Anyone With Children With Adhd

[wdwlovers5]

If so. can you please tell me if you have agreed to medicate them and it it worked for you. My grandson was diagnosed with ADHA (albiet by a neuro who gave him a test that was designed for older kids - I have begged my niece to have him re-tested). He suggested medication and she refused. He then told her when she wants to help her son she could come back!! I told her he should be reported for that comment. Any info would be appreciated. Thank you all in advance. Oh, also have any of you tried natural medications?? Sorry to bother you. Thanks again.

 

[BeckWhy]

I don't have any kids, but I worked in a school. This is my experience:

There were several kids (at least half of the school) that were ADHD. All of them were medicated. The problem was, with most kids, it made no difference. I seen kids go from medication to medication, 4 of 5 different medications in one school year. And nothing seemed to work. I hated to see these kids so drugged up. Right after they'd switch they'd go into a sedated (sp) state and come out of it and start acting up again.

My personally opinion is to find a good child psychiatrist and take him to them. See what they say. I think doctors are too easy to diagnos ADHD. I personally think a lot of kids who are diagnosed ADHD actually have ODD, but I don't know much about that.

I would really push to see a psychiatrist (and if insurance doesn't cover push for a psychologist), but try to make sure it's a child one.

 

[DISUNC]

Go for a second or third opinion! My Dnef was diagnosed at 8 with ADHD....all within a few days. No problems at home ...Teacher thought he had symptoms, even though his grades were excellant....the kid just wouldn't be quiet!!!!! Doctor was way too accepting & giving perscriptions! Very weird circumstance!

Went to two other Dr.s....Dnef did had a overactive Thyroid which thankfully was caught!!!!! Nothing to do with ADHD....and YES ...5 years later...he still wont be quiet! YAK YAK YAK! Family trait!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I would see a different neurologist, personally. It is best to get another opinion.

My older dd was never tested but the psych. we took her too insisted she had ADHD. We were there for anxiety issues for her.
Not too sure if the diagnosis was correct or not but we did put her on a low dose of meds in 4th & 5th grade. She has a repaired heart defect and their is a risk associated with taking ADHD meds. They speed up the heart rate.

After those two years I decided that the benefits for her did not outweigh the risk for the meds and took her off it.

She was always able to get good grades, learn and concentrate so she could get by. She is now 15 and fine.

My nephew is on it, he is 15 and takes HIGH doses. He hates it but the parents say he is not able to concentrate without it. He is unable to gain weight because of the meds.

 

[moniot]

I don't know anything about ADHD but I wanted to share an article I just read in First magazine. A doctor reported that some children diagnoised with ADHD where not longer showing the symptoms after they had their tonsels removed. It had something to do with not being able to get enough sleep. I have no idea if this applies but I found it interesting. I will have to find that article again to get all the facts.

 

[Minnie]

As a parent of a child that has been to specialists to confirm his diagnosis of ADD I have to chime in on this subject.

There is nothing that disgusts me more than teachers that play psychiatrists and doctors. Is ADD and ADHD over diagnosed? Yes. Is it often though untreated in children that actually have the disease? Yes.

I was one of those parents that swore my DS would never be on medication. Then long testing and several visits to caring specialists led us to the realization that my DS needed the medication.

Too often parents of ADD or ADHD children are criticized for medicating their children. Let’s think of it this way. Would you refuse to give insulin to your child with diabetes? ADD and ADHD is a disease and needs to be treated as such.

To the OP I would ask that you consider all the ramifications of a child that is not treated for ADD or ADHD. It is scary what can happen if the disease is not treated especially as these children grow towards their teenage years and adulthood.

If your grandson’s guardian is uncomfortable with the diagnosis or the doctors/psychologists then I urge her to have the child retested. This is not something that simply disappears even with medication. It is a disease that must be treated with overall patience and therapy by all that are involved.

