Is it worth having your dc tested for ADD if...

[jacqui in mo]

your dh is totally against using any medications for it?

 

I feel pretty confident that my 7 yo ds is ADD (not ADHD) based on what I've been reading & my speech therapy instincts. I'm not even entirely sure I want to use medications. I am very conflicted about it & not having dh's full support makes that decision harder.

 

My dh is open to me to educate him on ADD & to medicate or not, but I'm not sure he'd wade through the books I've been reading (and many of them have conflicting views of medication for this, of course.) Do any of you have any good, concise book or website recommendations I could use with him?

 

And as for my original question, if we're not going to use medication, is it worth it to go through an evaluation?

 

Thanks so much!

Jacqui

[Lisa in Jax]

Why even get a diagnosis? Why not just try dietary/vitamin treatments and see if your son gets better?

 

We completed eradicated our son's hyperactivity by removing some foods and food ingredients that were causing him to be hyper. We also added specific vitamins and minerals that help with calm behavior and with focus. I can recommend some things to read/try, if you're interested. My son is not on any meds at all. We did it all with healthy food and specific vitamins/minerals.

 

 

If you'd like to know more, let me know.

 

Lisa

[Unicorn.]

Is it worth it? Yes. Even if you choose not to medicate, you will be able to help your ds in other ways, and you will get a better understanding of how he thinks. If he is truly add, then you can change his diet, use natural supplements, and organize his life to better help him. We have always been against medicating, and now use meds w/ 2 of our dc. What we have also learned in the process is how they "think" and what we can do to help them function/learn life skills that we take for granted.

 

My 12 yo ds has major self esteem issues that stem from his add. I wish now I would have talked to a professional sooner, and started him on meds a couple of years ago. Have your ds evaluated, and have your dh go w/ you so that the doc can explain what is going on. I got more out of a 5 min discussion w/ our doc, than I did from reading stacks of books. But if you want your dh to read up on it, I would put little sticky tabs on the pages you find are most important. That way he won't get overwhelmed and have to wade through everything, and might be more open to whatever you decide. HTH

[Avila]

We completed eradicated our son's hyperactivity by removing some foods and food ingredients that were causing him to be hyper. We also added specific vitamins and minerals that help with calm behavior and with focus. I can recommend some things to read/try, if you're interested. My son is not on any meds at all. We did it all with healthy food and specific vitamins/minerals.

 

 

If you'd like to know more, let me know.

 

Lisa

 

:lurk5: Yes, not meaning to hijack this thread, but I would love to know. My 7yo DD has these issues and I am looking for some non-prescription resources.

 

Thanks and sorry again for butting in! And if no one else is interested, please PM me!

Edited April 1, 2009 by Asenik

[swellmomma]

Yes it is worth it. 1 of my ADHD'ers is not medicated, but it is still important to me that she was Dx. First it means I can find ways to help her that do not involve meds, I can get her int therapies etc. As well it is important for college to have these things documented early, because there is helps available in college for students with ADHD etc to make sure they succeed, but you need the paper trail to start early to prove the child actually has a problem. Knowing why the brain is working in a particular way does not mean you have to start meds, simply that you have a base to work with, to avoid self esteem issues arising from thinking he can't do anything right, to struggles with focus (of course needed in all areas of life not jsut academics), behaviour issues that come up etc.

[elise1mds]

Is it worth it? Yes. Even if you choose not to medicate, you will be able to help your ds in other ways, and you will get a better understanding of how he thinks.... What we have also learned in the process is how they "think" and what we can do to help them function/learn life skills that we take for granted.

 

:iagree:

[Heather in the Kootenays]

:iagree:

[Elisabeth in IL]

My son is ADHD just attention issues no (limited) hyperactivity. I was against medicine so I tried to treat with natural methods. It didn't work for us. Finally, last spring when he was 10 1/2 we tried medicine. His reading, his speech and his short term memory, all of which he was getting outside help with, improved dramatically. It was such a dramatic difference that I started beating myself up about not trying the medicine sooner especially since my husband had wanted me to. I'd get the diagnosis just so I knew what my options were and to keep my frustrations in check.

