Sweet Dreams, Luke
Last fall, after two years of agonizing school years, we finally had my six year old tested for ADHD. We decided to go ahead with behavior therapy as well as trying medication. We have all heard horror stories about medication and how parents are not really 'parenting' because it is an easy way out to medicate their child. To be honest, I have not even met anyone who has a child on it for ADHD. It is almost a taboo subject around here.
But, my son needed help. I would go to his school and watch him behave so unlike the child I have at home, I wondered who this kid was? He spent a lot time rolling around on the floor when he was supposed to be listening to the teacher or not following directions. Something was going on and we decided to at least try the medication.
Here is an example...normally, he has a spelling test on Tuesdays so we practice the night before on Mondays. He has his medication during the week so it is still working on Mondays. He sits in the leather recliner with me with his pad of paper while I read each word aloud, then in my best talk show host voice, use the word in a sentence. After we have gone through the list, I check his work and he usually gets most of the words right the first time and the words are legible.
One Sunday, a day when he did not take his medication, we had to review the words becase we were going to be busy Monday night and not have time. He started out in the seat with me and that lasted about two seconds. He ended up on the floor, on his back, with his feet resting on the arm of my chair so all I saw were his feet. After I said each word, he would thrust the paper at me and the words were almost all wrong and barely legible. We even did them a second and third time and he did not get it. He almost seemed to be guessing at how to spell the words.
So, for me, that was a good insight into how the medication helps him. My job as a parent is to help him be the best he can be. What if my parents had not gotten me a hearing aid in school when I was in kindergarten or glasses in the sixth grade? I am sure my grades would have suffered. I see this as the same thing.
The other thing I noticed is he is sleeping better. Before, he had not taken a nap since he was about two years old. When he first went on the medication, he was taking naps after school. I mentioned it to his doctor because it was interfering with his bedtime at night but she said it was not a side effect. After a couple weeks, the naps stopped...it was as if his body finally got the rest it needed after six years of always being on the go.
Sweet dreams, Luke....love, Mom.
posted by Lori's Minute @ 8:23 PM
3 Comments:
My opinion as a teacher, some kids benefit from the medication, most don't. You see, you were a good parent before the medication, and you tried using different forms of discipline. Some parents prefer to medicate their children instead of disciplining them.
Also, you interact with your child, so you will know if he ever becomes over-medicated and turns into a mushroom. As a rule, I am against medication, except when the parent, teacher and doctor all monitor the child closely, and instances of improved academics can be clearly seen, not just improved behavior.
My grandson has some problems with a form of autism. His parents anguished about medication. The other grandparents were against giving medication, saying he would grow out of it and other things. I said, Try it-what do you have to loose? He is in kindergarten and is given the med for school and church so he can concentrate. They dont give it to him when he is not in school. He has show significant progress. It is an individual decision and different things were for different people. Good luck.
I applaud you for knowing your child, taking him to a doctor who knows the subject (many don't!!!!), trying something to see if it works. Don't listen to those who don't live with your child. Don't listen to those who haven't studied the subject, only seen hyper headlines.
Now do more reading on the subject. There are scores of good books out there that are based on good medical research. Be wary of the one size fits all theories, either to do this or not do that.
Since there are a number of medications and sizes of doses, if the medication didn't work, or starts to not work as well, don't just say, "well we tried medication." Remember, a body adjusts and a body grows. Metabolism changes.
Sleeping too much or too little is a trait of ADD, so sleep changes are not surprising.
I can't understand the theory of not giving the medication when the child doesn't have a school day. The body needs to adjust to any medication. If it is given and then not given, wouldn't it be common sense that the adjustment keeps changing? Besides, why wouldn't you want your child to have the optimal chance to be successful at what he does on non-school days? Does he not need to pay attention to play back yard baseball, for example? Would you withdraw other types of medication for other conditions on some days of the week? Would you say he doesn't need to wear glasses on weekends because he isn't looking at a blackboard, for example?
I'm not an ADD expert, but I've read thousands of pages about the subject in books and on-line because my son has ADD, but unfortunately, he wasn't diagnosed until college because the so-called expert we took him to when he was in junior high told us he could tell by looking at him in the office with no testing or medical history being taken. Then I did my own research. But by then, my son stuck by what the "expert" had told him until he finally went to a doctor on his own a few years later. My son did extremely well in college after that.
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