Our daughter was recently diagnosed with ADHD. There are so many insightful people here, I was wondering if anyone would be willing to have a discussion about it. Is there a better place I could be posting?

Thanks,
Mrs Z

Hi Mrs Z:
I have 2 ADHD sisters and I am the mother of 2 ADHD sons. My first son has not had the best in life with his ADHD but son #2 has been a success story thus far.

Son #1 was always in trouble in school and in the beginning of 6th grade some brilliant soul thought to test him. We had taken him to psycholgists and other "smart" people and he still got punished for answering questions in class impulsively without raising his hand and disrupting class. His test results came back that he was a textbook AHDH case. He was on Ritalin and I worked hard to maintain the correct dosage so he could still eat and sleep. Too many times children with ADHD are overprescribed meds and then they can't sleep at night or eat and then they get prescriptions for sleep meds and it becomes a bad cycle. My problem was an ExH who believed the ritalin kept son doped up and he convinced son of this. After the first positive school year EVER..when my son began 7th grade, exH convinced him to live with him. And after some out of control behavior by son, I gave in. My son began then a life of juvenile crime that excailated and now at 25, he has 3 sons, has never been married, is a substance abuser and is in the pokey once again.

Son #2 began showing the same impulsive behavior early in life and I asked that he be tested. I believe that was in 1st grade. He proved to be ADHD too and now he has finished 6th grade and he is doing great. He takes concerta and we have had the same dosage for 3 years now and he hasn't needed it raised. He has some issues with math skills and he has difficulty with "timed" testing but other than that, he reads a grade level above his and other areas are improving daily.

The best thing for any child with ADHD is structure. You need to make sure they have a set schedule EVERY day. My son comes home from school and has to do chores then and his homework. We follow the schedule every weekday to the letter for consistancy. He only takes his meds on school days. We know his lunch appetite is low when he is on meds, so a larger breakfast and supper are made each day. And other activities such as video games are only for weekend time and not more than an hour each time. Too much time on video games causes some anxiety.

I hope I have helped you with any questions you may have.

Yes, that helps a lot! My dd is ready to go into first grade, but her teacher and the principal wanted to hold her back because of her "maturity" issues. She is very impulsive, fidgety, crawls on the floor during class time, doesn't do her work, etc. But, she somehow manages to get through academically. She was diagnosed a classic ADHD, the combined type.

The principal does not want her to go into first grade without medication! I have an appointment to see the pediatric psychologist tomorrow to talk about it. I'm leaning towards Concerta as well, I understand it's time released and is very effective. Straterra worries me, I don't think I want her on that.

The whole med thing concerns me, I'm doing a lot of research on it trying to come up with a good decision. Mr. Z and I are totally on the same page, which is great!

My concern about the meds is that I worry it will take away her incredible imagination and creativity. She is very bright, just not able to handle structure. But she loves to make up songs, write stories, draw, and express herself.

I guess I'll know soon enough how the meds effect her.

Thanks for your input!

Mrs Z.

Mrs Z:
My son was on ritalin in the beginning but we have seen alot of improvement with the concerta. He is extremely creative and theatrical (dresses in costumes). We have never seen anything to demonstrate that his creativity is hindered in any way from his meds.

With son #1, the ADHD was explained to us this way...
Imagine you are standing in a phone booth and trying as hard as you can to listen to a conversation while outside that booth, a jackhammer is going. Kids with ADHD can't concentrate because any outside disturbance can take their attention. ADHD meds are a stimulant for those of us without ADHD but for kids with the condition, it activates the brain function of concentration. I'm not positive how it works but I know on 2 of my kids it was worth medicating.

One of my sisters was diagnosed late in life at 28, but we knew she was hyperactive as a child because she would wear you out just being alone with her in a room. She appeared to bounce off walls. She struggled thru school and did okay, but since she began medication her life is more structured and she is able to work at a good job where she actually gets her work completed rather than a lot of scattered, half-done work.

PS:
His concerta is only 27mg

Thank you! That helps a lot too. I love my daughter's creativity, I would hate to see that go away.

Did you do any counseling? My dh and I will be going to a child psychologist to assist us in working with an ADHD child. I think it will help, but as you said, structure is what's important. She forgets things soooo quickly. But, if it's something she wants to remember, she will hold onto it forever!

