We started with our pediatrician. We discussed him being in school all day and didn't want him to have to go to the nurses office due to embarassment and the labeling that has already occurred. Those kids watched him like a hawk so they could attack him and tease him, it was horrible!!
We tried concerta first but the side effects were hard on the entire family. Not sleeping, nor eating, rebound, so we tried adderall XR next. That was NOT for my son. He freaked out in the doctors office. It was stopped immediately. My son's cousins are also medicated, far worse situation, but I knew they were on both concerta and strattera so I wanted to try that. That is when the pediatrician, who is young with three boys of his own, recommended a psychopharmacologist who specializes in this field of medicine. And he was right!!
So we stopped all meds to start all over and since school was getting out. Right before the 4th of july we started concerta again and added tenex. We worked the dosing up over the next 6 months and finally levelled off. He stayed on that dose for several years, then we increased again, all with the doctors help and supervision. We are about to increase again, ds is now turning 12. Puberty is around the corner, if not already here, and that can change meds as well.
It was totally worth the time it took and the help with his doctor. Things aren't great, but everyone has stuff with their kids. I can honestly say that meds saved his life. He couldn't function the way he does without them. He would be in trouble, annoying, etc without them. School would be horrible, life would be horrible.
Take the time to find the one for your child - everyone is different so you have to be patient and try.
So many here have been through all this. They will help with any questions or comments you want to share. I did this alone, I didn't know of these boards back then. You are very lucky to have found this place!!
I hope this is of some help.
please help, my son is driving me and my husband crazy. He is almost 5 and was diagnosed with ADHD when he had just turned 4. He is incredibly impulsive and does things that a 1 1/2 or 2 year old would do (like take out the bag of flour and spread it all over the kitchen floor, spray the frebreeze int he bathroom so much that it soaked our bathroom, rip things apart) and he doesn't do it to be bad, it's just that he doesn't think! And today he said to me "mom why are you always yelling at me?" It broke my heart because I do yell at him alot, HE'S ALWAYS GETTING INTO CRAP! He can be so crazy and hyper sometimes that other children just look at him in bewilderment and they dont know what to make of him at all. He has friends in pre school, I think he's gotten the reputation of being "that kid" He does well in school (it did take him a few months in the beginning to get the hang of things) and he is very smart, but just very quirky. WE dont have him on medications currently because at the time both my husband and I felt he was too young to start meds. However, now were starting to reconsider. We just want him to have a normal quality of life. He is very hard on himself for example saying things like "i cant do this" "it to hard for me" and this is during and activity like chutes and latters or tracing. Or if I give him a complement on how well he is doing sometimes he'll shoot it down with "I wasn't good" I dont know..it breaks my heart. Sometimes I wonder if he's doing it for just attention (especially now, we just had our second child 10 weeks ago). WE have lots of children in our neighborhood and there are a few that clearly dont want to play with him. He's always getting into their stuff and ruining a game they are playing. He's always taking things a little too far. I just dont know what to do. I think we might speak with his doctor about starting meds but I'm so afraid to. I'm afraid of the side effects. I wouldn't even know where to begin or what to start him on or what to expect and how fast to expect them. I dont want to him to loose his spirit, but were at our wits end.Your son is my son 6 years ago. My ds is now 11, almost 12. He should have been medicated before kindergarten started. Then we could have prevented the labeling that did occur a year later. We introduced meds in the spring/summer of 1st grade into 2nd grade. Boy what a difference.
We see a specialist who specializes in this field of adhd, depression, asp, autism, etc. he is for both children and adults. he is a whiz with the medications that are available as well.
I was very scared to medicate my son, however, he really, truly needed it. I also believe that it saved his life.
Please feel free to ask any questions. I honestly have walked in your shoes.
what medication did you guys start off with and do you remember the dose? How long did it take before you found the right one?Scoobie, what did you start your child with and how long did it take before you noticed a change?
