My 10 yeard old seems to be getting worse. He has lots of homework. We give him breaks between assignments- 10 minutes TV or video game. He can NOt write a sentence if his life depended on it. He is angry and is now always crying. He has trouble sleeping and he is a nightmare to wake up in the morning. Every morning it's a battle, screaming and crying scene. He tired and and so am I. It is causing problems in our home and my husband and I are always screaming.
He has an aide in school, learnig center and takes meds. He is a very bright student his grades are very high- 90's 100. He gets made if he doesn't get a 100. We tell him we don't expect him to 100- no one is perfect- he puts this pressure on himself.
He is just very angry all the time about his ADHD.
THis sounds like my daughter pre-med. I would discuss this with the doctor. What type of doctor is he seeing pediatrician or psychiatrist? What med and dose is he on?
The homework issues sound like the meds are not in his system for homework and he may even be having some rebound as the meds are leaving his system. Also, sometimes there are coexisting issues like OCD, anxiety, etc that add to the issues. He may realize that sometimes he breezes through his work and sometimes he struggles with thisngs he knows he can do, and this can be very frustrating to a bright child. With the sleep issues, his symptoms may be exagerated due to sleep deprivation.
Some things to look at:
Work with the sleep issues. Look at the sleep hygiene isssues (warm bath, keeping the same schedule on weekends, no tv or videogames an hour before bed, etc.). You can discuss with the doctor the use of melatonin (natural sleep aid that has been shown to help some people) or adding clonidine or tenex at night to help with sleep.
Work with better med coverage for homework. Add a short acting form to get through this period, unless it toatally disrupts sleep. Or add tenex morning and after school to augment the other ADHD med (my daughter is on concerta and guanfacine for good coverage).
Implement a positive reinforcement behavior plan for home and school (see ogram's marble stystem - the second thread on the parent's board). I reward my daughter for homework completion, As, having homework done before I get home from school (this is posible now that meds are optimized for her).
I hope this helps.
i hope this works give hime a 15 min brak make alist a good and bad i so get what u are talkin about i have anine yr old with add and our
home is the same constant battles.my son takes ritalin and his
appettita is all over the place and meal times r an argument all the
time dont like the yelling it is so frustrating.have 2 take big deep
breaths walk off and think bout things.
My son was on Ritalin and was exactly the same, he was diagnosed with OCD as well as the ADHD. I then took him to a child psychiatrist who advised that we take him of the Ritalin as he may be showing the OCD symptoms due to coming down fast off the Ritalin each day. We changed his meds to Concerta and the symptoms went away. Concerta is slow to start and slow to wear off, so his eating sleeping etc are all as they should be.
Rose
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