Only children with ADHD | ADHD Information

My 12 year old has half brothers and sisters, and step brothers and sisters, all much older. But he doesn't see them much. Here it is just the two of us, and Man he can drive me up the wall sometimes. My friends no not to call when his medicine is out of his system, as we won't be able to talk at all. Now when he is at his dads he drives his half sister, who lives at home 21, and step brother 29 crazy. The rest of the kids live elsewhere.

my son is 10 years old and we just started ritalin in January.  I had a little girl before him that passed away and when my son was 4 i had to have a hysterectomy (i was 27).  I think it is sometimes a double edged sword.  Although they are able to have all your attention, it seems draining sometimes.  I often feel bad that there isn't a sibling to go outside and paly with or a board game with when it is the last thing you want to do.  Because he is an only child, there was nothing to compare to with regards to behaviour.  I just thought he was a VERY energetic often bored and lonley boy who acted like this to amuse himself.  There was no problems with making and keeping friends, he is very empathetic and unselfish.  We put him on ritalin because he was having a very difficult time focusing at school and told us it felt like he had 50 thoughts going through his head at the same time. Verbaly he is far above his grade level even though he had a severe oral motor and phonological disorder.  we spent hundreds of dollars aon therapy and now unless you tell someone they are not aware of it. On paper his thoughts are still cionfused at times and his fine motor skills are well below grade level.  I think you have to just say it is what it is, and deal with the situation you have. Again there are plus and negatives to every situation.

My son and I live alone. I can't imagine having to interact with other
people while I am trying to deal with him. Now, when I set a boundary, he
knows that the earth will stop spinning before he gets away with crossing
that line, and that he will get the exact same consistent response every
time he pushes a limit, even just a little. Doesn't matter though, he still
seems like he will never learn, but at least I know I am giving it 100%.
Sigh.my son was an only child for the first 5 years of his life....now he has an almost two year old baby sister and yes I think she is a blessing to him...he is a very good big brother and now not all the focus goes to him which probably gives him a break......He told me once while I was holding the new baby he was 5 at the time.."mom I am sure glad we have this baby in our life". He really needs his little sister .....before the baby he would chatter with anybody and everybody...this chatter seems to have calmed down joemom38797.2579166667

My son is 10 and an only child. I am a single mom so he gets a lot of attention. I don't know that this is good. I sometimes wish he had to share my attention with someone else at home. He used to butt into my conversations. He will still talk to me when I am on the phone. My friend's 14 year old daughter talks nonstop when we are on the phone too. She is ADHD and only child with just her mom too. Brandon used to have a  real problem sharing his toys. He isn't selfish though which is good. He did have a problem getting along with others. THis has improved greatly.

Does only having one child make it worse for a child with ADHD?? Do you think that they would have more social problems? Or is it better because they get more attention? What do you all think??Thanks Jasper's mom38796.8315740741

Hello, my husband and I are very concerned about our 8 yr old.

He's on adderall and he started to have the shakes and twitches in his eye's.

He doesn't ever seem to be hungry and he says it makes him very sick.

the Dr. says that it's because he just doesn't want to take it and he's just making this all up.

Is it a bad idea to just take him off of it cold turkey he's been on it from about 6 to 12 month's. And we just don't know what to do.

Help Please someone

Thank You  Mark and Sophia Clanton

Don't ever take a child of of any medication without first consulting your doctor, it could have very serious side affects. Doctors certainly don't know everything, I don't know why a child would fake not being hungry, or fake twitching and trembling, but I would make sure this particualr medication is ok to stop. A lot of times this information will be printed with your prescription.

God bless your family!

I have 8 yr old & 5 yr old son with adhd. Also 3 yr old daughter that hopefully does not have adhd.

They all fight like brothers and sisters will but on good days it really helps to have the siblings because they play and entertain each other. And give me a break.

On the bad days it would be nice to only have 1 child to deal with. I was not an only child and could never imagine not having more than 1 child.

