Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We shifted schools to a private that offered a more traditional experience vs a public that was workshop model/laptops/distraction central. Some of the kids at Trad School do take ADHD meds, but the environmental change has been enough that we haven't needed to make any pharmaceutical interventions.

We had exact opposite experience. Had our child in a very pricey private school, and they were extremely intolerant of his behavior, labeled him a bad child, he was socially ostracized, and he ended up hating school. We moved him to public school, and he is thriving in a pool of much bigger kids, who many are worse behaved than him….it’s all about the self-esteem. That was our motivation to medicate.

Oh great so he acts like a monkey in a troop of them so not a big deal

No, idiot. Did you miss the part where I said we decided to MEDICATE?! He is in a better environment AND is better behaved.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We shifted schools to a private that offered a more traditional experience vs a public that was workshop model/laptops/distraction central. Some of the kids at Trad School do take ADHD meds, but the environmental change has been enough that we haven't needed to make any pharmaceutical interventions.

Same I will not medicate my DC

Neat. I will just tell my kid to go back to hiding in the corner or behind me every single place we go and to be happy having no friends. It may surprise you that kids have symptoms outside of school!

+1. It’s great that pp can modify their school environment. They won’t be able to do that for the rest of their life, though.

Right? My kid was literally essentially having his brain overwhelmed with negative suicidal thoughts every time someone made a correction (so school, sports, camp, home, etc) or when he lost a board game or when he got embarrassed or over anything his brain perceived as negative. He was barely talking and we were looking at an ASD/selective mutism diagnosis. ADHD meds completely changed all of that.

Folks are very dismissive of ADHD in thinking that it is only hyperactivity. "Oh, they diagnose boys so much because they don't like to sit still" "if they just let them play" but it is so much more than that.

You're responding to people who have experience with ADHD, RSD, anxiety, and everything else that goes along with "just hyperactivity".

A change in environment can be enough to tame the overall system and reduce overreactive responses. It's not an attack to say that works for some families.

You don't think its an attack to say "I will NEVER medicate" or "just change diet" or talking about it being over diagnosed. People are very judgmental of ADHD medication.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We shifted schools to a private that offered a more traditional experience vs a public that was workshop model/laptops/distraction central. Some of the kids at Trad School do take ADHD meds, but the environmental change has been enough that we haven't needed to make any pharmaceutical interventions.

Same I will not medicate my DC

Neat. I will just tell my kid to go back to hiding in the corner or behind me every single place we go and to be happy having no friends. It may surprise you that kids have symptoms outside of school!

+1. It’s great that pp can modify their school environment. They won’t be able to do that for the rest of their life, though.

Right? My kid was literally essentially having his brain overwhelmed with negative suicidal thoughts every time someone made a correction (so school, sports, camp, home, etc) or when he lost a board game or when he got embarrassed or over anything his brain perceived as negative. He was barely talking and we were looking at an ASD/selective mutism diagnosis. ADHD meds completely changed all of that.

Folks are very dismissive of ADHD in thinking that it is only hyperactivity. "Oh, they diagnose boys so much because they don't like to sit still" "if they just let them play" but it is so much more than that.

You're responding to people who have experience with ADHD, RSD, anxiety, and everything else that goes along with "just hyperactivity".

A change in environment can be enough to tame the overall system and reduce overreactive responses. It's not an attack to say that works for some families.

Anonymous wrote:We shifted schools to a private that offered a more traditional experience vs a public that was workshop model/laptops/distraction central. Some of the kids at Trad School do take ADHD meds, but the environmental change has been enough that we haven't needed to make any pharmaceutical interventions.

We had exact opposite experience. Had our child in a very pricey private school, and they were extremely intolerant of his behavior, labeled him a bad child, he was socially ostracized, and he ended up hating school. We moved him to public school, and he is thriving in a pool of much bigger kids, who many are worse behaved than him….it’s all about the self-esteem. That was our motivation to medicate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We shifted schools to a private that offered a more traditional experience vs a public that was workshop model/laptops/distraction central. Some of the kids at Trad School do take ADHD meds, but the environmental change has been enough that we haven't needed to make any pharmaceutical interventions.

