You Can't Spell "Smother" without "Mother"!: 05/01/2012

After a lot of consideration, research, prayers, tears, and consultations, we have put both kids on medicine for ADHD. So far......AWESOME!!!

Samantha has more ADD - Attention Deficit. She struggles to focus on the task at hand. Amazingly, she's done very well in school, but her teacher did say that she has noticed some attention problems that are a hindrance for her. At home, she has a hard time focusing on tasks that I give her - like making her bed, getting dressed, brushing teeth, things of that nature. It's been more than frustrating for me, and her. Many, many fights have taken place in the mornings just trying to get ready for school. Now I know that I just have to stand by her and help her get ready! Even with the meds because they don't start working until after she's at school.

Samantha's results have been great. She can get her chores done and will even sometimes do them proactively! She is able to sit down and concentrate on an art project without getting up 10 times. She can focus on reading chapter books now and for the first time last night, stayed up WAY past her bedtime to finish a chapter book. She's NEVER done that before and although I didn't want her up that late, she was so happy to come upstairs at 9.45pm and explain the book to me and how it ended!! It was adorable!

Alex suffers more with the hyperactivity aspect of ADHD. His brain won't let him sit still for 1 minute! It's frustrating for us, but also for him. He can't just sit down and enjoy a TV show, or play with toys before his little body has to move and jump around! His teacher at school says he's "silly". Which I'm pretty sure is code for "he can't sit still and bugs everyone in class". He's never gotten in trouble and he's so sweet and has a lot of friends, but the hyperactivity would also contribute to disobedience at home. This was NOT okay with me and we had many fights and tears.

Alex's results have been wonderful too. He is SO much more calm, but it didn't take away his crazy and fun spirit. A fact that I LOVE since it's what made Alex - Alex! He is much quicker to say "ok" when I ask him to do a chore or help me, he is able to sit through church and just color or draw without turning around and acting crazy! It's so much more peaceful!

Overall I am so happy with the outcome. It's only been about a month but we are going to keep going on the meds and see how they do throughout the summer months. It will be interesting to see them on the medicine in Hawaii too. I'm hoping we can last a lot longer at the beach and pool and that the flights will be more calm. They've always been good travelers, but this will be a good experiment.

The medicine has some nasty side effects that haven't been too much of an issue so far. It causes sleeplessness which we now have under control with the help of some melatonin. It can cause a decrease in appetite as well, but Samantha has none of that and Alex does only minor. If I keep him from snacking and just eating 3 good meals, he does pretty well.

The decision to put both kids on medicine was not easy or fun. We've been going to therapy as well to work out some other issues and though we have yet to reach perfection, we're a lot closer than we were before!!