Changing the Risperdal regimen

I spoke with Andy's nurse today about my concerns that the Risperdal given before bed may be giving him insomnia. She responded that it usually helps children sleep better, but one of Risperdal's side effects is "difficulty sleeping". It is very uncharacteristic of Andy to wake in the night, crying and unable to return to sleep. This has happened five nights over the last three and a half weeks.

We are going to switch him to getting a.25ml dose in the morning, instead of before bed. We'll see how this goes, before weaning him off to discontinue the Risperdal. She informed me that in order to wean from Risperdal, we will first have to step down to the lowest dose. He is currently only at .50ml, so we will return to the .25ml this weekend. Then she wants him to receive it for four days at .25ml, then we can stop the meds all together.

I am willing to try the morning doses through the weekend, but if things still seem off for him, we will just discontinue. Not sure if we will try another medication for him or not. I guess it depends on whether he goes back to seriously ridiculous meltdowns and crying or not.

In terms of his mobility, he has made minor improvements. He is standing a little better, and going from sit to stand slightly better. He is scooting around a little bit. He occasionally makes new sounds, but not really. He was saying "wow" a lot when he was excited yesterday at his PT visit. His sister was making him laugh, and he was excited and screeches out "woooooww". He was also shaking his head a lot at the visit, whenever the PT asked him to do something, but I don't know if he was trying to tell her "no" or not.

Concerns about Risperdal

Andy is on day three of increasing his dose of Risperdal to 0.50 ml at bedtime. I am concerned that he could be getting insomnia from it. It doesn't happen every single night, but it has happened twice in the last four days. He wakes up at 4am and cries until 5 or 6am. I try to calm him, but can't. He is unable to get back to sleep, so I lie awake and worry and wonder if he should be taken off of this medication. He is not the type that will sleep with me in my bed, and does not like to cuddle. So, all I can do is leave him in his crib crying.

It is unusual for Andy to wake in the night at all. He's usually out for the full 12 hours. We also think that he isn't really showing any better behavior just yet. If anything he's showing more crankiness, and more frequent outbursts. I'll be calling the neuro office on Monday with my concerns, and I'll be awaiting their return call as they are always really busy.

His pharmacy told me that I cannot just discontinue the drug. They said he has to be titrated off of it, or weaned off of it. I've also read this online from adults who've been taking it. Some of them reported that after being on the drug for two weeks, they started to feel like they had a hangover during the day. Or that they were hit by a truck. I sure don't want Andy feeling this way. Others reported they had no side effects at all. It's very confusing. We desperately want to help him, and our family, but we don't want to make matters worse.

This stinks.