Medicine vs self control

Pamela - posted on 03/25/2009

My son is 8 yrs old and was diagnosed at age 5. He has been on meds since. I went throught the whole thing of having to up the dose to satisfy his teachers. This year I got a call from his teacher complaining about the focus and disruptive behavior. I refused to raise his dose! I just couldn't do it!! The meds have worked very well!! He is still my sweet little boy, but and everyone else can finally see it too!! Anyway I worked with the teacher and she started sending home a behavior chart daily for me to see. If he had a real hard day I would take computer time away ( he loves the computer). He would have to have a good day before he got it back. I also made an enctive chart for him. He had to have good days for 2 weeks and then he got something specail. Now mind you he was still on his medication, but I didn't have to raise the dose!! This makes me think that although some ADHD children need meds, there are things you can do to help them develop better self comtrol on their own as well. Hope this helped!

Debbie - posted on 03/22/2009

you should really check in to diet. I went through that w/ my son psychologists,he had two real good ones out of all. the rest were meds and no patients to understand him.I went through alot w/ schools and principals the principal told me my F"" son needed to be medicated i told him to leave my house. When the found the right teacher w/ patients and wanted to learn to teach outside the box things worked out better. I also changed his diet NO HOTDOGS NO PROCESSED, WATCH DYES>> things were unreal and of course consistantcy. that helps a schedule so they know what there doing and where.GOOD LUCK>>

Tracey - posted on 03/22/2009

Most docs recommend meds and behavior therapy. We put our son on meds and did behavior therapy with a child psychologist once a week for probably a year and a half. We haven't done the behavior therapy in over two years now but his pediatrician just referred us back to the psychologist because he is really acting out in school, even on meds. I does take BOTH. We are having a really difficult time with him righ now and it is all behavioral. His memory and attention span are fine right now, but he is extremely defiant and seems to be acting out to get attention from his peers. So we will be going back to the behavior therapy.

Ellen - posted on 03/21/2009

MEDS!! My son was diagnosed at 5 years of age he is 9 now and to see him once he has had his daily dose is amazing we can go shopping together he doesnt beat up his siblings he is a different child.

He was once refused his afternoon dose at school and when he got home he was so disstressed he said he didnt like his head feeling so busy. also with out the tablets he gains a stutter because his brain is going to fast and he cant keep up.

Now he is settled on the drugs he has been having assessments to diagnose Autism so in a good way for us keeping the adhd under control has high lighted a problem that may not have been discovered.

Yvette - posted on 03/21/2009

My five year old is on Vyvanse and it makes such a huge difference. His teacher says that he is like a completely different child. He can focus during reading time, he listens and works better. We are still at the lowest dose and it is still working great. I am working with him on self control in the evenings because it wears off about then. So hopefully he will be able to get off meds when he is a litle older.

Rabecca - posted on 03/20/2009

I think your rigth I stuggled for along tme about wheather or not to medicate and after tears lots of talks with teachers and my son getting kicked out of every club he joined, we went with the meds and thank God now everyone can see the sweet little boy I see but still think in the back of my head is this the right choice, and the one thing that i keep reminding myself is that this does not have to be a life thing for him when he's older they can learn to control implusiveness and for now everyday I see improvements in his self asteem and has even made friends which before was not happening

Debbie - posted on 03/20/2009

Jennifer that is awesome.. I tried to put my son in sports he wasn't interested until he was in the church group then he started basketball with them but when the coach didn't help self esteem he stopped. He is doing much better socially now though.on meds he wouldn't socialize he said he didn't want kids to think he was a druggy It was sad and hard. Every kid is different and there Role models are important Keep up the Good work Good luck...There are worth every breathe...

Jennifer - posted on 03/20/2009

My son was recommended for meds in first grade and I really was not convinced that he was severe enough for meds. I agreed to try it for the sake of my son because I was not 100 sure he did not need some help staying on task. My son lost his personality with every med we have tried (adderall xr, vyvanse, concerta, ampet salts, respirdol w/ vyvanse cocktail) you get the picture. For almost the last 2 1/2 yra my son has been absent inside of himself. He was no longer the bright, happy, curious, or compassionate son that I call my boo. My husband and I took Brian off of all meds, put him a sport of choice (football) and contined to teach self control at home. We would turn out living room into a mock class and role play out possibliies that could be a good or bad for him at school and then we would advise him from there. I say that yes many children are misdiagnosed with ADHD and it can almost always make the self esteem of this child become compromised. Brian has been med free for almost 5mos and we are continuing throuh 3rd grade very well. Having a teacher that support this method of treatment we are using with Brian is very importtant for the self esteem of Brian to continue to get stronger. We are doing MUCH better non med and self control practice tools implemented at home

Dawn - posted on 03/19/2009

Amanda, mine is fine for sleeping too, it is just the focus. He had a lot of energy, but the attention part is the more dominant thing. The school is very good about make sure he has gym and recess though because they know that he needs it. And you are probably right, maturity probably has a lot to do with it. I won't worry yet. :)

Dawn - posted on 03/19/2009

Good to know, thanks for this insight. Debbie, that is interesting that you brought up all those other foods. We have already tried to eliminate Red #40 from his diet because I heard awful things about that. It is so hard though! It is EVERYWHERE!!!! Scary! I will see what I can do to work on the others.

Debbie - posted on 03/19/2009

I also taught him to take deep breathes inhale deep exhale slow and up to ten.. think of a better way to handle what he/she is doing. what he/she thinks would be the right thing to do. He still hates to read but we have made a game of it. My son use to wonder the class to make sure everyone else was doing what they should wasn't worried about his own. He has such a good heart. I wasn't in to the meds thing but when he climbed out the window to see if he could make it across the balcony w/out fallin I new then I nedded to do something. the doctors tried different med there were some that i thought worked. but when he'd rather stay homwe than play I wondered what was in our kids today that makes them eligible for all these so called meds. then I realize there are to many chemicals in our food that they can't balance there brains with what they eat and started playing with foods since.much better than making them guienuapigs.

Amanda - posted on 03/19/2009

I think that when they are younger they have a hard time figuring out what they can control. My son is on one medication and it works really well for him, mostly to get him through the school day. Some behaviors are not consistant everyday, so it makes me wonder too about what they can control and not control. I think once they start to mature they can understand and learn to control more of the outbursts ect. Food does play a huge part in it too. My son doesn't have a hard time sleeping or anything like that, he just gets really really bored at school and can't stay focused and has too much energy to just sit in class all day. There are so many different things that can affect each child differently. That's what makes it so much harder. I would like some more info on the food items that help and hurt if anyone has it.? Good Luck