Pill

ME:Today I swallowed a pill, the pill. See my mom has been helping me learn to swallow a pill in the past few days. Today she gave me the new ADHD pill. It was hard to swallow at first but soon it went down. It was better than last time but I couldn't eat my lunch. It hurt, my stomach couldn't take it. And before dinner my stomach hurt and I felt awful. I had some trouble eating dinner too. But compared to the patch it was easy.It made me do better in my bible study too. It really helped. I feel good about starting this pill, really good.

The role of prayer

MOMMY: I know that Daughter is in God's hands. I have prayed for wisdom. I have prayed that we are getting the right advice for her. I have prayed that she will not be hurt or hindered in any way by any medication that we give her. I'm going to give her the Concerta today and believe God will show me if I am doing the right thing for my daughter.

Ready for Concerta

MOMMY: Daughter has done a fantastic job swallowing pills all week. We even tried something different this morning, as the Concerta pills are a good deal larger than the Zyrteks. So I gave her one ibuprofen pill. I know it's not generally wise to just randomly give ibuprofen, but one pill wasn't going to hurt her--and I needed to know if she could do it. The last thing I need tomorrow when I give her the Concerta is to have her gagging and freaking out over it. It went down fine, so we both feel good about it now. Pill swallowing officially learned! If nothing else, I'm glad we have conquered that little life milestone. (One thing we did learn, for anyone looking for advice on how to do this, is that the pills go down much easier with juice than they do with water. Juice and a dollar. That's my magic formula for pill swallowing.)

Regarding tomorrow, I'm pretty nervous (now, how to keep Daughter from reading this post for the next 48 hours or so?) If the Concerta does to her what the Daytrana did to her, we are so done with medicine. I'll be looking for non-medical options to deal with this. On the other hand, I've had a lot of time to work with her one-on-one this week with homework and studying because we've been cooped up with snow/ice days, and I've really seen how very much she needs help. I desperately want this to help, but I desperately want it to help without any ill side effects. Are those mutually exclusive desires?

ADHD and self-esteem

MOMMY: What Daughter wrote last night makes me sad. And it's the number one reason I am driven to help her in whatever way I can. I've watched her since second grade adopt this feeling of failure about school, even as she's continued to make mostly A's and B's. This child is way too smart, way too bright and creative to feel like giving up. Last night we worked on her math homework. Six division problems took way too long, maybe an hour. I understand why she is frustrated. More than half our time was spent just redirecting her attention. Sit down, pick the pencil back up, wait you're not even working on the right problem anymore, no we're not going to watch the Wizard of Oz right now, I said sit down ... She broke into tears about 10 times. Just trying to do six simple division problems. I've learned that I pretty much have to sit with her and walk her through the math homework or it doesn't get done even half way correctly. It isn't that she doesn't know how. It's that she gets off track in the middle of every problem. It makes me sad.

What it feels like to have ADHD

ME:at school ADHD effects me by making me not concentrate in things like math. I am so frustrated cause I can't do what others can. What I mean is that I can't listen in class so I get lower grades. It's just so frustrating that somedays I give up. There's no other choice but to give up. I also can't sit still during class. It's too hard. And then I can't concentrate on my homework at my house. I really hope this medicine helps.

An unpleasant new task

MOMMY: This ADHD medicine business means Daughter and I must deal with a little issue we have been putting off: learning to swallow pills. UGH. We're scheduled to start the new medication next weekend (I could try it now but refuse to do until a weekend when I can watch her like a hawk for two days before I send her off to school "medicated.") So we have this week to learn this dreaded pill-swallowing business.

Pediatrician suggested we practice with Tic-Tacs. Counselor suggested hiding them in applesauce. I just picked up her Zyrtek (allergy medicine) in pill form rather than chewable and offered her a dollar for each one she could get down this week. For real! Don't worry, I'll only let her have one a day. It didn't work yesterday, but this morning that pill went right down.

Am I terrible? Any other moms out there with other tips for teaching kids to swallow pills? I've told Daughter that at 10 it's time she learn anyway.

What is ADHD?

MOMMY: Daughter suggested we make a post explaining what ADHD is. I'll provide a definition from my new "ADHD bible." (The American Academy of Pediatrics' "ADHD: A Complete and Authoritative Guide.") But I think you may be more interested in Daughter's definition, which she will give after I give mine.


For more than a century physicians have been aware of children displaying the behaviors that we now call ADHD. In 1902 British pediatrician George Still first formally documented a condition in which children seemed inattentive, impulsive, and hyperactive, stating his conviction that this was a result of biological makeup rather than poor parenting or other environmental factors. New neuropsychological research in the 1980's supported this hypotheses and led to
the use of the term attention deficit disorder. In 1987, in response to even more precise information provided by new studies, the term attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder was introduced.

Today ADHD is defined by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) as developmentally inappropriate attention and/or hyperactivity and impulsivity so pervasive and persistent as to significantly interfere with a child's daily life.


That is a brief medical description. Here is Daughter's definition. She has some interesting things to share.
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ME: Hi would you like to know a few names of some random people who have ADHD?

• Steven Speilburg
• Mozart
• Bill Cosby
• Beethoven
• Prince Charles
• Henry Ford
• Leonardo da Vinci
• Napoleon
• John D Rockefeller
• Wright brothers
• Abraham Lincoln
• Vincent Van Gogh
• John F. Kennedy
• Benjamin Franklin
• Eleanor Rosevelt
• Babe Ruth
• Me!