My best to your grandson you are all headed down a long and difficult path. However as my DS is now 12 and in middle school and a straight A student I can tell you that there is light at the end of the path. Keep the faith and realize that this is a disease that needs to be treated as such.

 

[lucyblondecat]

I'd explore all my options and use medication only as a last resort. I think there are kids who genuinely need medication, and a lot who don't. Your best bet is to talk to as many professionals as you can, find out all your options, and take it from there.

Good luck.

 

[CF'er]

but only after several testing sessions with a psychologist to confirm the ADD diagnosis.
My pedi insisted on it before even thinking about meds. That was hard watching DS struggle in school while we were trying everything we could think of in between appts. etc.

DH didn't want to put DS on meds but once we had the diagnosis he agreed. We went on meds during spring break (this had started Christmas to give you an idea how long it took) and the teacher said it was like night and day. We have had little trouble out of him since.

He did have a new eval at the beg of last school year and we tried different meds/strengths with disasterous results. Luckily we had a great teacher and we had excellent communication so she knew what was going on. We went back to what we were on to begin with (at start of school.) He still has trouble concentrating at times and his organization stinks but he is getting better. He is off for the summer to try to get some weight on him.

My DSil thought Dnephew needed something too. (yeah, parental support but that's another story) She goes to the same pedi practice as I do but see's a different Dr. I warned her about our long drawn out process of trying to get meds and here her Dr just wrote the script on the spot. TO this day she still hasn't had a proper evaluation done.

That was 2 years ago. She calls and insists on dose changes if "she" thinks he needs them. Etc....

All I can say is that looking back I am glad we went through what we did and didn't just start medicating him. I truly believe his diagnosis and what we did and continue to do for him is correct.

 

[4chitlins]

One of my twins is ADHD. Had him tested and went through all the talks with the doctors and therapists.I agreed to try him on meds. First of all I could not believe that you have to show I.D. to pick it up because it is considered a narcotic. (strike 1) then when he took it he fell asleep in the van on the way to school.(strike 2) Doctor switched him to another kind. That one made him quiet and withdrawn,not anything like his normal happy go lucky personality.( strike 3 and I was done)I got online and went to the library and read everything I could get on the subject. Well making a long story shorter, we control his through his diet. You would be surprised how just changing his diet can make a huge difference. I suggest you order a few books on contolling it with diet. You won't be sorry. My guy is quite happy again and doing much better in school and I am happy not to be sticking drugs in him that who knows what will do down the road.

 

[Poohgirl]

My DS(9) is ADHD with extra HD We have been able to tell since he was fairly young that something was "off" After many trips to the psychologist and testing for and endocrine function imbalances he was said to have ADHD. He does have ODD and OCD tendencies as well.

He has been through many different types of medications until we found one that allowed him to focus during school hours, Concerta. Once it is out of his system around dinner time, you definitely can tell. If we should forget to give him his pill in the morning, you can bet we will at some point during the day be hearing from the school telling me my child is just "off the wall" Mornings can be brutal until his med. kicks in...

 

[r3ngels]

My DS(9) is ADHD with extra HD We have been able to tell since he was fairly young that something was "off" After many trips to the psychologist and testing for and endocrine function imbalances he was said to have ADHD. He does have ODD and OCD tendencies as well.

He has been through many different types of medications until we found one that allowed him to focus during school hours, Concerta. Once it is out of his system around dinner time, you definitely can tell. If we should forget to give him his pill in the morning, you can bet we will at some point during the day be hearing from the school telling me my child is just "off the wall" Mornings can be brutal until his med. kicks in...

That is what my DD is on... with great results...

 

[r3ngels]

As a parent of a child that has been to specialists to confirm his diagnosis of ADD I have to chime in on this subject.

There is nothing that disgusts me more than teachers that play psychiatrists and doctors. Is ADD and ADHD over diagnosed? Yes. Is it often though untreated in children that actually have the disease? Yes.

