My seven year old boy been diagnosed with ADHD since kindergarten. Takes 10 mg of ritalin morning and afternoon. So far so good, does well in school, besides the disorganization. Is an avid reader, one of the best in his class.
However, while at home he experiences times of, I wouldnt say mood swings, he's always been like this-constant whinning....have a really hard time getting him to sleep. Wants snack after snack, then a drink. Really hard time getting him to wind down and go to sleep. Then between my 5 year old son who wont go to bed without me Im ready to blow my brains out.
Any advice on the constant whinnyness and bedtime ritual. I've tried the routine, works ok, but still takes an hour to get him to wind down. I've heard about Melatonin....but scared to try it.
I wonder if its not adhd, maybe bi polar. Seems hes either really happy, or completely mad. Never an inbetween. Tells me he hates me and will kill me if doesnt get his way. I realize he doesnt mean it, its the impulsivness.
With the whining, I found that washing my ds's mouth out with soap was effective
you actually put soap in your childs mouth????? what does that teach.....besides make him sick?
There is a thread with the title "Melatonin.. is it safe for kids" on p2, and I'm sure you'll find something on the alternatives board. I started giving my kids Melatonin about two weeks ago. It does help sthem settle down better. Especially my son, in addition to adhd he also has Asthma and takes Advair in the morning and evening. The Advair does make him hyper, as if he weren't hyper enough on his own. But it helps keep his Asthma under control. So far I haven't seen any sideeffects from the Melatonin.
I also let them listen to books on tape or cd - libraries have tons of them. Since they want to hear the story they have to be quiet and therefore lay in bed and fall asleep better. Might be worth a try, it works for us.
As for the whining - thats something I haven't found a permanent cure yet.
Good luck
I've used melatonin and I have given it to my oldest daughter a time or two. It works great for me and my daughter. I've not tried it on my son/ADHD but think I will. Some nights he is bouncing off the walls as well. His brian just doesn't know when to stop sometimes!If you use just music, no lyrics, that might not distract him so much. I think with my son it pulls his mind away from the day to day stuff, what happened at school, what we had for dinner, just mundane stuff.thanks for the advice so far...I've tried the charts, he loses interest in those and doesnt care.
The music thing might work. I think I will try that....though I think it may distract him.
I kinda ignore the threats, I think he says them out of impulse. I tell him how they really hurt my feelings and sometimes he will tell me he loves me or just make a silly animal noise.
I have the same trouble with my ds. He always keeps getting back up to see what's going on, to ask a question, or to make a suggestion. His favorite is coming in to the den and saying, "I have a brilliant idea!" This signals to me that his brain is still going 100 mph and the trick is now to slow his mind down. I've tried a CD called bedtime with Beethoven with moderate success until he got tired of it and wanted to listen to motley crue (ds is 13). I have come to expect that when my son goes to bed at 9 pm, he'll probably fall asleep sometime after 10 pm. Excercise seems to help him go to sleep earlier, so you may want to build some time in everyday for excercise if you think that'd help. I've been thinking about using melatonin for this. The pdoc said that there are no known studies that demonstrated that melatonin works but that it wouldn't hurt my son. Of course, this doc wasn't aware that omega 3s's were used to moderate behavior either. What is it about melatonin that you are afraid of?Kids with Bipolar disorder do crave carbs and sweets much moreso than the regular child. Not saying your child is Bipolar - but Dylan absolutely loves sweets and would eat snacks for meals if I let him do it.
Him telling you he is going to kill you is alarming. I think you should start to keep a daily journal for your child and take that with you to the pdoc.
Sticker charts with rewards worked really well for my kids when it came to bedtime. We did up a chart on construction paper, and I put one in each of their rooms. For each night they went to sleep on time, they got a sticker. If they got so many stickers (say 5 out of the 7 nights), they earned a reward.
Worth a shot. Good luck.
Janna
Rdlipstck
My son is 13 and I've been there. Some of the thing's my son has done I don't think I have the guts to put in writing. I would just let him fall asleep with the radio or tv on. I know some say it's not good but, I just do/did whatever works at the time cause thats all we can do...
The whining isn't so much a problem as much as it use to be. I would tell my son if he needed to whine to go site in the back yard and have some time by himself till he calmed down and could be with the rest of us calmly.
Now if comes home from a bad day at school and starts in I make him sit on the front porch til he figures out a way to calm down first. everyone get's upset or mad but it's not okay to take it out on everyone else...
Hope this helped a little bit