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| My houseguests: note Maya's position hogging up most of the bed with Tessa driven to the edge |
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| butterfly bowl |
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| my orange sunflower |
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how many zinnias can grow in one small container
Recently Maya had a routine physical. Throughout, she wandered around the room touching everything she could find, not sitting still for a moment. Naomi asked the doctor what to do about her obvious ADHD. Well maybe she does not have ADHD, she is just immature.
And she is too young to be treated.with medications. How old will she have to be? Not clear. In the meantime, 3 people have to fill out this one size fits all questionnaire and another meeting will be set in 2 months. Although the first several questions are germane to AHDH, many of the questions seem to be along the lines of determining whether or not your child was a mass murderer. No Maya does not torture animals, set fires, rape people, steal stuff, etc. What she does is not sit still for a second or do an activity for more than a minute before searching for another.
I do have plenty of experience with kids her age. Aside from raising my own 3, I led a Brownie troop, coached first grade girls (and earlier, boys) and led Josh's first grade class several times. Although I did come across a few boys as squirrely as Maya, never did I see a girl so antsy.
Recently there was an article in the WSJ stressing the importance of early treatment (they annoyingly never defined 'early') They compared the impulsive behavior of treated versus untreated once these children reached adolescence. The untreated were 5.8% more likely to be involved in unplanned pregnancies, speeding, drug use. Of course they never said whether 5.8% was a significant amount (where are those editors anyway).
She and Tessa spent the night. It is easier to entertain two than one but Maya will just focus momentarily on one task before wanting to do something else. Very frustrating.
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4 comments:
I think Naomi should push back on this. Just because some intervention (pharmaceutical, behavioral, or whatever) for possible ADHD is begun, it doesn't mean it has to be continued if it doesn't seem to help. I feel like we wait to long to address things now until kids are sure they're failures and have lost confidence, then say "well maybe there really is something going on". Eileen
It looks as if she wears herself down (eventually). As I suspect she wears down the people around her.
I hope you get some sensible answers soon.
I feel for Naomi. It's frustrating to have her knowledge as a mother that something is not right dismissed by someone who is only checking boxes. As a mother of 2 ADHD children, I know that medications help, but they also come with side effects. I was giving my boys medicines to help them concentrate and then plying them full of sugar to try to keep them from looking like skeletons. Then I'd have to give them medications to let them sleep. BTW, weird sleep positions and habits are a part of ADHD. The brain does not become ordered because it is asleep. There are behavioral interventions, but they mostly consist of a caregiver enforcing structure and order. Once the caregiver is removed the child's inner chaos takes back over. At home, I could enforce one toy at a time, put the toy away before another could be taken out. One book at a time, don't read for more than 5 minutes. The book must be put away before another one could come out. One crayon at a time. And so on. But at school, the teacher didn't have the resourses to sit on my child. To be honest, it was exhausting to me. I wasn't all that successful at it. My kids came out fine. Naomi needs to keep pushing, but that can be exhausting in itself.
Thanks for all your input. Maya is already a skeleton. She has a hearty appetite but is in constant motion, even while asleep, she burns calories faster than she can shovel food in. At what age did your boys take medications Lisa? How old are the boys now? I am glad they are fine.
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