When my 7 y/o son started on 10MG of Focalin in January we saw instant improvement. His reading and handwriting which were an issue in K and 1st grade were instantly improved. I breathed a sigh of relief that although I hated having to medicate him that something was working and we were seeing improvement. Forward 9 months later and I just got to the point that I couldn't handle medicating him anymore. Almost every morning he would say that his stomach or head hurt. I am not sure if it really did or he just didn't want to go to school. The meds "dull" him. Yes he can concentrate in school but he loses his personality and he has this glazed look in his eyes. A few weeks ago I started noticing that he started staring off into space in a daze. I would have to call his name a couple of times to get his attention. I just couldn't take it anymore and we took him off. We didn't tell his teacher and 5 school days later we got a note from her that he is talking too much, not following directions, and his handwriting is an issue again. He goes to tutoring once a week and my husband and I work with him every night.

What do I do?

Two psychologist have said that he is not ADHD. His tutor is convinced that he has dyslexia and one of the psychologist thought that he had a visual processing disorder which I also agree with. However, based on a list of questions filled out by the teacher and us the pediatrician has diagnosed ADHD. However, I do agree that when you look at symptoms of ADHD he has a few of them.

I have thought that maybe sleep apnea might be an issue. He doesn't snore but he is very restless during sleep. I have spoken with others parents with ADHA children about biofeedback and behavioral therapy. I think he is kind of immature for his age. We are even considering putting him in private school although his brothers would stay in public. We just can't afford private school for the triplets and their big sister. I am just at my wits end.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

I don't know anything about ADHD, but I wanted to mention this. I was subbing in a kindergarten classroom yesterday and one of the little boys is on ADHD meds. The last time I was in there, he was spacey, not all there...totally glazed and staring into space. This time we was talking and interacting and actually doing his work. I asked the TA why he was so different. She said he was being over medicated and they cut his meds in half...wow what a difference!!! I couldn't believe it!

With that being said, I don't know if you can lower the dose at all, but that might help. Maybe just 5mg to help him settle, but at the same time allow some of his personality to stay present.

Dawn

Mom to Samantha, Jeremy, Paige and Christian

Born 12/12/03 @ 31w 2d



http://lovinglifewithquads.blogspot.com

He did appear to be over medicated but when we started meds we started out with 5 MG which is the lowest dose of Focalin and saw no positive affects. I guess it is worth trying 5 MG again. From what I understand about ADHD medications it is all trial and error and once you get it perfect it stops working.

Thanks for the post Dawn.

I'm glad you posted this and hope you get more responses. My son is newly diagnosed with inattentive ADD--he does not have the impulsivity of the "H". I've posted on the main forum several times and have gotten a few responses. This medication thing has been a nightmare for us--I hate it and keep praying some other window opens soon.

Although my son does not have ADHD, he is on two different psychotropic drugs for mental illness. We have had to try about four different drug combos and many different dosages. You might want to consider a different drug.

Good luck!

Jennie
Proud mom to BBB born 09-02-03 @ 32.2 wks
and 13 yr old big brother
and 3 yr old little brother

As with any meds as children grow the dosage should be re-evaulated and changed as needed. They go through growth spurts and biological and chemical changes that effect the way the drugs are working. What may have worked sev eral months ago change suddenly not be working at all. I would suggest another trip to see his Ped. Bring along the diagnosis from the other professionals he has been seeing and discuss further testing.

Kim
Nate, Nick & Noel(36w4d)and Nia.

<a href="http://www.tickercentral.com"><img border="0" src=""></a>


http://www.tickercentral.com>

My son was also recently diagnosed with ADHD. He was failing Kindergarten, and was a difficult child in the classroom.

While I am not against medication, I have decided to try some of the other options first..

So first, what we have tried/changed.

1. Make sure he gets a good breakfast with healthy protein. ie eggs, or protein smoothie.

2. Removed all food dye and preservatives from his diet. (Not as hard as I thought it would be.)

3. Daily high dose of Omega 3's. ie 450+mg a day

4. Worked out a possitive reward system for his behavior with his teacher.

The results so far.
He is now performing at great level (1st grade this year). He is at the bottom of the pack so to speak, but I think this is a great improvement for the few months they have been back in school.

His behavior is now manageable for the teacher, and at home. He still needs reminders to stay on task, but he is much more in control of himself.

