This post is going to be a little difficult for me to write because some of the things I am going to be honest about bothers me for saying, let alone thinking it. For the past 8 months to a year I have really had a hard time staying at home with my kids. There is nothing more I want than to be a stay at home mom. However, my son has made this very difficult on me with his behavior. He did really well in preschool but as summer hit and we approached Kindergarten, things got worse and worse making me really dislike the time I was spending with him. His doctor saw him in June and asked me if I was concerned about his activity level (which was OFF THE WALL) and I told him yes, but I wanted to wait until Kindergarten started. I wanted to see how he did in a very structured setting.
Well Kindergarten started and there was absolutely no change at all. My cute little five year old was ending up on red every single day and in the first couple weeks of school, he was at the Principals office every single day. I had a meeting with his teacher, who his truly a blessing to have, and we came up with a plan of action in the classroom. Never once did she tell me, or hint that I should have him evaluated. However, after discussing it with my husband, we decided to have him evaluated. He has ADHD.
We started medicine this week. It made us nervous to do medicine because I have seen kids take this kind of medicine who sit there like a zombie and that is NOT what we wanted our child to be. Zachary is totally not a zombie! His doctor started him off on a low dose and it is helping him tremendously. The first day he took it, I never had to yell once or tell him to get his shoes on a million times. I would tell him to do something, he would do it. I can’t even tell you how enjoyable this week has been. We hung out together while Bella was in school and truly had a wonderful time walking through Walmart and talking and laughing.
I asked Zachary how he is feeling and what he said makes me want to cry. He looked at me with his huge brown eyes and said “great mommy! The circle is gone from my head”. Now I didn’t get what he was saying so I asked him what he meant. He said “the circle in my head that goes around and around is gone” and Zachary was spinning his hands really fast as he told me this. To me, I am interpreting that as him telling me that he feels calm. I don’t know any other way to interpret it. I am so glad his circle is gone. The change in his writing at school is amazing as well. Off the medicine you cannot read a single letter he writes. They are backwards, upside down, sideways….on the medicine they are all facing the writing way and you can actually tell it is his name when he writes it!
This has truly been a wonderful week. Seeing my son look relaxed and happy is so nice.
That's what medicine is supposed to do! What a wonderful thing that you have a doctor who knows the right medicine and the right dosage to help a little boy with the "circle in his head" without taking away his personality.
That's wonderful! And kudos to you for going ahead and getting him tested. I'm sure it wasn't an easy decision, but it sounds like it turned out so well!
I am concerned that kindergarten is too young for medication. I have a child on ADHD medication, but was told by several medical and psychological experts not to start any type of medication until a child was older. I would get a second opinion.
Just found you blog, you seem like a great mom.
Glad your son is doing better 🙂
That's wonderful you've found a solution that works for you. I too think we're headed for medication after exhausting all our other options. Therapy alone just hasn't worked for us with our son, and I DREAD school breaks and summers.
MY son also started adhd meds half way through kindergarden. WOW what a different kid. And like you said not a zombie,but a kid that was happy with himself. We did end up holding him back that year,but there was no doubt in our minds that had we started him earlier on meds he would not have had to be held back. I had ALOT of "mommy guilt" for putting him on meds.