Advice for ADHD child?

Question

I have a wonderful six year old, Damion, that has just started first grade. He is a very sweet kid and does well in school (good with spelling, reading, math) but he is displaying very obvious signs of ADHD. His teachers are getting very frustrated with him and all of my punishments seem to go nowhere with him.

My husband and I have been curious about whether he has ADHD for a couple of years now, but his pediatrician said Damion can not be tested until he is seven. I can't even imagine trying to make it through the rest of first grade without some sort of help or diagnosis.

Does anyone else have experience with a child that has this? Is medication going to be necessary? Are there any successful disciplinary actions I can take that will have a greater effect and get through to him? Should I put some sort of reward system into play?

Any advice is greatly appreciated as I am lost and I feel bad about Damion being the "problem child" in his class. 😕💔

Answer

If you haven't look into diet changes (low sugar, no processed food, cut out food dye.)

My friend was able to take her son off all ADHD meds with use of essential oils.

Answer

I'm not opposed to medication but I would use as a last resort. Look at cleaning up his diet, establishing a routine at home, lots of fun & stimulating acitivities (indoor rock climbing is awesome), and you might even look at non-traditional school systems (we're considering a year round school as it helps maintain a more consistent routine and has more mini breaks). Good luck!

Answer

I will look for the link to add. But i watched a video of a mother trying natural remedies for adhd and she was very successful with juicing. She made her son green smoothies and it worked wonders for her child.

(Maybe a little camamile tea before school could help calm him down)

Also i noticed with my oldest son when he is bored or tired he acts out. We have changed bedtimes and added a nap after school to help. It could help to try, maybe he is also advanced for his class.. i dont know just a few things to consider. I honestly would try my hardest to find a natural remedy..
 i dont think it is good for children to be dependent on drug/medications (also some of the drugs make the children like zoombies with no personality who wants their child like that...)

Answer

You should do some research on his diet. Chemicals, sugar intake, etc can be a large cause. You might be able to avoid medication.

Answer

Ive been diagnosed with adhd since I was 4. Disipline is key but not too harsh, kids with adhd think faster so he might think of a way around your actions if theyre too harsh. I did. Special reward system sounds like itd be a good idea but in a certain form. Medication....id most likley recommend it. I do recomend sertraline though. It gets better overtime. With daytrana and strattera and all the others I felt like a zombie. I didnt like talking eating and I always kept to myself. The sertraline deinatly helped me out, but the key is to help him cope with not being on the medicine later in life.. youre body can have a dependencyon that medication...aby medication at that. I stopped taking my medicine when I was 16 and my adhd was still pretty bad, but the longer I was off the medication the more I came to understand control. Hope this helps!! Goodluck.

Answer

There are some great early interventions for ADHD. I definitely recommend looking up a licensed play therapist! (I am a marriage & family therapist with training in play therapy,  and I've worked with quite a few kids with ADHD). A play therapist can help you (and your son's school!) come up with realistic goals, rewards, consequences, etc.

Answer

With ADHD kids now this works on some but not all, you can try caffeine, with a lot of kids like that everything does the opposite. Like the drug speed will give us lots of energy but with then it slows them down same with caffeine

Answer

My 12 year old niece has ADHD. And omg its bad. Well the only reason its gotten realy bad, is because at first my sister said there is nothing wrong with her and she's only doing it for attention, and would spank her every she did something wrong, witch is mostly my sisters fault for confusing her telling her no you can not do that then yes you can then spanking her for doing it when she said yes. then when she realized that there is something wrong, she put her on meds that madeher look sick because it made her not hungry most of the time. And then would take her to fun places when she is acting up to get her to calm down. Witch is a big no no. And she would take her to go buy stuff also to get her to calm down. Also a big no no. And then she started to act up just to get things and to go places. And my sister gave in a lot with letting her have a night light,being in the room when she's trying to go to sleep, letting her follow her every were throw tbe house, and letting her keep dog's ect.. witch now she can't sleep with out the night light, with out her mom in the room and with out the dog up her but when sleeping. And she aggravates everyone because she's bord and thinks its funny, witch she said that her self, also over the years she has became veary violent towards her 2 sister's but my sisters wont do much about it but spank her. Witch i think she needs some real help. The doc that is giving her the ADHD meds for her kid is her primary doc and not a psychologist and she does not have a therapist. She almost killed one of her sister's by choking her, and beat up one of her sister's really bad. And she has threatened to kill them many times while there sleeping. But my sister wont get her real help and the meds don't seem to work she has been on a lot of meds i mean a lot. But her body gets use to them to fast and stop working. And most of the time she wont take them and my sister forgets to make her take them and my nieces sure wont remind her.

Answer

Another simple suggestion - one of my friends was like that as a child and his mom gave him a piece of cloth to play with in his pocket. Definitely pursue all those medical things, and talk to the doctor, but that might help in the interim, just to give him something quiet to do with his hands.

Answer

Sometimes just being allowed to do jumping jacks or run in place in the back of the room during class works wonders. When I spent time in a first grade class (and a pre k class) that was often one of the first things we tried with those kind of kids.

Advice for ADHD child?

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