2 year old prescribed Risperdal?

PsychNurseDee · Oct 19, 2003

I think this is absurd!! Please get a second or third opinion. I might also recommed a dietary consult. Many children has severe hyperactivity as a response to some preservatives, colors, ingredients. I certainly would want a child "labeled" as bipolar at two years old without a thorough medical eval to rule out any other possible etiologies. And I certainly would not want to start antipsychotics in a child this young...even if it is an atypical. Please keep me posted. This is concerning to me.

Dedee

donmurray · Oct 19, 2003

Check the "How on Earth?" thread on this page.

Karina212 · Oct 19, 2003

I work for a pediatric neurology office and the physicians there would never prescribe risperdol for a 2 year old. I would encourage the baby's caretakers to get a second opinion.

Tiki_Torch · Oct 20, 2003

Thank you all for your posts. I'll certainly check out the "How on Earth" thread too.

By the way, after speaking with the grandfather some other things I told him and remember talking with him about were:

If the mother doesn't fully understand why and how long the baby should be on this medicine or doesn't feel comfortable with the diagnosis or medication she should definately get a second opinion; and that the mother shouldn't worry about "hurting the doctor's feelings" by asking for another opinion because most doctors encourage second opinions... it's a way of them being able to prove themselves correct.

He told me he believed the mother took the baby to this neurologist because of behavior-related problems. This is when he told me that he and his wife, from their experience babysitting this child, is a normal two year old boy and acts normal in their home.

I asked him if the baby had had an MRI or any tests to rule out a brain tumor or something before being put on this medicine. He said he didn't know for sure but didn't think so.

I asked why the baby has an appointment with a behaviorist at the childrens hospital and he said the baby is biting and hitting at day care. My immediate thought was his behavior could be situational... related to something happening at the day care or something happening in his family life. (My niece kept being bit by another 2 year old at day care and it turned out the little girl's father was abusing her mother in front of her... hitting and yelling... and the baby was acting out her frustrations at day care in the same way she saw at home.) I asked if he could be placed in another day care for a while to see if his behavior changes to rule out the day care and be able to narrow it down to his home life or something else. He then dropped the bomb telling me that this day care is not a well run one... it's in a person's home with no structured learning/play peroids, etc... AND that the workers there scream and holler at the kids all the time. AND guess what? He doesn't expect the mother to change the day care because SHE WORKS THERE!!!!! OMG :eek: When asking about the family life of the boy and his mother (remember the father is not involved because he got another girl pregnant who is due next month as a matter of fact:rolleyes: )he said he couldn't tell me much because he doesn't know much about who is involved in the boy's life.

I could tell there is some animosity between the grandparents and mother and I'd imaging "words" have been said over the past two years. It looks like one of the main reasons the mother lets the grandparents see the baby is to get some free babysitting. This is so sad to me. I spent a good deal of time talking with him about his relationship with the mother. It told him it seems like she wants the best for her baby enough that she took him to a doctor... that's a start at least I suppose. I encouraged them to speak and interact with her coming from a place of love rather than of I-told-you-so-ness, that more flies are caught with honey than vinegar, and to remember the mother is young and inexperienced in life and could use all the help she can get in learning how to raise her first child. She needs to be spoken to with kindness with the grandparents remembering thateven though they love this baby to death, 99.5% of the time no one on Earth loves their child and wants nothing but the best for them other han the child's own mother. I gave him some "anticipatory guidence" type information and imaginary conversations he and his wife could have with her to help them be able to help the mother and grandbaby in the best way possible.

Whew!!! Didn't mean to type so much! I type too fast for my own good...

Thanks again for your input and I hope this man will call me back to let me know what's happening. As I said he is a co-worker of my husband's and you know when someone finds out you are a nurse, they will come to us with all kinds of questions!!!

Thanks again for your posts and if anyone else has something to add I'd appreciate it very much!

:kiss

Josie K · Oct 21, 2003

Silly question. Is there an inspectorate agency for Day Care facilities?

renerian, BSN, RN · Oct 21, 2003

I would not think that appropriate either. renerian

sixes · Oct 22, 2003

I have never heard of this prescribed to children but I can tell you i see the affects of this drug everyday in the LTC where I work. Sometimes not to pretty.

It build s in the system and leave some of our residents so zonked that the just sit there with there tongues hanging out unable to respond unable to even eat.

Personal I don't like this medication for the elderly but I think I would be flipping if they were trying to give it to my 2 year old

teeituptom, BSN, RN · Oct 22, 2003

Oh just lets make the world a better place and give drugs to everyone. Sorry the world has gone drug crazy. How often do you admit someone to the ER or hospital that has a list of anywhere from 15 to 30 different medications nowadays.

the world is getting wierder

laurenkst · Oct 31, 2003

I do not understand how a physician could diagnose a child of two as bipolar and why prescribe Risperdal which is one of the Novel Antipsychotics. I'm sorry this must be too early. With such experimental off the label usage the child must be at risk. Are their any studies to validate this use? Is it a off the label use for ADHD? What is god's name is the rationale for giving this medication to a child that is only two? I'd question this asap.

Dave ARNP · Nov 8, 2003

As usual, I'm late jumping in...

However, where on Earth did this doc get his training?

My office sees a ton of ADHD kids, and yes... Some parents bring in 2yr olds. However, I would in no way feel ANYONE could dx a 2yr old with ADHD. Moreover... Bi-polar?

Ideally, ages 4-7 would be when we like to dx ADHD. Bi-polar, from about age 6 on out. But you really cannot dx Bi-polar and firm up the dx until (very often) later in life.

Considering what you say about the childs mother, and the fact that to make any dx in a 2yr old, you have to go on almost 100% of what the mother says..... how likely is it that the doc got the entire picture?

I can only say that I hope the child gets off Risperdal, and the sooner the better. Even if he is BP 1 or 2, or if he is ADHD.

Risperdal IS used off label for ADHD. It works fairly well.

However I would never use this drug in that small a child.

Dave

jackyah333 · Oct 16, 2010

we come back from a paediatric neurologist yesterday with a prescription for risperdal for our 2 year old girl ourselves! we went to see this much respected professor because our daughter has been having seizures. while in consultation she was being very busy, uncooperative, and screamed and shouted at the student ot and physio (who came into the room to assess her development). but i knew it was going to be a difficult consultation as we had to sit and wait for 3 hours for our appointment and our girl was overstimulated, tired and irritable. the neurologist asked us if this was normal behaviour and we said well, when she's tired she acts out, but yes she does have a very annoying high pitched scream lately that drives us up the wall, and that she is normally a little hyper and she often hurts herself, falling off things (she has a low muscle tone due to the condition), and sometimes it seems as if she doesn't understand the consequences so she would go and climb on the very same table minutes after she fell off. the professor said the screaming must be very annoying for us and we said well sure.... and then she said she was going to prescribe "a little something" to help with her behaviour. we asked what it was and she didn't really say much, but we deduced it was a little relaxant, or something to help her sleep better. when we got the medication we saw that it was a schedule 5 and i thought that was rather high and that's when i read the pamphlet that comes with the meds. i almost fell of my chair when i read that it's normally used to treat schizophrenia and symptoms of bipolar disorder and autistic children to treat symptoms of irritability! no way am i giving her this stuff! and i will def be getting a second opinion before i will ever give her this medication!

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