medicating children with ADD

[JenBakken]

As the mother of three children with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) I'm struggling with the decision to medicate my children. I'd like to hear from other parents about their experiences. I am not against medicating children and would never judge anyone or their decision. Personally my children have had bad experiences with the side effects from medications we have tried in the past. What are your thoughts or suggestions?

[HikingStick]

I can't speak for medicating children with ADD yet (I have a daughter who is being tested soon), but I can speak as an adult with ADD.

If your children really do have ADD, the types of drugs that are used should help them, and the difference should be noticeable. Although it may seem counterintuitive, stimulants are most often prescribed to counteract the affect of ADD. In the 'normal' population, such stimulants tend to make people hyper, have rapid heart beat, and a broad range of potentially dangerous affects. For people with ADD, however, those drugs do not have that affect. Instead, they allow the person with ADD to have better control over their own ability to change the object of their focus. Before being diagnosed and prescribed a medication, I struggled for years with symptoms that some simply thought were undesirable personality traits: I would get caught up with things to the point where I could not easily pull away (even though I knew I needed to pull away). If I was pulled away by something of greater interest, I would not remember to go back to my previous task. I could not keep track of meeting dates and many other details that so many other people take for granted. Once using a stimulant, everything changed. I no longer had trouble shifting my attention appropriately, I could focus if I needed to do so and could stop when I needed to, and I started remembering meetings and other scheduled events. My wife could see the difference, too, and she can tell when I forget to take my medication.

One last note. When I was first diagnosed, I did not believe it. I thought ADD was a condition that preveted people from concentrating on anything for a long period of time. In reality, I found out, the opposite could be true: people with ADD could "hyper-focus" on something of interest to them and tune out almost everything else. That fit me to a "T". For years, I struggled with depression as I wondered why I could not do seemingly "simple" things that others did without thinking. Once I learned about ADD and how my doctor determined I had it, I was freed to accept it and began to learn how to make the best of it. People with ADD tend to be (but are not always) very spontaneous, quick-thinkers with sharp minds and great imaginations. If you bring up one topic, their minds can run through dozens or hundreds of correllated topics almost immediately, which is why I'm often thinking through tangents before others have even internalized the main concept.

My best regards to you!

HikingStick

[mod34]

I am suprised at your reply, as someone who has lived with others taking these drugs giving them to kids scare the daylights out og me. Maybe you were lucky and found the right drug and dose the first time. These drugs do different things to different people, young kids can not tell you what they are feeling when the drug or the dosage is wrong. I watched adderal turn one little girl into a zoombie when i tried to get her to come out and play with her family I was bitten severly in the side. On the other side I have seen these drugs significantly help a child. The point is, it is a crap shoot, and as a parent you have to understand that child can't always tell you what the medication is doing them. The medication can over whelm them. So if you chose to try this just be very obsevant. Just for additional info, I believe adderall was pulled from Canadian pharmacies due to some nasty side effects, so be sure to research any medication. You may also want to try doing some reasearch at naturalcures.com, the research has shown that almost every ailment we have is nutrtion related.

[JenBakken]

Dear Hikingstick,
Thank you for your reply and for telling me about your situation. It's great to hear that medication has helped you and you are no longer struggling as much. I wish you the best during your daughters testing.
I am by no means against medications for ADD/ADHD, and know they can be very beneficial to many children or adults. Every case is different just has every person is and for right now medications are not in the picture for my family. However I am willing to look at it if all else fails.
Unfortunately when medication was attempted with two of my children the side effects far out weighed the benefits. It's difficult to watch your child suffer while attempting medications and not finding the right type of medicine or just the right dose.
Again, I really do appreciate you taking the time to tell me about your situation and I hope medications continue to work for you.

[TNT]

NO I would never medicated my Child for this ,,,,,, just keep the child busy is a Way to go ,,,, they got all that extra Engery ,,,,, so why not use it in many positive Ways ,,,,,, and dont lable them either ,,,,,,, I use to say and tell other people ,,,,, we use it as a positive ways for this ,,,,, let him join a sport too ,,, to take that Engery away and it really seem to help ,,,,,, so Much ,,,,,,,,

[abechtold]

While medication may help some, I think our society has become to dependant on it. There seems to be a pill for everything these days, and we don't seem to consider all the side effects that come with them. It seems to me it follows the same path as diets, everyone is looking for a quick and easy fix instead of taking the time to research and find alternative, natural remedies. People would rather buy the bottle that says loose ten pounds in one week with no exercise, than going to the gym for a month or giving up McDonalds. The same thing applies to children with ADD or ADHD, maybe it is just easier to say a child has one of these and medicate them rather than see the other factors in their lives that may be contributing to them having a hard time paying attention or their learning abilities. Eventually, with all these medications and quick fixes we are going to have consequences and I know as a parent I don't want to find out what they are through my child.

