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Our seven-year old girl is taking Adderall for ADHD and has been on it for the past year since being diagnosed.
I think it is an odd coincidence that so many kids from foster care are diagnosed with ADD/ADHD. I believe that their lack of focus and hyperactivity sometimes has more to do with their pasts and unstable presents than actual chemical imbalances.
Our daughter was put on Adderall shortly after moving into her first good foster home after three years of bouncing around in some pretty rough homes. She had changed kindergarten 5 times. She was hyper and unfocused when starting the first grade.
She moved in with us, her adoptive home, two months ago and we have yet to see a symptom of ADHD, outside of bedwetting. I have read the ADHD books and can't imagine this applying to our child. She can do one thing for an extended period of time, plays alone, plays appropriately and can hold up her end of a conversation for as long as necesary. I think it is possible she was misdiagnosed and had difficulties resulting in all the change and trauma she had experienced. I have seen her with social workers etc. and can guess how easy it would be to label her ADHD, because she has trouble answering their questions and and acts babyish and hyper when they visit. I think she just gets nervous, but is fine an hour or two after they leave.
Is it possible that she never was ADHD or has grown out of it? We want to talk to her doctor about lowering her dosage and overtime take her off of it completely. We don't believe in medicating kids unless it is absolutely unavoidable. However, as a side note, I think this will be difficult for her, because she tells us that she cannot function without her meds and will go crazy (because this is what her last foster family told her). She is prone to think she needs all kinds of medicine for everything. She wants something for every sneeze (although she does not get it) and constantly tells us she has something wrong with her. Her desire for constant medication is a little frightening and we would really like her to understand the seriousness of all kinds of drug use. This seems hard to do when we ask her to pop a pill every morning just to calm her nerves.
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You've got a tough situation... Since your daughter is old enough, maybe you could explain the concept of overdiagnosis. If she truly believes she will "go crazy" off the meds, offer alternatives, which for kids with only mild ADHD work just fine.
Green tea is great for making people feel more balanced out, and has zero caffiene. I'll push it once again, but yoga is great; I've taught yoga for a few years and practiced for decades. It's incredibly calming for kids and adults. If you don't want to shell out about $10 each week, try taping a show called "Breathing Space" on Fit TV. It comes on at 2 EST and 5:30 EST. It's a great beginners' show. Yoga has potential to heal the entire body, soothe and nurture the nervous system, and improve our posture. It's something to consider. :)
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You mentioned the chaotic circumstances of her early life. She very well could have been reacting to the upheaval. My twin adopted sons (I have had them for 1 yr and 9 mos now) were also diagnosed ADHD. We refused to medicate them and got the support of our pediatrician in order to evaluate how they were off of meds. Turns out they were ADHD but that the main instigator of the problem is that they have RAD. RAD can mimick ADHD and is a direct result of early childhood trauma or upheaval. My sons can also hold long conversations and do puzzles or such for extended periods of time. However, over time and implementation of diet restrictions we realized they had a real problem focusing even when they really seemed to be trying. I learned that some ADHD children can hold a sustained focus if they are motivated enough personally.
We put our sons on Concerta 10 mos ago and within three days we saw a difference in their behavior. Two weeks later and we were able to finally begin the real work on getting them caught up academically in school. Interestingly enough, their rages also diminished greatly down to just temper tantrums.
If you have only had your daughter for two months, you are also in a honeymoon phase. If your daughter is RAD, she may very well be controlling it scoping out what is what.
Maybe if the Dr does agree to take her off the meds you could give her some kind of placebo until she is old enough to understand that she doesn't need the drugs. Some friends of our family had kids that were fascinated by their elderly great aunt and uncle who had to take tablets every day for a variety of stuff, to the point where the kids wanted to take tablets too.
In the end, their parents gave up and let them have what they called "pink pills for pale people" which the kids swore were real drugs but were in fact just pink musk flavoured candy. Obviously the kids grew out of it, but by only allowing them to have their own "medication" it meant that they didn't try to help themselves to the medicine chest when noone was looking.
Children in foster care are often misdiagnoses as ADHD. Can they take her off the meds for weekends and see how she does?
Tell her your a good mom and good moms know when kids need medicine and 7 year olds don't need to make those decision.
My 7 year old was taught to like medicine, also. It took a long time for him to understand he didn't need it.(He was 4 when he got here and on enough meds for 3 adults).
this is such a touchy subject! everyone has an opinion when it comes to add and meds! i am a mother with add with 2 teenage daughters who have both been diagnosed with add as well. i take adderall and an antidepressant and so did my 14 year old until this year. she started taking it when she was 7 and has had a choice about whether or not she needed it ever since. she has always taken weekends and summers off. my 12 year old however tried meds but hated the way adderall made her feel, so she stopped taking it. they are totally different temperaments and personality types too. the older one is sensitive about her add traits and its effects on school, while the younger one is more carefree and could care less about her add problems, even though meds definitely improved her school work. i guess my point is that i think that she should have a say so in the decision whether or not she needs adderall. i would have her take a couple of weeks off meds without telling her teacher, then have a conference with the teacher and get her input. school is the main thing children need meds for anyway, that is if the parents can deal with them at home when meds have worn off.
sheila
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