ADHD Questions!!! - Minneapolis,MN

I agree with the poster below, meds will help but they are not getting to the root of the problem, they are only a band-aid.

I would research alternatives first and go from there. Google Feingold, I believe that should have some good info on diet and ADHD.

Good luck!

Oh my, no, all of us have ADD. That would be me and my four kids. The evaluation was done by our psychiatrist who also prescribes the meds. It cost no more than an office visit, around $100. All covered by insurance.

There is no concrete method to diagnosing ADD it all a matter of answering questions.

Hi S., you have gotten a variety of answers. As a mother of four, two with ADHD and two without. I can tell you that I resisted going down the path of medications myself. I tried to get into Children's for this evaluation and was told that there was a 6 - 9 month wait list. I instead went to the Psychologist within my clinic at Allina. He and my family Dr. have been working together to treat my children and it has worked out well. I spoke in great depth to him about diet, sleep, behavior therapy and any other natural remedy that I could think of. At the end of the day, however, I asked if he thought my 8 year old was going to need medications and the answer was yes. I decided instead of torturing all of us trying all these methods we would then try the medicinal route and see if it improved. I can tell you, that my eight your old will say 1st grade was not so good. 2nd grade, was much better because she could concentrate and that when we started the medications. She also sits on a ball in the class room which will allow her to wiggle and that helps too. I, honestly, really fought this because I had thought it was more of a maturity issue. I can see a night and day difference in her with medication. She now likes school and doesn't want to miss, before medication she cried when she got home because it was so hard and she felt like she was in trouble all of the time. It also affected her social life at school because no one wants to hang out with someone in trouble.

If you want any more information contact me throught a private message and I would be happy to talk to you. This is a really hard decision you have to make. It is my hope that my children will mature and learn to control this on their own. We do not medicate in the evenings or weekends and make them accountable for their actions. I do want them to like school and be successful so I want to give them any tools that can assist them in that effort.

Good luck to you.

You don't need to go outside your insurance plan. Find out what kind of specialist your insurance will cover. A child psychiatrist is a common one to evaluate and diagnose ADHD. That's who oversees our son's care through Kaiser. You really do want to get the diagnosis through a specialist, not a pediatrician.

Also, track down specialty boards for ADHD. You'll help to avoid people who don't believe in the condition or who will recommend treating it in ways not proven scientifically to have any merit. Try BabyCenter and DailyStrength for a couple of useful ADHD boards.

If you get the ADHD diagnosis, I recommend subscribing to ADDitude magazine and joining CHADD for reliable information about the condition.

Best of luck!

As a retired special needs teacher, i have blogged about this a few times.
http://heyyougetreal.com/momblog/category/behaviour/

B.
Family Success Coach

You can get him evaluated by your pediatrician. I am a teacher and have worked with ADHD kids. Your school/teacher should give you checklists and other forms that both you and your husband and the teacher fills out. The school should also do a time on task assessment to see how often your child is not on task during independent and whole group activities. Your child's teacher should also write a letter to the pediatrician with her observations. Also just an FYI but once your child is diagnosed the school should give him a 504 plan in order to make accomodations for him within the classroom. If you and the teacher feels he is falling behind and needs additional academic testing(to assess for LD issues which can be common with ADHD students) your school can do this evaluation. Hope this helps!

Dont do it! Saying that from personal experience and countless amounts of researching the topic. Watch Generation RX, it will give you your answer. Doctors are suggesting problems in kids with medication as a solution...its so wrong. Good Luck

My son went through this same thing in Dec-March. First off my suggestion dont go through the complete evaluation, if you speak with your child's school they will assist you in figuring out which areas your child is having problems. We were told to do the same as you but when you speak with other doctors and friends it seems that the majority say it is not needed. Also many of them want you to use medication; please look into all your options before you use medication. So far we are using other methods on our son to keep his attention at school and I keep in close contact with his teachers and therapist at school with what is working or what is not working and so forth. You may need to use medication to help your child but you are not hurting anything by trying without medication first! Best of luck! C.

I'm not an expert at ADHD, but was diagnosed myself @ age 32. I went to an MD who was a specialist in ADHD and did not spend thousands of dollars on an evaluation. I think it's reasonable to start out with the doctor you're already scheduled with.

Did the other specialists suspect other problems that might make his situation more complicated? If not, I think you're fine with what you have planned. Also, if there is something more complicated suggested, he could probably get some kind of evaluation through the public school system, assuming he's in public school.

In any case, many doctors or psychiatrists treat and diagnose ADHD without charging thousands of dollars. You may want to make sure you're going to someone who has a little more experience than a general practitioner, but I think some people are just treated by their family doctors as well.

Good Luck. BTW, the rudeness to babysitter could totally be a symptom of ADHD as well. Impulsiveness -just saying the first thing that comes to mind is an ADHD symptom.

First, whatever doctor or therapist you see, make sure they are not just relying on the "Connors Scale," but use these scales instead or in addition:
* ADHD Index
* DSM-IV Symptoms Inattentive
* DSM-IV Symptoms Hyperactivity-Impulsive

Remember that most docs want to medicate, which treats the symptom, not the problem. Often the problem is NOT the child, but the current education system (which stresses sitting still to learn), and the child's nutrition (or lack thereof).

