Musings of a mom... with three very different, but wonderful children... primarily talking about ADHD related stuff... but could talk about anything.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Organic, Gluten-free, sugar-free craziness

OK, so there is advice everywhere for kids with ADHD! E-very-where. But that's ok, I'm open to advice. Here's a sampling:
** he needs medication
** medication is bad
** home schooling is the only way to go
** needs a sugar free diet
** it's the red dye
** he should tough it out
** it's a discipline problem
** go to GNC
** gluten-free
** he'll grow out of it

So what's a confused mom to do? ALL OF THEM!!! Well, not quite all, but this is what I'm doing:

1. I'm restricting sugar, buying organic, restricting wheat and any processed foods (kind of following this guy's advice: http://www.oneaddplace.com/adhd-diet.php). I haven't tried the coffee shake yet - sounds interesting! I'm amazed at the world of food choices out there. My local grocery store has tons of organic, gluten free, no added sugar stuff. Simply amazed. And so many recipes online. My grocery bill so far is about double, but I figure that' s a lot cheaper than drugs and visits to the dr. office. And once I get to be a smarter shopper, it will be cheaper.

2. Giving him an anti-oxident drink thingy (this is my husband's idea): http://www.monavie.com/

3. Giving him cod liver oil. This is per GNC. They say it helps connect the neurotransmitters in the brain, which is one thought of what causes ADHD - broken neurotransmitters. Parents have been giving it to kids for hundreds of years so I figure it can't hurt! He doesn't know what it is, it looks like little round pills and tastes like strawberry: http://www.gnc.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2188179&cp&sr=1&origkw=nordic&kw=nordic&parentPage=search

4. Found a new school for him. It's a local Christian school with only 5 kids in his class!!! And his teacher has 30 years experience (you have to love your job if you've been doing it that long) and has a very tight reign on the class. Lots of class participation stuff, so he's not off on his own making trouble.

5. Of course, still praying for him! Not praying that it will be taken away, but that he can function, and God will use his uniqueness for a good purpose.

Friday, January 18, 2008

ADHD, Really?

So, we didn't tell his school that he has ADHD. We started looking for another school. I've been reading all I can get a hold of regarding ADHD, and they say that the open pod arrangement is the absolute worst for kids with the inattention tendencies. Of course the kindergarten class is all open pod. And it has 26 kids with one teacher.

I really love the school district - I went to high school there. It is very strong academically. Made college seem easy for me. But, I realize it's geared toward kids who have strong academic skills, i.e. the desire to sit around and read, write and analyze. I am one of those people. My son is not.

Ya see, there's all types of intelligence. I've always thought of the types as analytical, social and mechanical. But I guess now there are up to 9 types (??): http://skyview.vansd.org/lschmidt/Projects/The%20Nine%20Types%20of%20Intelligence.htm

My gut tells me that my son is pretty low in the social skills, a little higher in analytical and highest in mechanical. He loves to draw, arrange, and take things apart. He's not bad at putting things back together either. But mechanical skills (roughly summarized - that involving hands/bodies/things) aren't very celebrated in schools. So my little guy gets a double whammy against him because of course if he had social skills he could use his diplomatic powers to at least partially compensate for his lack of desire in academic areas. I'm not blaming the school or teachers - I think kindergarten teachers are saints with all they put up with. But I think he has a rough road to go.

Not sure if his intelligence type is related to ADHD or not. But it has been going through my head while school searching.

By the way, my youngest son was sick so I took him to the family Dr. and casually mentioned to Dr. H that our middle child was diagnosed with ADHD by Dr. Z, and would he need to see him? He said, sure, we need to get him on his medicine. I said, uh, I don't want to put him on medicine right now. At which point he stopped multi-tasking and gave me a 10 minute dissertation on why I should put him on medication (which is why I love my Dr. - because he actually cares to explain things to me). His main reasoning was that kids with ADHD often fall further and further behind in school, which affects their self-esteem, which makes them feel bad about themselves etc. That's why he suggests medication.

OK. My son whizzes through his homework and, when he actually pays attention to tests, scores above average. But at school it is true he falls behind. What does that mean? I don't know. But I know he can do the work quickly and accurately. Just not at school. But it doesn't seem like a reason to medicate him, you know?

(sigh)

Thursday, January 17, 2008

My ADHD Journey

My son, who turned 6 years old in August, started kindergarten this year. We were a little worried, because his preschool teacher had told us she thought he would have trouble listening and paying attention. But, he seems like a normal boy to us when he's at home. A little overly sensitive, and more needing of discipline than our other two kids, but nothing that we think is disruptive to our home.

The first two weeks of kindergarten were fine. Then the "red cards" started coming home. Our public school system uses a card system for discipline:
Green card - great day!
Yellow card - got in trouble once (warning)
Blue card - note home/ miss recess
Red card - trip to principal's office.

Thankfully, since he is in kindergarten, he wasn't sent to the principal's office. But we did receive notes home, calls home, and he missed various recesses.

He was very devastated. Every day when he came home the first thing he would tell me was what color card he ended up with that day. If it wasn't a green card, he would come dragging up the driveway from the bus, his whole body dejected. The fact that getting in trouble so upset him made me think that something else was going on here besides rebellion.

My personal diagnosis was that he has some type of auditory learning disability. When he was two, we had him tested for hearing because he didn't seem to be able to hear us. The next year we tested him for speech because the family doctor thought he was behind. Both tests turned out fine. I did some research on the internet on his "symptoms" and came up with the Auditory Processing Learning Disability. So we took him to our family doctor, and received a referral to a neurological psychaitrist (Dr. Z).

Dr. Z gave him an IQ test, various visual/ audial tests, and an achievement test. He said he tested normal on all of those. But he said that during the testing, which occurred over two different sessions, our son was fidgeting, not paying attention, and having trouble listening. His diagnosis: moderate ADHD.