Did you decide to give your child with ADD medication, I am confused!

[princessmomma]

My 7 year old son is having trouble paying attention in school. He is in 1st grade. His teacher says he needs to be told a number of times the instructions and then falls off task and has incomplete work. Yet, he consistently scores 10/10 on spelling tests, has an O for Oustanding in Mathematics and is reading at a 3rd grade level. He is not hyper but likes to zone out and mellow!

My main concern is his handwriting and his written expression. He can tell me what the correct answers or story he needs to write about ... it is actually VERY good, detailed and creative, but he just can't get it done of paper.

Our doctor has recommended trying Adderall to treat his "possible" ADD. Does anyone have any experience with this drug? I really don't want to give him anything. There just doesn't seem to be enough research done of the effects on the little growing brain. I am so confused. Please help shed some light on this for me.

 

[Aurora63]

I don't have experience w/ the meds, but as a former second-grade teacher, I can tell you what I think.

I had a child in my class last year who sounds just like your son...bright, verbally expressive, read well above grade level. However, he, too, almost never completed an assignment, didn't focus during lessons, etc. He was not hyper either. However, he had no problem focusing on something he was interested in.

His mom finally was able to get him on Ritalin near the end of the year. It did seem to make a difference, but it wasn't a huge difference. It made him a lot more emotional. But his behavior also improved...he was no longer disrespectful, as he had been at times before the meds.

Ritalin does not have to be taken every day, just on the days they are in school...i.e., the pill will work on the day it is taken, and wear off before the next day. Supposedly, it is not left in the body at all. Don't know if Adderall is the same way, but something to think about.

I am willing to bet, though, with a third-grade reading level, that he is bored stiff in that first grade class. Has he been screened for gifted? Maybe he would qualify, if the program exists in your school/county. If not, maybe his teacher could start him on some kind of enrichment work...speak to his teacher about it, if you haven't already.

FYI, I too would avoid the meds if possible, but if it continues, you may want to consider it. If he still doesn't focus as material gets more difficult, he won't be making those good grades like he is now.

 

[Mermaid02]

This sounds for all the world like my almost 7 year old first grader! He is "easily distractable, doesn't use his time wisely, spends too much time socializing, always looking to see who is walking by the door or what the teacher is talking to another child about" etc. Yet he is very bright- his kindergarten teacher last year said he had NEVER had a child with such a large and varied vocabulary. We are going to get a full blown ADD eval but may have to literally wait MONTHS for it - so in the mean time we are going to be giving him a trial of Ritalin for a week and a placebo for a week and documenting the results. Only the pharmacist will know which is which... I will add that although he isn't "hyper" at school, at home he is wild and disrespectful. We were hoping that would get better when we treated his anxiety disorder, but unfortunately it go worse. Sadly, there are times when nobody here wants to live with him. Of course there are other times he is the sweetest most thoughtful child in the world. Let me know how you guys make out... it's a hard decision to make I know!

 

[Pembo]

princessmomma my heart goes out to you.

I have an 8 yo that has been diagnosed with ADHD since the age of 4. We put him on meds in first grade. My ds is very hyper that was our first clue. He is also very bright.

If he is ADHD and they put him on the meds you should see a difference. But beware. We tried Adderall with my son and at 3 am he was still wide awake, very focused and attentive but WIDE awake. We took him off after only 2 days. He is now on Focalin and it works great.

I would want to get a full ADHD workup before trying meds. We found a great psychologist in our area.

PM me with any questions.........and good luck..........

 

[dizny4us]

Well, I can tell you about my saga with my son. He was tested for ADHD at the beginning of second grade at the age of 7. He was lacking focus, very impulsive and was easily frustrated even though his IQ was tested as being over 140. He was put on ritalin and was in behavior therapy for 4 yrs. He was later put on anxiety medicine as well for panic attacks at the age of 10. When he turned 11, we had him re-evaluated. It turns out that he has Asperger's Syndrome. This diagnosis has shed so much light on his characteristics and symptoms! Apparently many children that are diagnosed with ADHD actually turn out to have Aspergers. He is now on Concerta extened release for his impulsivity and focus and zoloft for his anxiety as well as behavior modification therapy for 1 hr a week and Occupational therapy(for his fine motor skills) for an hour a week! He has made such progress!! I tell you this not to scare you but just to show you how simple or complex it could be. Ritalin was a fix for us but was only putting a band aid on the real issues we were dealing with! I hope I made some sense and shed some light for you! It is never an easy decision but you can only do what you feel is best for your son.

 

[vickyBaby]

You need to seek out the advice of an ADD/ADHD expert before medicating your child. Schedule an appointment with a Pediatric Neurologist. They will be able to determine if your child is ADD/ADHD and the appropriate actions that should be taken.

