Today is Lily' s fifth day of Kindergarten. She is doing great at school. The first few days she wasn't really able to settle down enough to communicate with me. Now she is back to her old self. I wonder if kids with ADD or ADHD are always like that? I mean for days Lily couldn't settle down enough to listen or talk, I knew she was in there but I couldn't get a connection.
Some of the things I did which seem to have helped Lily settle down: I put us on a schedule. I used only a soft patient voice, even though she was driving me crazy and I wanted with every fiber of my being to scream, "knock it off". I gave her a physical outlet for her extra energy, like going for a walk or wrestling with me. I also get her up for school about an hour before we need to leave for the bus, that gives her enough time in the morning for a lea surly breakfast and time to goof off and not be in a rush. Finally she started to come out of that hyper place and was our Lily again. I hope the same is true about her behavior at school.
I can see why people would want to medicate a child who cannot calm down enough to engage. I would say that Lily is on the hyper side of a typically developing child. I am so thankful that I am able to calm Lily down and get her focus back after a week of intense behavior modification work at home. I can't help but wonder what it would be like if all that work did not net any results. If no matter what I did Lily couldn't settle down enough to connect with me, to listen and hear me and to gather herself enough to communicate her thoughts to me.
I share this experience with you because I hear so much about kids being over medicated. I wonder if I was in a different place and not able to spend so much time with behavior modification, would Lily need to be medicated? I know we all wonder if some of the kids who are being medicated could really be better managed with some behavior modification. There are so many children being medicated today. But, are they really being over medicated? I just can't wrap my brain around that statement. Why in the world would a doctor give medication to a child unless that child really and truly needed that medication? I do know of moms who give their child Benadryl or Tylenol as a behavior modification tool. But, a doctor? Do you feel that thousands of doctors are really and truly just writing prescriptions for kids without the kids best interest at heart? I really wonder about that when I hear people talk about the over medication of our children. Are our doctors really that greedy or lazy? Are our doctors so corrupt that they just write prescriptions without a second thought? Is that what we as a society think of our doctors, who are supposedly the best doctors in the entire world? What are you thoughts?
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3 comments:
I think sometimes doctors prescribe meds because of the parents, they request it or they just don't know of any option or say they tried everything and it does not work.
I do have to say though that I have seen kids on the meds where it has actually helped them, they can focus. These kids are the ones who say that it felt like there was so much going on in their mind and that once the medicine started working it became calm. I have also seen the ones who are overmedicated and I immediately bring it to the parents attention. I have even told doctors if I don't think that the parents said anything to them about it. Lily has gone through some major changes this week. It takes a few days to get use to it, stay on top of her routine and watch the behavior. Communicate with the teachers too, to see if they are seeing the same behavior in the classroom. Sometimes kids are very good at school and then when they get home they go crazy. I am sure Lily is fine and having a great time in her new school. What have you been doing with your time?
You know what is funny? I am the same way as Lily, I sometimes have trouble dialing it down. Like I have an easier time concentrating when I am tired. I think that learning how to dial it down as a kid is important and taking meds might get in the way of aquiring that skill. I only think that in the case of Lily and not in regards to all kids.
You have done the best thing you could in focusing on a schedule for Lily. That was always important to my son when he was young. He was eventually diagnosed with ADD. You may or may not encounter teachers who push for medication or question whether there are attention issues if Lily doesn't fall in line. It is early however.
There are those who push for medication, but I hated to think that my son would have to be different and be one of the kids who lined up at school for their pill. We found a wonderful child psychiatrist who worked through the medication issues and combined the medicine with therapy. I still remember a school nurse who said at one meeting, "You may want to lower your expectations as far as college."
Well, college boy is heading back to his second year of college and I'd like to slap that school nurse.
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