DESPERATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Meds/Treament Options for a 2.5 yr old???????

[Anonymous]

Hi all. I really don’t know where else to turn, or what else to do. I have Add myself and have been diagnosed since age 4. I’m 30 now, and have two boys. My eldest has it, and it on medicine, and my youngest…well that brings me to this post. I don’t know WHAT he has, but he physically and mentally drains me and my husband to the point of tears every single day, within the first 4 hours of the day (which begins at 5am!) As soon as his eyes open, he’s singing loudly, jumping, screaming, squealing, making blubber noises, talking NON STOP, and moving moving moving moving. He’s physically incapable of being still, for any length of time. Trying to change his diaper is literally like wrestling a greased pig. He’s either screaming in your face NO NO NO NONO and wriggling to get free, or jumping or moving in some fashion. Loud noises utterly terrify him. He plugs his ears often throughout the day, and franticly asks “What’s that noise? What’s that noise?” I’ve received compliments that he can speak amazingly well for a two year old, and he can, when he wants to. He often bangs his head into things, or (just for fun) will shake his head from side to side as fast and as long as he can while screaming or making some repetative noise. The be pefectly honest there are MANY DAYS where no one is the house can stand being around him and it breaks my heart. He is SO SWEET in the morning before he gets worn out. See that’s the thing, he NEVER NEVER stops moving, doing, talking, looking, running, spinning, jumping…he hardly eats anything because he can’t sit still long enough to actually eat more than one or two bites. He will NOT listen. He thinks hitting people and things is hilarious depsite getting in trouble. Positive reinforcement means nothing to him, he could care less. We as a general rule are not spankers, never had to lay a hand on my eldest but this child seriously pushed us to the edge. When he’s not in daycare all we do is yell at him to not do this, dont put that in your mouth, don’t ram your head into the wall, don’t run into the street, don’t kick the cats, don’t hit your brother and on and on. I try redirecting him, but honest to God I just don’t have the energy. He gets worn out from the constant motion after about 3 straight hours but he can’t stop, so the rest of every day is filled with his exhausted over emotional responses to everything. He does as much activity in a day as if he was running a marathon 7 days a week. He harshly fights sleep, yelling screaming, kicking the wall, throwing toys etc. Even when he’s sick and running a fever he’s FULL TILT all day, and I just don’t know what to do! Doctor refuses to put him on meds for adhd despite the fact I know he’s got the syptoms. It makes me so sad that he’s missing out on life, on being happy, on being treated well all because he can’t be still and listen! I just need some advice on what to do, where to go? I really have lost all hope. He’s been like this since he learned to walk. He was also a very restless baby. Often fussy for no apparent reason. He also has NO sense of personal preservation or safety issues. Despite us warning him every day he still has no idea that jerking his hand out of mine and running into a busy parking lot or into the street is a danger! He just looks at us while we are screaming at him to get back up here, come back here.

Interestingly enough he’s a natural at tumbling, and hits a baseball off a tee like a pro. He loves balls, and balloons but that’s about it. He won’t play with toys for longer than 15 seconds, then he reverts back to running or jumping.

I really just needed to get this all in one location, so thanks for the vent session. If any of you have similar experiences please for the love of God share so you might help us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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[Anonymous]

Sorry am not an expert, but I totally feel your panic. I really hope an expert would reply with a solution or suggestion soon!!

My mother tells me very similar stories of several series of heart attacks me and my bro gave my parent growing up.

Please keep on fighting!! We are all here rooting for you and your family!

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[Anonymous]

Its like listening to my own child who is now 12 with adhd btw. I have learned a lot that I wish I knew then, my own recent diagnosis of adhd and subsequent research has made many things much more clear!! First off recognize that we ourselves sometimes have issues with sound light and over stimulation so some of the behaviors that may totally grate on you may not be as bad as you think! I’m not saying you don’t have the right to feel that way just realize that this may not be helping but hindering you own emotional state! Here are some things that have worked with my son:

-Channel that energy, whether it be go to the park after dinner rain or shine or get him into something that is super high activity and singular not team orientated (my son does trampoline and tumble), you may have to try to find what actually interests him as at 2.5 he probably doesn’t know and can’t say.