Same I will not medicate my DC

Neat. I will just tell my kid to go back to hiding in the corner or behind me every single place we go and to be happy having no friends. It may surprise you that kids have symptoms outside of school!

+1. It’s great that pp can modify their school environment. They won’t be able to do that for the rest of their life, though.

Right? My kid was literally essentially having his brain overwhelmed with negative suicidal thoughts every time someone made a correction (so school, sports, camp, home, etc) or when he lost a board game or when he got embarrassed or over anything his brain perceived as negative. He was barely talking and we were looking at an ASD/selective mutism diagnosis. ADHD meds completely changed all of that.

Folks are very dismissive of ADHD in thinking that it is only hyperactivity. "Oh, they diagnose boys so much because they don't like to sit still" "if they just let them play" but it is so much more than that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We shifted schools to a private that offered a more traditional experience vs a public that was workshop model/laptops/distraction central. Some of the kids at Trad School do take ADHD meds, but the environmental change has been enough that we haven't needed to make any pharmaceutical interventions.

Same I will not medicate my DC

Neat. I will just tell my kid to go back to hiding in the corner or behind me every single place we go and to be happy having no friends. It may surprise you that kids have symptoms outside of school!

+1. It’s great that pp can modify their school environment. They won’t be able to do that for the rest of their life, though.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We shifted schools to a private that offered a more traditional experience vs a public that was workshop model/laptops/distraction central. Some of the kids at Trad School do take ADHD meds, but the environmental change has been enough that we haven't needed to make any pharmaceutical interventions.

Same I will not medicate my DC

Neat. I will just tell my kid to go back to hiding in the corner or behind me every single place we go and to be happy having no friends. It may surprise you that kids have symptoms outside of school!

We shifted schools to a private that offered a more traditional experience vs a public that was workshop model/laptops/distraction central. Some of the kids at Trad School do take ADHD meds, but the environmental change has been enough that we haven't needed to make any pharmaceutical interventions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How old is your child and has it helped? The thought of starting medication for a 3rd grader seems terrifying

Terrifying!! :roll:

Would you withhold medicine from your child if they had a physical problem? Kidney? Heart? Ear?

Why would you deny them necessary medicine for a mental disorder?

Medicine is a game changer that helps them navigate life. There should be no question here.

Not the same thing. Plenty of people/kids are able to manage symptoms without meds. ADHD is a spectrum and over diagnosed.

The thing is, if you treat a child with ADHD with a short acting stimulant, you’ll be able to know within a quick time frame whether you are seeing positive effects in terms of focus and emotional regulation. Why not give it a try for a few days and see how it goes? You don’t have to continue if the child doesn’t feel better on the medication. (Nonstimulant medication like Qelbree is a different story - you have to take the medication daily for several weeks to notice the effects and can’t discontinue as easily.)

Anonymous wrote:Crazy responses op, highly recommend moving this to the special needs forum and you will get a response from parents who also have kids with ADHD and had to wrestle with this decision.

We chose to medicate even earlier and I have never regretted it for a second. Best decision we have made for our child if I'm being honest. We tried everything - diet changes, neurofeedback, therapy. None of it even remotely touched things and medication SIGNIFICANTLY improved life for our child and us. It is the first line treatment for ADHD for a reason, it is helpful for most and most other treatment is frankly not that effective from what I've read and experienced.

Consider the side effects of not medicating, your child's sense of self worth, confidence, sense of self can all be impacted and that is worthy of considering too.

Medication should be taken seriously, it is not without side effects as well but for us they have been minimal (first med had more, switched and second has been great) and it is worth considering.

I read so many old DCUM threads when trying to decide and there are some where people asked if anyone has regrets and almost all the responses were either no or my only regret is not starting sooner.  

I could’ve written this exact post. We wasted two years trying everything: parent training, diet changes, holistic medicine, supplements, exercise. It ruined our family structure and almost tore my marriage apart. We were at our wits end, and we finally tried medication in third grade, my boy is on the older side, so he turned 9 soon after the year started, he’s big and fit, and I have never been so grateful! He’s on a very low dose and we plan to keep him on that until it stops working. He never takes it on weekends or on days off school or in the summer. He is a different kid, so much happier, so much better self-esteem, and our family is fine live been able to heal.

