Our son has been diagnosed with ADHD. He is in the first grade and is having trouble focusing. I have searched the forum regarding medication and it seems that parents that make the decision to try medication are happy once they do. (and the kids are happier too)

However I would like to see if any parents tried medication and then decided that medication wasn't for them. Where did you go from there? Did the side effects of the medication aid in your decision to stop?

Thanks,
Shawn

Mom to 8 year old daughter and 6 year old triplet boys.

We ended up stopping the medication.

My son was started on it when he was 4-1/2. We were very happy with the meds at first. It worked really well to control the hyperactivity and he was able to focus. The problem was that he would become tolerant to the meds and we had to increase the dosage every so often.

He had a very poor appetite on it and was on the skinny side to begin with. He also started getting very anxious when he was on the meds. We tried 2 different medications.

In November of their Kindergarten year, we decided to homeschool. At that point we took them out of school and started weaning my son off of the ADHD meds. He has been off them for almost 1-1/2 years and is doing well. He can be a handful at times, but since we homeschool we can alter things to suit his needs at this time.

If he were in a conventional school he would probably have to be on meds. I don't know that he has enough skills to manage the ADHD on his own yet. At home we can help him with behavioral modifications to help with the inattentiveness.

That probably wasn't much help - but thought we would pass along our experience.

You really have to give it a try to see what the side effects are for your son - then decide if the pros outweigh the cons.

http://www.brianandcharlie.com/blog
^Alexandra^, Brian, Charlie 07/28/2003
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Shawn,

I don't have any experience with ADHD/meds yet. We are currently in the process of having one of our 9 y/o triplets tested. Timmy goes back tomorrow for another 2 hour testing session.

I'm almost positive he will get the ADHD diagnois. My DH as already expressed reservations about medicating. However, I would medicate tomorrow if we could!

I hope that your post gets more responses.

Maybe you should post on the main forum because it it more active.
I recently posted on the Veterns forum and only got 4 reponses.

Melissa

I have not been through this personally but my SIL just went through this. My nephew has ADD. She tried meds but called me in tears because he was losing weight. She decided to take him off meds and his now gaining again. She is taking dairy out of his diet to see if that helps. I also think she avoids artifical colors and flavors. She is looking into OT for him to get some ideas for focus. I have heard of chewing gum, weighted items, velcro strips under the desk, timers, etc. She is looking into supplements as well. She has read several books including "Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: allergies, asthma, adhd and autism" by Bock,MD. He has dietary and supplement suggestions in the book

http://www.amazon.com/Healing-New-Childhood-Epidemics-Groundbreaking/dp/0345494512/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263591986&sr=8-1

Also just happened to see this:
http://www.amazon.com/Kid-Friendly-Autism-Cookbook-Updated-Revised/dp/159233394X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263591986&sr=8-2

HTH
Happy

Update:

Hi All,

Thank you to everyone that responded. I just wanted to give you all an update to this journey we are on. We started our son on 5MG of Focalin about 10 days ago. We have not really seen a difference. He has been in school for two days now on the medication. (we are on a year-round track) and the teacher hasn't mentioned that she has seen a difference. I did not tell her that we were starting meds. I wanted to see if she would notice a huge difference right off but I guess she isn't seeing it. I know this is a low dose and we meet with the pediatrician on Friday for a check-up so we will see if he thinks we need to increase. We meet with the teacher on Thursday so I will let her know that he has been coming to school on his medication and see if she has noticed.

Today we met with the psychologist that gave him his IQ and Achievement testing a couple of weeks ago. The results showed what we already knew... that he was a bright boy. She doesn't think he has ADHD. The ADHD diagnosis was coming from the pediatrician after a survey was completed by the teacher and us. She concluded that he has Visual Processing Disorder. A lot of the characteristics (that he has) of VPD are also the same for ADHD. When we meet with the teacher we are going to discuss the results of his test. The Psychologist suggest that we up his medication to a dose that the pediatrician feels "should" show a difference if he has ADHD. If the teacher still doesn't see if difference then that rules out the ADHD part and leaves us with just working on the VCD.

So long story short.. we are still in the process of figuring out what is going on with him. The good news is that maybe meds are not going to be the answer for him. We will have to wait and see on that.

If you have any experience with Visual Processing Disorder I would love to know everything you can throw at me.

Thanks,
Shawn

I dont have experience with exactly what you are going through but maybe close. Our triplet son has been diagnosed ADD (just started meds in NOV) and is receiving vision therapy. His eye issue is the muscles not working together, thus he sees double and print "moves" on him, but the vision issue deeply effected his ability to learn, so of course he didn't pay attention in class...we do see much progress with his learning now and I am not sure if it is the meds or the vision progress. We had thought of having him tested for VCD. I will be interested in following your progress.

Deb
Son, 12
GGB, 10

Thanks Deb. That gives me something to think about. Although the psychologist said that she didn't think we needed to have his vision tested she did say that he might be seeing words moving around on the page. He does show signs of that because when he does his sight words he looks at the word and then looks away from the page which tells me that the page is distracting him while he is thinking about what the word is.

Shawn

all ADHD meds work differently in each child. At 5, we put Maggie on ADHD meds. We tried several. Several kinds, several doses. We found one that kept her focus, but she started picking, obsessively, at everything. We dropped meds, went homeopathic route and than came back to meds again. We are with a different doctor. He attacked her anxiety issues first and now we are on Strattera. She is doing much better.

You have to do what is right for your child. Meds have a negative stigmatism. My friend told me, when I was fighting the meds, that I shouldn't hold her back from her potential. If she can't stop moving and concentrate, that I need to help her because it's not fair to her. I agree. She's doing much better. It is trial and error and the first one(s) may not work.

