Newly Diagnosed | ADHD Information
Hello, i agree that your child is still the same child, but now you know what's going on. Don't listen to tv! But there is a world of information on Adhd, get equipped. The more you know the less helpless you'll feel. Take what suggestions that work for your special individual. Give her lots of empathy , love, and stucture. Find out all the info you'll need to give to her teachers, etc... Good luck
. cajunkitten38329.4643634259LOL also ignore everything you hear on TV about ADHD 95% will be bad info.
Or I guess you could listen to it but just do the opposite of whatever TV says , whatever works best.
She is still the same kid!!!! nothing has changed - except now she has a label. All this has done for you is to help her understand her a little better - this is a good thing.
I agree that these kids need lots of love and firm discipline. A lot of pyhsical affection as well - cuddling, wrestling, ruffle the hair, a kiss on the cheek - lots of this makes a big difference.
HI , I am a female who was diagnosed with adhd in my early teens, trust me lots of love, and most importantly discipline. It will be tough going no doubts about that. Pray alot, get therapy for all of you, find a way to get her to use excess energy, sports, running club, get involved in school, talk to her teachers weekly, daily if needed. Get the school involved, I made my sons school run all the testing, he has an IEP(individual Education Plan), has an ESE (Exceptional Student Education) teacher that I talk to almost daily. Give the school the ability to discipline your child. Talk to the principal, and guidance counselor, the more people involved the better for your child.
Make sure you are always there good or bad, I tell my son I love him after disciplining him, in the morning at night and whenever I can. It's so important for you child to know that no matter what you care, will always care and will support them.
Check into schools public and private that are set up to acommodate learning disablities, there are grants and scholarships available.
Hope this helps, it will be a daily challenge, but I live for challenges. It makes life a little more interesting. And another thing, the progress your child makes and the little milestones they reach are the more sweet because you helped get them there. The smiles and change in attitude are impressive.
Sorry I got so long winded.
Thanks so much to all of you for your kind and helpful advice; I appreciate it so very much, and it really helps to talk to those with more experience. We are taking the diagnosis results to our daughter's pediatrician tomorrow; hopefully this next step will be one more towards being able to help our daughter.
I did some research online yesterday and found information on some positive disciplinary measures and things of that nature for ADHD children. My research last night did help us to have an unstressful morning today while getting ready for school (my daughter goes to kindergarten). Instead of the usual chaos, whenever her attention got off track from what she was supposed to be doing to get ready, I calmly and gently re-directed her attention back to what she was supposed to be doing. This helped tremendously..I saw a change already. So my husband and I will continue to maintain this "re-direct" of attention with her, to hopefully try to teach her, little by little, to be able to redirect herself, so that we won't have to constantly remind her, she'll be able to keep herself on track.
What are your opinions on the above method of attention redirection? Have any of you ever tried this, and if so, what were your results?
My son is now 13 and I have been where you are at now. I still remember how tramatized I was. My husband and I both had a hard time accepting it. Making the decision to put him on medications was the hardest part for us. Things are not always a breeze but by no means the end of the world - so be positive.
First, of all I want to tell you that things will get better. Make sure you have a good doctor and follow their advice. Behavior Specialist are particularly good at helping parents deal with it and also have great tips - for home and school. Have good communications with her teachers. Be consistent and trust your own instincts and things will be fine. Most importantly of all talk to your child about it. I have always been open to my son - keep those communications open and honest.
Just wanted to share what may sound silly but still to this day makes the morning easier for us. Put on a timer - say allot 10 minutes to get dressed or whatever. I always have a hard time keeping him focused move in the morning but getting done before the timer goes off - works for him.
PuterMom72
First of all, Welcome- These boards offer alot of valuable information you can use in your daily routines with your child. Re-direction is excellent. It seems to work well with my son as well. Now that you have a diagnosis, you will be able to understand your child better & learn what works positively & what does not. We recently stopped meds for my son & are using a behavioral management type of approach. We have our good days & bad, but we seemed to have more bad days with the meds. My son started losing weight quickly & became very moody & miserable. He is 6 & dropped to 38lbs within a week. It was scary! We may have to look into meds when he's older, but right now, it is not an option at all. Immediate consequences for bad behavior is something we use too.
Good Luck!
dear putermom, and any other moms out there. I can't give you any advice but I would like you to know your not alone! I just found out today my son has adhd on top of that we found out a month ago he has diabetes. Im not sure how much more I can take! I hope everything goes well for you. my son is just very hyper and is having trouble sitting still and concentrating in school. i just thought he was just a very active boy like most boys! untill he started having trouble in school. they put him on ritalin I have been looking up information on it and most of it sounds bad. has anyone had any experiances with it good or bad? should i be concerned! please help!!!!Thanks so much for all the advice..I am so glad I found this message board! All of you are giving me some wonderful advice and I appreciate it so very much.
