:confused: My son Jesse will be 4 years old in a couple of weeks. Tuesday he was diagnosed with PDD NOS. They gave us a Rx for Risperdal and sent us on our merry way. I have lined him up for a speech and developmental evaluation next month. He really needs the speech part of it. He likes to walk in circles and constantly repeats himself. He will also has one way conversations about movies, train and cars even when nobody is around to listen to him. I was only concerned with his hyperactivity and the fact that he never wants to sleep at night. We occasionally find him dressed when we wake up in the morning. He has tried to escape our house in the middle of the night as well. He also gets up and plays with his toys in the middle of the night. When we mentioned this to his Peditritian. She thought that he had a compulsive disorder and sent us to the Neurolagist. I tried to join a local support group for autism in my area, but they haven't met in the last 9 months and are having leadership problems. We feel stuck and don't know what to do. We really aren't to sure about the medication either. It is supposed to make him sleepy, but it seems to have had no affect on him. I would love to hear some feed back from anyone who thinks they can lead us in the right direction. Thank you,
Mandy

I have no experience with that med. Our daughter is on natural supplements, and they have made a huge difference. SHe is on cod liver oil that is lemon lime flavored(with no added vitamins, colorings, etc), a multi vitamin and magnessuim. The magnesuim helps calm her, and the cod liver oil has helped her clarity of thought. SHe went from not responding to direct questions, to answering them and even initiating simple conversations, this was just after 5 weeks of the new vitamins.

We also give her melatonin, which helps her sleep at night. She used to get up and play at night, try to get out, etc. We installed locks at the tops of our doors, and bought a safety alarm set from wallie world. You stick one part to the very top of the door, and the stick the other part on the door frame. WHen the two pieces are pulled apart, a LOUD alarm goes off. My inlaws have this for their back door now that they have a pool, it works great. My daughter pretty much grew out of it. I found that by taking her outside right after dinner and tiring her out, made a difference too. She sleeps alot better now. But my sister is dealing with this issue with her autistic son right now. He is almost 3 and I dont think she has gotten sleep for about a year.

Sorry to hear about the support group problems. I have found alot of good info from a support group in my area. Have you looked online at some of the large autism websites? Many of them have chapters across the US. Good luck!