My son is eager to earn rewards, and it does not matter what the reward is.. His teacher places a piece of paper on his desk with circles and time stamp, as he goes through the day he colors the circle green, yellow, orange, or red. The time of day helps me to monitor the impact of tiredness or nutrition etc.. He earns two points for being green, one point for yellow, none for orange or red. Green all week earns him a treat like an ice cream cone or hot coco, 20 points is a trip to the dollar store for one item. He loves to count those points!

I have to say that as far as behavior(impulsivity) goes the dyes and preservatives seem to be the biggest factor, and the easiest to observe. I know within hours when he has had "bad food", and amazingly he has become aware of it as well. He will ask, and refuse, if food has "fake colors" in it..

I do think some kids need medication to control ADHD, and I have heard it can be wonderfull when you finally get the right meds for your child. But for me, it was important to try natural remedies first, especially since the changes we have made are healthy changes for the whole family...

Amy
Mom to bgg 6yrs
and surprise g 2yrs

I read your post with great interest because one of my fourth graders was diagnosed with ADHD last year at the end of third grade.
Timmy is now on 20mg of Focalin and it has helped a lot.

The thing that jumped out at me reading your post is that two of the psychologists don't think your son had ADHD! Are you having him treated for the learning disabilities? When I was doing my research, I learned that 60% of kids with ADHD have LD's. Sometimes they mask each other.
Maybe your son has some ADHD tendacies, but the LD is making them worse. I wouldn't go with the ADHD diagnosis based on a questionaire.

My suggestions would be to determine if he does have dyslexia and/or a visual processing disorder. If so, treat those and see what you have left.

Keep us posted.

Melissa

How is your family diet? Do you eat a lot of processed food?

Hi All,

Thanks to everyone who has replied. To give everyone an update we started the Feingold diet (no dyes, preservatives, etc) about two weeks ago. I am still amazed that we saw instant improvement. At this point we are still trying to figure out what his "triggers" are but this child never went to bed on time. Bedtime is 7:30 and it has always been 9:30+ before he would fall asleep. The first night on the diet he went straight to bed and did not get up. (and was asleep within 20 minutes) We thought he was sick or something because he never does this. It has been two weeks now and he still is going straight to bed and straight to sleep. He also acts calmer and more in control. He doesn't have the outbursts and constant talking as much either. We have always eaten a healthy diet. My kids never had candy and snacks at home were usually yogurt and fruit. However, I was sending processed foods with dyes and preservatives in them to school for snack like granola bars and goldfish. My 3 other children don't appear to be affected by these chemicals but the entire family is on this diet.

Although we have seen behavioral changes we are still early in the program and hope to see improvement in his visual processing disorder and dyslexia. He sees a special tutor that specializes in these conditions and has been for 10 months now.

At this time he is still off meds. Even if we find out that he needs meds in the future we know the diet is helping him and is healthier for all of us so we will try to continue with it.

I will keep you all updated as we go through this journey...

Shawn

Diet is so important! I never realized how much until I took all the chemicals out of the diet. We do not eat artificial colors/flavors, high fructose corn syrup, nitrates in meat or any preservatives. God did not intend for us to eat all of these chemicals! It does not affect others kids like it does mine but they are really not good for any of us. I do not eat HFCS but if I have some, I actually experience nightmares. Pretty wild!

I am very interested in this--can you give me some idea how to get started? What would a few days menus look like? I'm trying my best to get our diet changed but I'm not only battling 4 kids I'm battling DH too so it's not working out too well. I need all the help I can get!

Today DS had the following..

Breakfast
Oatmeal and organic milk

Lunch
Kashi sesame crackers and cheese (he is not a big sandwich eater)
Dannon all natural lemon yogurt
pineapple cup in pineapple juice
chocolate chip cookies
horizon organic chocolate milk

Dinner
grilled pork chops
brussel sprouts and asparagas
baked potato with butter and sour cream
milk

Desert
vanilla yogurt with crumbled cookies

snack before bed..
rice pudding

WOW! It sounds like a lot when I write it all down. Why is he so skinny..

There is learning curve. The first week I walked around the grocery store for an hour and had 3 things in my cart thinking I could figure it out on my own. Within a week I caved and purchased the Feingold materials from Feingold.org. It made my life a lot easier. (not an endorsement just my experience) They also have a members bulletin board that is great. I stick strictly to the book for now because I don't know what all the chemicals on the labels are. I have learned that even when products say "all natural" that doesn't mean they are really all natural. I also learned that so many things that I thought were healthy snacks were full of dyes and preservatives. You can eat pretty much the same way you do now you just have to get brands that are organic or really are all natural. I shop at my local grocery store and then Trader Joes and Whole Foods. I even get some things from Walmart and Target. My son loves the peanut butter cups from Trader Joes. It is important that they have their treats and snacks just like everyone else.