One of your posts brought up a subject that was going to be my next question..should we discuss the actual name of the disorder with our daughter? We have already had a long discussion (as long as you can with a five year old, that is) with her and let her know that we know she has trouble with concentration and with behavior impulses, and that we are going to try as much as we can to help her deal with these issues from now on as positively and constructively as possible. I am just wondering now if I should tell her the actual name of what she is dealing with..I don't want her to go to school and announce to her friends and teachers, "Hi I have ADHD!", and if she DID do that, how would her friends treat her? How do other children react to children with ADHD? It would break my heart if she was ridiculed by her classmates because of this. Am I fearing the worst for no reason?
LOL at 5 her friends won't even know what ADHD is. They'll ask whats that if she tells them. Then she'll say I can't sit still or pay attention a lot of times and they'll say me too.
I don't see a problem either way (if you decide to tell her or not). The most important thing you need to do you have already started by explaining that you understand how she feels and will help her. A lot of the confusion of ADHD comes from not knowing why you are different and not knowing how to "fix" it. There is a certain about of relief when you can identify why you do the things you do.
The plus side of your daughter telling her friends is that they are young enough to not judge her for it. At that age you are pretty accepting of everyones differences so if the other kids are accepting her now then her adhd won't be a surprise or something weird they will ridicule in the later grades.
Puter Mom
You will know the right time to disscuss and explain the term ADHD with your little girl. All I can say is that when you explain to her be positive as i am sure you will! Remember your little girl thinks outside the 'Box' this is what makes her unique and other children will sometimes find this hard to understand. You could discuss famous people who have ADHD - Go and discuss with her teacher how you could explain to her and maybe a few of her friends. Try and join a support group where your little girl could play with other children who also have ADHD, (maybe even start one of your own - OK maybe a little ambitious at this early stage) But remember AWARNESS is key!!!
Stand Tall and Proud and your daughter will do the same
Good Luck and best wishes
Dansmum xx
At five? I'm not sure that actually telling her will do much good, I told my son that he was special, that he needed more activity and challenges than other kids, later at about 7 I told him he had adhd and he thought it was an excuse to have behavior problems, he still thinks at 10 that the medicine will make him do homework, lol. I probably didn't do a very good job of explaining it to him. But he's doing better he is starting to get the fact that he does have some control over whether or not his homework gets done.Mom in need,
My son has been on ritiln for a year and he had terrible time sleeping and eating,
he also felt nausea and dizziness, he had an excelerated heartbeat too. We are in the process of trying new meds but he responded the best on ritalin. He is getting frustrated and is willing to put up with the side effects but I'm not.
Hello everyone. I am new to this message board, am glad that I found it as I really need to be able to talk to other moms who are in my situation, or have "been there". My five year old daughter was recently diagnosed as having ADHD by a child psychologist. Now, my husband and I suspected that something was wrong all along..she has a hard time controlling herself, can't sit still, has an extremely hard time concentrating and with organization, and cries very easily. She also lashes out at her little sister (who's 3) and seems to get pleasure out of hurting her. So the diagnosis was on one hand a sigh of relief because now we KNOW..but on the other hand we are now left wondering.."what now?"
Now that we know for sure that our daughter does have it, we are very..overwhelmed, I guess you could say. Is there any advice someone could give me for handling/coping/dealing with this newfound (for us, anyway) disorder? Is it even called a "disorder"? I've heard so much about ADHD on television, but now that it's in my own home I am completely caught off guard, and feel like I'm groping in the dark. This is also very stressful for me, as I am usually the type of person that has every situation under control, but I honestly do not know how to cope with this, or how to "handle" our daughter now. Any advice you could give me would be so very much appreciated.
dear stressed parent,
Thanks for telling me about your situation! I am really worried about the fact that ritalin is addictive. I am thinking of asking his doctor about straterra. Has your son ever used it? It is a non stimulant and not as habit forming. What do you think about it?
thanks, mom in need
LOL Straterra is just as habit forming, if not more so then stimulants. Stimulants are psychologically addictive, while straterra and other depression type meds and physically addictive. In reality stims get a bad imagine but are much safer. They leave your system the same day they enter it and it is only psychologically addictive. Even the psychological addiction only affects some people, most can stop taking a stimulant with no problem at all. Physical addiction is something else entirely. Your body will go through withdrawal when stopping those types of drugs. The withdrawal will also be longer and more intense then it is with a stimulant.
I'm not trying to tell anyone not to try straterra (or something similar) if you think it right for you or are having a problem with stimulants. It has been great for some but it most definately is addictive so just be aware of that when your looking at all your options.
Once again, thanks so much to all of you for your advice. You all have definitely put my mind much more at ease..I honestly feel that now we (my husband and I) are on the right track and will continue to try to remain as such. I'm very happy that I found this message board!