[phathui5]

I remember reading an article about the Feingold diet to treat ADD. You could try that.

[Catwoman]

If you'd like to know more, let me know.

 

Lisa

 

I hope you'll post what worked for your family, Lisa, as I have a friend who is dealing with this with her ds, and she is hoping to find a natural solution.

 

Thanks!

 

Cat

[kellycbr]

I hope you'll post what worked for your family, Lisa, as I have a friend who is dealing with this with her ds, and she is hoping to find a natural solution.

 

Thanks!

 

Cat

]

 

I'm curious, too!:bigear:

 

Kelly

[Dani n Monies Mom]

My dd was dxed, at age 9, with ADD-Inattentive type. I think it is very worth it to find out because it will give you an opportunity to understand and help your child. My patience was much longer with dd once I understood that this was out of her control, at which point I could begin the work of teaching her how to set things up so that she would be able to work successfully. (The patience is a definite work in progress:D)

 

My constant mantra to her is to 'know yourself'; what will be a distraction, how can you eliminate it or downplay its effect, is there anything you can do before hand to set things up for yourself, things like that. The ultimate idea is to know how to set yourself up to do well, or advocate for yourself, if necessary.

 

It was also important, because dd was at the age where she began to call herself stupid. (She was attending p.s. at the time.) It went a long way towards helping her gain her confidence back to know that being an ADDer is just a different and very interesting way that she looks at the world. Nothing more. Now she is 13 and has come a long way in her confidence in herself and her abilities. She plays trumpet, is in a marching and concert band and enjoys chorus, both at church and for homeschool.

 

I will add that it was much more frustrating to deal with ADD at the younger ages, now, as maturity has become evident, it's become much easier. And we do medicate, though we didn't at the beginning. The med made a world of difference for her, though she had already begun to learn to 'set yourself up' to eliminate distractions. I felt that was important for her.

 

HTH,

Ava

[Kathy in MD]

Beware diagnosing your child with ADD. There are too many other developmental problems that display almost all or even every single symptom of ADD. A handful of these problems include some food allergies and sensitivities are, developmental vision problems, and Sensory Integration Dysfunction. There are many other problems that also can have some of the same symptoms.

 

To make diagnosis even more difficult, an individual may have any combination of these problems, including ADD. And most of these other diagnosises do not involve drugs.

 

Do have your dc examined by a doctor experienced in a wide variety of developmental problems. The exam should include a physical and probably blood work as well as extensive questionaires and interviews. I had my ds diagnosed by a developmental pediatrician. Others have gone to neuro-psych or large clinics with a side variety of specialists. Check into the Special Needs board for additional info.

[Ria]

your dh is totally against using any medications for it?

 

I feel pretty confident that my 7 yo ds is ADD (not ADHD) based on what I've been reading & my speech therapy instincts. I'm not even entirely sure I want to use medications. I am very conflicted about it & not having dh's full support makes that decision harder.

 

My dh is open to me to educate him on ADD & to medicate or not, but I'm not sure he'd wade through the books I've been reading (and many of them have conflicting views of medication for this, of course.) Do any of you have any good, concise book or website recommendations I could use with him?

 

And as for my original question, if we're not going to use medication, is it worth it to go through an evaluation?

 

Thanks so much!

Jacqui

 

If you suspect that your child might have some type of learning disability, diagnosable condition, etc, why would you not seek a professional opinion? How else are you going to know exactly what you are dealing with, and how else are you going to know how best to help your child?

 

Please! Go to the doctor!

 

Ria

[Greta]

if we're not going to use medication, is it worth it to go through an evaluation?

