Oregon family uses medical marijuana to manage son's autistic rage

[Luissa]

Luissa, when my son was small we found that ibuprofen would often calmed him. Same with caffeine. Never understood it exactly. Docs we saw all wanted him on Risperdal or Ritalin type drugs. The side effects were awful but the docs just brushed those off as no big deal. Yeah, it's never a big deal till it's your kid. We changed his diet (he was gluten free for four years or so) which helped. Don't know if that is something you've looked into or not but there's lots of info out there about it.

No way am I putting my son Risperdal, I see what it does to the people I give it to at work. I think that drug should be taken off the market.
I just started doing a little research, I plan on doing a lot, but right now it's hard to think about.
As for caffeine, I have even heard that people with ADHD can be calmed down by meth. And Ativan makes them go crazy. We have some residents that have shown increased behavior problems on Ativan. One man I took care of picked up a chair and broke a lamp with it after they put him on Ativan. They took him off of it and put him on pain pills, problem solved.
Many times it is pain, and they cannot express it.

I might try a small amount of Ibuprofen on the days it gets really bad. Thanks.
As for caffeine, I don't know. I left my Red Bull down once(never did it again), and he acted like a crack addict trying to find his next fix, I swear he was picking through the carpets, and he only had a small amount.

 

[Zoom-boing]

Luissa, when my son was small we found that ibuprofen would often calmed him. Same with caffeine. Never understood it exactly. Docs we saw all wanted him on Risperdal or Ritalin type drugs. The side effects were awful but the docs just brushed those off as no big deal. Yeah, it's never a big deal till it's your kid. We changed his diet (he was gluten free for four years or so) which helped. Don't know if that is something you've looked into or not but there's lots of info out there about it.

No way am I putting my son Risperdal, I see what it does to the people I give it to at work. I think that drug should be taken off the market.
I just started doing a little research, I plan on doing a lot, but right now it's hard to think about.
As for caffeine, I have even heard that people with ADHD can be calmed down by meth. And Ativan makes them go crazy. We have some residents that have shown increased behavior problems on Ativan. One man I took care of picked up a chair and broke a lamp with it after they put him on Ativan. They took him off of it and put him on pain pills, problem solved.
Many times it is pain, and they cannot express it.

I might try a small amount of Ibuprofen on the days it gets really bad. Thanks.
As for caffeine, I don't know. I left my Red Bull down once(never did it again), and he acted like a crack addict trying to find his next fix, I swear he was picking through the carpets, and he only had a small amount.

For caffeine I was thinking coffee not red bull! lol

My thoughts on the caffeine was that it's a stimulant (as is Ritalin) but without the awful side effects. We tried Kevin on Ritalin for a very short period of time ... oh yeah, it reduced his outrages and out of control behavior and turned him into a completely unanimated zombie who hyperfocused on things. I remember vividly on Saturday he spent hours upon hours looking for a toy or book or something throughout the house. He just wandered around and around not doing anything but not able to stop looking and wandering. It freaked us out. He also wouldn't eat, lost a lot of weight and sleeping was troublesome.

He was on Risperdal for about a year and a half. At first it seemed like it may have helped but then that stopped and the doc wanted to increase in the dose. Uh, no thanks. We then noticed that about 45min or so after he took it (usually after dinner) he got really, really angry and his behavior went south. We decided that the drug route was just not safe and not worth it. Looked into alternatives, changed his diet ... his childhood was freakin' hard. His behavior ... omg, can't even really describe it. Puberty was a God-send. Something 'shifted' within him and the out of control destructive behavior slowly but surely stopped.

 

[yidnar]

Oregon family uses medical marijuana to manage son - KPTV - FOX 12

Would you do the same? Why or why not?

if it works then they shouls continue using it.

 

[Luissa]

Luissa, when my son was small we found that ibuprofen would often calmed him. Same with caffeine. Never understood it exactly. Docs we saw all wanted him on Risperdal or Ritalin type drugs. The side effects were awful but the docs just brushed those off as no big deal. Yeah, it's never a big deal till it's your kid. We changed his diet (he was gluten free for four years or so) which helped. Don't know if that is something you've looked into or not but there's lots of info out there about it.

No way am I putting my son Risperdal, I see what it does to the people I give it to at work. I think that drug should be taken off the market.
I just started doing a little research, I plan on doing a lot, but right now it's hard to think about.
As for caffeine, I have even heard that people with ADHD can be calmed down by meth. And Ativan makes them go crazy. We have some residents that have shown increased behavior problems on Ativan. One man I took care of picked up a chair and broke a lamp with it after they put him on Ativan. They took him off of it and put him on pain pills, problem solved.
Many times it is pain, and they cannot express it.

