Increasingly aggressive and self-injurious behaviors

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

This last month we have been seeing a strong increase in aggressive

behaviors in our daughter. She will be 7 next week. She was on

Respiridal and Clonodine but due to her increasing mood swings and

weight gain she was taken off it. At the time the medication

appeared not to be helping her with any of her behaviors. Since, she

was taken off she still is having mood swings but not as many but

has also been having a large increase in meltdowns which might have

been what we saw with her mood swings prior to taking her off the

medication.

She has been throwing her head back and forth, hitting her head on

the floor, hitting everyone if the family, kicking, screaming and

dropping to the ground meltdowns. She is verbal but is not using her

language to tell us what is going on or what she wants in some

cases. Prior, to these incidents music soothed her but only

sometimes works now. She also appears to have either a cold or

allergies which we took her to the doctor for. We understand her

hyperactivity although that is not quite as bad as it was prior to

being on the medication.

We will be going to Iowa City to see the developmental clinic on

September but won't see behavior until December. Unfortuanatly, they

are short in our area of Autism Pediatric Behavior Specialists or

for that matter any Pediatric Psychiatrists or Psychologist in our

area.

We have been trying the diet but have not noticed much change with

the gluten and dabbled in the casein. We are now going to try a

sugar free diet and have been told that you also aren't supposed to

use Slenda or other sugar substitutes. Does anyone know if Honey can

be used? We also aren't on any supplements yet or other althernative

therapies. We are wondering if sugar or sweetners might be something

to look at since she seems to calm down when she gets it.

The problem is that she has complete meltdowns many times when she

is unable to get what she wants including certain foods. We are very

concerned though with her falling down steps, and hitting her head

on something. She is also hyposensitive to pain. While she does have

many sensory issues and I am wondering if she is on sensory

overload. And what you can do to relieve some of these issues. She

currently goes to Sensory Therapy once a week and speech 2 x week.

Thanks

Any advice or ideas would be greatly appreciated.