[wendi]

I think each parent needs to weigh the pros and cons of medication for each one of their children if they have this condition. I work with special education kids and I have seen medication greatly benefit some kids in some situations and be a diaster for other kids in what appeared to be similar situations or even within the same family. Schools and teachers, I have to admit, can be pushy for medication, as it often appears to help the child perform better in school, which, in some cases, helps an entire class, however, medication can never really be the final answer.

Behavior modification/management is really a good answer, and if medication is used, it should be used with a program of behavior modification/management. ADD/ADHD is really a gift in some ways, meaning there are strengths that children and adults with this diagnosis have that can be molded or tapped in order to help them be very successful in the class room or work setting. Each student with this diagnosis is so different, it's really about looking at what sort of challenges the condition presents to that person. Then you can work at boosting the skills that person has difficulty with (organization, perhaps, or task completion, or focus on everyday tasks) at the same time you are boosting them up for the things they do really well (thinking outside the box, intense focus on things they are interested in, abilty to improvise, abilty to notice and quickly adapt to minute changes in their environments).

In my class room, for example, there are students who need to move while they are working on seatwork or class room tasks, a common behavior need for some, but not all ADHD/ADD kids. In my room, they kids who need that in order to concentrate have the option of standing while they work (like at a podium) or sitting on a stability ball instead of a chair. This takes a while to get used to, because for most of us, the idea of a well ordered class room is the students quietly seated and the teacher standing in the front of the room. I have learned that more gets done by these types of students if they can shuffle their feet, shift their weight, bounce, sway, and pace when necessary. And amazingly enough, if they can get more done, I have to spend less time and energy helping them manage their behavior, and I have more time to actually teach them what they need to know about what ever subject they are studying.

The advice offered by a previous poster, of knowing your own kids well enough to be able to observe exactly how any mediction given to them is effecting them is also very important. And know that body systems can become used to certain meds, or kids growing and hormone changes can make meds more or less effective over time. I think you never want to completely rule a possible course of action (meds or behavior management, or for that matter, a combination of the two) out in this situation, but you do want to be able to move and adapt and help your child develop his/her strengths and deal with the challenges in the way that benefits the child the most in the long run.

[HikingStick]

TNT,

I've seen too many parents take that path (keep them busy), whether or not the child has ADD/ADHD. From my experience, they end up rearing children who cannot tolerate a cessation of activity--they feel they must be doing something constantly. Children, and adults, need down-time. We all need to know how to function without activities every minute of every day, and this includes electronic distractions, like cell-phones, PDAs, laptops, video games, et al. I'm not an anti-technology zealot. In fact, I'm a technologist by profession and I have my share of electronic distractsions. My point is that we all need to learn that life will not always be a string of activities--one to the next. We need to learn to live with ourselves--to come to know our own hearts and spirits before God in the quiet times. Unfortunately, in our society, I believe many people choose to stay busy so they can avoid the self-reflection that inevitably comes with solitude and silence.

HikingStick

[HikingStick]

I am suprised at your reply, as someone who has lived with others taking these drugs giving them to kids scare the daylights out og me. Maybe you were lucky and found the right drug and dose the first time. These drugs do different things to different people, young kids can not tell you what they are feeling when the drug or the dosage is wrong. I watched adderal turn one little girl into a zoombie when i tried to get her to come out and play with her family I was bitten severly in the side. On the other side I have seen these drugs significantly help a child. The point is, it is a crap shoot, and as a parent you have to understand that child can't always tell you what the medication is doing them. The medication can over whelm them. So if you chose to try this just be very obsevant. Just for additional info, I believe adderall was pulled from Canadian pharmacies due to some nasty side effects, so be sure to research any medication. You may also want to try doing some reasearch at naturalcures.com, the research has shown that almost every ailment we have is nutrtion related.

It is not a crap shoot if your physician is willing to take the time to make a well-informed diagnosis. You work every angle possible before resorting to medication. Sure, you may need to try more than one medication before finding the right one for your child, but that's no different than when dealing with a child with any other life-long condition that requires mainteance medication. Hey, that's true among adults, too.

I do believe that ADD and ADHD are over-diagnosed conditions in our society, especially among boys. In cases where the diagnoses are valid, however, medication helps brain regulate its neuro-chemistry in a manner comparable to that in persons who are not dealing with ADD or ADHD.

[HLWW PARENT]

NO I would never medicated my Child for this ,,,,,, just keep the child busy is a Way to go ,,,, they got all that extra Engery ,,,,, so why not use it in many positive Ways ,,,,,, and dont lable them either ,,,,,,, I use to say and tell other people ,,,,, we use it as a positive ways for this ,,,,, let him join a sport too ,,, to take that Engery away and it really seem to help ,,,,,, so Much ,,,,,,,,

Unfortunately TNT, If you have more than one child with this diagnosis, or depending on an only child, you will have little time for ANYTHING else. It may be self centered to a degree, but if the parents aren't sane, the children will suffer. Trying meds until you get the right one and dose can be a little rough to say the least. Meds can be very beneficial as mentioned by Hikingstick. I wouldn't rule them out. I believe this is rather short sighted thinking. Sorry about this, but why would you not try a medication that could help your child and family?