 

I recently asked myself this question and after thinking it over for several weeks, discovered that my answer was "no". Circumstances were slightly different though: dd went through an educational evaluation through the local ps. They said she had no learning disabilities but had a distinctly low processing speed compared to her comprehension, overall IQ, etc. So I asked "well, what does that mean?" And they told me that this pattern is very typical of kids with ADHD, but they could not "label" her that way, because that it considered a medical diagnosis, and I'd have to see a doctor if I wanted to pursue that.

 

So to my mind, I had the information I needed. (She has ADD.) But I am absolutely and completely opposed to medication, so there was simply no point in seeing a medical doctor. I am finding what I need, instead, in books like Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained World and the many great titles by Thom Hartmann. I do not see ADD as a disorder that must be cured or treated through drugs, but simply a different way of being which has both advantages and disadvantages. I do not wish to change my child to better fit my teaching and parenting style, but to change my parenting and teaching style to better fit my child. Obviously if you feel differently than I do about what ADD is and what to do about it, then your answer will be different. I realize I have probably stated my opinions very strongly here (because I do have strong opinions on the matter!) but that doesn't mean I expect you to believe me or view the situation the same way. I'm just putting this out there in case there's a part of you that thinks "my child isn't 'disordered' or 'damaged', he's brilliant and creative and innovative and really thinks outside the box" -- because there was a little voice in my head saying that and I'm glad I listened.

[Lolly]

No. I would suggest treating him as if he were. Most of the suggestions for use with adhd children are beneficial for all children and certainly won't hurt them. It would be the same thing you would do if you did get a diagnosis.

[Catherine]

He had always struggled with school, not the intellectual part purely, but with finishing things, "staying the course", resisting distractions. On top of that, he was very irritable. This dates literally to the day he was born. Because my son was able to master material, despite poor focus, and because my dh, a psychiatrist, was uneasy about medication for a child who seemed to be doing OK, we did not medicate.

 

I tried behavioral programs. The bottom line is, I would have been quickly forced into draconian measures by this child's strong will and resistance. He is very oppositional. We tried a diet, not Feingold, and it was unsuccessful. He resisted the diet as well so it was not easy.

 

Well, he has been on medication for 9 days, the calmest and most peaceful days I've had with this child since he was born. He hasn't raised his voice to his brothers once. He is finishing assignments, daily, and requiring much less one on one supervision. How many 15 year olds need one on one supervision to complete work? This kid did. His oppositionality has disappeared. It seems, in a word, miraculous.

 

I do wonder, honestly, if ADD is "real". I am well aware that all children's focus will be helped by stimulants. I'm unsure how long we will do this and I have all kinds of misgivings. Yet I have to acknowledge that it was getting harder and harder for me to picture this child doing college level work in 3 years on his own. He does college level work now, but only (until last week) with very close supervision and frequent redirecting.

[ElizabethB]

I would try to eliminate all allergens, sugars, and artificial flavors/colorings for a week and see if that helps. I get a few ADD type symptoms when I'm eating things I'm allergic to. Here's the basic how to for that:

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showpost.php?p=849865&postcount=17

 

Some of my friends with ADD children who don't medicate have found that a bit of caffeine helps their children. (I'm normally opposed to caffeine for children otherwise.)

 

Some other solutions: chewing a rubber band (or gum, but that's either a lot of sugar on the teeth all day or a lot of questionable fake sugars), physical activity before school and also between subjects, learning while on a ball/standing/while walking around.

 

My daughter is not ADD but does better with physical breaks, as well, so it's not a bad practice anyway.

 

Many of my remedial reading students tend to also have ADD, this class is from 5 to 6:30, but our last class was right after school (we gave them a 25 minute recess before starting.) The school has no gym, on cold rainy days, they only got indoor recess, I don't think they learned a single thing on days where they didn't get outdoor recess. The boys were especially a mess on those days. It was just not pretty.

[EKS]

I think it is important to have a child evaluated if he is having enough issues that his parents think he has ADD. And I don't mean the "evaluation" in the pediatrician's office where the parents fill out the checklist and, lo and behold, the child has ADD. I mean a neuropsychological evaluation where they look carefully to uncover ADD mimics--and there are many.