We used to see the school psychologist with son #1 but thru trial and error of his situation, we never have seen anyone for son #2. I have always been very aware of my children's bodies and how they work, so when I saw son #1 stop eatting so much and not able to sleep, I associated this with the meds and we cut the dosage back. The doctor argued at first, but then he listened to me and lowered the dosage and son #1 did very well after that.

Son #2 has a very structured school schedule. Bedtime is exactly the same EVERY night whether it's a school night or not. No video games on school nights. Homework MUST be done and if he doesn't tell us of projects, there is punishment. Besides, we are in contact via email with his teachers so he couldn't "forget" a project. This has happened before but now he has a special notebook to write down assignments. He has low self esteem, but we reinforce how important he is to us and that things in life that are not so good (like our M issues right now) are not his fault. He is a very bright, artistic and creative child and altho his memory is pretty bad too, we wouldn't trade him for the world!
(Oh yea, if there are chores or something you want your child to do and you tell her too many at once..she may have a meltdown because she can't keep them all straight in her brain without the meds. It's better to tell her one thing at a time, or when she learns to read, give her a list and say these 2-3 things need to be done. She can refer to the list and get chores done.)
This was something I have had to work on remembering myself, because I could give DD a list of 5 things to do (verbally) and she'd remember and do them. DS has a meltdown because he overloads his head.

Here is my daughter's update:
She started on 30mg Vyvanse yesterday (for one day). She was very talkative all day, and driven to test her new found cognitive skills. She actually seemed excited about her ability to focus and even commented that her brain was "turned on". She did six connect the dots puzzles, she normally can't get through one! She had dry mouth and hardly ate anything, and then couldn't get to sleep until midnight. She woke this morning at 6am. Since it was Saturday, I didn't want to put her on Vyvanse today. She was very down all day, complained that her stomach hurt, complained she was dizzy, and as the day went on, she developed a fever of 102.2. Then, she vomited once. I gave her some Tylenol and she went to sleep. Her temp is now down to 99.2 and she's finally eating again, but she's complaining about feeling nauseous again.

Has anyone experienced fever after the meds wore off? I don't know if fever is a side effect, it doesn't say so in the pamphlet, but the nausea, dizziness, stomach upset is listed as a side effect. Or do you suppose this was a general sickness?

I am going to talk to the dr on Monday and discuss cutting the dose in half. Vyvanse now has 20mg pills, that might be a consideration.

-Mrs Z

It sounds like you did get some experience with a "too high" dosage reaction. I would suggest the 20 mg!
With most ADHD meds the appetite and sleep patterns are the main factor to the med levels. The appetite will be surpressed thru the high time the drugs are in her system and you have to make sure she gets larger amounts of calories during the "down" times of the meds. Especially important is a high amount of protein. If you don't do this you will notice a weight loss in your child.

As for the fever, she may have pushed her little body too much and this is how it reacted. My ds has always gotten what we call "Sleepytime fevers". When he over-does it and is exhausted, he gets a fever. Or..she may have become suseptible to one of the many "bugs" that are floating around out there. I have never seen a med reaction as a fever.
Doctors always seem to overprescribe med dosages rather than begin low and work up. It's all trial and error but you are the parent and have the final say.

Just came across this ADHD subject, in the book HNHN for Parents, Dr Harley has a chapter about ADHD kids. Very interesting. I hate it that in North America everyone wants to medicate kids and destroy their energy to comform to the system. Many psychologists believe that ADHD kids suffer from an essential fatty acid deficiency not a RITALIN deficiency.
Please look up essential fatty acid supplements to treat ADHD, you can buy them in capsule forms. I gave them to my child and it did help. You need to find things to channel their energy. My child did focus on things she enjoyed. Seriously do some research on treating ADHD without drugs. There is a mountain of it online.

I don't suffer from hyperactivity but I do suffer from ADD and personally, when I take my medications, I do notice a difference in my level of creativity. Sure, I can concentrate on whatever I put my mind on, but whereas before I was diagnosed and began taking medications (I have been misdiagnosed many times in the past years, because I was never a hyperactive child or adult) I loved to write short stories and had been working on a novel, I don't think I've written anything since starting the Adderall. I only take my medications on weekdays for work (well when I could, I'm currently pregnant so I can't take it right now and WOW do I notice a difference) but even on weekends I don't write.

Of course, the other medications could be totally different. I have only taken Adderall.

