This is your baby on Drugs

Finally I got her into the Psychiatrist, Sheila Irick. She was so nice and helpful and listened so well. Cassidy was in a very bad mood during our session so she was able to see just what I mean about her behavior.

It seems like other times that I take her for help she is Angel/Cassidy and it's hard to explain how bad she can be. Her bad mood helped me convince this doctor that she needed medication.

I am so sick of hearing things like, "I wouldn't recommend medication just yet" or "I don't think it's right to give kids medicine." As my mother says, if it was an adult that was behaving like that and acting that upset all the time people would want to help. Medication would be at the top of the list.

Let me tell you...within the last several weeks we have changed her diet about 3 times, tried chelation, vitamins and cod liver oil. Her behavior did not change she just dropped five pounds and looked like a little heroin addict. Everyone has an answer, a miracle cure or a theory of the cause.

I don't care anymore what caused it. I don't believe it is curable. There are a bunch of evil, horrible people out there just dying to take your money, use your child as a science experiment and break your heart.

The more I read about mercury, dairy-free/wheat-free diets, chelation, cod liver oil, vitamins...the more I just want to have a fit of my own. SHUT UP PEOPLE! You are a bunch of horrible liars! It's not curable!

The doctor put her on Seroquel. It is an anti-psychotic medicine. It has improved her sleep 100%. She is in bed by 7-7:30 and sleeps up to 11 hours without waking. Her fits may have improved a little. It will be a while before it is fully effective.

Dr. Irick says she is most partial to Seroquel for autistic children. She has had a lot of experience with autistic kids and says this drug has the least side effects. So far she has had much less trouble with the drugs than the diet.

Sugar Free/Wheat Free Diet Bananza!

Also while waiting to see Dr. Irick I started researching insomnia in children. I read that one contributing factor could be sugar or wheat or both. So as an experiment I took her off of all sugar and wheat. I spent time looking up how to make wheat-free chicken nuggets and so forth.

Immediately she seemed better. She went nearly a week without one fit but the insomnia persisted. Then all of a sudden she was having fits again. It was like we had found this great answer and then it was gone.

She lost 5 pounds and was having diarrhea all of the time. We feared it was the Splenda in the diet pops we were allowing her. She often seemed hungry and craved wheat.

We decided to scrap the wheat idea because she doesn't have much anyway but we continued with the sugar free diet. The diarrhea remained and so did the fits. We started cutting back on the Splenda and letting her have small amounts of sugar.

She has gained the weight back. 35 pounds is too light for a five-year-old. She is back up to 40 pounds. I don't think that changing her diet is helping at all. I think it is just upsetting her tummy, which is causing more fits.

Chelation...Schmelation!!!

While we waited for the visit with Dr. Irick, Fox News aired a segment on controversial autism "treatments". I wasn't going to give it a chance but Mom watched it and got fired up about trying some of these things.

They talked about mercury in baby shots and treatment of the poisoning with chelation. They got us thinking we should try it. I researched and found this product http://www.detoxamin.com . I started it on both Cassidy and myself. I try every experiment that she does to give me a better idea of how it might be affecting her.

She ended up with diarrhea and I ended up with the most horrible metallic taste in my mouth. We are still trying it but only about once a week. I cannot imagine that removing the metals from her will save her.

If mercury has poisoned her I fear it has already done its damage. Maybe this will help further damage...? I don't know at all. This crap cost $280 including shipping. I think people out there are making a ton of money off of desperate parents.

But then I think what if it works and I never tried it? So to kill off those impending thoughts...we are trying it.

Lotus Group Emails

Hello,
I took my autistic daughter, Cassidy in to see Janice last week. She had some good ideas but honestly nothing I hadn't heard before. I am disappointed and frustrated.
My daughter is having violent, object breaking fits and hurting herself.
She cannot sleep at night. She often sleeps no more than 5 hours 9pm - 2 am. Then I still have trouble getting her to sleep the next night. She wakes screaming and violent in the night.
She is a mess when she wakes up in the morning.
I get no sleep. My son doesn't even stay with us a majority of the time because I don't want him to have to put up with her behavior and keep him awake at night. Especially when he has to go to school the next day. This is so painful to me.
Keeping a journal of when she does this and why is beyond me. I am a mess. I can't cope with this anymore and I KNOW she is miserable. She whines, cries and screams about 65% of the day and night.
I need SOMETHING to help her sleep. Or something to calm her fits. PLEASE!
Any suggestions will be helpful.
Kim Atkins




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Jun 2 (1 day ago)
Kim,

My name is Patti and I am the office manager. After reviewing your email my suggestion is that you bring Cassidy in to see Dr. Shiela Irick. Dr. Irick specializes in children and adolescents. Continued therapy with Janice can help behaviorally but sometimes medication is necessary and only an evaluation by Dr. Irick can determine this. With the problems you have described I urge you to make this move. Please call me if you have any questions and to schedule with Dr. Irick.

Patti Davis


-----Original Message-----From: Sparkle125@gmail.com [mailto:Sparkle125@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2005 11:15 AMTo: info@lotusgroup.bizSubject: LotusGroup.com Contact Form


We have an appointment with Dr. Irick Friday, June 10 at 9:30 am. I am lucky to have such an understanding boss that I get to take off to do these things.

Here is a drawing did of 3 men standing on each other's head. (cat in the hat comes back style)

I wrote the word "red" at the bottom and she wrote the top one. She is intellectually mature and maybe even smarter than average. If she could get a grip emotionally. (I know how she feels)