Hey there everybody! I haven't posted in awhile so I thought I should just come and say HI! Things have pretty much been the same with my son. We are STILL having issues trying to find a Dr. to diagnose him. I thought we had found a great one - filled out mountains of paperwork, set up an appointment and then she called back saying they weren't in our network! Oh I hate insurance companies!! So, now I have to start all over again. I talked to our ped. and he said at this point just find a Dr. in network and get him officially diagnosed. He was originally concern with who the Dr. would be, but he is getting frustated too. He just needs an official diagnosis - which he isn't comfortable doing on his own - so we can move on and get help! My son is currently seeing a therapist at our mental health clinic and she has SEMI-OFFICIALLY diagnosed him ADHD and ODD. It was hard to hear the ODD part. We knew he had ADHD and suspected ODD, but to hear it from a professional was hard. Poor kid has no clue about the long road ahead - or what a "normal" life would!
And to top it off he broke his arm and had to have surgery (April 24th) the day before he turned 6! Can you believe it! He even has pins in his arm!! Those come out on the 15th and then he gets another cast put on for 3 more weeks!! And of course it's his right arm. I do have to say that once the pain was gone after a few days he has been a trooper!!
I do have a question tho - I'm not JUST here to ramble on and on about how hard my life is -HA HA HA. My son will not play with his toys!!! He will just wander around the house causing trouble. He would perfer if one of us would play with him - or of course a friend - but that's not always possible. Why can't he entertain himself? Nothing holds his attention. It was just his Birthday and he got new toys, but after the first 2 days they aren't fun or something. Right now he is kicking a baloon around the house - which is fine, but he would rathe play witha balloon than his toys? What the heck? It's a constant battle to get him to actually play -by himself- with his toys. Any advice or tips for me??Thanks so much!!
I know my answer is not going to come across as one that a lot of people would agree with but I will offer it anyway. I found for my son it helped to get a Leapster L-Max. I also have an arts and craft corner set up in his bedroom. He seems to do a lot with the both of these and will do so on his own. The t.v. we have in his room is not set up to watch regular t.v. He can however watch Scooby Doo or other mom approved DVDs.
As far as other suggestions go... I try to keep him busy by doing things outside of home too. We often go to the park, free activities around town, library, bookstore, soccer, etc...some not so free activities, I find the more I keep us busy the better for the both of us.
We have together times established at home... we play game boards which I don't think many kids get the opportunity to do any more with all the technology available nowadays.