ADHD In A Child

ADHD, or in other words Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. I also like to call it the disorder that is often given by parents and teachers when they can't control the kid in the environment. Yes, there are some cases where the diagnosis is correct. Based on the children's behavior, learning patterns and more, it's easy to diagnose by far. I would like to tell my story on how my son was recently diagnosed with having ADHD at age 9. I of course will keep his name something different to protect him. We will just call him Jake in this case.

"Jake" is my baby. He's the last of the 2 kids that I have for now of course. He came out like any other kid. Looking around wondering why did someone just pull him from his cozy spot into this bright light! He had surgery at a young age to get his ear tubes put in and the tissues removed because he was having so many issues with his breathing and hearing. He healed up very fast after that but we noticed that he still had some lag in learning how to say basic words like momma, dadda or even no. Something wasn't right and as his mom, I was worried.

I took him to the doctor for a checkup after the surgery and I mentioned that his speech seemed to be delayed just a little bit and I felt like we should raise a little concern about it. His doctors agreed and started him with a few speech therapy sessions at a local speech pathologist. They started working with him right away. It was determined that he was missing a nerve in his bottom lip which caused him not to have the sensation of swallowing his saliva and also with some words as far as the pronunciation. He went through almost a year of therapy and you could see the progress they made with him in a matter of months.

He grew up and started going to public school. We watched him have some good days and some really tough days. Some of the behavior just couldn't be explained. His dad always had issues in grade school with behavior and learning so I knew that at that point, he too was going through something that needed a diagnosis.

We went back and forth for appointments and referrals to a doctor that finally diagnosed him with ADHD. For a parent, it was a scary thing to hear. It was a hard pill to swallow with knowing that he was going to start on a medication that I had never heard of. I was terrified that he would get lost in the meds and my baby that I had was no more. I had a fear that he would have a horrible reaction to the medication and we would be right back at square one. He sat there in the office without understanding as to what was going on at all. He continued to play with the toys and talk about things that happened 5 years ago. We often call him the wiki of his older brother because he knows all the facts.

Later that week, we started on the first med. You read it right, the first medication. The doctors told us that we will have to play with different options to see how he reacts to them, so that's what we did. He started on one called Strattera. It was like giving him a box of Mike and Ike's. It did nothing for him at all. He was still in a lot of trouble at school and he had a really hard time making friends because he couldn't mentally function long enough to settle and get to know someone. He was on that drug for a full 30 days.

We went back for a checkup and they changed his medication to Focalin. It was like night and day! He took it that morning with breakfast and by lunch time, he was sitting in the living room with the bluetooth speaker. He had classical music playing and his body moved to the music. He was in sync with every note. I knew at that moment, this was the one. We only tried 2 options and option number 2 was it! Big brother was terrified. He thought that I had drugged his brother and he was going to drop any second. I had to explain to him that he's still your brother, he is just the calm and more focused version of him.

He's been on Focalin now for almost 2 months and he's doing so much better in school. The attention span has gotten better. He isn't as fidgety as he was at the start of it all. He can tell you important facts and he loves anything Science or Space related. We are planning a trip to the NASA Space Center in Houston soon for him.

So for you parents out there dealing with this, there is hope. There are support groups that have parents that are going through the same thing. We vent, we cry and we share ideas for what we've done to help our kids along the way. Stay strong and know that you are not in this alone at all.