Does everybody medicate their ADHD child?

kittiej

This is an interesting thread as I recently took my 6 year old son to see a child psychiatrist (after 18 months we're getting somewhere!) and she said he appears to have an attention disorder and mild autism which often go hand in hand.

She said that treatment could be given for the attention disorder so I am wondering if she meant drugs. He flits from one thing to another as well.

She needs to see him again and says it should only take another 3 to 6 months to be sure. At least there's an end in sight.

property.advert

Why do all these kids have things which we didn't have and why does no-one seem to be asking that question rather than reaching for the prescription pad ?

Gingham_Ribbon

I wouldn't medicate because school are getting it wrong. How does she cope when she's not there? It might be worth looking at a different school and seeing how she gets on with better support?

Magpie27

property.advert wrote: »

Why do all these kids have things which we didn't have and why does no-one seem to be asking that question rather than reaching for the prescription pad ?

This is the exact question I have asked many times, I wish I knew the answer!

Magpie27

Gingham_Ribbon wrote: »

I wouldn't medicate because school are getting it wrong. How does she cope when she's not there? It might be worth looking at a different school and seeing how she gets on with better support?

This is how I feel if after changing schools there is no improvement I think I would consider medication but I feel at the moment not everything is being done to help her. She is labelled as trouble and distruptive at the school. They seem to try new things with her and if they don't work after a couple of days they give up!!!! I'm waiting from a call back from Parent Partnership to try and get some advice on how I find a school which is better suited to her. In meantime I have the horror of the re-inclusion meeting tomorrow with the head after my DD was excluded for 3 days

Ms_Magnetite

Magpie27 wrote: »

This is the exact question I have asked many times, I wish I knew the answer!

I think it is because in previous times, the children concerned would generally be absent from school, would have left at the earliest possible opportunity and, unfortunately, many would have been in Borstal or at least special boarding schools.

Nicki

Magpie27 wrote: »

This is how I feel if after changing schools there is no improvement I think I would consider medication but I feel at the moment not everything is being done to help her. She is labelled as trouble and distruptive at the school. They seem to try new things with her and if they don't work after a couple of days they give up!!!! I'm waiting from a call back from Parent Partnership to try and get some advice on how I find a school which is better suited to her. In meantime I have the horror of the re-inclusion meeting tomorrow with the head after my DD was excluded for 3 days

To be fair to the school though, if your daughter is attacking the other children in the school, they probably can't let things just run to see whether they work eventually. I imagine the school is probably coming under a lot of pressure from the parents of the other children in your child's class to find a solution quickly which will stop their children being hurt or their education disrupted.

I have a child with behavioural problems myself (asd) so I have sympathy for your predicament, but I would never rule out anything at the outset of there was a chance it might work. I might want to try other approaches first, but I would never say under no circumstances would I ever medicate on principle, because as meritaten and others have said, to do so might actually be in the child's best interests and make their life easier for them not just others.

Magpie27

I haven't said that I would never medicate but at this stage I don't feel that everything has been done to help my DD, at no stage has anything other than medication been offered by her doctor. As soon as I said no no further help was offered. Whilst I am sure the school is under pressure from other parents my DD has as much right to a education as their children it is not her fault that the school have handled her badly. She is with the same kids that she was in nursery, reception & year 1 and whilst there were some issues such as lack of concentration we have never had the issues we are having now. And they are not occuring at home so I can only assume that something is making her like this at school. There is one other child in the school who has ADHD & dispite him being medicated the school have decided he is too much to handle and has been moved to the Special Need Base (attached to the school) that doesn't sing the praises of medication or the school does it!!

faithcecilia

My brother has been medicated since he was first diagnosed at age 10. He is now nearly 28 and part of an ongoing study at the Maudsley Hospital, looking at adults who were diagnosed as children, at the time when it was still believed they would outgrow it. Through this study he has been able to have various other therapies, types of counselling, etc, which have all been helpful but he is unlikely to have been able to engage with these therapies and benefit from them if he had not been medicated.

In his case, medication is the only way he can lead a normal life, and even now he still 'flips' at times, which is extremely frightening even now.

meritaten

I DO understand peoples concerns about medicating these kids - I wont take anything myself unless its absolutely necessary and my GP manages to convince me that I need it. but I HAVE seen a change in my GS since he has started on the Ritalin and Melatonin. What I see is a formerly very unhappy little boy, transformed almost, into a smiling pre-teen! while he still has problems, the drugs enable him to live in a better place - its difficult to describe, unless you are familiar with ADHD and Aspergers, just how difficult normal life is for them!

while I respect the fact that it is up to parents whether they accept the medications for thier child, it distresses me that some children who may be helped by the drugs are not recieving that help! I have to ask - would these same parents say such an emphatic NO if the drugs were to help a physical condition?

and to the posters who wonder about these being 'new' conditions which their generation didnt have. Looking back I am sure I can identify some classmates who would probably now be diagnosed with ADHD, if they were ever in school long enough they usually got suspended and they were the 'bad' kids. generally ended up either in care or Borstal! and later in prison or on the streets.
and they are not 'new' conditions - they were first identified back 1920s or 30s and Ritalin was used from the 1940s.