I might try a small amount of Ibuprofen on the days it gets really bad. Thanks.
As for caffeine, I don't know. I left my Red Bull down once(never did it again), and he acted like a crack addict trying to find his next fix, I swear he was picking through the carpets, and he only had a small amount.

For caffeine I was thinking coffee not red bull! lol

My thoughts on the caffeine was that it's a stimulant (as is Ritalin) but without the awful side effects. We tried Kevin on Ritalin for a very short period of time ... oh yeah, it reduced his outrages and out of control behavior and turned him into a completely unanimated zombie who hyperfocused on things. I remember vividly on Saturday he spent hours upon hours looking for a toy or book or something throughout the house. He just wandered around and around not doing anything but not able to stop looking and wandering. It freaked us out. He also wouldn't eat, lost a lot of weight and sleeping was troublesome.

He was on Risperdal for about a year and a half. At first it seemed like it may have helped but then that stopped and the doc wanted to increase in the dose. Uh, no thanks. We then noticed that about 45min or so after he took it (usually after dinner) he got really, really angry and his behavior went south. We decided that the drug route was just not safe and not worth it. Looked into alternatives, changed his diet ... his childhood was freakin' hard. His behavior ... omg, can't even really describe it. Puberty was a God-send. Something 'shifted' within him and the out of control destructive behavior slowly but surely stopped.

My son has never bashed his head on the floor, well he did once, but never did it again. But he for sure has the destructive behavior, especially when tired. He usually spends a half an hour at night running around destroying things, jumping off things, tonight he tried to slide down the stairs in a box. Good thing I caught that.
At first they diagnosed him with a sensory perception disorder aka high pain tolerance. Which he does, and I noticed it when he was a baby. He didn't cry, he was always happy, and stuff that should hurt him wouldn't. I pinched him when was eight months old, when I really started to wonder about it. He didn't even flinch.
When he learned to walk, he was running the next week, but didn't care if he fell. Which meant we had problems with the stairs etc.

I think I might start another thread on ADHD, so we don't hijack this one..I think I will just try plain coffee no sugar etc on him one day.

 

[Delia]

Oregon family uses medical marijuana to manage son - KPTV - FOX 12

Would you do the same? Why or why not?

I will have to talk to my son's psychiatrist about this. Since he's moved away from home, he's become more violent and he's even attacked his caregivers. He never did that at home. If marijuana helps him hold it together, why not?

In my estimation, it's the difference between taking a pain killer when you're in excruciating pain, vs when you take one when you're fine (for the effect). If you're in pain, the medication relieves the pain, essentially bringing you back up to 'normal.'

So if somebody starts from rage, then the med won't get them high. It will bring the rage down to a manageable level.

 

[Wry Catcher]

Get a child started early enough and they will be lifelong addicts. That's the way liberals want it.

Why are you making this about liberals? Did you watch the video, read the article? Do you have an informed opinion on the subject of autism treated with medical marijuana?

He has yet to post an informed opinion; he is the quintessential partisan hack.

Of course, in the proper dose and not smoked MJ should be explored freely as a therapeutic drug. Given the harm caused by its prohibition I don't understand why the Federal Government continues to maintain MJ as a Schedule I drug. Let each state decide!

 

[Delia]

No way am I putting my son Risperdal, I see what it does to the people I give it to at work. I think that drug should be taken off the market.
I just started doing a little research, I plan on doing a lot, but right now it's hard to think about.
As for caffeine, I have even heard that people with ADHD can be calmed down by meth. And Ativan makes them go crazy. We have some residents that have shown increased behavior problems on Ativan. One man I took care of picked up a chair and broke a lamp with it after they put him on Ativan. They took him off of it and put him on pain pills, problem solved.
Many times it is pain, and they cannot express it.

I might try a small amount of Ibuprofen on the days it gets really bad. Thanks.
As for caffeine, I don't know. I left my Red Bull down once(never did it again), and he acted like a crack addict trying to find his next fix, I swear he was picking through the carpets, and he only had a small amount.

