RE: So O/T, but I have to ask- ADD/ADHD?

[fivegonefishing]

 ambrosia
Guess what I just learned yesterday; the Strep bug will enhance or bring out ADHD behaviours, espeically with the child suffers from multiple conditions.  DD s OCD and ticks have begun to get in the way of getting work done at home and school.  I phoned the Dr. and he suggested having our GP do a throat swab to determine if there are any Strep bacteria.  We just got back for the GP and it turns out she has an ear infection, she didn t even complain one bit!  The kid can t hear properly and has been putting up with the iriatation for lord knows how long.  
 
 The Dr. mentioned that this is a pretty new discovery and the Hospital is monitoring children who show concern.  Man, just when you think you got a handle on things, they go ahead and throw a wrench into the mixture!
 
 Ambrosia, good luck witht he report card; Sam went from being suspended to being on the Honour Roll []
 
 Tammy

[AustinBoston]

 ambrosia
My older DD (now 19 and in college) is ADD, and so am I.  She is far worse than I.
 
 What I have learned is that there simply are no easy answers.
 
 The best way to treat ADD is to determine and correct a cause.  But finding the cause is sometimes impossible.  Some (not very many) have had significant success with removing many of the following:
 
 * sugar (combined with overall reduction in carbohydrates).  This isn t just candy, but calls for less of many " healthy"  food like fruit, fruit juice, granola, etc.
 * Food dyes (especially red food coloring).  Good luck.  Almost everything has food coloring, and if the amount is small enough, it doesn t have to be listed on the package.  Special note about red coloring:  The primary offender is apparently the same material that naturally makes food red, so no tomatoes, red (or purple) grapes, beets, etc. even if they don t have red dyes in them.
 * Steroids in beef and other meat products.  As the amount of steroids in foods have increased, so have hordes of other problems such as juvenile diabetes, childhood obesity (uh, steroids make you grow), precocious puberty, ADD/ADHD, asthma, autism, alergies, etc.  Oh, but the steroids don t cause those problems.  Of course, you may have to drive 100 miles and pay significantly more for meat that is steroid-free.
 * anything your child might be alergic to.  Some ADD/ADHD children have been found to be alergic to more foods than they are not alergic to.  So what are they supposed to eat?
 * anything that interferes with your child s ability to sleep.  That includes things like too noisy, too quiet, too much light, too dark, too hot, too cold, bed too hard, bed too soft, lonely by self, can t sleep with someone else in the room, empty stomach, full stomach, etc.  The solution to the problem may prove to cause the problem as well.
 * anything that over-stimulates your child.  This can include loud/wild music, video games, computer games, high-action TV and Movies, even the flicker of flourescent lights.  Try getting the school to pull out the flourescent lights and replace them with incadescent because it might, maybe, possibly have an impact on your child s ADD/ADHD.  Not.
 
 The problems with all of these is that: 1) They may not apply (and, in fact, don t apply to probably 60% of ADD/ADHD children). 2) Doing any one of them can be particularly difficult, and you may need to do all of them in order to get any results at all. 3) The results you get will solve only 0%-60% of the problem.
 
 Behavior modification (rewards/punishments) are typically not very effective with ADD/ADHD children.  The improvements range from 0%-100%, but I suspect those with 60%-100% improvement were really miscategorized from the beginning.  Your child may be in the 0% category.
 
 That s where drugs come in.  Drugs will not solve the problem (though they may reduce it).  They may not help much at all.  Children who take any of the drugs used to treat ADD/ADHD suffer a significantly higher risk of drug abuse campared to all students (something like 3-4 times as high).  What isn t known is how much the increase is for ADD/ADHD children who don t use medications.  The drugs can create their own health and behavior problems.
 
 Our daughter was initially treated with Ritalin, and it helped some.  The doctor we used had two ADHD children of his own, and so he knew the issue very well.  He conducted carefully constructed double-blind experiments (where neither DD nor her teachers knew whether she was on the drug [or the adjusted dose] or a placebo) in order to measure effectiveness.  IMPORTANT: If your doctor doesn t do this, tell him he is too lazy to work with your child and find another.  The issues surrounding ADD/ADHD are sufficiently subjective that people, even professionals, will see what they want to see.  Occasionally, the drugs make things worse, not better, and it is important to know, not just guess.  Double-blind experiments are the only way to know if a drug is effective.
 