Karen

Mom to 5 Beauties
Allison,13,Grace,9
Margaret, Melissa, Michelle (6/20/02--34weeks 1day)

Showing other MOMS how to stay home, BE HEALTHIER and earn extra income!
www.ImagineBALANCE.com/TakeChargeNow

VERY true - my son begged us to put him on meds because "he didn't want to work at McDonalds." To us that meant that he knew that he was capable of so much more than what he was accomplishing but needed help to get there. He is very happy, his grades are HUGE, and I still wish I didn't have to put him on them, but I will continue to support what he needs

Deb
Son, 12
GGB, 10

Karen,

Your journey sounds much like ours!. We tried the homeopathic route after the meds. It actually did help some of the issues he had but did nothing for the hyperactvity and concentration issues.

How long has your DD been on Straterra? Are you seeing any side effects? What positive changes have you seen? Did it take long to get the right dose?

Our ped has recommended trying this since we are still having some major hyperactivity issues. Even though we homeschool - the ADHD has been quite challenging.

http://www.brianandcharlie.com/blog
^Alexandra^, Brian, Charlie 07/28/2003
[/

Have you seen a neuropsychologist? My son, who is in 1st grade and has ADHD, was referred to neuropsycholgist for neuropsychological testing. It is a series of tests and it will pinpoint any learning disabilities that are present. It tests everything, from their short and long term memory to things like dyslexia and ADHD. It also tests for visual and suditory learning issues.

It's a very interesting report. It can be expensive to have the testing done though. Our insurance did cover it though. You would have to find a doctor to do the testing and get the code that they use for billing and then call the insurance company and see what they will pay out for that particular code.

I haven't taken the time to read all your responses, but wanted to respond with our ADHD experience.

My oldest son is 16. We started suspecting that he had attention issues when he was very young, but didn't do anything about it from a medical standpoint until he was in Kindergarden.

Even though we were given the diagnosis of ADHD at that time, we resisted medication and opted for behavior modification, which didn't work one lick.

He suffered through the rest of his Kindergarden year, his entire 1st Grade year, and half of his 2nd Grade year before we caved in and started him on Concerta. Concerta was working on the outside, but it was tearing him up inside. He got very weepy, he stopped eating, it was terrible!

We then switched to Adderall. He went from reading only 40 wpm, to reading 120 over night! It seemed we had finally found what he needed on the inside.

He has gone through many dosage changes over the years, and we are seeing in him now that he may be growing out of his need for medication. His dosage is lower than it was when he was 3rd Grade and his grades have been really good.

I'm not saying that things have been perfect. We had a few years there when he was going through the first part of puberty where it was aweful, but he is a great kid and he knows what he wants out of life. I hate to think of what he would have been had we not opted for medication.

Don't get me wrong though, I am really not an advocate of medication for every child. It isn't for everyone, but it was good for him.

Jonna

G 25
B 17
B 13
G (Stillborn Angel 4/16/05)
BGB 1/06 @ 27 wks
Grandaughter 3

I saw this on another loop today and thought of you.

Ritalin-Free Kids: Safe and Effective Homeopathic Medicine for ADHD and
Other Behavioral and Learning Problems By Judyth Reichenberg- Ullman, Robert
Ullman

I have had my daughter on a range of medications since she was in 5th grade. She now uses Daytrana (a patch) and I love it. I wish I had started when she was six. I resisted the urge to put her on medication, went through the pediatrician instead of a child psychiatrist and felt bad about weight loss when we started. Eventually her self esteem suffered as other children started distancing themselves from her at school. She was always talking out, asking lots of questions, disrupting the class...but we saw little of this at home. By sixth grade was sitting alone at lunch and very sad. She did lose weight and now does not eat during the day. So, I make her a two egg sandwiches in the morning and she eats when she's done with her homework in the later afternoon and drinks water. She also has a word retrieval issue and non-verbal LD. In 9th grade she is on the honor roll and president of her class with many friends. 3rd-6th grade were awful for her. Her self esteem, confidence, social and academic performance deteriorated. She was yelled at by coaches, teachers, embarrassed at dance class. Putting her on medication and getting as much information as I could was what saved her. CHADD is an organization that supports ADHD. I belong to a local group in the Boston area where I can communicate in online forums to get advice and information. Good luck.

Peggy
mom to
Tricia 19
Lyndsay 18
Sydney 12
Millie 10 and
Robert, Julian and Max 9/2/03 @ 36wks
http://lilypie.com>

Another Update...

Hi All,

Thanks again to all that have responded. It is comforting to know that there are others that understand what we are going through. Well our son has been on 10MG of Focalin for about a month now. He also sees a tutor for visual processing/reading twice a week. I can say that I am amazed at his progress. Now is this due to the medication or the tutoring? We are not sure. His tutoring takes place at 4:30 and according to the pediatrician the meds should have worn off by then. His tutor and the psychologist that did his assessment both say that he is not ADD. His teacher says that he is a different child. He is focused on his schoolwork, his handwriting and reading have improved significantly. We have even noticed at home that he is more focused on his school homework and his tutoring homework which both take place after the meds have worn off.

He calls the meds his cheating medicine because it makes him smarter. Maybe the tutoring and the idea of a "smart pill" have made him more confident in his schoolwork. Who knows.. it is all a puzzle. I guess we will continue meds until we feel he has caught up at school and then before the end of the school year we will take him off for a week or so and see what the teacher thinks. We are very blessed to have a wonderful teacher this year that has taken a special interest in him and his academic success.

I will keep everyone updated on our journey.

Shawn