Hello all,
It has been awhile since I have posted, but I have some questions and concerns. My son Chase has been on meds since kindergarten. He is now in 4th grade. Now nothing that was ever given to him seemed to help all that much. The doctor kept increasing his dosage, or just switching to different meds. I took him completely off the meds during the summer. The whole idea of him being switched or increased that often just made me a nervous wreck. Now since he has been off the meds he has gained 13 pounds, which is wonderful...he is such a little beanpole. The teacher says so far this year he is doing good, but is having a hard time staying on task if he has to sit for very long. Do any of you that have adhd children not medicate? Chases biggest problem is when he comes home and has homework. It is like pulling teeth!!! What do you all do after school to get your child settled down long enough to do his/her homework? Any special diets any of your children on? Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks so much,
Jeannie
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Jeannie; i'm new here but will be more than glad to answer and help as much as i can. My ds does not take medications for his adhd, the same thing happened here the switching of the meds and nothing ever really worked. at one point he was like a zombie and i just couldn't take that. he is also in 4th grade and also has trouble sitting still but he does because his teacher makes it interesting i think. as for homework; i don't think any child likes to do homework, but what we do is go to the park or play outside after school instead of coming right home and do more school work. sometimes we come home and he takes a shower before anything. i also let him have his snack while doing homework and that really seems to work well. i found that in fourth grade they do alot of writing and he has never been fond of that, but school is school. I wish you the best.
Hello all,
It has been awhile since I have posted, but I have some questions and concerns. My son Chase has been on meds since kindergarten. He is now in 4th grade. Now nothing that was ever given to him seemed to help all that much. The doctor kept increasing his dosage, or just switching to different meds. I took him completely off the meds during the summer. The whole idea of him being switched or increased that often just made me a nervous wreck. Now since he has been off the meds he has gained 13 pounds, which is wonderful...he is such a little beanpole. The teacher says so far this year he is doing good, but is having a hard time staying on task if he has to sit for very long. Do any of you that have adhd children not medicate? Chases biggest problem is when he comes home and has homework. It is like pulling teeth!!! What do you all do after school to get your child settled down long enough to do his/her homework? Any special diets any of your children on? Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks so much,
Jeannie
my two kids (now in college) had no problems doing homework. But I sure did! Even though I knew better, I waited until the last minute (i.e. Sunday nite) to do the weekend work more than I should have, I gazed out my bedroom window more than I should have, I watched TV instead of studying more than I should have.... but I also tried a myriad of things that I thought would help me do my homework. I got rid of my old, too small desk and built myself one to "my" specifications...and put it right in front of the window. Bad you say? well, it worked for me--allowed me to take a glimpse outside, think of something different for a moment, then go back to work--it helped me stay put, which is what I needed to do! I found that, in order to stay with my homework, I either needed to be really interested and excited in learning the topic, or I needed to find some way to provide my brain with alternative, acceptable diversions that wouldn't cause me to leave my chair (or couch or bed) where I was trying to study.
My point here I guess is that working something out together with your kid insofar as homework goes may work best. As long as he or she wants to study and learn, and you give them encouragement towards that goal, then give them the freedom to experiment in order to find ways, settings, quirky styles and rituals.. if it helps them stay put and study, let them have at it! The parents' role here is to make sure the shared goal is "learning" and support, and to stay focused on the "outcome" (lesson learned adequately/homework done). Let the kid have as much leeway in determining the "how". No matter how funky or odd their study seems to you--say nothing derrogatory!
These ADHD brains are untraditional, so its only natural that our study methods will be untraditional as well!
ps. my continual struggle with homework and strategies to aid my doing it also changed constantly... for what is novel and works for us for awhile soon becomes routine and (dare I say) boring--much quicker than folks with attention surplus disorder would find it! Same may go for your child....what works now may not work at all in a couple weeks or month...so don't be surprised and, better, be prepared to encourage your young Einstein to think up some devilishly new setting that will aid their homework when the old ways start to fail.
Thankyou so much for your reply. By the way I love your screen name...lol. What do you do as far as disipline with your child? And what kind of diet is he on? Thanks again, Jeanniemy screen name? it's true! lol. as for discipline we do not spank unless it's really something severe. We talk. and talk and talk. He gets his tv time taken away and there is NO gaming allowed during the week at all. only weekends. Just recently as sat. he just finished a punishment for lieing. He had to find 500 words in the dictionary and write them down along with their definitions. I know this sounds harsh )it did to my sister) but he's gotten to the point of lieing right in my face. Needless to say wehn he got to 300 he let me know that he learned his lesson and he thougth 300 was enough. I didn't fall for that; but let him know that when he lies it's like im' a flower and i wilt. when he tells the truth i'm very happy and very proud of him. of course he laughed at that one. School work always comes first before some type of punishement like we just went through. at first he was being defiant and saying that he could just do 100 a day and have it done in 5 days. we let him know that if that's the way he wanted to do it that was fine; but the weekend was coming up and i would hate to not have him watch tv all weekend. i let hiim know that he could take all the time he needed. this assignment was given to him on tues. he finished around noon sat. when he saw that we weren't giving in. i almost did give in to him until he told me that 300 was enough. glad that's over. as for his diet we have cut back on meat in general. cholesterol issue with family. no red dye of any kind. he also takes fish oil tablets. hope this helps you some.chasesmom- I recently started medicating but did not for two years, and still use supplements in addition to the medication. I would recommend (you should visit the alternatives board) 1000 mg daily of a high EPA fish oil (at least 4:1 EPA/DHA) and a magnesium supplement of up to 6X the body weight given 1/2 in the morning and 1/2 at night. I have never had any homework struggles. I brought my son home when there was no one home, gave him a snack and drink, sat him down at a quiet clean table and told him how many homework sheets needed to be done, and that he could do them in any order he wanted to. Then I left the room and only returned when summoned for help. If this failed, I would probably start by hiring a teenage or college age tutor to come to my home. If that was not successful, I would hire a teacher to tutor.
Thanks so much for your replies. You all are so informative. Thanks again,
Jeannie
Oh by the way, what is the fish oil soppose to do?