I was one of those parents that swore my DS would never be on medication. Then long testing and several visits to caring specialists led us to the realization that my DS needed the medication.

Too often parents of ADD or ADHD children are criticized for medicating their children. Let’s think of it this way. Would you refuse to give insulin to your child with diabetes? ADD and ADHD is a disease and needs to be treated as such.

To the OP I would ask that you consider all the ramifications of a child that is not treated for ADD or ADHD. It is scary what can happen if the disease is not treated especially as these children grow towards their teenage years and adulthood.

If your grandson’s guardian is uncomfortable with the diagnosis or the doctors/psychologists then I urge her to have the child retested. This is not something that simply disappears even with medication. It is a disease that must be treated with overall patience and therapy by all that are involved.

My best to your grandson you are all headed down a long and difficult path. However as my DS is now 12 and in middle school and a straight A student I can tell you that there is light at the end of the path. Keep the faith and realize that this is a disease that needs to be treated as such.

What she said

 

[poutytink]

My son(8) was diagnosted borderline ADHD when he was 5.. The DR. Immediately wrote a script for Ritialn(sp?) but DH threw it back at him. My son has his good days and bad ones...but as long as good days outnumber the bad..I will not medicate him. I think in this day and age people are to quick to medicate their children. When we were kids, we would have been considered at least..a little hyper.

 

[dhcoffey]

My DD13 has been on Concerta since 4th grade. We realized she was ADD in 1st grade but tried very hard not to do the medicines. When she was failing 4th grade, we did try the Concerta. Went from failing to honor roll in one semester. There's a big change in her when she's not on the medicine. She doesn't get spacey or sedated on Concerta. She just becomes my sweet little girl again instead of have a raging war on our hands because everything is a fight at home and school.

Please do try everthing for your GC but don't always rule out medicine because it can be a great help for those who truly need it.

 

[NikiM20]

my dd is ADHD and is also on Concerta...we tried MANY different things before this one and this one shes on still makes her the same child but she concentrates better...Now if only I could find medicine to help her clean up after herself

 

[ChrisnSteph]

As a parent of a child that has been to specialists to confirm his diagnosis of ADD I have to chime in on this subject.

There is nothing that disgusts me more than teachers that play psychiatrists and doctors. Is ADD and ADHD over diagnosed? Yes. Is it often though untreated in children that actually have the disease? Yes.

I was one of those parents that swore my DS would never be on medication. Then long testing and several visits to caring specialists led us to the realization that my DS needed the medication.

Too often parents of ADD or ADHD children are criticized for medicating their children. Let’s think of it this way. Would you refuse to give insulin to your child with diabetes? ADD and ADHD is a disease and needs to be treated as such.

To the OP I would ask that you consider all the ramifications of a child that is not treated for ADD or ADHD. It is scary what can happen if the disease is not treated especially as these children grow towards their teenage years and adulthood.

If your grandson’s guardian is uncomfortable with the diagnosis or the doctors/psychologists then I urge her to have the child retested. This is not something that simply disappears even with medication. It is a disease that must be treated with overall patience and therapy by all that are involved.

My best to your grandson you are all headed down a long and difficult path. However as my DS is now 12 and in middle school and a straight A student I can tell you that there is light at the end of the path. Keep the faith and realize that this is a disease that needs to be treated as such.

What a great post! I do agree that there are too many kids out there who are not properly diagnosed with ADD/ADHD and are taking unnecessary medications. I have the opposite problem. My 4.5 year old adopted son has almost every characteristic of ADHD. His oncologist has noted his hyperactivity and told us that due to his leukemia treatment, and the fact that his birth mom used drugs when she was pregnant with him, that he is at high risk for behavior issues, most commonly ADHD. We have seen a psychiatrist - she noted that he did indeed have shows signs of ADHD, but was hesitant to treat it until he was older. We saw his primary doctor - again, the answer was "yes he may have ADHD, but we have to wait until he's school-age to treat it". WTH? I got the impression that I have to wait for a teacher to tell us that he/she think he has ADHD. We can't seem to get our son diagnosed, yet there are so many people out there who can walk in to their doctors office and out with a prescription that same day. I don't like the idea of putting our son on meds, but we've tried all sorts of behavior modifications, diet changes, and and at this point we're willing to try anything that will actually help him stay focused and will settle him down a bit. It's been very frustrating. He starts kindergarten this year and we'll see what his teacher says, I guess.