Natural salicylates are the hardest. They are oranges, berries, tomatoes and lots of other fruits and vegetables. After 6-8 weeks on the Feingold diet you can start adding those items back in one at a time to see if they are a "trigger". I am pretty sure oranges are going to be an issue for my son. The minute we took orange juice away he started going to bed at 7:30 and going straight to sleep. That was amazing and enough change for us to stay on it permanently.

Just start slow. Take out dyes and preservatives and work your way up.

Let me know if you have any questions. I am no expert but I will be happy to share what I have learned so far.

Shawn

Thanks so much for the info! I think it's something we are going to try. Can I ask which Feingold package you got? I'm looking at the smallest (cheapest) but am wondering if it will be adequate?

About how long did it take for you to notice a change? What was the first change you noticed? I'm sorry to hound you with questions, I'm just at my wits end at this point and everyone just keeps shrugging and saying "medicate him".

I am happy to share with you what I have learned so far. We are in the same boat. I don't want to medicate my son and I am willing to give anything within reason a try. We ordered the program materials with the book. (Why can't my child behave) My husband wanted to read the book.

We noticed a change the first day we started the diet. I think I mentioned earlier that the first night he went to bed at his bedtime (7:30) and went straight to sleep and has never done that before. It was usually around 9:30 before he would fall asleep. He continues to go to bed and go straight to sleep and it has been almost a month since we started. We also noticed the first couple of days that he just seemed calmer.

I met with his teacher two weeks ago and we discussed the diet. We discussed his reading and writing issues as well. She has a son that is ADHD so she understands all the issues a child can have. She is totally onboard with the diet and not medicating. Well today I got an email from her and DS has gone up two reading levels in 2 weeks. She said "keep doing what you are doing". I am hopeful now that this program will not only help him physically but will also help with his academic issues. When you get your materials it goes over all the issues that the Feingold diet can improve.

The first couple of weeks are going to be rough but keep chugging through it. It gets easier. Even one month in it took me 2 hours to shop at the grocery store tonight because I was looking for new things that I haven't bought before. I have made a list of the stores I go to and what I have found at each store. That way when I go into a store I don't have to look around as much. Another tip is to keep the Food Guide in your purse. Today I went to Whole Foods and realized I had forgotten my guide so I couldn't verify if a couple of items were approved.

Good Luck and feel free to ask any questions. The member bulletin board that they have is great and you can ask anything. My ID on there is Shawn and you will see me asking for help with food items all the time.

Shawn

I went ahead and ordered the smallest package. Now the hard part is waiting the two weeks until it gets here. I cringed every time he took a bite at breakfast this morning. Like you we eat pretty healthy but it's tough to know what's in your food--you may think it's fine and then find out it's not.

At what point were able to get on the forum? Do you have to wait for the materials arrive or do they let you on after you place the order?

Thanks again for the info. I'll let you know how it goes.

We saw the psychologist today--he's really pushing for meds. He swears that the reaction my son had to the vyvanse was an extreme case and that it won't happen with the strattera. I just really don't want to do it--there has to be another way to help him, it's not like he's getting out of his seat and being disruptive. He just has trouble focusing on his work and needs reminders.

I hope my story helps.... My DS and I went to a birthday party of an "old friend" of my sons. They were in the same K class and then he moved away. He had problems with handwriting, making friends and a list of other things well, his Mom told me that she took him to the Drs. because they thought he had ADHD what they found out was that he is allergic to different foods,one being dairy (he loved yogurt). To make a long happy ending story short they took out all the foods that he is allergic to and he is truly a different boy.
She said it was hard for a couple of months because he lost a lot of foods that he loved but he made a complete change. She says his handwriting is still a problem but he loves to draw and he is calm.
It was amazing to see how changing food made such a difference.

I hope my story helps,

Good Luck
Donna,
Proud Mom to Tyler, Samantha, Zackary - 7 years soon to be 8 years old

Thanks. It certainly gives me something to hope for. I'm going to try the feingold diet. My boy loves yogurt too--and of course I give him milk everyday. How would you even know they were allergic to dairy? Not one (out of three) doctors have ever mentioned possibly being allergic to anything. They tested him for ADD, the tests showed that he has inattentive ADD, end of story.

I'm going to keep trying. What else can I do?

Some will find that just removing dairy will help or some will find that removing wheat will help. I believe they suggest a trial of 3 weeks or so and then add it back in to see if you notice a difference. Some kids can have goat's milk and cheeses but not cow's milk.