Post by Sherry on Jan 22, 2004 15:09:11 GMT -5
Hello all,
I am new to add forums and hope this will help.
My son is 7 and has always had trouble sitting still and staying on task. My children stayed with a private sitter until my daughter who is now 9 turned 4. At age 4, I put her in a Pre-K program and had planned on leaving my son with the sitter. My sitter didn't take it very well and spurred an argument. I proceeded the next day to tell her I was also removing my son and she said that is fine because she was getting ready to give him up anyway, he wouldn't do anything she asked of him, and she told me I would have a problem getting anyone to keep him. I thought she was upset and didn't think much more of it because at home I didn't notice any extremely unusual behavior.
I had to put him in public daycare at that point and was called to the daycare on a couple of occasions for things like him writing on the wall and cubbies and refusing to clean it up. In Pre-K he had a problem staying on task to complete the work assigned and playing well with others. He wanted to aggravate the other children and distract them. I was called for several parent/teacher conferences. At that point we contributed his behavior to being immature, his birth date is August 4th and he started Pre-K 2 weeks later.
In kindergarten we knew we had a problem. Similar instances occurred just more frequent. I was called to the school for a parent/teacher conference and we discussed the possibility of him having ADHD. I had already talked with his doctor prior to this meeting fearing this was our problem. After an evaluation from the doctor he decided to put my son on Adderall twice a day for adhd. He did do better the last 3 months of school in kindergarten but drastically lost weight. He had a break over the summer and we started the Adderall again twice a day in first grade. In just a few weeks he lost all the weight he had gained over the summer. His doctor gave him a break to recoup again and switched him to Concerta, but he is unable to swallow pills of that size so he switched him to Adderall XR. This can be broken apart to sprinkle on food. He did all right for a while, but eventually the appetite suppression came back and he started throwing up when I would try and make him eat something so he could take his medicine. Summer came and we stopped to give him a med break again. During the summer he stayed at a local boys & girls club. They have a very active environment and he had few problems there. I hoped maybe he had outgrown most of the adhd so I started him off in the second grade med-free. That lasted about three weeks before the teacher started asking questions; unaware he had previously been on medication. I worry sometimes that teachers will label a child before giving them a chance so I purposely didn’t tell her. We once again tried the Adderall XR and he proceeded to gradually lose weight. He seems to be able to concentrate better on the medication, but the weight loss wins out. We stopped the Adderall and tried for weeks to train his throat to swallow pills so he could take Strattera, but had no luck. A local pharmacy that compounds medication, changed the Strattera to a suspension but it’s horribly bitter and is very oily. Now we may get the med down after an hour of pleading with him and it isn’t working as we are still having conferences and he was actually suspended from school for today for being defiant and disrespectful to the teacher and principal.
I have finally asked my doctor for something for depression for myself so I can deal with our situation and hopefully I can handle him without getting as frustrated.
If anyone has any suggestions please let me know, I am willing to try something that works.
Thanks,
Sherry
I am new to add forums and hope this will help.
My son is 7 and has always had trouble sitting still and staying on task. My children stayed with a private sitter until my daughter who is now 9 turned 4. At age 4, I put her in a Pre-K program and had planned on leaving my son with the sitter. My sitter didn't take it very well and spurred an argument. I proceeded the next day to tell her I was also removing my son and she said that is fine because she was getting ready to give him up anyway, he wouldn't do anything she asked of him, and she told me I would have a problem getting anyone to keep him. I thought she was upset and didn't think much more of it because at home I didn't notice any extremely unusual behavior.
I had to put him in public daycare at that point and was called to the daycare on a couple of occasions for things like him writing on the wall and cubbies and refusing to clean it up. In Pre-K he had a problem staying on task to complete the work assigned and playing well with others. He wanted to aggravate the other children and distract them. I was called for several parent/teacher conferences. At that point we contributed his behavior to being immature, his birth date is August 4th and he started Pre-K 2 weeks later.
In kindergarten we knew we had a problem. Similar instances occurred just more frequent. I was called to the school for a parent/teacher conference and we discussed the possibility of him having ADHD. I had already talked with his doctor prior to this meeting fearing this was our problem. After an evaluation from the doctor he decided to put my son on Adderall twice a day for adhd. He did do better the last 3 months of school in kindergarten but drastically lost weight. He had a break over the summer and we started the Adderall again twice a day in first grade. In just a few weeks he lost all the weight he had gained over the summer. His doctor gave him a break to recoup again and switched him to Concerta, but he is unable to swallow pills of that size so he switched him to Adderall XR. This can be broken apart to sprinkle on food. He did all right for a while, but eventually the appetite suppression came back and he started throwing up when I would try and make him eat something so he could take his medicine. Summer came and we stopped to give him a med break again. During the summer he stayed at a local boys & girls club. They have a very active environment and he had few problems there. I hoped maybe he had outgrown most of the adhd so I started him off in the second grade med-free. That lasted about three weeks before the teacher started asking questions; unaware he had previously been on medication. I worry sometimes that teachers will label a child before giving them a chance so I purposely didn’t tell her. We once again tried the Adderall XR and he proceeded to gradually lose weight. He seems to be able to concentrate better on the medication, but the weight loss wins out. We stopped the Adderall and tried for weeks to train his throat to swallow pills so he could take Strattera, but had no luck. A local pharmacy that compounds medication, changed the Strattera to a suspension but it’s horribly bitter and is very oily. Now we may get the med down after an hour of pleading with him and it isn’t working as we are still having conferences and he was actually suspended from school for today for being defiant and disrespectful to the teacher and principal.
I have finally asked my doctor for something for depression for myself so I can deal with our situation and hopefully I can handle him without getting as frustrated.
If anyone has any suggestions please let me know, I am willing to try something that works.
Thanks,
Sherry
And nice to have you aboard!!
