When I first approached Brandon with the idea that Ant might have ADD he laughed at me. But as I read him the article I had been reading and read off the signs and symptoms his face got more and more serious. By the time I was done all he said was "Well. That would explain a lot."
I called his pediatrician the next day and did a phone consultation with her. I explained my thoughts and some of his habits and she agreed that it sounds like he might have ADD. She referred us to a behavioral specialist who we meet with on the 20th. She's going to watch him for about an hour, do an evaluation of him and give her assessment. The part that I dread a little bit about going to the specialist is the whole matter of medicating. I have no interest in medicating him. If this specialist disagrees, we'll keep looking for one until we find one that supports alternative treatments. I don't want to turn him into a zombie baby. I love his personality, even if it is spacey and hyper, and I don't want to drug that away. Regardless of what the specialist says, ADD or not, I know that my baby has an issue with paying attention and I know that I have no interest in drugging him up. Nothing a specialist says is going to change either of those facts.
I want to take a natural route of treatment for him. I'm all ears for any vitamins, herbs, teas, or homeopathic treatments that have been shown to be helpful. Surprisingly, it's kinda hard to find specific information on the internet. I think its a combination of every kid is different and what works for one might not work for the other, and just an over saturation on the topic. You google ADD or ADHD and theres 10 zillion sites that pop up. I can't tell you how many times I've read an article that says "exercises at home and herbal treatments can be really effective" but never in any way tell what exercises to do at home, or what natural treatments to use. I've read a million times that these options are out there but its hard to find specifics about it.
After researching the few things that I have found we decided to start him on fish oil this week. The one we bought is specific for kids and has both Omega-3 and Omega-6. I'm going to start giving him chamomile tea at night to see if it helps him calm down. If it seems to work I'll send some to his daycare for days when he's really hyper. If that doesn't seem to work, we'll move on to something else until we find something that does work.
I'm really a little unsure where to go from here. Its all new to us. We'll meet with the specialist and see what s/he has to say. We'll learn exercises to do exercises with him at home that will improve his focus and we'll tell him to "walk not run" about 100,000 more times. But most of all we'll continue to love him, thank God for him, and let him know that he's perfect exactly how he is.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Monday, February 11, 2013
The day I suspected by baby has ADHD
I hesitate to throw that term out there - ADHD. It's so commonly tossed around these days. It's a joke for people to say they have ADD when they don't want to focus on something, and unfortunately it comes with a hefty dose of judgement on the parents. Especially parents of young kids. People want to think that you just cant handle your kid, or that you just want to drug them so you don't have to deal with them. I assure you, this is far from the case here.
Anthony has always been on the go. He was never the type of baby who could sit back and watch, he had to be entertained, constantly. He started crawling around 5 months, and walked at 9 months. He was on the go. He has always been a hyper kid, but I always thought that was just how kids his age were. He's a boy, I expect him to be hyper. But as he's gotten older and gotten into pre-school aged we've run into issues with his hyper activity and his lack of attention. There have been so many times where Brandon and I feel like we're banging our heads on the wall, repeating the same thing over and over and over (and over) again. We wondered if we were doing something wrong. We wondered if he had a hard time hearing us as a result of his ear surgery. We wondered and wondered and wondered. Anthony isn't a bad kid, at all. He's one of the sweetest, most loving kids ever. He just can't focus and the boy has energy for days. We have a long hallway in our house that he particularly loves to run down. I think I say the word "walk" about 10,000 times a day. We wondered and worried often that we were just doing something wrong, there had to be an easy solution to his listening issues. I'm not exaggerating when I say simply putting on his shoes can turn into a half hour ordeal.
Still, it never dawned on me that this might not be normal. He's a four year old boy, four year old boys are tough. I thought that we'd parent through this and we would all fall into sync and puppys would dance on rainbows and skittles would rain from the sky.
It wasn't until we put him in T-ball that we realized that he was different than other kids his age. While the other kids were focused, doing what the coach told them, running through the drills, Anthony was spinning in circles or just plain wandering around the field. All these other kids, the same age as him, seemed to have lightyears more attention than he did. It was his second practice, when Anthony was put on a cone at shortstop to show where he should be standing and wandered off, ending up over by home plate that I laughed in my head "I swear it looks like he has ADD!" Then a light went on. "What if he does.." I immediately took to my phone and started googling and let me tell you, it was like these websites were describing him personally. Endless talking, seemingly endless energy, trouble finishing a task, quick temper, ect ect. It was him. To a tee.
Later that night I read more. I cried out of a mixture of guilt for not seeing it sooner, fear for the trouble he might have later in life, and honestly.. relief. It explained so much.
To be continued, because this is going to be long winded.
Anthony has always been on the go. He was never the type of baby who could sit back and watch, he had to be entertained, constantly. He started crawling around 5 months, and walked at 9 months. He was on the go. He has always been a hyper kid, but I always thought that was just how kids his age were. He's a boy, I expect him to be hyper. But as he's gotten older and gotten into pre-school aged we've run into issues with his hyper activity and his lack of attention. There have been so many times where Brandon and I feel like we're banging our heads on the wall, repeating the same thing over and over and over (and over) again. We wondered if we were doing something wrong. We wondered if he had a hard time hearing us as a result of his ear surgery. We wondered and wondered and wondered. Anthony isn't a bad kid, at all. He's one of the sweetest, most loving kids ever. He just can't focus and the boy has energy for days. We have a long hallway in our house that he particularly loves to run down. I think I say the word "walk" about 10,000 times a day. We wondered and worried often that we were just doing something wrong, there had to be an easy solution to his listening issues. I'm not exaggerating when I say simply putting on his shoes can turn into a half hour ordeal.
Still, it never dawned on me that this might not be normal. He's a four year old boy, four year old boys are tough. I thought that we'd parent through this and we would all fall into sync and puppys would dance on rainbows and skittles would rain from the sky.
It wasn't until we put him in T-ball that we realized that he was different than other kids his age. While the other kids were focused, doing what the coach told them, running through the drills, Anthony was spinning in circles or just plain wandering around the field. All these other kids, the same age as him, seemed to have lightyears more attention than he did. It was his second practice, when Anthony was put on a cone at shortstop to show where he should be standing and wandered off, ending up over by home plate that I laughed in my head "I swear it looks like he has ADD!" Then a light went on. "What if he does.." I immediately took to my phone and started googling and let me tell you, it was like these websites were describing him personally. Endless talking, seemingly endless energy, trouble finishing a task, quick temper, ect ect. It was him. To a tee.
Later that night I read more. I cried out of a mixture of guilt for not seeing it sooner, fear for the trouble he might have later in life, and honestly.. relief. It explained so much.
To be continued, because this is going to be long winded.
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