Hi there!!! I am new here and I'm a first time mom who does not plan on having any more children, especially after the experience I have had with my son.

My son has hyeractivity issues, problems sitting still for longer than 2 minutes, is speech delayed and socially behind and may be on the autism spectrum. He will be tested using the ADOS by his developmental pediatrician in the fall, however, she is more concerned he may have ADHD than autism. I suspect he could have both.

I have taken him to a number of experts since he was 15 months old and I have gotten varying opinions. It's ridiculous. It makes my head spin. My son is now 4. The most recent doctor, a child psychiatrist, does not believe my son has autism (he's so "borderline" that he has been difficult to dx) and he cannot believe, based on my son's HORRIBLE behavior during our session, that our regular pediatrician has not prescribed medication. I begged her to do it months ago, but she thinks he is too young and not agressive enough (in other words does not come at us with a knife in hand), and I am inclined to agree that is he is young for meds, but she is not the one who has to live with him, KWIM???

At the psych's office he was at his worst- fidgety, standing on furniture, using cuss words- opening doors where people were having their own therapy session, and getting into things even though we told him NOT to and he KNOWS better. It was almost like he was acting out on purpose. The receptionist literally could not get me out of the office fast enough as I was paying for our session. It was awful. I came home and cried for an hour. I was so embarrassed.

He is in a special needs preschool, attends private speech therapy 4 times a week and is in a camp (paid for privately) this summer that is especially geared towards children with speech delays. All of the children in his "camp group" are boys (big surprise, right? ;-)) and either they are at risk for autism or have a formal dx, mostly HFA or PDD-NOS. If a child was severely impaired cognitively, they were not granted acceptance and were referred to a different program. I am doing everything I can, and plan on looking into ABA. Maybe that will help??? It has never been suggested to me by anyone who has evaluated him, but I'm willing to try....

He has made progress, but his attention span is NIL. His social skills are not there. He is indifferent to other children, but not to us, his parents, or his grandparents. He is very attached and affectionate with us, but he never initiates play with other kids. One mom told me her son, also at camp with my son, told her that my son was one of his best friends. While I am thrilled about that, my son never tells me about other kids at school or camp. He is only conversational on a basic level.

On the up side, he is bright (or so they tell me), curious, has great joint attention, pretty good eye contact (although less than NT kids) and he is eager to explore new things and can really be a great kid, when he is not driving me berserk.

ANYWAY, the psychiatrist gave me a starter pack of Intuniv. We don't want to try stimulants on him as he weighs about 33 lbs soaking wet with all of his clothes on and is not a big eater. We're worried about his growth. I don't think he has put on any weight since age 3, despite my attempts to get him to EAT, eat and eat. He just not that interested in food.

It is my understanding that Intuniv will increase his appetite and help him calm down and focus, but I am scared to death of medication right now, as he is SO young and well...it's scary no matter how old your child is.

On the other hand, I am thinking I may try it because he cannot learn or focus and it's getting in the way of his being able to function. I feel like I am in the beginning stages of using my son as a guinea pig to test out medications and I am horrified it has come to this. I never thought in a million years.....

My question is: Has anyone here tried Intuniv on their child and did they see any good results? I understand it can make the child sleepy and have low blood pressure, but these are risks I am willing to take if it can help my little boy.

Any replies or advice would be SO greatly appreciated. I am pretty desparate at this point.

Should I try it??? I am really going crazy over here.

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