 

[floridafam]

Key word of your post: Possible

The Doctor wants to treat POSSIBLE ADD. Don't you think the Dr. should find out what he has first before treating it?

 

[BusyMomof3]

Here's another similar story. DS 10, has a lot of the same issues everyone else has described, including being identified as gifted. We started noticing the hyperactivity and impulsiveness when he was 3 or 4, but things really came out when he started school. We especially noticed the major swings in behavior like someone else described. He could be fine one minute and a holy terror the next. There was also a big difference between behavior at school and behavior at home. He was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder when he was in kindergarten and with ADHD when he was in first grade. He is now on Prozac for the anxiety and Adderall for the ADHD.

Note: Adderall is like Ritalin in that it wears off after a certain period of time and doesn't stay in your system. Both are stimulants and can cause sleep problems if taken too late in the day.

As others have said, I would recommend a complete evaluation before you try meds. We were told that most ADHD kids don't just have ADHD. It's actually a combination of several things. Our DS's full diagnosis is ADHD with anxiety, oppositional defiant, and mild depression. Different medications work differently and some are better than others for certain things. We tried several different meds and several different doses before we found what worked for DS.

Putting him on medication was not an easy decision, but it seems to have been the right one. Do I worry about the long term effects? You bet, but I don't know how DS could have gotten where he is now without it.

 

[MICKEY88]

I would do a lot of research online before going to meds....

a coworker of mine just found out that her son who is 22, can't get into the military because he was on ritalin for a few weeks when he was in grade school..there are some very informative web sites to be found...

 

[Mishetta]

Please take your child to a Psychologist to be tested & then take the results to a Pediatric Neurologist (or a neurologist who will treat children). We took our son to our pediatrician & he said that he was not qualified to diagnose for ADHD. He referred us to a child psychologist. After several tests & meetings, our son was dx'd as ADHD. The psychologist sent a copy of his report to our pediatrician & a copy to us as well. Then our pediatrician referred us to a neurologist. The neurologist is the one who writes the scripts for my son's meds.

My son was first put on Ritalin, but that made him develop an excessive blinking tic. Then he was switched to Aderall & that caused a constant clearing of the throat tic & when my DS was really tired, his excessive eye blinking returned & brought about a "snorting" tic. Then he was put on Concerta & that seems to work great for him. During all the ADHD med trials, we also had the problem of him just roaming the house in the middle of the night, so he was also put on Clonidine so that he can sleep at night & it keeps any other tics ready to surface, under control.

My son is a success story so far. He was doing so very poorly in school. Since he was put on the proper medication, he gets nothing but A's & B's on his report card & he goes to a private ~ highly academic school.

It's a tough decision but one we have no regrets over. But PLEASE make sure you get your son properly diagnosed before putting him on a stimulant! There can be nasty side effects. (My son lost 12 lbs the first year he was on the meds & has only gained a few pounds since! That's a lot of weight for a child who was slim to begin with! He has no appetite on the meds.)

 

[cruisnfamily]

princessmomma....I bumped up an old thread of mine which I got lots and lots of info on. Maybe you can find some usefull info on it.

Good luck, it's a tough decision that's for sure.

I do agree with whoever it was that said get a full and complete diagnosis before trying meds.

We also tryed behavior modification for all of first grade before trying meds in 2nd grade. Yes, it probably would have helped if we did the meds in 1st grade but we would never have known if the behavior modification would have worked or not. I was glad we exhausted all possibilities before reaching this decision. It helped us be more sure of ourselves and that we were doing the right thing for our son. We are having such a fabulous, fabulous school year with the help of the meds and our son is soooo proud of himself for "getting stickers every day". This is a first for him.

Hope this helps!

 

[princessmomma]

Thank you for all your replies. I am so confused because my son is so calm. He can be very centered when he is working on something that interests him. He would prefer to play for hours in his room by himself instead of with friends.

He has great "play" time, developing battles, good guys vs. bad guys. Each character has great strenghs, weapons, defences, etc. and this can go on for literally hours. He loves his "stuff" in his room.

He is very respectful and caring. He is also very sensitive. He and his sister never fight, he doesn't want to make her upset.

He is a very complex kid and I really believe that he is a square peg that is being forced in a round hole at school.

 

[WDWAurora]

Princessmomma: I'm a soon-to-be school psychologist, and while I don't know everything about the situation, before medication have him tested for giftedness (that sounds most like the problem from my perspective, if he's just not interested in class...Why would he be if he's performing at such a high level?) and absolutely get the full workup before meds. You don't want to submit him to it without being certain. He's lucky to have such a concerned mother who is looking out for her son!!

 

[JenBlaze]

I have ADD. Your son sounds just like me as a kid.

My mother tried me on every drug in existence, and on most of them, I felt like I was completely not myself, like my real self was deep inside and I couldn't get out.

I demanded to be off of them at age 14, and I found little ways of coping.