I am so scared to go down the road of meds you guys. I hear and read so many stories from you brave ladies about how you started certain meds and they started to hallucinate or become VERY aggressive or angry. Or even want to die! That frightens the crap out of me. Even though my son is hyper and very very impulsive, we are lucky to say he is VERY loving as well. He's always telling us he loves us all day. He's always kissing and hugging me. But then the next minutes he so frustrated and then he says the weirded things. Like yesterday my husband was scolding him for spraying his cologne all over him. Then my son responed with a quirky answer like "dad i just hate your address!". we both looked at each other with confusion. Did he mean to say "i hate you" or just "uggg i'm mad!" but said it with "i hate your address"?? Or another goofy thing he does is if he likes a certain movie alot, he'll memorize lines from the movie and then when he's outside and he's playing with other kids, he'll just spout off the lines from the movie. The children have NO idea what the heck he's talking about and I feel like I have to jump in and say "did you ever see transformers? or ratitoulle??" I hate to admit that even I think he's weird sometimes. God I hate myself for feeling that way about my own child. :( When we had him assessed they also tested him for autism, but he was DEFINITLY not on the spectrum. I was so worried about that and the child neurophycologist reassured me that he was CLEARLY not autistic, but that sometimes ADHD children do and say unusual things that are off topic.
We had our son evaluated to rule out autism. He was so speech delayed that they thought he was non verbal autistic. But he is not, too social.
Once we introduced meds to our son's life, things changed, they calmed down for him and all those around him.
Your son is so much like my son. I have had him on medication now for a little over a month. It made me cry to read your post as i know what you are going thrugh. I have to admit it is a hard decision to make to medicate or not to but in the long run and for the well being of my child it was the right decision. my son could not deal with day to day things, I was always hearing from his Early childhood teacher how much of a struggle it was just to keep him on task each day. He couldnt follow a daily routiene, couldnt sit to eat a meal, etc. I ended up moving right before i got him on medication so his teacher that helped me deal with everything did not get to see him on the medication, he finally got to see her today and she almost cried, she said she knew it was him but he was a totally diffrent child, she could understand him better and she said he was not as impulsive and hyper. I thank god every day for the help and support i got from her, and i thank god that there are things out there that can help my son function and focus. My son to is very smart, he figures alot of stuff out on his own and loves to try new things but gets very frusterated, now that he is on medication he is less frusterated and has a easier time learning new things. I can even sit and read to him for more than 2 minutes. Like i said before i thank god for the oppertunitie that has been given to my son. It has helped change things so he is able to lead a better life... My son kept his "spirit" but lost the alot of the impulsive behavior and hyperness. My son has alot that goes along with his ADHD. He also has speech delay's, sleep disorders, agression disorders and sensory intergration disorders. I am not an expert on any of this, infact i am still learning myself. All i know is for my son medication was the right and only decisioin... In my heart i knew it and would never think twice about changing any of it... I would run him. Get an indoor trampoline. Have him run up and down the block over and over. Get him on his bike. Jessica N39985.3685300926My 6 1/2 son sounds very much like yours. The meds calm him down and he is more loving. Also, he is able to slow down and think things through. Not on meds he is still like your son, into everything. On and off meds is like night and day. They have been a blessing for him. He has had a great kindergarten year! I am so proud of him!My 6 year old is on 10mg of Adderall per day. We tried Metadate and it didn't do a thing so the dr switched to the Adderall and it's made an amazing change. The only downside is that he's not eating like he did before he started the meds. He's only been on the Adderall for 2 weeks so I'm hoping his appetite returns once his body adjusts completely.
We were the same way didn't want to give him the meds. When he got suspended last year in kindergarten we put him in a private school and managed to avoid the meds. He went to the private school for 1st grade also but the harder things got the more miserable he became. It took us hours of working on spelling words at home in order for him to pass a test and he hated it and always ended up crying. I knew something wasn't right because my first two didn't have this problem when they were in first grade. I didn't want him to be miserable and I was tired of yelling at him. Yelling seemed to be the only way to get through to him as asking nicely 3 or 4 times got no results.