You will go through all the motions and try everything under the sun, but you will end up medicating and you will be very grateful that you did. Just do not let your life be ruined before you make the decision to finally medicate. I’m glad we did not start sooner, but I also wish we had known that the long-term ultimate decision would be to medicate because everything that we tried that didn’t work was so expensive and frustrating and heartbreaking and we could’ve saved ourselves a lot of trial and error.

We started ADHD meds at 7 and it was life changing for my kid.

My kid's main issue was emotional dysregulation. Due to covid it wasn't really until 2nd grade that we noticed the issue (or were made aware of the full extent) but he spent much of 2nd grade refusing to talk, hiding under his desk, and would melt down for over an hour when upset. He was in a sport which he loved but was almost asked to leave because again he would hide or meltdown and be unable to participate. He had no friends. We were unable to play games together as a family and felt like we were walking on eggshells all the time because something would set him off and he would sob for hours and then refuse to talk for the rest of the day.

We had him evaluated and doctor was concerned about ASD but we started ADHD meds as a trial and he did a 100% turn around. He is now participating in school, has great friends, is back on grade level, is able to participate in his sport and moved up a level. We are back to being able to do fun/amazing things as a family.

He told me that he is finally happy.

I know medication can be scary. It can also be the tool your kid needs to live their life. The medication allowed him to learn how to live life, to learn how to make friends, to learn who to do school, to learn how to better regulate his emotions. Now when he is off medication for whatever reason he is 100 times better than he was before the meds because the medication got him to a place where he could learn coping skills.

We also did therapy for 6 months which helped with this as well. Since last may and is still doing great.

Folks that immediately reject meds or who say silly things like "change diet" think that ADHD is nothing more than kids being hyper. It is a lot more than that and can negatively impact kids.

Kid with untreated ADHD are more likely to abuse substances, get arrested, and get in car accidents. They have an increased mortality rate, an increased risk of depression/low self-esteem and increased risk of job instability.

Moreover, treating kids when they are young is more likely to lead to adults/teens that are able to more effectively manage their ADHD without medication.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I knew well before DS was diagnosed he had ADHD. As soon as we got the diagnosis at 6.5 we started medication. Instantly made a huge difference, I can’t imagine how he would be now, at 10, if we hadn’t addressed it then. Especially socially.

How often does the child need to take meds? Once a day?

It depends on the medication that works best. There are extended release meds that you take once a day that (theoretically) last all day. Other people do better with immediate release meds that you take several times a day.

Most pediatricians don't have a lot of experience, so it's best to work with a psychiatrist to figure out optimum dosing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How old is your child and has it helped? The thought of starting medication for a 3rd grader seems terrifying

Terrifying!! :roll:

Would you withhold medicine from your child if they had a physical problem? Kidney? Heart? Ear?

Why would you deny them necessary medicine for a mental disorder?

Medicine is a game changer that helps them navigate life. There should be no question here.

Not the same thing. Plenty of people/kids are able to manage symptoms without meds. ADHD is a spectrum and over diagnosed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How old is your child and has it helped? The thought of starting medication for a 3rd grader seems terrifying

Terrifying!! :roll:

Would you withhold medicine from your child if they had a physical problem? Kidney? Heart? Ear?

Why would you deny them necessary medicine for a mental disorder?

Medicine is a game changer that helps them navigate life. There should be no question here.

These are absurd comparisons. That's a good thing, not a bad thing.

- parent of a child with ADHD and of a child with a chronic disease

Anonymous wrote:How old is your child and has it helped? The thought of starting medication for a 3rd grader seems terrifying

Terrifying!! :roll:

Would you withhold medicine from your child if they had a physical problem? Kidney? Heart? Ear?

Why would you deny them necessary medicine for a mental disorder?

Medicine is a game changer that helps them navigate life. There should be no question here.