ADHD? need advice how to deal with this sitch....

My 7 yr. old son has been really acting up this past year, at first I though he is just a "leibidige" child, but lately I'm thinking maybe there is really s/th wrong with him, and I'm in denial. from the minute he wakes up, he bothers his brothers, he picks fights with them, potches them etc... he is very defiant to me and my dh, getting him to listen is .... tiresome to say the least. He is impulsive, he will do crazy destructive things for no good reason, like make a hole in the wall, or cut a hole in his shirt, or scratch his furniture with a nail.... when I ask him why did you do that, you know how mad mommy will get, he says I dont know.... he also can get so wild it drives me nuts.
On the other hand he is doing really well in school, keeping up, reading beautifully, occasionally he gets into trouble, but few and far btw. he's also a very bright kid, loves to play chess, asks a lot of smart questions...
so since in school he is doing well, I dont even know, if I'm making things worse, by contacting his rebbe, and how to even go about getting him evaluated... does this sound familiar to anyone??? and am I blowing things out of proportion????

Platinum Member Joined: Oct 27 2005 Posts: 6745

My advice is when you do not need to involve the school, do not.
If you are very concerned go for an opinoin of a mental health specialist

I know exactly what you are going through op, I am having the same with my 6 year old son.
always thought he was very leibedig, from the second he wakes up he is dancing, drumming ( anywhere even on a straight wall), siren sounds at volume 1,000 etc.
I am taking him for an ADHD eval.
your thread caught my eye instantly!
it is so very hard. the answering back is getting so out of hand, he is also great in school B"H studywise, but it's just like- where now? what now? someone help type of thing...
I will watch your thread, maybe we can be of help to each other.
talk to your Dr. he or she will guide you.
hatzlacha!

I'm in a similar situation, and we're actually starting a full neuro/psych evaluation, because I"m not sure if it's ADHD, a processing issue or just his sensory issues being stronger than he can control. He's also coping at school, but isn't doing fantastically socially, and I've noticed it getting a lot worse over the last month or so. (He's just started 2nd grade). I notice especially that he has a hard time understanding the consequences of his actions.

If you're not sure who to talk to, ask your child's pediatrician for a referal. BH, I have a close friend who is a social worker, and when I told her what I was seeing, she suggested the eval and told me where to go. I really don't want my son labeled by the school, so we're doing this to get recommendations and hopefully behavior modification suggestions before things get bad with school.

I've seen so many children who don't get evals until they're at wits end with teachers and schools. This is unfortunate, because it's very hard to get these kids back into liking school.

Hashem should give us all the strength and information we need to help our children get through this.

I have a 7 year daughter with same story. One major difference. I got 8 calls from school before I went to the pediatrician.. She gave her concerta and told me that it will only help if she has a problem. The day I started to give it, I got a nachas note from school. One time the pharmacy was out of the med when I needed a refill, (I had to wait two days for the backorder). That day the teacher called that she fell back. She's doing great in school and at home when taking it, get's less negative feedback, has more self confidence. My advice is to get help and fast. There is greater damage done to negative remarks all day to a child's self esteem than to give some concerta, which is not addictive.

Posted: Sun, Sep 13 2009, 9:56 pm Post subject:

Senior Member Joined: Jul 12 2009 Posts: 114

Same here....A good Psychiatrist did "Tova" testing to diagnose my son. He took a boring computerized test and got a very low score, was given Adderall, and an hour or so later scored in the 90's on the same test. He ended up taking Concerta, and it made it possible for him to learn. He's in college now, and B"H doing very well (still on Concerta).

Every time I've needed to test a kid, the school has to be involved to some extent, because a number of tests require teacher input. So I don't know that you can leave them out altogether. But they are not in the business of diagnosing or prescribing, and hopefully will not do so.

It's worth it for peace of mind to get a child tested, and find out what the issues are. Hope you find some answers.

my son almost has the same things besides . hes not up to where the class was up to he has no clue how to read hes beeen getting in trouble alot so ive decided to have him evaluated. he came back on the border line almost retarded. (mind u hes a good boy always willing to help ) I changed him to special school hes doing b'h great. but im affraid they gonna want to put him on med. I would rather he not take it.

My son sounds similar to yours. He is 9 and bothers his brothers all the time, he will just walk by and bang into them, just because. He sometimes would act like he had a "motor" and will not stop acting very impulsive and excited. I was having a very difficult time. He did well in school, but he was having more difficulty as he got older and he would bother kids and walk around the classroom. He would annoy the kids and had no real friends. He was very sad and getting depressed about the friends situation. We had an evaluation done and we were told that he had ADHD, and maybe a learning disability. But, the learning disability could just be because he couldn't focus for very long.

We were told children like this are very smart and cannot concentrate on one thing because there is so much stimuli around them.

I was very against giving him medication, but seeing him getting depressed about the friends situation pushed me to try it. And in our case, he is a different boy when he has medication. He wants to be good and it's almost like his mind allows him to now do what he couldn't before. He is much happier and we had moved and he started school all new. He has so many friends and is so happy. In our situation, medication seems to have worked though I do have more questions for the doctor. He even looks at the class and says there are boys who act like I used to act and can't sit still. He knows what he was doing, but just couldn't help himself.

I have the same situation but dh won't agree to medication.
I want to try the natural approach - does anything know more about it?

the natural approach, according to dr. schulman, is having kid in a small class. Omega 3 .

shaklee I have no choice of class size.
I have him on omega
does zinc really help? I will have to find out about it.

what else can I do?

why does dh not want him on concerta?

My advice: get him checked out. My 13 yr old brother was tested about 3 years ago, and since then he has become a different person. I was single then, and always felt responsible for helping my brother. Even before he was diagnosed with ADHD, he had lots of friends and was very popular. He was just so impulsive and annoying! I couldn't help with homework, let alone sit down to do it.
When he started the medication, he changes so much. Now that he is maturing, he would never be where he is now if not for the medication

shaklee, do you think the zinc is better than the pediactive? ds is on pediactive, b12, omega.

and protein shakes from, your sn, shaklee

does anyone have experience with any of these natural things helping?
my son is probably borderline adhd and dh is so against medicine that there is no way I can think of it.
I'm trying to see what my other options are to help my son.