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I can't believe it's been a year now since we decided to put my oldest son, Alex on medication for the behavioral issues he was having related to his Autism. I'm torn about the whole thing - and had been for years leading up to the decision to put him on medication. He was put on an anti-psychotic called Risperdal. There are side affects - as there always are with any medication. The one that I want to talk about here is the weight gain. It breaks my heart... Alex has always been a pretty thin boy - I look at pictures of him from a year ago and compare them to pictures of him now - it hurts so bad - that he's chubby now. I remember seeing overweight kids before the weight gain - and thinking - how could parents let their kids get that way? And now - I'm sure there are others staring at my Alex and asking the same question. Don't get me wrong - he isn't obese by any means - but it did become a concern with the doctor - although the last few visits have gotten thumbs up because his weight gain had slowed down. We are limiting certain foods and trying to walk with him (lets face it - after having a baby a year ago and my 20 year Class Reunion coming up - I could use the exercise too!)... He is getting taller - so I know some of that weight is starting to "stretch" out on his body.
The positives of the medicine though - have really outweighed (no pun intended) the negative of him gaining weight. He's a lot less anxiety ridden and is able to control himself better. I've also noticed that his language skills have improved - which was a plus I was not expecting. Alex has always had verbal skills - but now he's starting to make complete sentences that make sense!
Scary thing though - a couple of weeks ago - my dad sends me a link regarding the risperdal - a news report on CBS News about how some boys on risperdal had developed lactating breasts! It was very scary. I can't imagine having to put Alex through lipo or surgery to get rid of breast tissue that he should not have! We can only wait and see if this is something that will happen to Alex. He isn't at a point where we feel he can be taken off the medication or even reduce the dosage - altough it is very minimal - so I don't know what we could reduce it to.
He is happy - and I guess that is what matters most.
