Risperidone and New Behavior Strategies

Last week my sister Anita and I took Johnny to Children's National Medical Center for a psychiatric evaluation.  Anita has always been there to support me at 'all things Johnny,' whether it be an IEP meeting, an important doctor appointment, or any awards events at school, joining me for classroom birthday cupcakes for my kids, etc.  She is my second brain and asks all the right questions and actually remembers the answers.  (I have to write everything down or I forget it).  She is a blessing, as are all the members of my family in some way or another.  We saw a no-nonsense doctor who first told me that the original medication I had Johnny on back in September is the main drug used for treatment of issues related to Autism.  He asked why the dosage was never increased before switching him to a different drug.  I had heard of some side effects associated with that drug (Risperidone/Risperdal) and immediately had him taken off of it.  The one side effect in particular was the chance that he may develop breasts.  We've tried 4 others since then, none having much of an effect on his behavior.  He suggested I have him take it again and give it a chance.   All medications have SOME type of side effects and the one I was concerned with had a very low percentage of occurrence.   Today we had our monthly meeting with our psychiatrist but he has moved to another office so we saw a new doctor.  What a difference.  Although he stuttered and stammered, he was able to make things clear to me about different medications.  Honestly, Johnny had become so much trouble in the doctor's office that I found myself nodding to whatever I was told even if I didn't understand it, just to get out of there before Johnny broke a window or got the doctor in a choke hold or something.  (Nah he's not THAT bad).  We will be starting back on Risperidone tomorrow.  He will be taking it in the morning and around 6pm as well.  The evening dosage will be increased after 5-6 days and then another 5-6 days after that the morning dosage will increase as well.  I have heard from a few reliable sources that this is the only drug approved by the FDA that is for treatment of Autistic behaviors.  This new doctor also informed me of a lot of things I didn't know about.  And the funniest thing is, Johnny was practically an angel in the office.  He had one incident where he told Dr. Isaacs he was going to hit him, which he wouldn't actually do but wow, nice to meet YOU too.   Other than that, he was perfect and we were in the very same office as we've always been in, just a different doctor.  Odd isn't it?  
My new method I'm trying is instead of telling Johnny NO when he hits, spits, or curses I refrain from saying anything negative.  If he curses I say "Nice language, please" or "Nice words only please."  He may say one more bad word, but it stops after that.  Side note:  Johnny thinks DAMAGE is a bad word.  Sometimes he'll say this to me, trying to get my attention.  I have to try not to laugh.  If he spits I say "Spitting isn't nice" instead of saying "Stop spitting."  And if he tries to hit me I say "Hitting hurts me."  These things are all working!  Believe me, little things like this just make my whole week.  If you have a child with behavior issues you know what I mean.  I plan to do some more work on the new Behavior-Goal-Reward chart tomorrow.  I think this is going to be so helpful to him and I want to have it perfected before I introduce it to him because we all know consistency is key with children like him, so introducing it and then tweaking it wouldn't be a good idea.
If any readers ever have a question about anything if I can answer it I'd be happy to.  As I've said I'm not an expert and clearly you can see my own problems I'm still addressing but I have been through many phases with Johnny and you never know if I may have an idea to help.  Believe it or not, there was a time for about 6 months when Johnny was 4, that he actually walked around school with his privates sticking out over the top of the waistband of his pants.  He always had a shirt long enough to cover it but it was still there.  I fixed that situation by putting him in overalls every single day.  Eventually he stopped doing it.   He still has a little bit of that going on, but it is the top of his underwear now and not the waistband of his pants.  At least it's covered!  So you can see, I've been through some craziness so if you have a question or would like a suggestion just try me.  That's what this blog is all about, sharing experiences, what has worked and what hasn't.
Stay tuned for some yummy recipes coming up soon.  I'm working on that right now.