6 yr old son | ADHD Information

hello and WELCOME..... my name is sheri and my 4 yr old son is bipolar...finding the right medication for a young child can take some time... we have been dealing with this for over 2 yrs now..dillon also see a therapist twice a week.. dealing with dillons behavior is very hard for me and my god i'm not pregnant...  I GIVE YOUR CREDIT... disciplining dillon is a joke.. we try and we try HARD.. when ever we try to control him it throws him into a violent rage...  he is getting better... and he is starting to respond to some of this therapy.. but we still know we have a VERY long road to travel..  i wish you luck... please feel free to PM me if you want to... thanks for all your responces. hmm im not sure what the doctors title  is but he sees a therapist and the other one prescribes his meds and changed his diagnoses from just BP to bp with adhd.. its a country run program.. prolly a psychiatrist? I'll have to find out. Hi. my name is Evie and my sons name is travis. He was diagnosed bipolar over a year ago and last week a new doctor i took him to says he has bipolar with ADHD. Its been rocky the last few years. He hits me, screams at me, kicks me, has even punched me. His medication, risperdal was just increased to 3 times a day this past week. I keep hearing that its too soon for him to be diagnosed bipolar.. Its confusing. Plus I'm 34 weeks pregnant. So.. i just feel real tired and exhausted by all this lately. I love my son to death and wish i knew how to handle the way he acts. Like at homework time I get so frustrated, and its not his fault he cant pay attention I guess and I let it get me frustrated because I'm already really tired. Anyone have any suggestions? I have no clue how to parent a child with ADHD. Do i discipline when he screams and hits me? Spanking is out.. I don't do that because it wouldn't do any good anyhow. I put him in his room somtimes and he just slams the door over and over and stuff.. any help would be appreciated. thank youEvie, take a look at the www.bpkids.org site, it is a website about childhood bi polar disorder. the reason some Dr.'s do not diagnose childBP is that they are not even aware that it can occur.WHEN HELPING A KID MAKE THE LESSONS EASY. I DO THIS AS A SCOUT LEADER ALSO. SIMPLE AND TO THE POINT.

Evie,

Some doctors do not believe in diagnosing bipolar in young kids, so opinions will vary. Also treating bipolar with ADHD usually means stabilizing the bipolar and then working on the ADHD treatment. This is because ADHD meds can send a bipolar person into mania. What kind of doctor is he seeing?

For discipline, look at Ogram's marble system. It is a positive reinforcement behavior modification plan that works for many. We have had good results with it with my daughter. Also for the rage and anger, we found that calmly telling her we would be available to discuss things when she calmed down and then leaving the area (if it is safe to leave him-sometimes it is not) would help her calm down quicker. We would then praise her for getting herself calm. The rages became shorter and shorter. Her rages were mainly due to frustration with school failure and getting teased at school. The school failure has been addressed with meds, IEP and behavior plan. This year is going much better.

vickie39000.6379398148There is a great book called "The Explosive Child" that saved my sanity. It
basically helped me understand that my son was not capable of
controlling himself like other kids his age, and that I had to adjust my
expectations. Then I could help him learn frustration tolerance and
problem-solving skills. You are right, once they have gone "over the
edge", punishment is of no use. They are not in control and their "bad
choice" really wasn't a choice, it was a reaction. I always felt that there
had to be a consequence for hitting me, but when I stopped giving one,
nothing bad happened. He certainly didn't hit me more. What happened
was that he would calm down quicker, and we could talk about what
happened sooner. And since I was controlling situations more to keep
him from getting overloaded in the first place, he was melting down less.
It is not a hard behavior program to learn, but it is important that all the
adults in the house understand it and are on the same page. Good luck...