ADHD House - Chaos Central

Well, this blog is intended to be a way to vent a little bit. I'm a mother of two, Mariah who is 11 and has been diagnosed with ADHD / ODD and Matthew, who is 9 and has been diagnosed with ADHD and Noonan's Syndrome. My hubby is also ADHD/Bipolar. Please excuse the occasional rant. It gets a little nuts at our house.

ADHD stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Yes, it occasionally is mis- or over-diagnosed; yes, there are lots of opinions on both sides of the fence about the effects of discipline, medication and etc. I don't claim to be a doctor or any kind of medical expert; nothing I say here should be construed as giving medical advice. All I can tell you is my experience, what we've been through personally.

My daughter was diagnosed at 4-5 yrs old, after I took her to the doctor and said, "There's *something* going on and you need to do something about it!" She had been kicked out of three daycares at that point; every one of them complained that she wouldn't sit still, was too loud, got angry too quickly and hit other kids. She had no friends, because the other kids were "weirded out" or scared of her. She had uncontrollable fits of fury at home, which scared us too.

We tried reward charts, we tried punishment, we even spanked. Nothing helped. Finally we got our pediatrician to listen (he felt she was "too young" and didn't want to "label" her!!)and he started her on Adderall, which helped immensely. With the medication, she could suddenly sit through a whole story or meal. She really blossomed after that.

My son was diagnosed with ADHD much later, only just this year after his teachers said - OK, we've done all we can, it's time to talk to his doctor. Given the family history, we'd been suspecting, but we wanted to avoid jumping to conclusions. He's now on Concerta, which has made a big difference in his schoolwork.

Matthew also has Noonan's Syndrome, a genetic disorder that occurs in about 1 out of 1,000 live births. Luckily for us, he's very "light;" the symptoms he has are not life-threatening, just limiting. The Noonan Syndrome Support Group has excellent information on this syndrome.

Now you know where I'm coming from. If you're in the same boat or a similar one, drop me a line and let me know.

Jessica