 She was originally on Ritalin.  One of the possible side effects of Ritalin (it s supposed to be extremely rare, about 1 in 100,000) is extreme beligerince or aggressive behavior.  I was keenly aware of this, because a child one town over from us beat another child to death with a bat while on Ritalin.  During a dosage adjustment experimet, we got two calls from teachers on the same day.  These two particular teachers did not know her medication was being increased, nor had they spoken to each other.  They asked if something was going on at home.  She had become rude and belligerent in each of their classes.  PJay called the doctor immediately, but knew what he would say:  Immediately dump all the Ritalin down the drain.
 
 At that time she was switched to Dexadrine, which is a class 2 controlled substance.  More than once, there were problems getting the prescription filled.  It is also an appetite supressant.  It worked, but she became very thin.
 
 Eventually, she asked to be taken off everything (this was in high school).  The next several years were a constant struggle to get her to do homework, to do school work, to do much of anything.  But she did (barely) graduate with her class.  Sadly, all of this effort on our part meant that the other two got less attention than they deserved.  She also rebounded on her weight.  In about 18 months she went from underweight to overweight.
 
 There are herbal remidies that help with some children, but they have one thing in common:  None have been safety tested.  With drugs, at least you will know most of the possible side effects.  With herbal remidies, you are truly on your own.
 
 In all honesty, none of the things we tried worked very well.  What did work (some, but not well) was her growing up.  She still struggles, and it s beginning to look like she s going to have to return home and attend a local college.  She is very intelligent, but she needs constant supervision and accountability.  Our hope is that she will finally connect with being so colse to the edge on all of her hopes and dreams.  But if this semester is like her first, she will be coming home.
 
 Austin (" I will not feed you forever.  You must work to live." )

[Gamecock Camper]

 ambrosia
I know that if I read this post when first finding my child was ADD / ADHD / Asbergers, then I d really have plenty of good advice and also plenty to worry about.   Well, here is some good news.  Alex (4th grader) came home yesterday talking about a visiting children s book author.  He was so excited about meeting her.  He has read some of her books (Red Dirt Jessie, The Keeping Room, etc...) and wanted me to meet her too.  The author is Anna Myers.   She was the speaker at our PTA meeting last night.  She talked about her books, her journey from being a teacher to an author, her writing thought process, character development,etc...  It was one of those memorable moments where Alex was really into and really understood what she was talking about.  He asked questions like whether she had considered writing a sequel to one of her books from the father s perspective.  Wow, there is a great mind at work... you just need to find the means to bring it out.

[DBGCAMP]

 ambrosia
I felt I had to reply regarding something AustinBoston stated.  Children who take meds for ADD/ADHD have not been proven to be at a higher risk for drug abuse than children without ADD.  Do not let this scare you away from seeking treatment for your DD s diagnosis.
 
  Many teachers are under the impression that Ritalin and other meds are a cure and seem to expect the child to be the ideal student once they are on medication.  That most likely will not happen.  The medication helps, but the child still needs to be held accountable for their behavior. That is where the behavior modification comes into play.  We let our DD know right from square one that we would not accept " but i didn t get my pill"  as an excuse for misbehavior or missing assignments.  She needs to know very clearly what is expected of her and what the consequences are for not behaving accordingly, and those consequences MUST be followed through!  That is the hardest part - being consistent and following through.
 
 There is a book called " First Star I See"  by Jaye Andras Caffrey that is written from the child s perspective.  It is about a girl (approx 10 years old) and her experience with ADD.  It is not long ( I read it in about 1 1/2 hours) but it is very well written and may give you some insight as to how your DD sees all this.  I passed this on to other family members so they might begin to understand my DD a little better.
 
 Although this diagnosis can be frustrating, I would not trade my DD for anything - she is one of the most caring, thoughtful kids I know.  She is extremely outgoing and knows all the teachers in her school, even ones she never had!  She knows someone everywhere we go - I get stopped by employees in the grocery store whenever I am there asking where my DD is!  Find what your DD does best and emphasize that - academics are not necessarily everything.  Good Luck []