I have a 9 y.o. son who is dx with ADHD and Impusivity Disorder. He knows that he has trouble with attention in school as well as impulsive outbursts at home when not medicated. Unfortunately trying to get him to take his meds has become one major power struggle. Has anyone ever had this problem and if so what did you do to solve it. This is making me crazy!
Thanks,
LL
I agree with asking her why he doesn't want to take them. There is probably a good reason you never thought of. MANsmom. I have a 8 year old son that doesn't like taking his med. The nurse suggested that i give him his medicine at 4:45 when i get up.That way he is still sleeping. I wake him up give him his meds then i tell him its still early go back to sleep. And that works. He is to tired to fight me. Good luck, What ever works.I would ask her why as well and maybe see if there is anything else she will be willing to try. At her age she should be able to know the difference if it helps her or not. You can also look at the natural remedy board and see if she will take vitamins to help instead get her to help make the decision so she is part of it. My girl can be stubborn too with meds certain one's and we discovered now she knows how to swallow pills she prefers it to tasting chew tabs or liquid now no struggle.
Have a long talk with her and good luck, Jill
Welcome!
Have you asked your son why he doesn't want to take his meds?
A book that will help immensely with parent-child collaborative problem solving is called The Explosive Child by Ross Greene. Well worth the cover price.
That is the one and only problem we don't have. If we were dealing with that too I think I would just give up. I wish I had some advice or techniques for you but I'm sure somebody here will be able to help you. There are some very knowledgeable parents here and everyone is great. Good Luck!
Hi,
I recently have been going through a similar problem with my 10 year old daughter. Fortunately I started having her go to a wonderful therapist who not only helps my daughter but has been very helpful to me.
The therapist asked my daughter why she didn't want to take her medicine and she said it gave her a headache and a stomachache. Although my daughter had told me this also, I had to do some problem solving. She hadn't complained of this over the previous month when she was taking her medicine, so I suspected her refusal was due to a control issue, or there was something else.
Although I still not sure of the real cause of her refusal, the therapist agreed that she needed to take her medicine and I needed to present her with choices of how or when she can take it, but NOT taking it was not a choice. There were a few mornings that were very tough but I was clear that the medicine really does help her both at school and at home. Unfortunately she can't always see that.
Last Thurs morning we went through the toughest yet as she is very strong willed. I stayed relatively calm, an important part of the solution, and kept countering the new objections she kept throwing at me. I really tried hard to focus on her making the choice of how she takes the medicine, but NOT taking it was not a choice. After 15 minutes of dealing with this, in frustration, I finally told her she couldn't go horseback riding if she didn't take it. I said I was going upstairs to get dressed and she was on her own to figure a way to take the medicine. Amazingly she figured it out on he own and quietly, without an audience, took it herself. Then she preceeded to come upstairs to tell me she took it and happily said she was off to take the bus, just like nothing happened!
The moral of the story is to give your son some control over his life by giving limited choices on how he can take his medicine, but make it very clear that NOT taking the medicine isn't a choice! Be calm, be strong, you can have a nervous breakdown later! Or better yet, find a yoga class to go to, that's helped me.
Lukily this is not an ongoing issue in my house.....yet. BUT I have had to resort to some bribery to initiate some meds. My son was refusing to take a new med because he had to swallow it whole and before he was able to sprinkle capsules and neither of us thought he could swallow it. The result of him not taking his medicine would have been bad so I was willing to do whatever it took. I give him two choices when I give him his med. He can choose either some m&m's(he knows ahead of time exactly how many) or poker chips to earn a privilage(part of our behavior mod system) It has worked like a charm and we havne't had a med battle since I started doin that.