My son was violent at three and the psychiatrist only thought of meds. It was total bullshit. I found other things helped instead. Positive parenting really helped (parents get trained). Vitamins. Read what's eating your child. Find a good DO. Or anything, Because really if you look at the data on autism, drugs and violence, the data is nil. Your child is a guinea pig. Just my opinion. I did a lot of research.
My child was violent through fear. We worked on that.

It was not our doctors pushing for the meds, although they did suggest it might help. Our daughter is nonverbal and severely autistic and would also only eat about five foods. You could not sneak vitamins in because she could taste the hint of anything. She has gotten a lot of ABA and other therapies along with communications skills which has helped. After getting her to try new foods we could get her to take the vitamins and diet change and it did nothing.

Again I will point out that a fully verbal higher functioning child is far different than a severe child who hurts themselves. Sometimes the meds are needed to keep them safe until other steps can be used like the ABA and the communication skills. Then after that you can back off the meds or eliminate them slowly, and that was the case with us. Our daughter is still on a few meds but at low dosage and without them she reverts back just not as bad as before.

Yes my daughter saw the psychiatrist at 4 because she had really bad behavioral problems and was hurting herself and others. They most likely do want to medicate but that is not a bad thing. Do not let others make you feel bad or pressure you not to do it if it is needed.

Think about if a family member has Parkinson's or Alzheimer's would you not medicate them? Those are both brain disorders and this is no different. The only difference is the age and how a child will handle the meds. You are in control of the dosage so if the give you a high dosage and it is changing your child's personality have them back off. I would also reccomend ABA because that will help as well.

On the positive side of this if meds are needed then you use that against the school to provide more services.

I'd also like to add that sometimes medication helps..I have mental disabilities and started taking medicine 2 years ago and I feel great...I was against medicating my daughter too but she told me one day that she didn't like the thoughts she had ...they were bad thoughts and the anxiety she got was bad too ...now she's better ...just saying

It's good for children like ours to talk to a psychiatrist. ..helps with social problems. .you don't have to medicate if you don't want to...