 

My son has an auditory processing disorder , dyslexia, visual processing problems, and other sensory processing problems, all of which, by themselves, can mimic ADD, to say nothing of what they do in combination. After doing as much as we could for these other conditions, we finally, just this year, in 7th grade, started medication. While all the other things we did to help over the years helped somewhat, the medication was the missing piece.The thing is, if we had simply gone to medication without addressing the other issues first, we still would have had a mess on our hands.

 

My point is that a lot of kids with ADD type issues actually have more going on than just the ADD and it is important to find out what that is. I would definately have a full evaluation done.

[Laura K (NC)]

I had my youngest go in for a series of tests a few years ago for IQ, dyslexia, a few other things. The results were surprising, and one thing I didn't expect was for the doctor to say he had ADHD. *ALL* my boys have ADD symptoms, lol, but I was just ignoring them because that's how all boys act. I have met very few boys who don't have ADHD symptoms.

 

What was interesting was that my son had learning disabilities and large discrepancies in his IQ. None of this was helping him process information, and I was always unsure whether my son zoned out because he was overworked, underworked, stressed (because of other unrelated physical issues), or what.

 

For us it was invaluable to have him tested to get to some deeper issues that, even after the experience of two other kids, I was not prepared for.

 

We chose to do behavioral modification for about a year because I was dead set against ritalin et al. The behavior modification was valuable but it wasn't enough. One of the great things about homeschooling is that we can totally affect our children's learning environment and we can make true behavioral modifications much better than public schools can. (It's extremely difficult, but the possibilities are tremendous.) With homeschooling also, our kids are able to take the bare minimum short-term dose of medicine and we can concentrate all of our schoolwork in a few hours. Public school kids have to take two doses a day of the medicine my son is on, but my son only has to take one, and I can choose for him not to take it if the day calls for it. My psychiatrist works for the public schools, and I even asked him if my son would be better off in a public school, and he said no, definitely not.

 

One last thing that I recently found interesting: ADD is treated by drugs that are used for other disorders. I just found out a friend's son, who was diagnosed with ADHD, is using a drug that I used to take for migraines. This drug is also used for seizures. And it's also used for autism. And drugs for ADHD are also used sometimes for depression or other mood disorders. All of these are neurological problems, so it might be that it's hit-and-miss experimentation that causes neurologists to see connections between them and prescribe the same medicines for them. But for me it was worth having my son examined by a psychiatrist for IQ and learning disability, and not mentioning ADHD, (or in your case, finding a psychiatrist or other doctor who is neutral about the ADHD controversy -- neither militantly for it nor adamantly against the diagnosis) because then I felt the true nature of the problem could stand out on its own without bias. In our situation, chronic, debilitating migraines run in our family. My son didn't speak until he was 3. He's already had one EEG for something else unrelated. His diagnosis was surprising at first, but now seeing that a lot of these factors are related, I can better appreciate that ADHD, though overdiagnosed and overmedicated these days, might just be symptoms of a different (non-imaginary) neurological problem. And whatever others may think about the treatments, they changed my son for the better. By having my son tested, I was able to rule out other problems, and now I see that these problems are either environmentally or genetically related to some of the other medical issues in my family, at least remotely.

 

Unfortunately, the prescriptions for neurological illnesses/syndromes are not completely safe. This is an issue that every parent has to struggle with, and an issue that I myself struggled with, since I have taken a wide range of neurological drugs, and suffered some horrible side effects, to battle my migraines. We have to keep trying to do the best we can with the information we've been given. The more information we have, the better we can do.

[ELaurie]

you'll find lots of useful information on this reputable site.

 

Dr. Amen has a number of books about dealing with ADD and ADD like symptoms, including one called Healing ADD, which includes a number of simple tests that can be used to provide an initial in home screening, and recommendations about the role of diet, exercise, natural supplements, herbal supplements, parenting approaches, and psychopharmacology.

