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There is a little boy I take out with us sometimes, the zoo etc. His mother is druggy and he is with grandma for kinship care. He was normally badly behaved, temper tantrums etc. From what I could see spoiled rotten because of this mess and because he is so cute. He knows how to manipulate the relatives. So I normally don't have much problems with him after the first few times where I just plain packed him up and put him out of my house.
Anyway he went to kindergarten and they put him on ADHD drugs and he is now hyper, running, running, running and the behavior he did have seems excellerated. He normally could sit for hours a watch a movie. I never saw any ADHD symptoms.
So I can't do anything about it but does anyone know the symptoms if a child is put on it in error?
If you try to google all you get is stuff put out by the drug companies or positive things about the drugs. I'm worried about my own child. She just plain doesn't like being told what to do. I don't want her on this stuff. I've known kids who really have it and it isn't these kids. I saw last night on CNN about how many people are dying because of pain meds, but what people are missing is the whole country seems to be on something for depression, pain or ADHD. Something is really wrong here and if you say anything people get really mad. They said 80% of all pain med is used by USA. This all can't be right. I'm afraid ADHD is door way to other drugs for kids already predisposed to it.
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The ADHD medications that you are talking about are stimulants. Yes they are highly addictive and over prescribed. They can also be a life saver to a child who is TRULY suffering from ADHD. But, you are correct in a child who DOES NOT have ADHD the medications will make them extremely hyperactive and can be very dangerous. There are other non-stimulant medications that can be used to treat a child with ADHD as well. Intuniv and Straterra are two medications that are supposed to work very well and are not stimulants. As far as your daughter not liking be told what to do that is NOT a symptom of ADHD. That is just a typical stubborn child. If at some point she is diagnosed and you do agree with the diagnosis she does NOT need to be put on stimulants. DO NOT allow a doctor to pressure you into doing that.
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We were out with this little boy again this weekend. Still bouncing off the walls. He said the reason he is on ADHD is because he wakes up in the middle of the night and plays his uncle's video games. He is just plain bad behaved and knows it. He's throws these tantrums, then gives you this adorable make your heart melt look. He knows exactly what he is doing, except his doesn't realize it is getting him drugged up and messing him up at school. His grandmother is illegal and about to be deported, he lives with his other grandma because mom is homeless on drugs. His illegal grandmother is upset but is powerless to do anything. You just have to ask yourself where are the doctors in all this? They should know better.
He's in kinship care. From what I've seen about kinship care those kids don't get the care that the foster kids get. They refused to take him in counseling. It seems to me that the social workers overlook a lot in kinship care.
No I'm not sure but I'm pretty sure he is just plain spoiled. I think this because I can get him to behave. He started the behavior with me and I just didn't put up with it. Like we were eating out with Hispanic grandma and when he was done he started crawling all under the tables etc. and they didn't say much to him. They are afraid he won't come to their house and they will loose him. He only tried that with me once.
There seems to be a reluctance to just say a kid is just a plain brat. I love this little boy and hate to see him go down the road of drugs. More caution should be used with them, especially when their parents are drug addicts. They don't need to start the same pattern.
As a quick note, children with ADHD can often sit and watch a movie, play on a computer, Ipad,etc. These things are often the ONLY thing that can provide enough stimulation for an ADHD child. I would determinately have the child reevaluated if you don't feel they have ADHD, but don't use the TV watching as a sole indication. My son is without a doubt very hyper ADHD. If he misses a dose, his teachers call me because he can't sit for even a minute at school even though he trys so hard. It is night and day for him. He scored off the charts for ADHD at our child Psychologists office and again at our second opinion child psyc visit. However, he can watch a full movie with out whimper with or without medication.
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We were out again with him and no unusual behavior, except he is convinced he "needs" his medication. Otherwise he gets up in the middle of the night and plays his uncles video games. Anyway he was hyper with grandma, lifting up furniture etc. She was about to pull out her hair. We take him out and nothing unusual, just running alot, a new behavior or him. So as the day wore on and it got closer to the time to take the medication his behavior improved, much less hyper and basically normal behavior.
This little boy's homelife with grandma is very disfunctional, mom in and out of the house and jail, grandma with boyfriend issues. He goes to low income school and I'm sorry but I think they are just taking the easy way out. I know I'm not around him 24/7 so it is hard to really judge but I really think he needs to go to therapy before they go down this road. Grandma is sure this is the right thing to do and nobody will listen to the other grandma. So it is pretty much the way it is. The rest of us are more afraid of the road to illegal drugs etc. than his so called ADHD behavior.
Well he is on a new pill and his behavior is still fine with me. Albeit still acting up with grandma. I don't know anymore because maybe I'm judging him in comparison to my own daughter. She has all the symptoms and is way worse than him, minus the big tantrums in class.
This is the first time I'm beginning to really think about asking the doctor about my own daughter. It is a difficult thing to tell the difference between ADHD and symptoms of her situtation. However, it is damaging our relationship so maybe I'll have to think about it if things don't improve.
I really believe it is impossible for this many kids to need this stuff. My mother had ADHD but she was only one I knew back then. I know they are better at recognizing it but it would have been impossible for society to have functioned years ago if the same number had depression and ADHD before medication was available. Either society has gotten worse or we are over medicating ourselves.
I do agree we are over medicating and over diagnosing ADHD. However, our sedentary environment without enough outdoor activity and unstructured playtime also creates ADHD type symptoms in individuals who might have functioned well in a different era. Changing the environment can alleviate ADHD symptoms in some individuals who would otherwise meet the criteria for the diagnosis.
I have a daughter with severe ADHD. By the changing her environment, we are able to keep her on low doses of her medication. She can't function without the meds, but her case, is very severe. Many kids can be helped by environmental changes, and I would always try that first.
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