-Do you have a wii? The ones with more activity and more stimulation seem to keep my son occupied longer

-What about toys that are beyond his age level, sometimes with adhd kids they rev up when they are bored so get kinda spinny when they can’t harness it into something that doesn’t create boredom, at 1 yr old my son was playing with playdoh in his high chair for hours on end because it interested him and kept his hands moving, every time he started to loose focus I would give him another utensil lol! at one point I think he used every measuring spoon, stir spoon etc in my kitchen lol!

-For the longest time we went to get those really bright spiky stress balls (we found them at the dollar store) and it was helpful for him especially in early primary school yrs to have something to do with his energy so he could focus it onto what needed to be done, this might help the busy part of his body work and keep the rest a bit calmer

-What about a small exercise ball? he can bounce on it to his hearts content and not bother anyone, it is a great thing for my son while watching t.v. or doing homework, while the mind is still the body is busy

-I found that the healthier we ate the better the behavior so we switched to as little pre-processed pre-packaged foods as possible, I know as an adhd adult this was really difficult but if we eat at 7pm instead of 6pm cause it took me that long that’s what it took, I also find that organic foods seem to make a small difference as well, I know they cost more but when I can, I do

-Fish oils, not omega 6 just omega 3, I find that for my child that can’t stop Omega 3 combined with something like pediasure or even ensure in chocolate, now my son makes his own protein shakes with protein powder, fruits, egg, fibre and the Omega 3 oil a few times a day and he keeps his weight up and is more controlled

-We started to have trouble with him sleeping when he tried a new medication and started giving him decaffeinated tea at night, this sorta helped but one night I gave him caffeinated tea by mistake, it was the best sleep he had in weeks!! Why? Well caffeine is a stimulant just like adhd meds can be, I know that at the point of finally being medicated I was drinking 9-12 cups of coffee a day just to get me through and when I started meds cut it down to 2 cups without even noticing!!! So I realized that the same was helpful to my son and I even find that a cup of caffeinated tea at bed helps me sleep (if I can get the motivation/organization to actually make it lol), you could try to make a homemade ice tea with regular brewed tea and just enough sugar till he would drink it. (Please do your own research about caffeine in children and make your own decisions based upon your own research, there are many conflicting opinions and health related concerns, this is my own experience and opinion)

-Bedroom time!!!! I started this when my kids were 4 as I was just totally loosing it!!!! I explained that every day at around the same time (not sure what your home schedule/situation is) but dinner prep time worked for me, now I know it was because I could not focus enough to cook anything with all that chaos lol! I just explained to the kids that this was time for each of them, not a punishment but a healing time, they could do whatever they wanted in their rooms as long as their door was closed. At first it was difficult for my adhd son but I found that setting a ticking timer that went off after 30 mins worked, however sometimes it would go off and I would find him napping lol!! Yup my kid that never stopped moving fell asleep lol what about that!! To this day when my son is either having a melt down or is just wayyy too overloaded he will take himself off to his bedroom, as this is a safe place now that he knows he can go without a time limit and come out when he feels better!!

Finally may I suggest trying to talk to your son when he is calmer in the morning and let him know that mommy feels very busy in her head just like you think he might in his body!! That this is something that you have a hard time shutting off too but you as an adult just help yourself in different ways! Don’t allow this to be a long drawn out conversation (us add/adhder’s tend to do this lol!) he’s only 2.5 but try to put it in 2 yr old terms and feelings, think about strategies in simple ways that you can suggest at these quieter moments (the exercise ball, the stress ball etc) that might help him start to recognize when he is out of control and harness a coping mechanism

Top it all off if nothing else works, find a different doctor!!! Is this a regular pediatric doctor or someone who specializes in childhood adhd? If this is a regular doctor I really encourage you to find a specialist or Psychiatrist that has extensive knowledge of add/adhd and see what they think, usually as parent we have a gut instinct about our children that I believe should not be ignored!! Example when my son was young he had a high fever I couldn’t get down I knew there was something else wrong, I took him to the hospital, the first time they said he was fine, gave him Tylenol and sent him home, the second time they gave him I.V. fluids monitored for 8 hours said he was fine sent him home, I took him back a third time and demanded they run more tests, they discovered that he had pneumonia and he spent 3 days in the hospital!!!

Don’t despair, one minute at a time, one hour at a time, one day at a time

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