 

Wishing you the best,

[tenoraddict]

We completed eradicated our son's hyperactivity by removing some foods and food ingredients that were causing him to be hyper. We also added specific vitamins and minerals that help with calm behavior and with focus. I can recommend some things to read/try, if you're interested. My son is not on any meds at all. We did it all with healthy food and specific vitamins/minerals.

Lisa, if you're still around (it's been several months since you posted on this thread), I'd love to hear about what worked for your son.

 

Thanks,

 

Becky

[Mommyof4ks]

IMO no, not worth testing if meds are not an option for you. We skipped that with our son also. We had his hearing and vision tested to rule those things out. He does have allergies to many things, sensitivities to many things, and we discovered the artificial colors are his main trigger. If we can avoid those, then our days are calm and happy, but even one or two pieces of candy with dye in them will cause him to have melt downs and not focus on tasks.

[4kids4me]

My son is ADHD just attention issues no (limited) hyperactivity. I was against medicine so I tried to treat with natural methods. It didn't work for us. Finally, last spring when he was 10 1/2 we tried medicine. His reading, his speech and his short term memory, all of which he was getting outside help with, improved dramatically. It was such a dramatic difference that I started beating myself up about not trying the medicine sooner especially since my husband had wanted me to. I'd get the diagnosis just so I knew what my options were and to keep my frustrations in check.

 

Is your family my family? ;) Our son has ADHD - predominately inattentive subtype (so just unfocused in his brain...no hyperactivity). We tried the natural route with no success. He's been on Concerta for three weeks and his reading, short term memory and focusing on schoolwork has dramatically improved. Even his Sunday school teacher commented on it today and I revealed that he's been taking meds. So far it's going well and the concerns I had are out the window. Unbelievable!

[Danestress]

Someday when he is an adult, the testing my provide important information. At that point, treatment options will be his choice. If he decided at 18 when he is in college that he wants help dealing with symptoms, it would be useful to have that diagnosis.

 

If as an adult he seeks help for the same types of problems, the first criteria in the DSM for diagnosing ADD is that symptoms were present in childhood. Some adults can talk to parents or look at school report cards and find some evidence. Obviously if the person was tested as a child, that will really help establish that criteria.

 

I would get an evaluation. Getting one in no way presupposes any particular treatment plan. Many children with ADHD/ADD are not medicated.

[Cindy in C-ville]

With my ds whom displays ADD type of symptoms, we are planning on having some testing done. We suspect that his IQ is super-high, but that his focusing INability hinders him from being able to get his work done. Our doctor has said that he would prescribe Concerta for him, but we're not ready to do that. I'd rather find out more about how he really is wired and make adjustments in our daily life to help him succeed. I definitely do see a correlation between what he's eaten and his ability to focus. I'd love to hear dietary recs as well as other book recs. I have this book http://www.amazon.com/Opening-Your-Childs-Learning-Windows/dp/031023994X, which was recommended by a counselor friend, but I'm interested in others as well. TIA!

[LizzyBee]

I thought my 13 yo might have ADHD-inattentive type, but she was not diagnosed with it. Instead, she was dx'd with slow processing speed, visual-motor integration weakness, writing disability, and auditory processing disorder. Testing can help you make sure that you are treating, managing, remediating, and/or accomodating the right condition.

[amy g.]

I thought about having my oldest tested when she was 9, but knew that I would not medicate her. I had a screening from a special ed teacher who said that she had ADHD but there wasn't anything else to do if we were just going to refuse medication.

 

Last year, when she was 14, I had a complete battery of tests done. It turned out that she had a sleep disorder which I did end up giving her medication for. The change in what she is able to focus on and accomplish is nothing short of miraculous.

 

I would beat myself up about not having her tested sooner, but I really would not have wanted to give her any medication without letting her have a chance to outgrow the inattention, and to also reach adult height and weight.

 

It would have been nice to have the information earlier, but waiting until she was a teenager worked out fine for us too.