For caffeine I was thinking coffee not red bull! lol

My thoughts on the caffeine was that it's a stimulant (as is Ritalin) but without the awful side effects. We tried Kevin on Ritalin for a very short period of time ... oh yeah, it reduced his outrages and out of control behavior and turned him into a completely unanimated zombie who hyperfocused on things. I remember vividly on Saturday he spent hours upon hours looking for a toy or book or something throughout the house. He just wandered around and around not doing anything but not able to stop looking and wandering. It freaked us out. He also wouldn't eat, lost a lot of weight and sleeping was troublesome.

He was on Risperdal for about a year and a half. At first it seemed like it may have helped but then that stopped and the doc wanted to increase in the dose. Uh, no thanks. We then noticed that about 45min or so after he took it (usually after dinner) he got really, really angry and his behavior went south. We decided that the drug route was just not safe and not worth it. Looked into alternatives, changed his diet ... his childhood was freakin' hard. His behavior ... omg, can't even really describe it. Puberty was a God-send. Something 'shifted' within him and the out of control destructive behavior slowly but surely stopped.

My son has never bashed his head on the floor, well he did once, but never did it again. But he for sure has the destructive behavior, especially when tired. He usually spends a half an hour at night running around destroying things, jumping off things, tonight he tried to slide down the stairs in a box. Good thing I caught that.
At first they diagnosed him with a sensory perception disorder aka high pain tolerance. Which he does, and I noticed it when he was a baby. He didn't cry, he was always happy, and stuff that should hurt him wouldn't. I pinched him when was eight months old, when I really started to wonder about it. He didn't even flinch.
When he learned to walk, he was running the next week, but didn't care if he fell. Which meant we had problems with the stairs etc.

I think I might start another thread on ADHD, so we don't hijack this one..I think I will just try plain coffee no sugar etc on him one day.

Please link it in this one so I can go to that one, thanks.

 

[Delia]

Get a child started early enough and they will be lifelong addicts. That's the way liberals want it.

Why are you making this about liberals? Did you watch the video, read the article? Do you have an informed opinion on the subject of autism treated with medical marijuana?

He has yet to post an informed opinion; he is the quintessential partisan hack.

Of course, in the proper dose and not smoked MJ should be explored freely as a therapeutic drug. Given the harm caused by its prohibition I don't understand why the Federal Government continues to maintain MJ as a Schedule I drug. Let each state decide!

And then leave each state alone! I'm not going to jack my own thread, but

Obama Lies About Federal Marijuana Law to Rolling Stone | Just Say Now

 

[Katzndogz]

The American Academy of Pediatrics has circulated a resolution that opposes the use of medical marijuana in children. Dr. Sharon Levy, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Boston's Children's Hospital and chairwoman of the AAP's committee on substance abuse, told FOX 12 marijuana is toxic to children's developing brains. She also said enough isn't known about the drug's long-term effects.

Marijuana might be making him worse. The more marijuana the worse he gets, the more marijuana he needs to mask the effects.

What part of TOXIC do liberals not get? In my grandmother's day babies were quieted with a sugar tit. It was a cloth soaked in sugar water and whiskey. The infant would suck on the cloth. The alcohol would make the babies sleepy. Today giving alcohol to an infant would be child abuse.

This is a family in denial. They have a violent child. The child needs care. They don't want to give the child the care he needs because it would make them feel guilty, like "he wasn't part of the family". Instead they are going to rely on marijuana to control him. Why would anyone think something could go wrong?

 

[Delia]

The American Academy of Pediatrics has circulated a resolution that opposes the use of medical marijuana in children. Dr. Sharon Levy, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Boston's Children's Hospital and chairwoman of the AAP's committee on substance abuse, told FOX 12 marijuana is toxic to children's developing brains. She also said enough isn't known about the drug's long-term effects.

Marijuana might be making him worse. The more marijuana the worse he gets, the more marijuana he needs to mask the effects.

What part of TOXIC do liberals not get? In my grandmother's day babies were quieted with a sugar tit. It was a cloth soaked in sugar water and whiskey. The infant would suck on the cloth. The alcohol would make the babies sleepy. Today giving alcohol to an infant would be child abuse.

This is a family in denial. They have a violent child. The child needs care. They don't want to give the child the care he needs because it would make them feel guilty, like "he wasn't part of the family". Instead they are going to rely on marijuana to control him. Why would anyone think something could go wrong?

Thanks for the armchair, flip diagnosis, Dr. Katz.

