ADHD and ODD

[Gardners5]

Hi Julie, ADD/ADHD are so tough to deal with I have two sons and one dd. one son with the H and one without. I can remember saying to myself i know he has this but when it came time to put him on meds it was so awful.i just wanted to cry all the time. We have had to adjust meds a couple of times in the last 2 1/2 years. the meds have made a big difference, but we ae trying to play catch up in school. It was really hard for me to get help from our school system even though they are supposed to when you ask. Our psych is kinda weird but that is the only place we can get the meds right now. With our insurance we cant get them from our pediatrition.

They (kids) push you like crazy and it is important to take your timeouts too. Consistancy and hugs go very far. Right now we are dealing with the not being like everybody else. Some of it is just preteen poor me stuff. But it can be hard sorting through it. I love my kids so much. the worst is watching when they are hurting.

The best thing we can do for our kids is take care of ourselves. if you want to talk some more just let me know. Oh btw i have been diagnosed too. My DH and DF are typical undiagnosed. So its not surprising that 2 of 3 children have it in some form.

It doesnt really get easier it just gets different and tollerable the more you learn.

Thinking of my children as the challenging blessings that they are.

[danyel]

My ds (8yo) was diagnosed last fall w/ADHD. For the last 3 years I have been known to say I WILL NOT PUT HIM ON "DRUGS". To me, they are all drugs. BUT when I saw him struggling in school and saw the teacher taking time away from the other students to "redirect" my ds, I finally realized it was time.

It has taken me 18 months to get over the mind set that the meds are "drugs" and that they must be in fact medicine because they HELP him.

We started out on 20mg of Ritalin, then went to 35mg. When that still wasn't lasting through the school day, I said ENOUGH. He was switched to Concerta @ 27mg. It wasn't as strong as the Ritalin but it did last longer. His appetite almost disappeared...until 10:30 PM...then he wanted to eat and not go to sleep. We went back on May 25 and the dr DOUBLED it to 54mg. No improvements in behavior, but WORSE side effects.
He was losing weight at incredible speeds and not going to sleep until 11:30-12:00 every night which made the mornings HORRIBLE :mad:

I faxed the dr a letter telling him the above. I faxed it on a wedsday and he called me thursday. He wanted me in there at 9am on Saturday. He was very worried. We went in and found that my ds had lost a total of 12 pounds since starting Concerta 7 weeks prior. 6 pounds had been lost in just 25 days. That is 13% of his body weight!!

The dr switched ds to Adderall (sp) @ only 15 mg. we will see how this helps. He has only been on it since Tuesday. but missed 3 days (out of town w/grandpa unexpectedly) I want to keep the dosage low until we find out if it affects the behavior. I am a single mom and he is with a couple different babysitters so I don't have the consistency of the teacher telling me about his behavior.

My ultimate goal is to find a "med" that helps him, but does not "drug" him into being "GOOD"

We have to remember that these are not BAD children, just children that have a medical condition that prevents them from functioning at the their full capacity.