When Your Child Has ADD
By: Jodie of Mercas Inc.When some hear the term ADD or ADHD they picture a child who can not sit still, bounces off the walls, or even interrupts others without a second thought. Sadly, these days, children with these disorders are misunderstood. Being a parent of a child with ADD (attention deficit disorder) I find myself having to explain over and over again that her type has no hyper activity involved what so ever. Usually this gets me odd looks from those I am explaining to. They are already under the impression that no matter what, hyper activity is involved so it was my job to tell and prove otherwise.
Attention Deficit Disorder kind of explains itself. It is the inability to pay attention mainly. Yes sometimes children have a hard time sitting still, but think of how hard that must be when things are really boring. I know, sometimes, that when I'm sitting in on a presentation and I find it dull, I find myself shaking my knee or tapping my index finger on the arm of the chair. I do not have ADD myself, but I know how hard it is to deal with sometimes. Seeing how discouraged my daughter gets when she forgets something really hurts.
When a parent finds out that their child has ADD a lot of emotions run through their minds. Like with me I wondered if I did something while pregnant with her to cause this, was I feeding her something that caused this, or could I have prevented it some how? All my answers were no. Although ADD is considered to be passed on from parent to child, learning that it was not me kind of put my mind at ease a little. I had lots more to worry about though, so peace of mind really wasn't with me long. My daughters doctor offered treatment options and which she thought was the right one for my daughter. She suggested herbal methods, medication, and even nothing at all. After seeing my child's teachers evaluation, and how ADD was causing her to fail in school, I decided to do some research on the internet. I looked up the medications, the herbal treatments and info on ADD itself. After looking at it all, my husband and I decided to put her on medication. A lot of parents don't like the idea of doing this, but sometimes when they see how ADD is really effecting their child, they just make the decision, sort of like a leap of faith.
The first medication they put her on was called Adderall. At first it seemed to work well.. She came home and was her same little self. About a month into this medication, her behavior started showing up at the babysitters so back to the doctor we went. This time she mentioned that there was an extended version of Adderall that you still give once a day so we switched to that. Again it all seemed to work fine, but about 3 months after she was given this, she would come home and go straight to sleep. I figured she was just tired, but after about 2 weeks of it, back to the docs we went again. I was sick of seeing my child tired and not herself so we asked what other medications were out there that a child of her age could take. That's when she mentioned Straterra. We switched her to that mainly because it is a non stimulant and leaves the system as fast as it goes in. The coming home tired stopped and her school work began to improve and she was smiling all the time. She's been on this for 2 and half years now.
When your child has ADD, this also means that you become your child's advocate more than ever. You end up fighting for their rights in education and daily life in general. In education you deal with the teachers who don't seem to want to take the time with your child while other times you have those who go out of their way to help them. Knowing your facts about everything is the key to making things work for your child and I believe that if you can turn one persons thoughts around about ADD, then you've accomplished a lot.
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