Boy so that just shows a little 'bout ADHD doesn't it? As you can tell clearly ADHD isn't a such a big deal. ADHD is just a little thing that makes a person not focus very well, and makes them not be able to sit on their seat for a long time. But it obviously didn't stop Lincoln, now did it?

The Patch

ME: As my mom told you in the last post the patch didn't work. Well lets start in the morning when mommy and daddy told me to put on the patch it was simple. Since it was a Saturday i was at home all day. It went well until lunch. I couldn't eat not at all. It hurt to eat. All I had for lunch was some applesauce and a bite of macaroni. Right about then my heart started racing I was breathing probably a mile a minute. Then at dinner my grandparents took me and my sister to the waffle house. It was the best meal ever. But I only ate 2 bites of my waffles. And eating a bit of a piece of bacon felt like I was forcefeeding my self. When I went to bed that night my heart was still racing. My mom was worried about me so she slept with me. But all night I could not sleep. My body was wide awake. My eyes didn't even feel droopy. I was still wide awake at about 2:00 a.m. I got barely 3 hours of sleep that night. So now trying the patch again is out of the question. Mommy called the doctor and we are going to try a new medicine next weekend.

The trial-and-error phase begins

MOMMY: Once daughter's psychologist diagnosed ADHD, the next stop was the pediatrician. My husband and I both agreed we would consider medication for her if it would help. If there's a medication out there that can help help straighten out those chemicals in her brain and bring her mind back into focus, why wouldn't we? After watching her anxiety for the last two years in school (headaches, stomach aches, insomnia, etc.) and seeing it spiral out of control this year -- hearing her cry about not understanding why she can't pay attention. Why would we deny her anything that would help?

I told her one day that her brain was kind of like my eyes. They just don't focus very well. And I need to wear my contacts or glasses to make things clear. And we were going to see if medication would do the same for her brain. She seemed to like that analogy. Score one for Mommy!

We talked to the doctor about all the medication options and decided to try "the patch." It's called Daytrana. There were two reasons we decided to go with this option. The first is that the doctor said of all the stimulant medications, Daytrana seemed to be the least likely to have the appetite-suppressant side effect (which is our biggest concern for her, as she is only in the 10th percentile for her weight as it is). The second is that it comes in patch form, and she hasn't yet learned to swallow a pill.

It seemed like a good plan. Several people (doctor, counselor, teacher) warned me that finding the right medication can be a trial-and-error process--what works for one child can be all wrong for the next child. I dreaded that process for her. The last thing I want my little girl to be is a medical guinea pig. So I was hoping we'd get it right the first time.

No such luck. She wants to write about what happened.

"I think she might have ADHD"

MOMMY: When my daughter's counselor said to me, "I think she might have ADHD," I can't say that I was surprised. About three months ago I began to suspect it myself. Had the counselor made the suggestion prior to the time I started figuring it out on my own, or especially if she had come to that conclusion a year and a half ago when we first began taking her to counseling, I'm sure my reaction would have been, "Forget you. We are sooooo out of here."

ADHD? For a child who get mostly A's, with the occasional B in math? ADHD? For a child who never gets in trouble at school? ADHD for my little girl who can read a 200-page book in a single day and sit and write her stories at the computer for two hours at a time? ADHD for the better-behaved of my two children??? It just wouldn't have made any sense.

But fast-forward to December 31, 2008 when we were sitting in the counselor's office, and there were other things to consider. Now that she was in fourth grade. Her A's were turning into B's, and her B's were turning into Cs. Lately she was bringing home math, science and social studies tests that had F's on them. My daughter getting F's? Even her once-a-week math tutoring wasn't helping.

Her teacher was reporting an increasing amount of wandering around in class. Distraction, trouble focusing, fidgeting. She was getting F's on tests because she wasn't paying attention. And we were noticing it at home as well. Truth be told, she's always done these things, but they were starting to catch up with her. And her natural smarts weren't gonna cut it in the classroom anymore.

And then there's the issue of her not sitting still. She never has sat still, this child. She's like a little Energizer Bunny. It's an oddity the family has always worried about, but honestly no one ever thought ADHD. She has this habit that drives us all crazy, bless her heart. She runs around our coffee table in the living room. Around and around and around. One she even developed this little cyst on her foot--I can't remember what it was called. But I remember that the doctor had thought she was a dancer, because it's a repetitive motion injury. She got it from pushing off her foot in that one spot running around the coffee table all the time. She always tells us that the running helps her imagination. "I'm using my imagination," she would say.

Over the years, I've tried to figure out all this movement. I've asked the doctor if she could have Restless Leg Syndrome or growing pains. But I never once considered ADHD. Not until the signs started adding up together three months ago. And now I've learned that 4th grade is actually the most common age for girls to be diagnosed, because it's often the grade in school where girls can no longer compensate anymore. The schoolwork gets harder and they are expected to sit still for longer amounts of time.

In our case, I believe the symptoms started showing up in second grade. And we've been on a two-year journey trying to figure out why school was getting increasingly difficult for her (even as she kept her grades up). Now that we know why, we deal with how ... how to deal with it. And where ... where do we go from here.