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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]American Association of Pediatrics recommends trying behavioral therapy first for children under 6, and only if it fails should you use medication.  Have you tried behavioral therapy?[/quote]

NP.  I think the main reason the AAP recommends behavioral therapy first is there would be mass pandemonium backlash if they came out with a  statement that they recommended medication first.  Can you imagine the media response if AAP came out with that statement?? The stories they would run on the Today Show or the View?? Of course they had to say to try therapy first.  Also, if they issued that statement, lots of parents would bring their 3-5 year olds into the ped demanding meds - but lots of those kids either (1) do have some behavioral issues and not adhd; or (2) are developmentally normal but just hyper.  So there's just no way the AAP could come out and say that meds are the first line defense at this age.

Having talked to therapists about our own son's severe adhd at this age, the feedback I got was that the behavioral therapy may help some kids at that age with behavioral issues. But with my son's diagnosed severe adhd, the therapy wouldn't help at all. Adhd at this age isn't really behavioral.  The issue is his neurological inability to control his impulses.  And you can't "therapy" that away at this age. You either put him on meds and then do therapy (so he's in control enough to register what he's learning) or you wait until he's a bit older (they said 6 or 7) when all kids have more control of their impulses and then try therapy.

So all of that is to say that there are some kids that, when diagnosed by a dev ped at age 5, will clearly and immediately benefit from being put on meds, and should skip the therapy step.  [/quote]

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