does he

ever invite anyone over (we are in the country so no place to just walk over to

a friends), he avoids groups of people (including family get togethers & will

sneak off to his room alone any chance he gets), he's told me he's got no use

for people & that he only talks to them when at school or when he's really

bored, his diet is horrible (he doesn't eat meat, vegetables, fruit (except

apples), no pasta, no cereal. Aside from junk food the only partially healthy

things he eats are grilled cheese or something (bagels, toast, crackers) with

peanut butter and chocolate milk - that is absolutely it! He has grilled cheese

or peanut butter every dinner & usually eats dry bagels for breakfast & has

fries or pizza (with everything including the cheese taking off so really just

bread & sauce) for lunch. He says he's always bored. When you try to talk to him

about things like scenery & say something like isn't that river nice to look at

– his response is nope not to me, he once told me he was different from his

friends in HS because they aren't bored all the time like he is. He doesn't care

a bit what anyone else (including us) thinks or feels about him because

" everyone is entitled to their own opinion " .

I do make him drink a healthy shake that we make with (1/2 cantaloupe or honey

dew, a cup of carrot juice, 1 cup V8 fusion, 1 pkg dessert tofu, 1-2 bananas, 1

scoop of greens plus, 1 scoop of whole food fusion, coarl calcium, fiberific,

3,6,9 oil) that my kids have been getting since they were less than a yr old. He

went thru a couple of times of trying to get out of drinking it as it's not the

tastiest. I told him he could, that he'd just have to come & sit & eat roast

beef & potatoes with me & he said no I'll drink this.

An example of his thought process is when I asked him if he ever wakes up

looking forward to anything, he wanted to know what time he was waking up, he

wouldn't accept anytime or it doesn't matter, he said it did to him.

This is when he was younger I would ask for say some skittles he wanted to know

how many, I'd say just a couple he'd still say how many. He had to have a

number.

He doesn't seem to be able to commit to an answer. The latest 2 questions were -

we just got back from a weekend thing. I asked him if he wanted to go to another

one of the same event he said he didn't know. He's been in 2 HS's when asked

which one he liked better he couldn't tell me – yet he was the 1 to ask to go

back to the 1st HS he was in, as the # of students & the size of the 2nd school

overwhelmed him. He was still getting lost on occasion at the end of his 1st

semester there. That should have been an easy question for him.

Like I've said I'm at the end of my rope. If the last Dr is right then maybe

Ritalin would help. But the side effects of loss of appetite, sleepiness & being

too " mellow " would be a huge problem as he's under weight as it is & he already

has the mellowness & sleepiness. If the other Dr is right & he's ASD then I need

to do things differently. I'm lost right now. My plan from here is to see if I

can get referred back to the Dr that thinks he's ASD so I can talk to her about

whats happened since I last saw her & arrangements are already in the works for

me to talk to all his teachers to get their input as they see him with peers &

in the classroom so maybe they can shed some light. Any ideas or suggestions

welcomed private murphterv@... or on list.

Thanks Laurie