I don't have any feedback so I am no help. 

But I do have a question, how did you make the decision to use meds?

Our 4 year old cannot sit still and has a lot of trouble focusing on a task.  Its so bad he cannot print yet because getting him to practice is hard.  He has no interest and is always jumping around, climbing, running, etc.  His mind goes fast you can tell and he'll jumps from one thing to the next.

Of course we have no diagnosis except for the speech problems and SPD.  The SPD is that he gets overloaded with sensory input which sends him into hyperactivity. 

We are trying hard to teach him and help him to slow down.  He also has trouble with impulsivity. 

I am afraid of a future ADHD/ADD diagnosis and being confronted with the medication decisions. if we have to so he can learn we will (i guess) but I am super reluctant as is my husband to even think about meds for a kid. 

We are thinking to hold him  back one more year in preschool so he'd be going to kindergarden as a 6 year old instead of 5 year old (he turns 5 in august). 

Anna besides our names being the same our boys might be mirror images of each other.  My son was severely speech delayed and we went through all the sensory processing disorder stuff and had specialists and therapists to our home and tried everything before we finally decided to go to medication.  

Our pediatrician suspected ADHD for a long time but we were very reluctant.  We did not want to alter who he was. It was after I posted here that an adult with ADHD gave me her personal story and feedback (I feel horrible because I forgot who it was) and she told me that without her meds if she were in a classroom she would here the person tapping their pencil, the teacher talking, the person walking down the hall and the birds outside chirping.  She could not filter all the sounds and focus on the teacher without her medicine.  She also told me if my child had diabetes would we not give him insulin?  Well duh, of course we would. She put it in perspective for us.  

Before meds Brice would be aggressive toward his classmates and brother then immediately remorseful.  We went through a semester of PreK with him in trouble everyday for something and unable to focus before we tried meds and I can tell you with complete honesty he hasn't been in trouble since.  We work very closely with a behavioral specialist.  We hate that he needs meds but he does and he's a happier child and better student with them.  

We have and continue to look into alternative medicines as well like neurofeedback which we are seriously considering.

Our son's bday is in Sept so we started him in kindergarten at age 6 as well and it did help.  He still struggles with his writing and speech but he has an IEP and we take him to speech therapy every week.  Medicine has worked for him and his speech actually got better with meds because he slowed down enough to form sentences.  Before the meds it was like his brain worked faster than his mouth could form the words.  

Please feel free to email me at adoptivemomma2@yahoo.com if you need to ask me anything or just talk.  I totally can relate to everything you are going through.

Thank you so much AM3.  I feel the same way. Lucas can get aggressive and it's not like he's aggressive like he wants to hurt someone he just has a lot of boy energy and can tackle down his older sister in a second flat.  

Today we went to monkey joes, which is a place that has a lot of those inflatable jumpy things and slides.  There he can climb, jump, and slide to his heart's content. :)  He can easily spend 5 hrs there and is still going.  But I noticed the next morning he is a lot calmer so it seems to help.  I need a room like that in my house for him! LMAO. 

It's really hard because a lot of times I feel like people think he is "out of control" or "misbehaving".  And I am trying my best.  Most of the time it is hard to slow him down enough to actually be able to talk to him face to face when disciplining or if he's done something wrong.  But we try, every day, and it is worth it to us.

But I keep wondering if we'll ever get to the point where we'll either get a diagnosis and then have to consider medication.

I am afraid of the same thing. I want him to be him. I'm afraid to put him on meds and then feel like it isn't the same him anymore.  Do you know what I mean?

Also, my son has an IEP too in his preschool. He goes to a district preschool for 2.5 hrs 5 days a week and gets both OT and speech therapy while there. 

Completely! I was always apologizing or explaining away Brice's hyperactivity. I cried and cried because I know how sweet he is and I felt others were judging him all the time or they only saw the negative.

