Tuesday, October 20, 2015

How His "ADHD" Suddenly Improved

I've been meaning to write about my son's diagnosis of ADHD and how stressful it has been on me, but have been waiting for the passage of time to write a more in depth post. I wanted to track his progress, hoping that there would be improvements with behavioral therapy. But it didn't seem to be working. It certainly wasn't any miracle cure. And the truth is, I was an emotional wreck. Every time the teacher came to the car to tell me about something else Sebastian did at school I wanted to cry inside. I cried out loud plenty, too. And there was a lot of yelling and screaming because I'm not patient enough with him. I was conflicted by my feelings that children should have more freedom of movement in class and not be expected to sit still all day, and by constantly being told that he can't concentrate, that he can't focus, that he's too hyper, too imaginative, that if he's not medicated now so he can focus and get good grades he'll be drawn to the bad kids, and he'll get into drugs and crime, etc. These are actual things told to me by his behavioral therapist.
I was conflicted mainly because I wasn't convinced that he in fact has ADHD, and even more because I was being told by his behavioral therapist and the psychologist (who he met only once) and insinuated by his teachers, that he should be medicated. In fact, I was told by the behavioral therapist ON THE FIRST DAY that behavioral therapy does not work without the aid of medication.
Every visit she made (once a week) she spent more time talking to me, telling me anecdotal stories about other clients who have improved drastically with medication, than actually spending time with him. After MONTHS of this, I had finally had enough and told her I didn't want to hear more of her stories. I had already told her on our very first visit that I wasn't considering medication at this point because I wanted to see if he'd improve with the therapy, incentives, positive reinforcement, etc. She had the nerve to tell me I was being very oppositional and that she wasn't the one who brought up medication blahdiblahblahlies...luckily I had a friend over who heard the whole conversation and agreed that the woman was putting words in my mouth and that she had in fact brought up medication. Anyway, after that she stopped talking about medication and started actually doing activities with my son to work on focus and concentration. To her surprise, he can in fact sit still and do work if it's something that interests him. He'll sit and play checkers with her, he'll do his puzzles, draw, read, etc. He still wasn't doing great at school though, and I'd get constant notes home about him playing in the bathroom, not doing his work, doing handstands in line, etc. Then all of a sudden, last Tuesday, the teacher brings him to the car at pick-up and tells me that "he was EXCELLENT today, I mean PERFECT, he's another boy, bring this Sebastian back tomorrow"  - Whaaaaaat?! - I was ecstatic. His dad and I thought about what we had done differently that day that he would behave so drastically different. The ONLY thing was that we gave him two hard boiled eggs in the morning. We wake up very early to take my husband to work, so instead of waking Sebas up earlier we'd make him a peanut butter sandwich to eat in the car. But, we ran out of bread last week so Ramon made him two boiled eggs instead. Since he did so great at school, we decided to try it again. Lo and behold, again the teacher tells me he was perfect at school, did all his work, behaved, remained seated in his chair! So for a week now, he has been eating two hard boiled eggs in the morning (and I've stopped giving him peanut butter sandwiches altogether) and yesterday he was chosen as Student of the Week. He is just so crazy proud of himself right now and we're trying to keep the momentum going so he feels incentivized to keep up the good work. The fact that he's doing so well all of a sudden tells me that he does not have ADHD. Maybe it was a lack of protein? Some vitamin or mineral imbalance? I don't know. I'm no doctor. But I know how to make observations and I know my kid. I truly hope he keeps it up and his behavioral therapist can close his case (her own words after telling her of his success at school).
Now, I have no doubt that there are kids out there who have real ADHD, who may need medication. That is your decision to make, and if your kid is doing great on it I'm happy for you and your child. But if you have ANY doubt about the diagnosis and have qualms about medicating your child, do some research on your own. Do not blindly do it just because they say so. Once they decide the child has ADHD (which is an incredibly subjective diagnosis based on observation), the treatment plan is medication. They had me feel guilty about not wanting to medicate my child. They had me second guess my decision. But I'm glad I stuck to my guns with the support of my husband and my mother. For now the hard boiled eggs are working for us (I've also read that taking eggs OUT of your child's diet might improve ADHD-like symptoms, so you really have to find what works for your child). I have also talked to his doctor about giving him Omega-369 supplements which have been shown to improve concentration. I will update on his progress again in a few months.
Please share your own ADHD stories (whatever they may be, medication or not). Let's support each other with whatever our decisions. After all, we all want what's best for our children. <3
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/articles/intelligenceandmemory/omega_three.shtml
http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/3594.html

UPDATE: 11/04/2015
It's been almost a month since Sebastian suddenly started behaving and concentrating at school! While he still has occasional mini-meltdowns at home if he's tired and cranky and doesn't want to finish his homework (he falls asleep in the car after picking up Papa from work), he's doing really well overall. He's working mostly independently, doing great at school (school work and behavior), and being pretty darn polite at home. So proud of my big guy. I've decided to get him an Omega 3 supplement, which is supposed to help with concentration and is said to help with ADD/ADHD symptoms. I bought this one because it was what I was able to find with the recommended 3:1 EPA/DHA ratio and has a lemon flavor which I'm hoping I'll be able to put into a smoothie so he'll drink it happily. I'll keep you posted on his progress and if I notice any difference in him after taking the supplement for a while.
Here's a referral code if you decide to go with this one, or find something else you like on this page. $5 off for first time customers :) http://www.iherb.com/?rcode=JBH55


* We haven't been given him eggs everyday and he's still doing well. Thinking that maybe the problem was gluten I gave him sliced bananas with peanut butter one evening and IMMEDIATELY he started getting really hyper. Another day for breakfast we gave him a ham and cheese sandwich and he did really well at school that day. So in his case, I don't think it was gluten, I don't even think it was the sugar. The peanut butter has a lot less sugar than other things he eats and doesn't cause that kind of reaction in him. We've switched to a natural peanut butter, but he doesn't like it so I can't really compare the difference to tell if it was the peanuts themselves or some ingredient that was in the JIF peanut butter that is not in the natural kind. Wondering if anyone else has noticed their child getting crazy hyper after eating peanut butter.

2 comments:

  1. A lot of people claim to diagnose ADD and ADHD; however, many of those are subjective. To get a true diagnosis that can look at all of the different attention issues, measure them and understand where your child is on that scale, you need to go to a neuropsychologist who has the appropriate tools. It should not be a 1-hour meeting. ADHD has become a joke to many people because "professionals" are throwing out that diagnosis... which leaves the children who really are suffering from getting properly treated.

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    1. I absolutely agree. The "diagnosis" made by the psychologist and psychiatrist my son saw were purely subjective based on a questionnaire given to his teacher and myself and on their observations during a one hour meeting. I mentioned myself that it was subjective and if there were any other tests I could have done, specifically because I was told by his behavioral therapist that it is a chemical imbalance that needs to be treated (which I've read hasn't been proven? - There is so much contradictory data)...my rational was and is "if it's a chemical imbalance in the brain then an MRI or something should be able to show that." I was basically told that there was no definitive test to diagnose ADD/ADHD. I'm just happy my son is doing great so far (it's been about a month now) and I hope I won't have to bother getting a second opinion and seeing if his insurance will cover a neuropsychologist, etc. Hope people reading this see your comment. Had I seen it a year ago maybe I would've pushed his pediatrician for a referral to a neuropsychologist instead of a regular children's psychologist.

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