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I have a child with adhd, we don't medicate him but he does have adhd, the hyper/impulsive kind. He also has a pretty serious tic disorder (they often go together) and we do very lightly medicate him for that so he doesn't injure himself by ticcing.
If your child honestly has adhd, at least the hyper kind, you know it almost from birth. They are different from other kids. My son's impulsive behavior is dangerous and unavoidable, his hyperactivity is off the charts. At 18mths old we started running a mile with him in the mornings (I would walk he would jog next to me), the neighbors thought we were nuts but we would get home and he'd play on our play structure for hours more.
We've chosen not to medicate for the adhd and instead send him to a small parochial school where he has only 13 kids in his class. He still has too much energy for a normal classroom but in a class that size both he and the teacher can manage without causing issues for the rest of the class.
It's interesting that a doctor told a previous poster that adhd is a learning problem. It isn't. Many kids with adhd are very bright. Our son has never gotten below an A on anything, has a photographic memory and an IQ in the 98%, he scores in the 99% across the board on the standardized tests he takes each year. He just has endless amounts of energy, has trouble with social relationships, personal space, and most of all impulsiveness.
Eta I think it's important to note too that adhd is simply a term for a group of symptoms. It isn't a disease that you either have or don't have.
I despite people who judge others for the way they are handling a situation they seem fit. We know our own children the best and non of us wants an easy fix. I wish some people would just shut their mouth.
This is not necessarily directed towards any specific person but to various people who always act like they are some kind of medical professional and know it all....you know the type.
I despite people who judge others for the way they are handling a situation they seem fit. We know our own children the best and non of us wants an easy fix. I wish some people would just shut their mouth.
This is not necessarily directed towards any specific person but to various people who always act like they are some kind of medical professional and know it all....you know the type.
I hear what you're saying. We have to do what we feel is best, and let the judgment roll off, without guilt.
I used to notice the judgment such as what you describe on ADHD (and autism) forums. I became real tired of the heated arguments, the need to be right, the agenda-pushing, and at the extreme, the anti-med hysteria. I stopped frequenting those forums a long time ago once I got the information I needed.
Who wants to take a pill, for anything? But that's not the point, really. Sometimes, you just need to do so. And what works for one child may not work for another.
When my son was in the first grade back in the early 80s, there was an attempt to diagnose him with ADHD.
The thing was, he had no problem sitting quietly in my lap for an hour watching "The Hulk." He had no problem quietly playing at the table for hours with his Matchbox cars. He had no problem sitting quietly doing anything he was actually interested in doing for hours on end.
I decided his problem was not ADHD.
Yes, my oldest son was getting bad grades and not behaving in school. I took him to a child psychologist who promptly diagnosed him with ADHD and handed me a list of doctors who would be happy to provide him meth-like drugs. I was tempted because at that point it seemed like the easiest solution but decided to run it by the family pediatrician who did more thorough testing, evaluated his high scores on standardized tests with his poor grades and undiagnosed him with ADHD. He said it was more the signs of early puberty and boredom.
So no drugs, I decided to listen to the pediatrician and by the time this child was in 10th grade, his grades began to improve and he's finished college - never needed to be drugged for that either.
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