Just so you know - natural remedies like valerian and kava in a recent test were shown to be no better than placebo (http://www.healthfinder.gov/news/newsstory.asp?docID=527026). And it tastes like a mouthful of rusty nails too.
Melatonin works for MILD sleeplessness but in people with really bad insomnia it just hasn't proven worthwhile at all.
Just wanted to prevent walking down the wrong path.
for his sleep problem if you like alternative medecines,my doctor adviced passiflora comp or valerian root(the valerian tastes horrible )melatonin also worked for us and for many people here,there is several thread about it.How about trialing new meds during the summer after you get the results from the neuropsych? You'll get regular med check visits with your psychiatrist and you'll have the option of falling back on Adderall if nothing else you try works. Since Adderall is a stim, you should be able to pick it up and put it down as needed.
Well.... frustration just reached a wole new level when the doc just upped my son's Adderall to x2 20 mg XR (7am and 1 pm) and added 5-10 mg pill at 6 pm. I get what he is trying to do, I guess, because he doesn't want to do anything more until he has all of the test results in (OT intake and neuropsych stuff) but what this means is we just spent the entire school year without getting any answers! And realistically, how far am I going to get in the summer?
well, I had some PhDs in early childhood education caution me about not jumping the gun with his "problems" so I waited longer than the daycare teachers would have liked, but I went to our local IU and they had the early intervention team eval him. He was just SO active they couldn't get him to focus for even 2 minutes at a time. These were teachers that I trusted and had years of experience. I took them at their word that something more was going on. Then behavior concerns became extremely escalated so I went for help.
We went thru the surveys and he was observed. When the IEP was set, I planned ahead and made a doc appt for right after. I took copies of everything to the doc and we discussed it. He delivered my son so he had an extensive backgrorund with him. He said quite honestly that my son did not display typical behaviors for his age and that he never really had.
I trusted the professionals around me, my own el ed training, and my gut.
How can you tell this in preschoolers? I thought preschoolers are active anyhow?I can realate since our is 10 and we are stilling looking for the real dx. I am so glad he is getting help at school with a iep so young. My fear is his future education.
Se is going to be harder in the future to keep cause severe kids are going to be the ones to keep it mostly. Gotten from radio and our SE director.
oldtimer38839.8047916667We did try Concerta for about a month in kindergarten and then he started hiding the pills!!!
I just think there is more going on then the ADHD and I am very frustrated that it has taken 7 months so far and it doesn't feel as though we are any closer to answers.
Sorry to sound so negative!!! I am reading your advice with an open mind!
I laughed at the Valerian root thing b/c our 2 "cat people" at work just discovered it as a replacement for catnip and said how trippy their cats get on it!!!
I only posted once before so let me introduce myself. I am a 32 yr old single parent of one 7 yr old son.
Early on my son was noticed to be "different" from other kids. He appeared to have no attention span, but his retention level is very high. Teachers and I tried to work it out, finally it became so bad I went to the local IU and they did an eval. The specialist originally thought he needed residential care! We tried Adderall at age 3 and had immediate success. We tweaked it over the years, but gradually other problems emerged. He has arthritis and seems to be displaying ODD traits.
We coped until this year when he was paired with a horrendous 1st grade teacher unwilling to deal with him. School psychologist eval-ed for gifted and came back with a working dx of depression and referred back to PCP until we could get in with psychiatrist. PCP was shocked, but reviewed case and questioned cyclothymic -- treated with Depakote for 3 months.
Psychiatrist changed Adderall from one XR 25 mg a day to 2 of the XR 15's and is holding off on anything else ntil we get neuro-psych screen and OT eval. He wants to consider sensory integration disorder.
I am just so frustrated with the hurry up and wait routine. The other day during an IQ test, he advanced to 8th grade math (he's in 1st grade) but the teacher's say he is only capable of grade level work. His IQ went from 135(Schlossen's) to 110 to 90 and this time she said it is way above average but he fatugues too early.
We go to the psychiatrist again in the morning, but I have no confidence that anything will change.
Also, my son NEVER sleeps. It is nothing for him to be up until 3am every night. Even if I get him to sleep early he wakes up for huge chunks of time during the night. The psychiatrist recommends benadryl, but it takes 3 or 4 to get him to sleep and that is a dangerous amount!
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Wow - lots of questions! I'll try to help if I can - from the POV of a guy who was a 7 year old of parents ripping their hairs out the same way.
Firstly I'll try to help with the sleep. If he's having trouble sleeping that is very common. Try white noise - anything from a TV quietly set to a dead (not broadcasting) to a white noise machine. They aren't expensive now. It drowns out the chatter in his mind (a lot of us have that - our "inner voice" gets loud). You could also try getting him into some freestyle athletics in the late afternnon that can burn off some of the excess energy. Also pulling back the meds to very early in the morning and no later than a couple hours after lunch allow them to flush out of the system so they aren't making it worse.
I can relate to a lot of what you mention. Although he has a higher-than-average IQ, I suspect he has an extremely low EQ (Emotional Quotient - tells about social intelligence which leads to friendship, relationships, etc.). Many of us have very low EQs. A psych can diagnose.
It's frustrating to not be able to "get" life. He watches people but it totally eludes him to the how and why of everyday events. He will learn to "fake it" if not included into some therapy such as Cognitive Behavior Therapy. CBT can be taught by most qualified psychiatrists/psychologists and I highly recommend it. It teaches how to relearn things that are really useful - like dealing with anxiety, friend issues, etc. Real-life events over worrying about his history and what made him sad/angry in the past. It works on correction over healing.
Best wishes. If there's anything I can add from my perspective please do let me know.
It sounds like your son has a lot more than ADHD going on. I will keep you in my prayers I hope things go well for you good luck. Welcome aboardThanks for your response.
We do sports soccer and hoops so far, hopefully football this fall. It does help with his arthritis as well. We also dp rounds of PT every few months.
My son is that conflicted thing where emotionally he is behind his peers, yet is light years ahead.
He does participate in a social skills group with the guidance counselor.
The thing that burns me is that they get special ed $$$ for him, but the only accomodation is this group.
They know he is only acting "appropriatly" 70 percent of the time on those meds and tell me that he would be in real trouble with the acedemic stuff if he were any older.
As for the meds, he gets the 2nd dose at 1 pm and he has very rapid metabolism and processes it quick, that's why he gets 2 XR in a day.
I agree that more is going on than ADHD. ODD is more a symptom than a disorder. Good that your seeing a Psychiatrist. I like NeuroPsychs even better as they take a lot of time to test the child. He could have a number of ADHD plus things going on, all hard to diagnose. Wishing you luck. OlderMom38837.7897916667