If you don’t medicate your very ADD middle school child?

[Anonymous]

What helps them at school? I do not want to medicate. DC is small and I worry about growth complications. She is having a horrible time focusing at school and needs a great deal of one to one attention to get assignments done. Still
she comes home with incomplete work. She has an IEP. What else can they do?

[Anonymous]

There are nonstimulant meds you could try. Guanficine, Wellbutrin.

[Anonymous]

Has she ever been on stimulants before? Does she have an opinion on this? I totally understand the concern about the appetite suppression aspect of stimulants, but if she’s struggling this much in middle school it’s not going to get better in high school. And in the meantime she will be comparing herself unfavorably to all the kids who don't have her challenges.

Is her size or self-esteem more important?

[Anonymous]

I would worry more about her ability to succeed than her size.

[Anonymous]

You don’t want to treat a problem you know she has for sure because of a side effect you are concerned MAY occur?

Reconsider. That’s what you do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What helps them at school? I do not want to medicate. DC is small and I worry about growth complications. She is having a horrible time focusing at school and needs a great deal of one to one attention to get assignments done. Still
she comes home with incomplete work. She has an IEP. What else can they do?

BTDT in public middle school with an IEP. When our child refused medications, nothing helped. They couldn't do anything more. You can't get blood from a stone.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s safe to assume your current reality is the best you can do without medication. Whether that’s optimal is up to you and her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would worry more about her ability to succeed than her size.

+100

Would you deny her medicine if she had an issue with her kidney or knee or ear?

You owe it to her to try the medicine for ADHD before her self-confidence plummets any further.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don’t want to treat a problem you know she has for sure because of a side effect you are concerned MAY occur?

Reconsider. That’s what you do.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What helps them at school? I do not want to medicate. DC is small and I worry about growth complications. She is having a horrible time focusing at school and needs a great deal of one to one attention to get assignments done. Still
she comes home with incomplete work. She has an IEP. What else can they do?

BTDT in public middle school with an IEP. When our child refused medications, nothing helped. They couldn't do anything more. You can't get blood from a stone.

+1. The question is not "What else can they do?", it's "What else can I do?". You can reconsider your stance on medication.

[Anonymous]

We tried not medicating and using tutoring and executive functioning coaching instead. It didn’t work because he couldn’t pay attention.

[Anonymous]

Another parent who says reconsider. You’re talking about a possible minuscule effect on height and you’re deciding to actually negatively affect her self esteem and her GPA? The school has nothing more to offer. This is on you to fix.

[Anonymous]

We aren’t medicating because DS’s dad refuses. So far it’s pretty awful. Working on establishing close communication with the school to ensure I know what work is missing, and we have a math tutor 2x/week. I do a lot of writing support at home.

[Anonymous]

I understand the concern, but it’s hard to state how much medication can be helpful, especially for middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We tried not medicating and using tutoring and executive functioning coaching instead. It didn’t work because he couldn’t pay attention.

This. All the tutoring in the world doesn't help if you kid can't hear the tutor 97% of the time.

OP, consider that not being able to consistently focus means you kid isn't seeing or hearing what they are supposed to be focused on for a good percentage of the time. Would you deny them hearing aids and glasses?