I am not a meds advocate I think it's a personal decision we each have to make. I will tell you a behavioral therapist is so helpful. I feel like the pediatrician doesn't fully understand but just medicates.  A behavioral specialist will work with you to fully understand your situation and get a good meds balance.  I was so fearful of having a little zombie child. We got lucky because our pediatrician has been stdying ADD/ADHD for 30 yrs and retired from his peds practice to focus on behavioral health so we transferred with him and have a good resource. Brice is only on 10 mg a day the lowest dose.

Also after getting the right meds (we tried 2) my son is still my son but he is able to sit still and have a conversation, travel, go to functions or do schoolwork. He's still very active but no longer climbs the walls. He was literally a wall climber he can climb a door jam with ease. I feel like we still have our son but he's just calmer, controlled, and focused.

AM3 that is really comforting to hear!  Thank you for sharing your experiences.  And I am going to look into a behavioral therapist...thanks!  Did you insurance cover that? Our insurance wouldn't cover anything so we are so grateful to first early intervention and then the school district when he aged out of EI. 

It was me, Lady:)

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AM3 said ...
Our pediatrician suspected ADHD for a long time but we were very reluctant.  We did not want to alter who he was. It was after I posted here that an adult with ADHD gave me her personal story and feedback (I feel horrible because I forgot who it was) and she told me that without her meds if she were in a classroom she would here the person tapping their pencil, the teacher talking, the person walking down the hall and the birds outside chirping.  She could not filter all the sounds and focus on the teacher without her medicine.  She also told me if my child had diabetes would we not give him insulin?  Well duh, of course we would. She put it in perspective for us.  

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I have not tried Daytrana, but have heard of wonderful results in kids.  

As far as the emotional part of ADHD, is he seeing a therapist along with taking medication?

The emotional part of the medication can be super hard to deal with.  I have found through the medications that I have taken or when I have went off of medication, my biggest hurdle is either feeling way too many emotions or feeling less emotion that I should be feeling.  Especially as a child, because a child is just learning how to react to things and what is a normal reaction.  As an adult, I can cope with it and know when I am either being irrational or when I should have shown more emotion than I am currently feeling.  Then I can process if it was part of my ADHD or what I need to do to reconcile it in my mind.  (If any of this makes sense(ha!)).  But as a child, he may need an outside person to talk with about this, a person who is not a family member that can rationalize with him and steer him to recognize the emotional issues with ADHD and the medication.   Drug therapy and talk therapy seem to go very well together when dealing with ADHD.  Sometimes that small amount of talk therapy every month or every other month can make the difference in the medication or needing to up medication.

I found through out the years that I would be great on one medication for a year or so, and then all of a sudden the results would be different or I would feel different and need to switch medication.  Maybe because I was growing and my hormones were increasing or decreasing or just because my body was getting too used to the medication and no long metabolizing it in the way I needed.  

Just remember, if it is working for your son, go with it.  Be proactive and be his advocate.  You guys seem to be doing an awesome job at keeping in contact with his doctor and changing it up, if need be.  Its a guessing game with ADHD, sometimes things work, sometimes they dont.    

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AM3 said ...
Our 6 year old has been on Ritalin tablets and capsules for the last year.  They helped him a lot for school but we notice over the last couple of months he has become emotional and the tears flow over the littlest of things.  We met with his behavioral specialist last week and we were switched to the Daytrana patch.  It's like a nicotine patch he wears on his hip of Ritalin.  We started it this weekend to see how it would work for him.  This weekend we noticed he was much more interactive with us and much less emotional.  In fact, today no tears which is a huge improvement.  I just wondered if anyone else has had experience with the Daytrana patch and had any feedback.  So far we're encouraged.  Also we are thinking very seriously about trying neurofeedback.  I'd appreciate any feedback on either one.  Thanks!

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Yes!  So sorry Rachael...my brain is complete mush.

He does have talk therapy, we all do.  

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Rachael said ...
It was me, Lady:)

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Did you insurance cover that?

Our insurance covers a portion Anna.

That is awesome AM3!  So many times talk therapy goes out the window once a medication is started and people dont realize how incredibly important it is!

I am so glad your little guy is doing better and that you guys are seeing great results with everything:)

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AM3 said ...
He does have talk therapy, we all do.  

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