Sign me up as an ADD mother with an ADD daughter and an ADHD son. If we don't take our medication, it's a zoo around the house. I have taken ritalin, dexedrine, Adderall, Strattera, Daytrana, and Concerta....not all at the same time.

Currently, I am on 72 mg of Concerta per day as well as generic zoloft. I could not perform my current job without them.

I can tell a difference when I do and don't take them.

With Adderall, I noticed that the same dosage was not always effective to the same extent. Stress really affected how my body burned the neurotransmitters. I don't notice that as much with other medications.

And driving long distances without medication CAN NOT happen. All the visual stimulation exhausts my brain. Just puts me to sleep and there is nothing that will fix it except for my medication.

WOW! That is a huge dose for a small child. My oldest is ADD (had some of the ADHD symptoms when he was young but is very mellow now) He is 15 and he takes 15mg of adderal once in the morning. When he started out in 2nd grade he was on 5mg. Then sometime in elementary he went up to 10mg then 15mg. My husband was diagnosed as an adult and he takes 30mg. I agree with the other poster who said start off with a lower dose. I would start with 1/2 the pill. If she still can't sleep at night that would suggest that is still too high of a dose. I do know that someone with ADHD does need a higher dose than a ADD child but 30mg seems too high.

As for our son. He only takes it during the day on school days only. When he was younger we didn't give it to him on weekends and worked with him on impulse control and focus. Google ADHD and redirecting and you should find something. We also encouraged him to talk about what goes on in his head and explained to him that he is very smart his brain just works differently.

Keep in mind that the mg doses are apparently not equivalent to other stimulants. Currently, 20 mg seems to be the lowest available dose of this med. This lower dose only became available in Jan. 3 2008. Before that the lowest dose was 30 mg. I just googled the med.

I assume you understand that this can be an inherited trait. Therefore, the odds are good that your child has an ADD parent or sibling.

Glad you raised this in here. Wish we had a "MB" kind of site for ADD or ADHD.

My DD8 was diagnosed with ADHD during grade1. But, she was on a very missbehaved class with a crazy teacher who emmotionaly abused my DD.

She has no behaviour or discipline problems. She's just very slow compared to classmates. She's a perfectionist, erases stuff 10 times till she's happy with it and yes, anything will get her attention and concentration is the BIG problem.

We moved her to another school and she's much better.

I am not totally convinced yet that she really has ADHD or if her problems are just from the grade 1 trauma. We are still seing other 'professionals" not easy living oveseas.

Anyway, she moved to a different language schooll (she was on my mother language, now she's on a English school).

For those first 9 months (her second grade 1 in new school) she was on Staterra.
It was catastrophic.
From the always happy, creative, smiling girl we had a VERY depressed, dark, sad and always in a bad mood girl. She complained about stomach ache all the time and said the meds (Straterra 20mg) would make her feel bad and nauseous.She would verbalise what we could see of her emotions, she even told us she felt like she wanted to die, and asked us why was she alwasy unhappy.

She eventually improved her concentration, but her state was so depressive people would not recognise her and asked us what had happened to her. (she was always a happy girl, she was born smiling, everyone liked her, specially her classmates and teachers, always following her happiness and entusiasm in everything) Then she become this strange sad, dark kid.

We stopped staterra and so far refused to let her into any medication.
We are trying alternative treatments. But what we noticed this past year (grade2) is that our happy girl is back. We did change her diet, and we basically eat fresh, organic food. This is helping her in the concentration. We cut all junk/ canned food, almost all sugar. (We buy ice-cream but we cook our cookies and cakes now, once in a while)

Flax Seed, Flax oil, nuts, seeds, berries, quinoa, brown rice, etc are all foods anyone should eat but specially good for someone with ADD or ADHD. Even if taking medicine.

Cut all junk food. speccially SUGARY juices, cookies, soft drinks, salted snacks, containing all those nasty chemicals that many professionals are now pointing as a/the cause for ADD and ADHD in children.

edited to correct miss spellings

This is something I have been working on also. I get so frustrated with food manufactures and their false labeling. For instance juice, I have a daughter that was prone to UTI's and one of the suggestions was cranberry juice. I went through every bottle on the shelf and could only find ONE that didn't have an "ose" in it. I think the manufactures are finally getting it and now I have a few brands to choose from. I also found no sugar added applesauce. Come on! WHY would you need to add sugar to it anyways?!?!?! Food coloring is another one I have trouble with but I do my best to limit that also.