 

[Papageorgio]

My issue with all drugs are they mask the symptom not take care of the real problem. Sure drugs help us get through, but what is the root of the problem, lets look to cure instead of mask. Drugs have long term effects, as far as giving a kid marijuana? You have the parents word a nothing else, no doctor, no one.

It's amazing how we can freely give marijuana to everyone, yet we need prescription for cold medicine and they need documentation when you buy it.

Government is messed up.

 

[Delia]

My issue with all drugs are they mask the symptom not take care of the real problem. Sure drugs help us get through, but what is the root of the problem, lets look to cure instead of mask. Drugs have long term effects, as far as giving a kid marijuana? You have the parents word a nothing else, no doctor, no one.

It's amazing how we can freely give marijuana to everyone, yet we need prescription for cold medicine and they need documentation when you buy it.

Government is messed up.

People still need to be treated while we look for a cure. That would be true of any disease.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/10/24/clinical-trial-attempts-to-cure-autism-with-cord-blood/

 

[Papageorgio]

If it is legal, then the state has made it's choice. That parents are allowed to give it to a five year old with out medical supervision, not so keen on.

 

[Katzndogz]

And the child's condition will continue to worsen but now married to whatever toxic effects the marijuana is creating.

 

[Delia]

The American Academy of Pediatrics has circulated a resolution that opposes the use of medical marijuana in children. Dr. Sharon Levy, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Boston's Children's Hospital and chairwoman of the AAP's committee on substance abuse, told FOX 12 marijuana is toxic to children's developing brains. She also said enough isn't known about the drug's long-term effects.

Marijuana might be making him worse. The more marijuana the worse he gets, the more marijuana he needs to mask the effects.

What part of TOXIC do liberals not get? In my grandmother's day babies were quieted with a sugar tit. It was a cloth soaked in sugar water and whiskey. The infant would suck on the cloth. The alcohol would make the babies sleepy. Today giving alcohol to an infant would be child abuse.

This is a family in denial. They have a violent child. The child needs care. They don't want to give the child the care he needs because it would make them feel guilty, like "he wasn't part of the family". Instead they are going to rely on marijuana to control him. Why would anyone think something could go wrong?

Why are you refusing to read the article?

Alex's daily, violent behavior became the Eugene family's new normal. When he was eight years old, the Echols made the heartbreaking decision to move Alex into a state-funded group home.

He's been in a group home for three years.

 

[Luissa]

My issue with all drugs are they mask the symptom not take care of the real problem. Sure drugs help us get through, but what is the root of the problem, lets look to cure instead of mask. Drugs have long term effects, as far as giving a kid marijuana? You have the parents word a nothing else, no doctor, no one.

It's amazing how we can freely give marijuana to everyone, yet we need prescription for cold medicine and they need documentation when you buy it.

Government is messed up.

They only document certain cold medicines and that is because they use it to make meth. When I was in high school I stocked that sort of thing at Kmart, before they started documenting it. People would steal it left and right. I would put out two boxes of the Kmart brand of sudafed and it would be all gone by the end of my shift.

 

[Skull Pilot]

And would you use it on your 11 year-old?

I had already tried pot by the time I was 11 so what's the big deal?

 

[Delia]

And would you use it on your 11 year-old?

I had already tried pot by the time I was 11 so what's the big deal?

I assume it wasn't medicinal, administered by your parents?

 

[Skull Pilot]

And would you use it on your 11 year-old?

I had already tried pot by the time I was 11 so what's the big deal?

I assume it wasn't medicinal, administered by your parents?

No I was breaking the law.

At least this kid isn't.

Like I said no big deal.

 

[Againsheila]

Oregon family uses medical marijuana to manage son - KPTV - FOX 12

Would you do the same? Why or why not?

I will have to talk to my son's psychiatrist about this. Since he's moved away from home, he's become more violent and he's even attacked his caregivers. He never did that at home. If marijuana helps him hold it together, why not?

In my estimation, it's the difference between taking a pain killer when you're in excruciating pain, vs when you take one when you're fine (for the effect). If you're in pain, the medication relieves the pain, essentially bringing you back up to 'normal.'

So if somebody starts from rage, then the med won't get them high. It will bring the rage down to a manageable level.

Well, the idea with Andrew is not to let him get up to rage. The pills he has now, either they're not administering them properly or they're not working well. The need to be administered when he starts getting over stimulated. Then again, maybe that's something you have to learn to see, I can tell when he's getting overstimulated because I'm his mom. I don't think his caregivers really have a clue, or just don't pay attention. Then again, things have calmed down recently.