Trying something new

Today Aidan had his second visit to the psychiatrist, and his first visit since he started therapy and school let out. We talked about Aidan's IEP, his grades, and things like that, and then I brought up the discussion we had at the IEP meeting about his first grade teacher and my opinion about whether Aidan has ADHD. (I never did update you guys on his IEP!! Oops! I promise I'll do that soon!) While Aidan's teacher and I answered the questionnaire in such a way that Aidan fell within the bounds of having ADHD, the behaviorist and his special ed teacher (who spent much less time with him) did not answer in a way that he fell there so I guess they balanced out. I asked the doctor what he felt about this and he looked at a couple of things in Aidan's chart. First of all, every couple of visits they give us a little computer on which we answer a survey about symptoms and whatnot. The doctor looked at the results of that and showed me that Aidan definitely falls within the bounds of ADHD according to that. Second, he looked at the records of Aidan's therapy sessions and again felt that Aidan met the requirements based on his impulsivity, restlessness, and irritability/aggression. Ultimately it was decided that Aidan could benefit from starting on some medicine called Intuniv. It is not a stimulant, and has the most effect on the three main problems Aidan has. He'll start out on a low dose and work his way up as you have to do with most psychiatric medications. We'll try it in the mornings so it lasts all day, but if it's a little more sedative than we like then we'll move it to bedtime. My main concern is that Aidan DOES NOT like taking pills (he's yet to be able to get one down)and because these are extended release (they last about 18 hours) I can't crush them up and they don't come in a chewable or liquid. There is a regular version but it only lasts 4-6 hours and can therefore cause some yo-yoing which isn't good. I've been trying to come up with some sort of reward (bribe) to get Aidan to take the medicine so we'll see how that goes. I'm not looking forward to that fight, so let's hope the medication makes enough difference that it's worth it. The main goal is to help him with his behavior as far as his bad decision making (it's hard to think about the consequences when you're very impulsive) and his aggression/meltdowns.