First post

[dsdad]

Hello everyone! I was looking around the web for information about the medication my son is now taking (Metadate CD 30 mg) and came upon this site. I read several of the posts and found some really good information, so I thought I would visit from time to time. My son will be 7 next week and started first grade about a month ago. He has taken medication for ADHD since a few weeks into kindergarten. When he was in pre-school, his teacher noticed his behavior and told us that she felt like he may have ADHD. He has always been very intelligent and has done wonderful academically, so I was in denial and didn't agree with her. We spoke to our pediatrician about it and she suggested we take him to see a psychologist, which we did. She tended to agree with my opinion. She too noticed that he was very intelligent and felt that he may bored, however she did say that he did display some minor signs of ADHD. I guess I should also mention that my wife is a second grade teacher, so she was instrumental in his learning at such an early age. She has also had experiences with children with ADHD, having taught for 9 years. A week or so into kindergarten, it was obvious that we may have a problem on our hands. After further consultation with our pediatrician and psychologist, we decided that it would probably benefit our son to try medication. We started out with Ritalin 5mg. It was a struggle because he could not swallow the pill. We were told that we could break the tablets into pieces and mix them with applesauce. This worked better, but not great. The important thing, however, was that his teacher noticed a dramatic improvement in his behavior. After a later check-up, we were asked if we wanted to change to Metadate CD 10mg. We liked the idea because it was much easier to give to him. So, we ended up having a pretty good kindergarten year. His school places a very high importance on conduct and will actually kick students out permanently if they do not maintain a certain conduct GPA. He is too young to realize the importance of this, but you can imagine how nervous it makes my wife and I. During the summer break, we took our son for a check-up and mentioned to him that we may need to adjust his dosage based on how he does when he starts first grade. After the first week, it was obvious that we were going to have to do just that. We increased him to 20 mg. He has been on it for a week and seems to be doing alright, but he has still experienced a few hiccups. He is in a before-school program which is basically a place for him to go until school starts. The other day, a school police officer came into the room for something. From what I understand, some of the other kids began laughing and joking that the polieman was there to get our son. These are his friends that he gets along fine with, so I'm sure they weren't intentionally trying to upset him. He became very upset and ran across the room, extremely upset. Yesterday he had a hard time following directions and staying on task. Today, I got a call from the school nurse letting me know that his teacher was having trouble getting him to do his work because he was complaining that he was tired. I am thinking that we may need to bump up the dosage again to maybe 30 mg. I am now and have always been very nervous about medicating him, but since we have seen improvement with medication, I know it is helping him. We do not have any major trouble with his behavior. Primarily, the problems we have are his inability to stay on task at school. He is an extremely sweet child and doesn't have a mean bone in his body. He just needs a little help to take advantage of the gift God gave him. I am a little too hard on him when he gets in trouble at school, because it is still hard for me to make myself understand that he is not intentionally misbehaving. I hate having to discipline him when we get home instead of spending quality time with him after I have missed him all day. We also have a 4 year old daughter. She and our son love each other to death. Sometimes when he has gotten in trouble and we have to punish him, he says that I love sister more than him. I hate that, so I am trying to be a little bit more understanding of his condition. He brings a conduct folder home everyday. He knows that if he gets a C, he gets in trouble. He has had emotional outbursts at school before when he has to move his clip to the C. He is always very concerned about his grade for the day. I am also scared that this may cause him some kind of anxiety problem. I am also looking for ways to help that situation out. Well again, I hope to continue to visit from time to time when I need advice. Sorry the post is so long, but I wanted to give alittle background.

[Kaiti]

:)Hi Dad and welcome to the family. Don't worry of the long post, you just saved everyone here from asking all the questions taht you answered.

As far as medication goes, I am not a good one for that as we don't medicate my son, who is 8. We choose the Feingold program. www.feingold.org in case you are not familiar with it.

Back to you, I work at a before and after school program, so being used to kids, maybe he was having a bad day when the officer came in. With the friends making it worse, there is a melt down waiting to happen.

Did you talk to the program staff? I would have if I were you. It might seem petty to adults, but for kids that kind of stuff hurts.

Does your son have a 504? If you don't know what one is, your wife should. I think that if you remind him that there are consequenses for actions when he has to move his clip to the "c", he might be able to better control his emotions.