Please read "Boys Adrift" by Dr. Leonard Sax, M.D., Ph.D. It's at the library.

If your child truly has ADHD, then you probably will need to medicate. But make darn sure he truly has it. Those meds have long-ranging side effects that are JUST becoming documented as the original ritalin-kids have now grown up to be adults.

When I was about 35 or so went into a adult training for computer programming. One of the students with a very high IQ who after highschool and starting college had some difficulties even with a very high IQ. He told me to read this book: Driven to Distraction. I read it and thought yeah not every thing in there can I relate to but a lot could. So ended up taking an anti-depressant for Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD. It being a new type was also a mild stimulant. I felt like a different person and at peace. I did not like Ritalin when I tried that. I ended up trying Focalin that seems to help also. Our child was tested by the Oconnors Test by teachers in the end of 2nd grade even though the old school teacher thought our child not a problem.to other kids but gee she was a problem for herself! Yeah except ignoring the instruction! And doing other things except learing and falling behind with a high IQ. She got back at the teacher and told her during a school meeting that She did not Like Her (the teacher) The teacher of course said I am your teacher and it not my job that you like me but learn. So she said in response: Well I cant learn from someone I dont like. The teacher's expression changed in surprise. And said OK I will be more likeable to you and see what happens. Well the last part of second grade our chlid flourished vs going down hill. But She also started Focalin. The issue was Inattentive ADHD. See because She was passive and not disturbing to others She was overlooked and hurt by that being a good kid who did not pay attention. But on Focalin She did much better. She now is entering MIddle School and in a challenging school system is reading at Grade level which means above grade level at most school systems. Math had not beein an issue till she really had to analyze and read story problems. But there still was something we could not figure out. And it ended up being Aspergers which is now includied in the Autism Spectrum and High functioning Autism. There is not medication yet for kids for that. But anxiety medications maybe indicated later. But with an IEP the school was all out for and is even continuing it in 6th grade. She is doing almost the level of work of her IQ. She has always even as a very young child been clever and incredibly clear ideas on things that adult would often really have to consider and if able to agree to with a young childs view would be smart to agree with! A Child Psychiatrist was the answer along with tutoring, the IEP which included Social Skills training, reading support, more direction by the teacher. But interesting later in elemantary school she stopped taking her medication and guess what happened. She started regressing and not doing homework again. the First 1/2 of 5th grade she was almost ideal and did homework at school almost always. The Second half She did not learn as much and kept bringing home work home or forgot it. So next year our plan is to not deal with her taking her pill before school but instead will have to take it at school instead. And we will give strict instructions to the nurse that our child be held out of class till she each time shows She is taking her pill in the morning because we are very confident it was has made the difference for her. And we did not need a neurologist to advise us, though is OK if needed! (but yes costly) The Alexander Center is a help to many young children also..

More information is always better. If you cannot afford the full test now, you can do it later, for example the year before your son is old enough t take the SAT, so he can get additional test time -- I know that seems a long way off now! You may also want to ask your school system and pediatrician about a learning evaluation as well, which along with adhd diagnosis may help your son receive additional classroom support and accomodations (extra time on tests, written as well as verbal instructions, and so on).

I don't really understand what these "independent companies" are. We went to Gillette in St. Paul, and through the developmental neurologist we saw there, we got a 6 hour psychological eval, an audiology eval, a vision eval, and an OT eval. We had to pay our copays, meet our deductible, and take care of the coinsurance (just like any other major medical expense, like giving birth or having surgery.) Our regular pediatrician, who sent us to Gillette, also gave us the option of going to Fraser or Children's - we chose Gillette. It took a full year to get a diagnosis, and, yes, there were tons of forms and a lot of waiting for appointments. But in the end, we were totally confident in the diagnosis (ADHD), and had developed a detailed plan of action (which included both meds and OT.) My understanding from our developmental neurologist is that meds alone are not nearly as effective as meds plus OT. Your son needs to learn to pay attention to his body, to know when it needs something (more stimulation, less stimulation, movement, stillness, etc) and to learn tools to get those things in appropriate ways. The meds don't change these physical needs (*nothing* will, it's brain chemistry, it's just the way your son's body works), but they can help his body learn to be patient, and to wait for the stimulus that it needs. OT can help identify what kinds of stimulation his body is looking for, and give him a whole set of tools to find that stimulation in appropriate ways.

There are so many other things that can be going on in addition to OR besides ADHD. Getting the right diagnosis is crucial, and worth the time and effort. You either spend the time now and get the right diagnosis, or you waste time on interventions that aren't ever going to help, because they don't address the root issues.

If you have more questions on what insurance will cover, call your insurance company. They are more than happy to point you to certain providers that they will cover. It is in the insurance company's best interest for your son to get the right diagnosis, too.

P.S. Once we got our diagnosis and found the right medication dosage, we went back to our regular pediatrician, who now writes our prescriptions and signs off on OT for insurance.

food allergies can play a big part of it. You can try eliminating things and see if it helps. Like sugar, gluten/wheat, dairy and corn. It's a pain but if it works, it's well worth the time and energy. This helped me tons when my kids were little! Good luck!!

There is a natural way to control ADD/ADHD that is less expensive has a positve effect on a childs behavior; plus there is no side affects from medication. I can give you more information on this if you would like to send me a private message.