Can a 4 year old with ASD be medicated?

[Xuti]

Total last resort, I'm heartbroken it has reached this stage but he's uncontrollable and has become a danger to everybody in the home

Anybody with an autistic child here who can tell me a bit about medication?

Medication for what? Sleep, anxiety/depression, aggression/challenging behaviour?

Does DS have an EHCP? And is there sufficient support in there?

Have you had social care assessments? An assessment from the disabled children's team for DS and a carers assessment for you.

If there are siblings do you have a young carers group locally?

Do you know about HomeStart?

Do you mean ADHD? There isn't medication for autism alone.

User there may not be medication to treat autism per se but medication is used in some cases to help some of the difficulties such as melatonin (sleep), antidepressants (depression/anxiety), antipsychotics (challenging behaviour).

I strongly suspect he has ADHD alongside his ASD, so I would like his paediatrican to investigate that and prescribe meds if she thinks it's appropriate.

Regardless though the issues are severe aggression, hyperactivity and I believe anxiety.

He's only semi verbal so isn't able to articulate how he feels but his life is a misery at the moment. He's so angry and aggressive.

He does have an EHCP and will be starting a school for autistic children in September.

We've had involvement from ed psych, SALT etc. Every suggestion made we implement one hundred percent.

The older he gets the worse it is.

I've just had a quick look on the SN board and can see many parents with autistic children do have medication for them so I'm confused with the conflicting statements about it being prescribed.

I've spoken with SS previously who said he was too young for respite and there wasn't anything they can do for me. They reccomended early help, If I would like that, but it's not disability specific.

Home start I am aware of but his behaviour is too severe to inflict on well meaning volunteers. He even manages to hurt his father and he's a strong bloke.

Medication can be prescribed for things like sleep difficulties.

Social care are talking nonsense. There should have been a social care assessment as part of the EHCNA. You can request an assessment for DS yourself separately now. Also, you can ask social care for a carer’s assessment for you. Don’t be fobbed off.

Have you had an OT assessment at home? They can help with ways to keep DS and everyone safe at home.

Is DS in nursery at the moment? Can they put more support in place? If nursery was easier for DS and met his needs home life may not be so difficult.

Don’t be put off HomeStart because of DS’s behaviour, they often work with families with DC with additional needs.

Push for an ADHD assessment.

A referral to camhs is also what you need and you can get that through your paediatrician or doctor