Meltdowns in ASDs

My 3 year old daughter has been having meltdowns for a while. She was diagnosed with autism January 30, 2007 and put on Risperdal for not sleeping and her meltdowns. Since she has been on the medicine she has been much better on the sleeping and pretty much never has a meltdown. I know some people think my husband and I are horrible for putting her on medicine, but she would have a least 3 meltdowns a day that could last up to 2 hours each. She would be completly worn out and almost sick over it. Something had to be done. I don't like drugging my child but she is much happier. Does anyone else out there give their child medicine? Just curious.

Very Hopeful

Does anyone's child (other than mine) NOT have meltdowns at school but rather saves them all for home? My daughter is 6y.o. with ASD. We've finally figured out a few tricks that allows her to get her feet on the floor after waking up before she's screaming. I can either give her something sweet to drink like hot cocoa as soon as she opens her eyes or wake her up by giving her a good back scratching (she has itchy eczema). But, even if she helped pick out her clothes the night before, some part of them will be uncomfortable, whether it's her panties, socks, or the entire outfit. She will no longer wear any type of pants and insists on skirts and dresses only and in the past two weeks has refused to wear socks and only wears her croc shoes. Any irritation with her clothes and she starts growling which leads to door slamming, "I hate you"'s and throwing things. But by the time I leave for work, she's smiling and well, not happy but atleast not screaming. We use walkie talkies to speak as I drive down the road since daddy takes them to school after I leave. I often hear her starting back up over the walkie talkie. Then it starts all over again when they get home from school or I get greeted at the door with a complete melt down because she wanted to see me first instead of her 7 y.o brother seeing me first. He's aspergers but rarely has any sort of temper. When I've asked about her behavior at school and explained what we see at home, I'm told she doesn't do anything like that at school, is well behaved and she MUST BE JUST YANKING YOUR CHAIN! Her kindergarten teacher has claimed she acts sweet and "normal". It puts us in a position where we're claiming our child acts demon possessed (25% of her time at home) and the school teacher is saying she's a sweet normal little girl! It makes me feel like we're the demons!!! My baby is very sweet and loveable when she's not having meltdowns! I don't particularly want her to have meltdowns at school (well, maybe just one to show them) but it's so hard on our family for them to all happen at home. Anyone else in this situation?

Hi Very Hopeful.

You were asking about medication use, and I wanted to let you know that we will be posting a report on use of medication by children with ASD on our website tomorrow.

You were saying that your daughter is taking Risperdal. As you may know, Risperdal is the only medication FDA approved for treatment of the irritability associated with autistic disorder in children and adolescents aged 5 through 16 years. ("Irritability," in this instance, is defined as aggression, self-injury, tantrums, and quickly changing moods.) Just as many medications not FDA approved for treatment of children with autism are commonly used to treat these children "off-label," Risperdal is sometimes used to treat children under 5 years.

8.3% of all children whose parents reported on treatment information in IAN are taking Risperdal - the most commonly taken of all psychotropic medications in IAN. (Psychotropic means "affecting mental activity, behavior, or perception." These meds include things like anti-depressants, stimulants for treating ADHD, etc.)

In the IAN data, there were 1,854 children with ASD between the ages of 3 and 5 taking psychotropic medications at last count, so your daughter is most definitely not the only one.

Nadee, just to respond to your question about "meltdowns that happen only at home", I wanted to let you know that that has happened in many families.

Tony Attwood, in his book Asperger's Syndrome, describes how children can seem totally different at home or school. Although he was writing about Asperger's specifically, the same could probably be said of many children on the spectrum. Here's a quote from his book, pg 39:

"The child may be very conscious of the necessity to follow the codes of conduct in the classroom and to try to be inconspicuous and behave like other children. This pressure to conform and retain self control can lead to enormous emotional tension which, like a compressed spring, is released when the child reaches home. Here, the child is a different character, almost like a Jekyll and Hyde. This is a feature of Asperger's syndrome and not necessarily an indication of the parents being unable to manage their child. It will help for the classroom teacher to have a range of relaxing or solitary activities for the child just before they return home. Parents may also consider a period of relaxation or energetic activities when the child comes home to dissolve their tension from a long day at school."

I do not know if this is exactly your daughter's situation, but it seemed that Attwood's book might prove a useful resource when trying to offer the school a theory about the difference in behavior. We also write about this in the "Meltdowns" portion of our "Asperger's" section, here:

http://www.iancommunity.org/cs/about_asds/aspergers_syndrome_meltdowns

This can be printed out and shared if that would be helpful.

WOW! So glad I decided to take some time to read some posts tonight. I posted something a few weeks back about this same subject. Didn't see much of a response. My son is 9. And he has had the tantrums/meltdowns as long as I can remember since i found out he was autistic. They have gotten better with age. well less frequent. But he is so strong. And so skinny. And they are primarily always with me. He has had the tantrums with others but he will hit, kick, bite....it takes everything for me to restrain him. All this school year, after school when i picked him up, he would get in the car and hit, kick, jump over the seat, pull my hair. Not always every day. But he was fairly consitant. I started looking into his school day and it hit me that it always started after noon. So i decided to cut his day. My feeling was that he was "spent" (what i call it) He just couldn't go that long. Now for two weeks, i have picked him up at noon and there has not been one episode. He comes home and colapses on the sofa for an hour or two and wakes up happy and content. Another thing we have found is the respirdal in the meltaway form. when he gets like this i give him his dosage wherever we are and within ten minutes usually he has calmed down. I carry them everywhere i go!!!!!!!!If it wasn't for his meltdowns, I probably would have nothing to complain about. There is just simply no contol. and then when's he is done, it's like he's this totally different person. He is semi nonverbal. he can communicate enough for me to know what he may want. but it's all echo and learned. He has no understanding of what he did wrong. At least we can't talk about it. But for me it seems to have been overstimulation or tiredness. I don't know. But this is what we are dealing with right now trying to get him some help. What a relief to hear that someone else goes through the same thing. I've had bruises, scratches, scars from bite marks. BUT....as I said these are moments. It's not his lifestyle. But oh when they happen........to stay calm?????? Is it really possible. lol. I am so glad I stayed up tonight for this. Please people......keep it going.

I am new to this even though my son was diagnosed in"07". I do not know what a meltdown is, and I do not want to get caught and not know what to do to overt or to counter act the meltdown,when it comes. I assume that it is coming soon seeing as how he is now 12 and puberty is not far behind. And I remember how strong feeling were then. Any information would be helpful, thankyou in advance.
BarrelMom

BarrelMom, hi, and welcome to IAN.

To answer your question, a meltdown is basically a very big tantrum. Some children with autism are quite prone to these, but some are not. If your son has not had explosive tantrums up to this point, it may be that he is not prone to these, which would certainly be good news.