 

[beavismom]

I will share my story too. My son started to exhibit signs of ADHD in the first grade. He was tested by the school psycholigist and was show to be borderline ADHD. We tried everything we could to modify his behavior, punishment, reward and every combination in between and while it would work for a couple of weeks he just couldn't keep it up. I gave it until the start of 5th grade because I didn't want to consider meds.

After talking to his teachers (a few weeks into 5th grade), we decided to try out the meds and it made a huge difference for him. He isn't perfect, but we don't expect him to be either. We started on a low dose and got feedback from his teachers as far as when they would "run out" and the final outcome was 20mg of Focalin XR. He now completes his work at home and in school. He received a number of awards last year including "most improved".

There are some side effects of the meds, mostly decreased appetite in our case. I make sure DS has a good breakfast before the meds and he is starving when dinner rolls around, but I know he doesn't eat much at lunch. The doctor monitors his weight as well.

When I read back over this post it is clear that this I can't even put the words together in a way that shows how much this has helped us. I too was one of those people that was NOT going to drug her child and he didn't have ADHD anyway, because he wasn't hyper. Well, I was wrong and now I wonder how much easier his early elementary years would have been if I hadn't been on my high horse.

 

[TinkerDaisy]

I chose not to medicate. But I do not see anything wrong with medicating. Whatever your choice. I do stress to anyone that does choose to use medication to treat ADHD, follow the dosage to a tee. A freind of mine had her son on Ritalin and she didn't ever stick to the dosage, she would forget a day here and there and a dose here and there. The child was really messed up and depressed. Whatever anyone chooses is their choice. I know there have been times where I almost medicated, but the choice to control with diet and positive reinforcement won through. Sometimes it doesn't work but we get through the best we can. It takes alot of love and patients.

 

[isyne4u]

Nother satisfied mother with Concerta. DS6 was diagnosed with adhd at age 4 after me bugging the doc about it for two years. I knew something was wrong. it was a long process before we got him on meds. But once he was it was like night and day. We started with Ritalin and changed doeses 3 times before we changed to concerta. Yes there are some draw backs...he is super skinny and sometimes sleeping is difficult him. However, the good things far out weigh the bad. After his meds kick in his is a wonderful human being, before that....well, let's just say he is a handful.

My son also sees a LCSW once a week to help us with his behavior management and he sees a pediatric neurodevelopmental specialist to help with his medication and his anxiety.

I tried diet, I tried the food colorings and nothing changed.

I am a teacher and see plenty of kids who are diagnosed ADHD who get meds and they seem to work, i've seen some that I have to question why they are on meds too.

I hope your neice gets another opinion and looks into all of her options before she decides not to treat him if he is in fact ADHD.

Good luck to you!
tara

 

[kmp1191]

Just had to throw my 2cents in real quick.
Our ds was tested, and tested, and tested in the 1st grade. He was diagnosed ADHD w/ Impulsivity. We medicated him....the first year he didn't gain any weight and looked skeletal.....the second year & the second meds, he didn't gain much weight, but he did gain, but he was a total zombie....the third year & third medication he gained weight, wasn't a zombie and did pretty good in school. (Strattera)
We also, every summer, had him seeing a counselor every week and that helped too.
We decided to take him off for the summer and he is doing GREAT!! As of right now, we are not going to put him back on anything. I am in the process of changing his diet and getting him into working out a little bit. (he's almost 11 and going into 5th grade).
Yes, I worry about when school starts and we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Good luck!