This has absolutely nothing to do with wls, but...

have any of you had experience with ADHD children? I would love to see my grandson come off those terrible meds and be controlled by diet and a stable home environment. Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated. Wanda

Well my experience may not be what you want! First I will tell you that I work in the field of education. I am an educational diagnostician - I do evaluations for learning disabilities and mental retardation, I am the school case worker for most students served by special education. (And I do a lot of totally asinine paper work but that's a whole other thing) So I have some professional experience with this. But more of my experience is personal. My nine year old daughter has ADHD and has been on adderal since she was 5. I also have a 15 year old son who does not have ADHD. My husband struggled in school - he went to school in NY state in the 60's and 70's and tells stories of being evaluated and them trying to figure out why he had such a difficult time reading. (He now has a Masters degree.) As I have watched him he has ADHD to a great extent and has learned how to manage it for the most part. He knows what he has to do though. The best he did in a Masters level clas was when the teacher let him pace at the back of the class. He shouldn't try to take notes because it just distracts him. He doesn't enjoy movies for the most part. Even now he doesn't have the attention to watch the whole movie and get everything that goes on. I remember taking the kids to see Mulan and about 15 min. into it he leans over and say "what is going on?" I tell you this to say that I do believe that ADHD can be genetic as it is in Kathryn's case. In researching about attention issues I read some information by Dr. Mel Levine author of "A Mind at a Time." It was so insightful for me. There were a lot of things that we dealt with with Kathryn that I had no idea were related to her attention issues. She has a very difficult time going to sleep and waking up. He talkes about that is the part of the brain that has switching attention that is effected. If she gets to doing something she can become very difficult to switch to a new tasks. Sometimes she will get on something that is funny but has difficulty moving on. For Kathryn, medication is the difference between her being successful (and even excelling at school) and just getting by. The difference between her handwriting when she has taken medication or hasn't taken it is amazing. You can bearly read it off the medication and it is beautiful on the medication. Along with medication we do responsibility charts which really work well for her and if I don't get one printed up for a week - she asks for it. She went to school for one year without medication and tells me it was a horrible year and she had no friends. Now everyone is her friend. She is a champion for the little guy - the new kid or the disabled kid. She struggled to learn to read and went through an intense dyslexia program. She has come out of the other side reading well and even enjoying it sometimes. I truly believe that a lot of what she has accomplished would have been totally unattainable without her medication. I explain to her all the time that the medicine doesn't make her good or make her focus but... it helps her to stick with the decisions she makes. If she decides not to talk or to pay attention she can. She is old enough now to verbalize how she feels about taking the medication and she notices a huge difference is how well she is able to focus taking it. She participates in gymnastics. Her best meet this year was the one that started at like 8:30 in the morning - because he medicine was in full swing - many started in the evening - she did well but not as well. That said... a schedule is a wonderful thing for a person with ADHD and works great with Kathryn. Diatary changes can always be helpful, however for someone who truly has ADHD sometimes medication is the only humane thing for a parent to do. Prior to medication Kathryn stayed in trouble at school all the time and didn't have friends. After medication she rarely gets in trouble - had one year where she never had a yellow or red mark - and has friends. Sorry - but.... I have a passion and you touched on it! Trudy

Trudy, thanks for the info. All I know is that my little guy is on some of the same meds that his 72-year-old grandmother is on. After he takes them, he is sleepy and has to take a nap. I'm just beginning my research on ADHD. Maybe there are better meds out there than what he is on. I also found some articles about diet that I found interesting. Wanda

You are right to be worried. He shouldn't seem drugged or sleepy at all. Actually if we get Kathryn's dose too high she can't sleep at all. My advice it so have a child psychiatrist make the diagnosis and medication recomendations and if they don't want input from the school - Run the other way. The behaviors that indicate ADD or ADHD must be observed across all settings - so if the problem is only at home or only at school - it isn't ADD or ADHD. I have seen doctors that will just prescribe about anything and may not have a good grasp of what the effects are in the brain. Just my 2 cents. Like I said this is an issue that is very close to my heart. Are his parents worried about the sleeping? I know I was concerned that the medication would change my Kathryn and they haven't changed her personality at all. She continues to be vibrant, a champion of the underdog, stubbort, exceedingly sweet sometimes and exceedingly .... (what is the oposite of sweet) sometimes. Good Luck, Trudy

He's on Wellbutrin, Trazadone, and Clonidine. From your experience working with kids, what do you think of that medication regime? If he comes to live with us, I will take him to a different pyschiatrist for a second opinion. Wanda

WOW! Wellbutrin and Tradone are both listed as antidepressants and I have not seen them administered to my kids with ADHD. I have one student on my case load that has anxiety issues that they tried on Tradone but the sleepiness side effect was too much and they took him off. I wonder what the diagnosis is. I do see Clonidine administered sometimes to my ADHD kids but it is always in conjunction with a stimiulant medication (ritalin, Adderall, Concerta - that class of drug). I'm no expert but the medication shouldn't be making him sleep all the time. I hope that you can help get it sorted out.

Wanda, my son has ADD without the H. He was diagnosed in first grade when he took a nosedive in class. He was uncontrollable hitting, kicking, spitting, causing disruptions in class. Wouldn't finish his work in school, or homework. He had no friends either. He was too mean. When the teacher first told me about this, I was in shock! He had been the perfect student as a kindergartner. Certainly they must be mistaken. Or he had to be provoked. But that wasn't the case. He went through counseling and testing and over a 6 months period with lots of input from his teacher and the counselor, they came up with ADD. He was put on Ritalin in the beginning and it made a HUGE difference. All the sudden he was able to cope. He was able to focus on his school work, and know the difference between appropriate and inappropriate behavior. It hasn't all be automatic, but it's easier for him to understand things when he's on his meds. He still needed assistance in class by having a separate desk over against the wall to help with his distractions. The dr. explained it to us like this: If you were standing in the middle of a very busy intersection with cars whizzing by all the time, and you had to be studying for a math test, that is what it is like in his head without medicine. That helped me alot. Because I struggled with giving him medicine. He has to be seen by the dr. every 6 months to be sure he is growing and not having any issues with sleeping. He has changed medicines a few times to make things better as time goes on and he changes. He is now on Concerta, which is a long acting form of Ritalin. It usually works about 8 hours, which prevents him from having to take an additional dose at lunchtime and after school. His coping skills have gotten better over time. But there is still a huge difference when he takes the meds and not. He gets a break every other weekend with his dad, because his dad doesn't want to give him the meds. The dr. said he needs breaks occasionally anyway, and while most people have their kids off during Christmas, and spring break, doing it this way is fine too. I think we are at a good dosage for him now after just increasing it a bit. He is now excelling in school. He gets A's and B's and his teacher says he's not as disruptive as he has been. Though he did go through a period of acting out when I was sick and shortly thereafter, I think he's overcome that. At this point, he's 11, and alot of his behavior is just typical 11 year old boy. And sometimes that is the struggle for us, trying to differentiate whether it's an ADD issue, or pre-adolescent issue. Just FYI, his dad was on Ritalin as a child too. He also has ADD. He still has it, but has found ways to cope and deal with things without medication. In Lucas' case, we believe it is hereditary. Hope that helped.