Take care and visit often
Kaiti

[milesofsmiles]

Howdy DSdad. Good to have you here, no.... GREAT to have you here. I can see by your post that you are a very involved and loving dad for your kids. I am not familiar with the medicaiton you son is taking, so I cannot discuss the reactions to too high or too low of a dose. Keeping in contact with the prescribing doctor and the teacher are a must, as you have been doing. My son has difficulty expressing his needs in school and often shows misdirected emotions and reactions. We worked with the school psychologist and behavioral teacher to come up with an IEP (Individual educaiton plan) for him. His involves some social skills role playing a couple times a week, and discussions on how to handle things better.

Looks like you are doing a great job, while dicipline and consistancy is necessary in the life of an ADD/HD person, it is also necessary to schedule in that fun time too. I am sure you will get lots of input, and feel free to bounce some ideas around as we all wade through unclear waters of life.

Miles

[camismom]

Welcome to our family dsdad!

[Amsmom]

dsdad and welcome to our forum family!! i know how hard it is to give our children meds, but there comes a time when we must make that decision to improve their quality of life. keep coming back, you will find great support and info here!!

[momto3wolves]

Hi dsdad, I can relate to your situation. I have 2 boys that are on their way to being eval'ed. My oldest son sounds very much like your son, and he's very sensitive to criticism. You may want to try giving extra attention or a special treat if he comes home with a good conduct grade. He may not understand why he's being punished for something he did hours ago, and not with you. I'm not saying condone the behavior, but it would make your time with him happier, and the positive reinforcement just might help.

I speak from experience...not sure if that's a good thing or bad. Oh yeah, and WELCOME!!!

[finnmom]

Hi dsdad and welcome, i know this site is full of good info, just look adound

[loveforeric]

dsdad; Welcome,

You are in a great place. Everyone here is caring and have alot of information for you.
I have a 10yr.old ds who used to take the same Meds. His went up to 40 mg a day. Now we use the feingold program. The Meds. did help alot however, like you I have always had reservations about the Meds. When I learned about the Feingold program I tried it and it works for us. Good luck making a decision with that. We will be here for support.

I hope you can get some ideas and don't forget we are here and again WELCOME....

Have a peaceful day,
Christina

[dsdad]

Thanks, Kaiti. I am not sure if I am replying to the response to my post or not. I expected to be able to respond directly to each response. Suggestions welcomed.

I am not familiar with the Feingold program, although I do believe I have heard of it before. I will look into it.

The staff at the before-school program actually called me when he had his problem. From what I gathered, he just reacted to the other children. He is pretty sensitive sometimes, so that may have contributed to it. He recovered and had a good day at school.

I am not sure what a 504 is, but as you say, my wife probably does. I may know it as another name.

As for his "C reactions", I really think that him knowing that there are consequences for a C actually has lead to his outbursts and anxiety. We have let him know that the C is the starting point for punishment. He seems to be doing better now that we adjusted his meds.

Thanks again for your reply!

[dsdad]

Thanks, Miles. Thanks for your reply. Our visits with our psychologist were definitely helpful. We haven't been seeing her since he started kindergarten last year, but I think it may be a good idea to schedule a check-up visit soon.

I am probably not posting this reply to your reply correctly. I was expecting to be able to click on each reply or something similar and answer the reply. This may be possible and I may just be doing it wrong. Suggestions welcomed.

Thanks again!

[dsdad]

Thanks, Christy!

[dsdad]

Thanks, Amsmom! I agree with you 100%. It was a hard decision to start the meds, but my sons quality of life, especially as school is concerned, has definitely improved. That's what its all about anyway.

I have mentioned to others, but I am probably not replying to each reply correctly. I thought I would be able to respond to each reply, but wasn't able to figure out how to do that. Suggestions welcomed.

Thanks again!

[dsdad]

Thanks, momto3wolves. Great advice and I agree with you completely. We try to really give some positive reinforcement for the good days, which have been pretty often lately.

Speaking from experience is exactly what I'm looking for, so that is a very good thing for me.

Thanks again!

[dsdad]

Thanks, finnmom! The information that I have read in the three days that I have known about the site has helped.

[AnneM]

dsdad and a big big WELCOME ABOARD !!

I don't honestly think I can add anything right now that everyone else hasn't already ....

But its good to see you here and I really look forward to seeing you around the board !!