Medication Discussions

[Guest guest]

I've just had a member bring something to my attention concerning recent

discussion on medication. I too share her concern with this. She's given me

permission to share her correspondence with you and then I'd like to add my

proverbial two cents worth.

>>I don't consider my child to be ADHD. Yes, he's busy but

>>I'm not

>>going to drug him up.

> As a parent who has had to go the Ritalin route, I guess I feel I'm not

" drugging my child up " but am putting into effect some much needed

>medication to help him have success.

> I applaud those who haven't had the need to use meds. I do, however, feel

that terms such as " drug him up " have very negative connotations.

> I simply worry about those parents who are struggling with decisions about

medication - statements such as this may make them feel medication is a

" bad " choice.

As with everything else, each child is unique as are their needs. I

mentioned earlier about our putting our son on the Feingold diet to help him

be able to have more control. I perhaps was a bit remis in not giving the

whole story, which I will now.

Our son has always been a very active child. Even as a newborn, he rarely

slept more than 10 hours out of 24, 8 was the average and that included

naps. He's always been active and we didn't want to medicate him either. I

had seen 2 children who had been on ADHD medication, one had good results,

and I felt, in the case of the second child, the medication was being abused

and the parents were medicating the child to the point where she was in a

zombie like condition most of the time. As our son's problem became more and

more evident in school and home, we looked for alternatives and tried the

Feingold diet which worked for our son.

As our son's hearing loss progressed and being able to function auditorily

became more and more of a problem, his symptoms increased to the point where

the diet wasn't doing enough for him any more. Obviously we were working on

improving his amplification in some way, but the side effect of worse and

worse behavior was one that we had to deal with. During the evaluation his

teachers filled out forms and each one of his teachers agreed that it was

interfering with his education. We realized that medication was something

that we now had to look to in order to help our son - now 12 years old. My

husband felt that to go this route would be in effect " drugging him " in an

effort to " control " him and he was against it, however, I am the one who has

always delt with his educational needs and that's not how I felt. I felt

that this was a tool that was available to us in order to help our son gain

some control over his behavior and to function better socially.

We ended up not putting our son on medication, but it wasn't because I gave

in to my husband's feelings (one of the few areas we've ever truly disagreed

on). I got the prescription in hand and was ready to start giving it to him

at the start of the school year this year. Those who know our background

know that one year ago our son got a cochlear implant and during last summer

he made amazing progress with it and had noticed some improvement in his

behavior. So, why didn't I give him the medication? The first week or so of

school JD was so excited about school he had a difficult time getting to

sleep. I was warned when I got the medication that if JD didn't have a full

nights sleep I shouldn't give him the medication because it would make him

drowsey at school. When he finally settled down enough to start getting to

sleep before midnight, I decided to talk to his teachers because at home I

had noticed the improved behavior and I wanted to know if this was carrying

over into the classroom or not. One of his teachers also happened to have

him in her class last year so she was the first one I talked to. This year,

not one of his teachers felt like he needed the medication, compared with

last year where every teacher did. Even the one who had him last year said

that this year there was a very noticable improvement. It continues to

improve also. 2 months ago we took him off of the diet except for the few

things we knew he really had a problem with (tomatoes and strawberries) but

the last couple of weeks I've been letting him have catsup and he's had no

problems.

I say all this to point out that sometimes medication is appropriate,

sometimes not. I feel that the decision to medicate or not should be looked

at very carefully, but not ruled out if it's something that could benefit

the child. Had our son's behavior not improved, I would have given him the

medication because his ability to function in the classroom, and in life,

was being affected.

Kay

[Guest guest]

Kay,

There was a study posted on another list to which I belong. The study

found that some children had deficient bloodflow to a particular part of the

brain. Ritalin increased blood flow to that part of the brain. If the child

did not begin with a deficient bloodflow, the Ritalin actually decreased

bloodflow to that area. The final conclusion of the study was that there was

a scientific basis for the diagnosis of ADHD and that Ritilan, although it

did not cure ADHD, was a positive treatment for it. It also determined that

for children who were misdiagnosed with ADHD, it was a detriment.

I wish I had paid closer attention to the posting but I can try to track it

down if you need it for any reason.

Eleanor

[Guest guest]

> There was a study posted on another list to which I belong. The study

> found that some children had deficient bloodflow to a particular part of

the

> brain.

How interesting! I wonder if someday they'll use this information as a

diagnostic tool.

Thanks!

Kay

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 4/1/2000 10:38:26 AM Eastern Daylight Time,

listenup@... writes:

<< The study

> found that some children had deficient bloodflow to a particular part of

the brain. >>

My son has ADHD/ODD characteristic and a lecture was given that most all the

kids they had in a study had temporal lobe disruption that they thought

caused the behavior. I have a tape, if I find it I will tell you what it

said exactly Kay.

Elaine