suzie62902
New Member
Boy am I glad to have found this place!! My 4 1/2 year old son was recently diagnosis with ADHD. I had my suspicions from about the time he was 2 on. It has progressively gotten worse since then. We have been having a very difficult time with him. I have just been at the end of my rope lately. I also have a 2 year old daughter and a 2 month old son. My 4 year old...is like a ticking time bomb, i guess is the best way to describe him. Not only is he constantly moving, but his behavior is just terrible. I feel like I am constantly nagging..."dont do that, do this, do that" over and over and over. He is constantly pinching and poking others, trips, hits, kicks, tries to choke his sister. Deliberately annoys, he invades peoples space, touches their faces, interrupts conversations, etc. I can't leave him alone in a room with his siblings becuase I am afraid he will do soemthing to them. Back to the ticking time bomb...he can go from being the sweetest most loving little boy to an uncontrollable monster (for lack of a better word) the next. He gets frustrated and angry VERY easily...anything and nothing can set him off, I just don'tknow when he is going to be set off. He will stomp, hit, kick, punch, slam. He has put holes in the wall, broken a toilet, and broken a closet door in his rages. there is no reasoning with him, there is nothing to get him to calm down. There is no disciplining him either, time outs are a joke, taking toys away is a joke, i am ashamed to say I have spanked him twice (and I am so anti-spanking, and felt terrible after the fact)...that was a joke. I reward him when I catch him being good, I have made sticker charts and reward systems. Although he wants the rewards, he just can't seem to earn them. Sleeping has been a joke as well. He just can't calm himself to sleep. We have a routine, we try to have a quite "settle down time" as we call it before bed. After bath and jammies, we sit quite and read. After we have left his room, he is right back up, there are nights (most nights) where he has been up past 11. He will finally just crash. But, then he is up between 5-6 the next morning to start it all over again. When he is awake, the whole house is awake, none of us get much sleep..especially his two year old sister. After meeting with the dr and getting his diagnosis, he suggested we give him Melatonin at night, which we have for the past 3 nights and I am happy to say he was asleep by 8 each night.
He has complete lack of focus. He jumps from one thing to the next to the next, he is just all over the map. He can not stay seated in a chair, say at dinner time, or at preschool. There are times he just seems to be in his own world, he will just space out completely. His preschool teachers have had a difficult time with him. The other day they told me that he was just deliberately annoying everything single child in his classroom. She said there was not one child that he didn't poke. Other times they tell me that he just is so wild running around the classroom and not listening. Now, he WILL sit in a chair for a "cool off" period at school if his teacher puts him there. She told me that he will sit and not get out of the chair, but he does not sit still in the chair. I am really very worried that he isn't going to have any friends. I notice that the friends he made at the beginning of the year now walk the opposite direction when he comes near them. He told me that they call him mean. I honestly don't think he is intentionaly being "mean" to them. He just is overly excited, if that makes any sense? He wants to be their friend.
Ok, this has gotten very long, but as you can see I have just had a very difficult time with him. His dr talked to us a little bit about medication, but I am reluctant to put him on medications, I would like to try other methods first. I have appointments with a Behavioral Pyschologist set up for next month, they are going to do an "official adhd evaluation" (anyone know what they do for that? It takes 2 visits?). I just hope they can offer me ways of dealing with this. Any suggestions I get here I will try as well. Also, I am going to go to the library to get some books on it, any suggestions? I really feel like I have tried everything I know how to do, I really want this to be a little better before he starts kindergarten in the fall. Thank you to all who read this far. There is a lot that I have left out too, if I were to write everything iwould be here for days . I love him to death and I just feel bad that he has to deal with this. I really was feeling like it was my fault that he acted this way, I am slowly starting to realize that its not.
Suzie
He has complete lack of focus. He jumps from one thing to the next to the next, he is just all over the map. He can not stay seated in a chair, say at dinner time, or at preschool. There are times he just seems to be in his own world, he will just space out completely. His preschool teachers have had a difficult time with him. The other day they told me that he was just deliberately annoying everything single child in his classroom. She said there was not one child that he didn't poke. Other times they tell me that he just is so wild running around the classroom and not listening. Now, he WILL sit in a chair for a "cool off" period at school if his teacher puts him there. She told me that he will sit and not get out of the chair, but he does not sit still in the chair. I am really very worried that he isn't going to have any friends. I notice that the friends he made at the beginning of the year now walk the opposite direction when he comes near them. He told me that they call him mean. I honestly don't think he is intentionaly being "mean" to them. He just is overly excited, if that makes any sense? He wants to be their friend.
Ok, this has gotten very long, but as you can see I have just had a very difficult time with him. His dr talked to us a little bit about medication, but I am reluctant to put him on medications, I would like to try other methods first. I have appointments with a Behavioral Pyschologist set up for next month, they are going to do an "official adhd evaluation" (anyone know what they do for that? It takes 2 visits?). I just hope they can offer me ways of dealing with this. Any suggestions I get here I will try as well. Also, I am going to go to the library to get some books on it, any suggestions? I really feel like I have tried everything I know how to do, I really want this to be a little better before he starts kindergarten in the fall. Thank you to all who read this far. There is a lot that I have left out too, if I were to write everything iwould be here for days . I love him to death and I just feel bad that he has to deal with this. I really was feeling like it was my fault that he acted this way, I am slowly starting to realize that its not.
Suzie