this child of mine.

Ok so as I think I mentioned in my profile I am a mom of a 8 year old lil boy who has ADHD. He is my everything. I am so glad that he is out of school right now, it helps me make it through some of the hard days and he and I can spend time with one another. I love summer time for that reason alone.

So about the ADHD, we, that being the doctors and myself, have tried several different treatments. I don't like having to medicate my lil boy, but honestly I fear for his safety. I have pulled him from trees and had him nearly ran over TWICE because his mind is always in over drive, his poor lil body is always on the go. He can't sit still in school he has to be moving at all times and this is him on medication. He does ok, and I had him on Adderall XR but it just wasn't working, and because of sports and church activities we are continuing the meds over summer break, with one exception, he is now on a patch, its called Daytrana its a lil sticky patch he wears on his hip for 5- 6 hours, he can wear it up to 9 but I prefer he just wear it for 5- 6 hours this summer. The effect last 3 hours after the patch is removed. Now this is a tricky thing, most parents feel giving your child medication is ridiculous, I know I did. I said NEVER. Then my son was diagnosed with ADHD. He became impossible to control. Not mean just unable to keep him out of danger, he burned his hand 5 times on a light bulb, it was so cool to him to be able to "touch the sun". mind u he was 3. I told him each time it was not the sun, but his mind couldn't slow down long enough to absorb the information, he did this when I was cooking or when he was with his grandparents. Needless to say we had no lamps that could be within reach of him after the 2nd time at our home but when we would visit other places he would always seem to find the "sun". He would climb to the highest place in the house and would jump, if it hurt him he would cry and bit and try again. Pain was not a deterrent. I feared for him, so I allowed him to be put on Adderall at 4 years old when he was getting ready to start school. It didn't do much to slow him down but it helped enough to allow him to learn and that was my main goal. Keeping him from danger and for him to be able to sit still long enough to learn. One day in the middle of the year I forgot to give Austin his medication. I was called into school, his teacher looked as if she could kill me. I hadn't realized my mistake, I had been ill that day. But she informed me Austin would have to go home early , and asked had they taken him off his ADHD medication, I said no, and it hit me, I forgot! She said she knew something was wrong that he had rolled around in the floor and been unable to sit still he had ran his lil legs off all day and I needed to take him home before she had a nervous breakdown. I took him home. But never forgot his meds again during the school year. I don't know why I wanted to share this, maybe someone out there is going through some of the everyday things with their child with ADHD that I am, who knows, but I just thought I would share. If you have any advice please feel free to help me. :o)