We recently had our appointment with a developmental pediatrician to find out what is going on with Nicholas. He confirmed our thoughts, that Nicholas has autism. This doctor was an absolute bastard to us and to Nicholas and this appointment, by far, was the worst experience of my life.
He was very quick to whip out his prescription pad to write our son a prescription for risperdal. Risperdal for a child who is 2.5 years old - and not approved by the FDA for use in children this young. He REFUSED to write a script for ABA therapy until we brought back our son medicated. He told us that our son would not learn anything without the risperdal. He told us that our son was easily agitated, only after he deliberately agitated him. After making us wait for over an hour in a waiting room with NO TOYS (they told us they had toys - I’ll never make that mistake again)
He told me that my son was not sensitive or allergic to milk and wrote me a script for bloodwork to prove me wrong. (HE WAS WRONG!) He told us that our son would test positive for Fragile X (HE WAS WRONG!)
Silly, naive me to think that a doctor would be interested in hearing that omega 369 fish oil was having an effect on our son’s language abilities - this was where it really got good…. he stood up and yelled at me for giving my son fish oil. He nastily lectured me about how harmful this could be. He went on and on about his degrees and his positions on several autism boards, ranting and raving the whole time.
When I asked what his thoughts were on heavy metal toxicity being tied to autism, he flew off the handle.
Here’s the best part…. he told us to consider putting Nicholas in an institution and trying for another child.
When we got out to the car, I collapsed in the parking lot. I couldn’t breathe. I felt like someone had just driven a truck over me.
I got home. I opened my computer and typed “risperdal’ into google and saw it associated with schizophrenic adults. I promised myself I was NEVER filling that script.
I sat down and thought about the appointment, not so much about what he said, but his actions. If there wasn’t some shred of truth in what I had said, then why would you act like that? Between this and watching our son start babbling again on the introduction of fish oil - I knew I was on the right path - and drugging my child wasn’t it.
That pitiful excuse for a doctor gave me something that day. I didn’t see it that day or even a week later - but he gave me the drive, the determination to change Nicholas’s fate, his life. I knew in that split second that something wasn’t right with this doctor, that what the parents were writing everywhere was right. Kids WERE getting better. And thanks to him, that arrogant asshole, I knew my son was going to stand amongst them and recover too.