Where I used to avoid taking him to the grocery store, I've had him there with me 3 times in the past week and I'm amazed at how well he behaves. He actaully wants to sit in the cart now and I can do my shopping and not chase him through the store! I always avoided taking him because he'd run up and down the aisles and was just out of control, it took me 3 times as long when I had him with me.
It's greatly improved things both at home and at school for him. When his spanish teacher came to school the other day he was sitting at a table reading a book and she though he had been made to sit there. Before the medicine he was like a whirlwind of movement. We took his training wheels off of his bike when he was 3 years old and off he went. He rollerblades, skateboards, anything that involves movement. He's been dribbling a basketball since he was 3 and can now do several tricks with it (dribbling front to back under his legs, etc.) He went on an ice skating field trip a couple months ago and his teachers couldn't believe it was his first time on skates, he's got agility and balance that I've never seen in a child before. Unfortunately it doesn't help him in school!
Good luck, it's never an easy decision.
Becky
OMG! It was like I was the one that wrote your post. That's how alike our situations are- except we seem to be a little ahead of you because our son has been on meds for 6 mo now. Even though I read here a lot, I've never posted before today. I saw your post and just had to...
My son is 4 now but was diagnosed with severe sensory processing disorder at 2 and ADHD at at 3. He started meds at 3 years old. He was so severely hyper, impulsive, and rough that we really got to the point that we couldn't take him anywhere. Other children didn't want to be around him and (just like you said) he was becoming "that kid". When he's not having "issues" he is a very smart, sweet, kind soul but people rarely got to see that part of him
We didn't want to medicate either but when his self-esteem started suffering there was no longer a choice. We had tried EVERYTHING else and he still wasn't any better. He started saying things like "Mom, the other kids won't play with me because I always get time outs" "I'm never a good boy" and "You always yell at me", "I'm just a looser". And this was at 3 years old!!!!
We started with Adderall 10mg and it was WONDERFUL at controlling the hyperactivity and impulsiveness but awful for some of his other issues. It aggravated his sensory problems and he had terrible rebound after it wore off.
Then we switched to Ritalin and the rebound was no longer there (thank god!)but his sensory problems were still aggravated. We also discovered that he has anxiety which made him whiney and aggitated. The Ritalin also aggravated this. So his psychiatrist put him on Tenex along with the Ritalin and WOW what a difference! Ritalin helps the hyper/impulsiveness and the Tenex helps with the axiety/sensory issues.
We are still adjusting doses to get it just right but the meds have made an INCREDIBLE difference! He is leading an almost normal life! Please, please, please don't let the fact that the first few weeks/months may be very difficult keep you from trying the meds. Every child is different and may need a different regimin of medicine. It can take a while to figure out what that is. Medicine can make such a wonderful difference in your child's life-and yours!
I recommend going straight to a child psychiatrist or pharmacologist. We started with an occupational therapist, pediatrician, child psychologist, and eventually a child psychiatrist. While they were all very good, the phychiatrist is the expert especially if they specialize in ADHD.
Good luck and keep us posted please!
Logan's Mom
We struggled a little with the "to med or not to med" thing. We had heard many othe storys out there about kids being like zombies etc. The argument about how you wouldn't deny your child meds for many other things-- cancer, pain, flu symtems etc. - really makes alot of sense.eedy,
It sounds like your son is experiencing "rebound". My son had it bad on Adderall. It happens when it the medicine wears off- then the emotional symptoms come back 10 times stronger! My son would say and do some of the most irrational things! Just totally intense and out of control! If that's what it is then talk to the doctor because the dose or medicine needs to be adjusted. Rebound is not something you should have to live with. We switched to Ritalin and stopped having rebound.
My son takes Ritalin and Tenex and it's finally working well after 6 months of trying different meds and different doses. The Ritalin helps with the impulsiveness and hyperactivity and the Tenex helps keep his emotions in check. He has sensory integration disorder as well as ADHD and the Ritalin (while it's wonderful on some things) aggravates his sensory issues, anxiety, and emotionality. The two meds together seem to be doing the trick!
Good luck!