I think it is how you deal with the stress. We all know there are down falls in either situation. We all just have to hang in there and keep posting here for support from other families with similar lives.

Hi Gracie, I had my dd before I knew my ds had adhd, he was only 22 months old. I wouldn't have had it any other way. They are best friends which helps my son because he doesn't have many friends. His sister does teach him social cues without even realizing it is happening. We have his emotions and behaviors under control now with the help of a classically trained homeopath. I am glad I had my little tornado first! I would have been in for a shock if I had the calm one first then my add guy. I was already used to the "activity level"!!!!

I wonder how many parents decided not to have any more children because of difficulties they had raising their firstborn.  I was an only child and was dead set against having only one until DS started having so many issues and DH and I came to grips with the fact that he was going to need almost all our time and extra resources.  So instead of a baby, my DS got a puppy, which is working out great for both of them --- except when they wind each other up and are bouncing and running through the house ;)

My son, 8 drives my dtr,9 crazy.  For those of you with only the adhd child, it doesn't matter how many people are in the house.  My son interupts, my phone calls, conversations, you name it.  Does the same to his sister and to some point his dad but not as severe with dad.  We are going to be implementing a marble/poker chip system as soon as I can get to the store and really hope this will help.  We are also in the process of changing his meds as the current one causes a little too much OCD. 

When my son gets out of control with his interupting and talking I put him in his room.  Sometimes I think he is so overstimulated he cannot stop.Thanks everyone for responding to my post. Having an only child with ADHD is very difficult. In some ways the reason we only wanted one child is because it was so hard raising Jasper. I always thought he was just a difficult kid and that as he got older things would get easier.As time went on things got worse and we finally figured out that it might be ADHD . We are now going through the testing and right now things are very hard and I am very stressed and have no idea of what to because nothing is working . I am thinking of putting him on medication but I don't know anything about it. Jasper is a caring and smart boy but I am tired of fighting with him and worrying about school and if everything is going ok with him and our family. Thanks, Jen

By the time my son was 2... I was exhausted by 10 a.m.  By the time he was 3... we knew he wasn't right.  LOL.    BUT, as hard as he was then.. I still wanted another child.  I could see another one in the back seat.  People thought I was crazy.    By the time he was 4.. he had a baby brother and let me tell ya... that little brother has been the best thing for him.   When Todd had NO friends, he had his brother.  Now, the little brother is a touch hyper and I didn't realize how much the big brother kept him occupied untill he went away for the summer.. leaving me alone with a 3 year old.   :)

I am glad he has a sibling.  They are best of friends and caring for someone else.. helps Todd learn social skills and he is never alone.  Most ADHD kids need that.

My son is an only child. I have wanted another child for a long time, but my husband hasn't agreed. I don't think it will ever happen now because of dealing with the adhd. Maybe it's not meant to be. Maybe I couldn't handle it. I'm just trying to take it one day at a time for now, and I still have time if we want to have another baby someday. They will be very far in age, but that's okay.

[QUOTE=Taffy]I am glad he has a sibling.  They are best of friends and caring for someone else.. helps Todd learn social skills and he is never alone.  Most ADHD kids need that.[/QUOTE]

I would have to agree. My ADD son is the younger of 2 boys, 3 years apart (12 & 15). Although they have the usual squabbles and even physical fights sometimes, they would go to the ends of the earth for each other. I've been posting on another thread about how ADD kids don't pick up on social cues, and how meds have helped my son in that regard. I know my ADD son has definitely learned much from his older brother, although my older son would probably disagree.

It's been quite interesting having one child who has tons of friends (& now girlfriends), dexterity, academic ability, FOCUS and who everything just comes easily to... and one who is pretty much the opposite. It has made it really clear how much the ADD affects everything and that he needs more support from us. He's been dealt a different hand and he requires extra patience and a totally different approach. It's been an eye-opener for us.

PB