Serenity Now
New Member
Hi,
I am new to this website. My soon to be 5 year old adopted daughter was just diagnosed with ADHD/ODD, but I am not sure about medicating her or the diagnosis. Let me give you some background. My daughter was physically abused as an infant which left her with permanent brain damage. She came to live with us at 8 months of age after being with another foster family since she was 6 weeks old. She was taken from her biological parents (her mother is my biological sister) at 5 weeks old when taken to the hospital with seizures, 17 broken ribs, two brain injuries to the left frontal lobe and various other injuries all which occured at different times because she had various levels of healing. Physically the only problem is that her one foot turns in and she has weakness on the one side of her body that is her dominent side. She just started her 3rd year in a preschool disabled class that meets 5 days a week for 2 1/2 hours. The plan is to mainstream her into kindergarten next year. She receives speech therapy and Occupational Therapist (OT), and she has been seeing a therapist for the last year. I took her last week to the Developmental Pediatrician at CHOP to be evaluated and his diagnosis was ADHD/ODD.
Now my concern is that she is going to start this medicine after we receive EKG results. At school and the babysitters house they tell me she is fine, that she is a little overactive but not to the extreme. Did I mention she is a great actress!! Although the babysitter does tell me she hits the other children a few times a week, and she is very moody. My problem is at home. She is defiant, sneaky, hits, spits, lies, steals, and does everything possible to torture my two dogs. She never sits still meal time is like a circus, she must be playing while watching a movie, she gets into things that she has been told time and time again not to touch and no matter where I hide something she finds a way to get to it. Her affection is on her terms only, if I try to kiss or hug her she will push me away and wipe off my kiss. But if she wants a hug or kiss, she grabs you soo hard it hurts. If a relative tries to hug or kiss her she tells them no that she doesn't like hugs and kisses. She has body slammed my 11 year old son and has left bruises on both of us. For the most part she ignores my husband unless she wants something or feels the need to climb on him. Then it is "Hi, Daddy, I Love you Daddy". She has stomped on dead animals such as a bird and frog. She has very morbid thinking, like if she see a child at a restuarant with just his father she will say "that boy doesn't have a mommy his mommy died and she is in heaven". or if she sees animal tracks in the snow and they suddenly stop, she will say "the rabbit ran in the street and got hit by a car and he died, died, died". She plays nice with older children, but with children her own age she says they are babies and although she will play with them from time to time she always comes back to saying she doesn't like them and they are babies. She has great pretend play and can play for hours, but not with just one thing, she has a puzzle going, a game thrown all over the floor, she has the cd player going, a movie on, shes jumping on her bed, singing, dancing, she has stuffed animals in the doll house, I find her small plastic animals in her pretend oven and she says she's cooking them. She changes her clothes constantly and will only wear what she wants. She will go to the extreme not to listen to someone, by rolling her eyes, covering her ears or hiding under a blanket.
Her biological father has ADHD and her biological mother is bipolar. Well that is all the negatives I can think of now, it is soo hard to read what I just wrote because it makes me want to cry. I just want to love her and give her the opportunity for a positive future. My question is, is it possible for her to have ADHD/ODD and display these behaviors mostly at home or relatives houses? I got to go she just carried a gallon of milk, a glass and choclate milk mix all the way downstairs so I can make her choclate milk-UGGGHHH!!!!
Any advise, I will love to hear.
I am new to this website. My soon to be 5 year old adopted daughter was just diagnosed with ADHD/ODD, but I am not sure about medicating her or the diagnosis. Let me give you some background. My daughter was physically abused as an infant which left her with permanent brain damage. She came to live with us at 8 months of age after being with another foster family since she was 6 weeks old. She was taken from her biological parents (her mother is my biological sister) at 5 weeks old when taken to the hospital with seizures, 17 broken ribs, two brain injuries to the left frontal lobe and various other injuries all which occured at different times because she had various levels of healing. Physically the only problem is that her one foot turns in and she has weakness on the one side of her body that is her dominent side. She just started her 3rd year in a preschool disabled class that meets 5 days a week for 2 1/2 hours. The plan is to mainstream her into kindergarten next year. She receives speech therapy and Occupational Therapist (OT), and she has been seeing a therapist for the last year. I took her last week to the Developmental Pediatrician at CHOP to be evaluated and his diagnosis was ADHD/ODD.
Now my concern is that she is going to start this medicine after we receive EKG results. At school and the babysitters house they tell me she is fine, that she is a little overactive but not to the extreme. Did I mention she is a great actress!! Although the babysitter does tell me she hits the other children a few times a week, and she is very moody. My problem is at home. She is defiant, sneaky, hits, spits, lies, steals, and does everything possible to torture my two dogs. She never sits still meal time is like a circus, she must be playing while watching a movie, she gets into things that she has been told time and time again not to touch and no matter where I hide something she finds a way to get to it. Her affection is on her terms only, if I try to kiss or hug her she will push me away and wipe off my kiss. But if she wants a hug or kiss, she grabs you soo hard it hurts. If a relative tries to hug or kiss her she tells them no that she doesn't like hugs and kisses. She has body slammed my 11 year old son and has left bruises on both of us. For the most part she ignores my husband unless she wants something or feels the need to climb on him. Then it is "Hi, Daddy, I Love you Daddy". She has stomped on dead animals such as a bird and frog. She has very morbid thinking, like if she see a child at a restuarant with just his father she will say "that boy doesn't have a mommy his mommy died and she is in heaven". or if she sees animal tracks in the snow and they suddenly stop, she will say "the rabbit ran in the street and got hit by a car and he died, died, died". She plays nice with older children, but with children her own age she says they are babies and although she will play with them from time to time she always comes back to saying she doesn't like them and they are babies. She has great pretend play and can play for hours, but not with just one thing, she has a puzzle going, a game thrown all over the floor, she has the cd player going, a movie on, shes jumping on her bed, singing, dancing, she has stuffed animals in the doll house, I find her small plastic animals in her pretend oven and she says she's cooking them. She changes her clothes constantly and will only wear what she wants. She will go to the extreme not to listen to someone, by rolling her eyes, covering her ears or hiding under a blanket.
Her biological father has ADHD and her biological mother is bipolar. Well that is all the negatives I can think of now, it is soo hard to read what I just wrote because it makes me want to cry. I just want to love her and give her the opportunity for a positive future. My question is, is it possible for her to have ADHD/ODD and display these behaviors mostly at home or relatives houses? I got to go she just carried a gallon of milk, a glass and choclate milk mix all the way downstairs so I can make her choclate milk-UGGGHHH!!!!
Any advise, I will love to hear.