I decided, as an adult, to try Adderall. There's something you need to realize about it - it is an amphetamine. It is a highly controlled substance. (It's a pain in the butt to refill, too.)

While I was on it, I developed an uncontrollable problem where I scratched the living daylights out of my arm, almost scarring myself. And the effects of the drug only lasted for 3 hours at the most.

My advice would be to NOT ALLOW your pediatrician to treat "possible" ADD, especially NOT with a drug that's illegal on the street! Have your son taken to a child psychologist, and see what they say. I might even go as far as to take him to two or three, just to make sure.

One thing that I have learned about ADD: if your son does have it, the case is not that something is wrong with his brain. It's just that his brain goes through different processes than other people's, and that is okay. People with ADD have many strengths that other people may not have. All you have to do is find a way for you to play to those strengths.

Medication can be helpful, but it's not always necessary.

 

[katerkat]

Have you had him tested for a learning disability? He sounds a lot like me at that age! Turns out, I had dyslexia, plus I was taught to write with the incorrect hand - I'm a lefty, but write righty. So writing was difficult (from the dyslexia) and painful (you should have seen how I held a pencil!)

 

[chager]

ok, I'm going to throw something out there on this subject. I have a small issue with the whole medicating the child thing, but I know some kids can't survive without. However it is possible for a child to have these symptoms when they are in fact having an allergic reation to a nearby chemical. My son had a friend in his class last year that would be doing fine until the cleaning cart came around. (Private church school) At which point this kid literally either spaced out or became so fidgity he couldn't accomplish even the smallest of things. This year he is at a different school and having alot less problems. His mom said she can't believe the difference. I noticed a few times that kids started having problems concentrating or had headaches after the cart went by. My son is homeschooled this year and is able to concentrate better. He often complained of headaches and/or stomaches last year. Obviuosly this would not be an answer all the time, but it is something to think about. Another family I knew gained custody of their nephew who was dx'd ADHD. They changed his diet (very very limited sugars like pop,cakes,candies) and set a structured evening routine. This child was failing 7th grade and had awful reports from teachers about his behavior. His mom was at wits end which is why his uncle and aunt took him in. Within 3 months this child was on honor roll, praised by his teachers, and off medication. It was concluded that he had allergies to some perservatives and fructose.
I do understand that some children have to have meds...I've seen and worked with them, but please explore all avenues before just jumping to meds. Too many Dr's are quick to give them now a days without looking at other possibilities.
Good luck with whatever choice you make.

 

[cindysteve]

I too am an adult with ADD. I have a high IQ, and I was in honors classes. I represented my state in HS as a member of the US Academic Decathalon team. I got A's on my exams. But to balance this out, I had a C average. I never finished my homework. I lost the assignments. I would forget the books I needed at home. I was distracted in class.
I was not on meds as a child, but did try ritilin as an adult. The medication helps. It helps you to focus. It helps you to complete tasks that you don't want to do. I wish I was on meds as a child. School would have been easier, and my grades would have been better.
Asperger's and other forms of autistic spectrum disorder, as well as Bipolar disorder and several other conditions can mimic the symptoms of ADD, or incorporate them. ADD meds actually make bipolar children worse. PLEASE, get an accurate diagnosis. Either a psychologist or a Psychiatrist can help you get a proper diagnosis.
Do not be afraid of medications. The RIGHT medication can really help your child.

 

[Bojangles]

See a specialist before you start meds. You need to find out what's wrong (if anything) first.

 

[wdwnutze]

My DS was diagnosed with ADHD at age 4. He was put on Ritalin and there was a huge improvement in his ability to sit and focus. He is now almost 20 and doesn't take the Ritalin anymore(his choice) but he is aware that he tends to struggle. My DD was diagnosed last year at age 10 with ADD. There is a major difference between ADD and ADHD. My dd was never disruptive or a behavior problem. She was however, very disorganized and wold misplace a lot of her homework and school supplies. She is very smart but was having a lot of trouble in school. Since being put on Adderall, she has received straight A's every term and has no trouble with homework. She is much more organized and confident. Adderall has made a huge difference in her life. She only takes it for school. It has never kept her up at night(she goes to be at 8:30 and is asleep by 9). I think it is very hard for someone that doesn't deal with this issue in their home to understand it completely. I used to work with Adolescents with ADD/ADHD so I have worked with it and am the mom of childeren with it. I have seen lots of kids struggle because the parents don't believe in medicating their kids. Don't get me wrong, I think you should try everything else 1st but talk to Dr's for their advice. You will find lots of debate but you need to do what is right for your child. Good luck. Feel free to pm me if you have any questions.

 

[cruisnfamily]

Remember too, there's a difference between ADD and ADHD. Your son may not be the fidgety, hyperactive type(ADHD), he may be the mellow, spacy type(ADD).