Please hold my hand and talk me through Inattentive ADHD

[westcoastnortherner]

My DD 8 has just been given a diagnosisof ADHD, the attentive version, pediatrician, we have been told to read about the condition, take her to see an educational psychologist and consider medication.

Does anyone have any advise or experience of this condition and how does the medication affect your child?

Sorry that should say the Inattentive version

Bump, anyone?

Hi OP, I think you might get more responses on the Special Needs board rather than Education.

Thank you

my daughter (13) has ADD with some aspie traits, and my son (9) has ADHD. Daughter is always in own wee world, takes forever to get things started and needs to be kept on at to get anything finished. Her room is a bomb site. She is always forgetting things and losing things. It takes forever to get her up and dressed in the mornings. "Dolly daydream" describes her to a "T". She is very easily distracted & finds it impossible to focus unless interested and then, conversely, goes into almost obsessive mode. When she was about 7 she sat outside one of the prairie dog burrows at Belfast zoo with a blade of grass for almost an hour trying to tempt one out. Her latest passion is manga comics, which she talks about non-stop. Outside the home she is passive, socially awkward and finds it hard to form friendships which last, and is very naive for her age. She blossoms with praise.

She is on medikinet - a stimulant which uses the same generic drug as ritalin. She takes this 3 times a day when at school - to get her through classes and homework. During the holidays we don't bother with it, because , unlike my ADHD son, behaviour is not an issue and she is too passive to get herself into stupid and dangerous situations. The medication does help her focus and concentrate better on her classes. It does not help the social side though - I don't think there is ant medication for that!

She also takes a hormone tablet at night - melatonin - as sleepless nights were a big issue.

Don't know if this is any help!

Even with your quite good description of your children, without personal observation I am only going to make a few practical suggestions, although it might be the case you have already gone down the paths I am suggesting.
Apart from teaching special needs for 10 years in main stream school. My experience has been with my own children a girl who was brain damaged at birth( neglect to give her oxygen at once for a viewed condition), and 2 boys who have different forms of dyslexia.
I have taught those with low level Autism. and those with ADHD and ADD as well as dyspraxia.
I still do a bit to help out even now I am out of main stream teaching.
Practical medical studies over the last few years have shown that diet( or rather the type of food the children eat) has shown to be a culprit in some cases.
There is far too many additives in many prepared commercial meals as well as individual ingredients used to make/prepare meals.
Some have already been identified in the way they interfere with the way the body uses the nutrients for growth, nerve building and keeping the immune system in good order.
Recently a television programme showed that much commercially produced bread had up to 18 extra chemical additives that did nothing for the bread in the way of nutrition.(suggest get a Panasonic2501/2 bread maker and do your own. This machine does it all even have it ready to eat first thing in the morning and not expensive .It makes all sorts).

Instead of the hormone tablet at night you might like to try a natural item that was found in stone ground flour years ago- Dolomite- it was in the flour from the stone wheels that ground wheat for the bread( now wheels are steel) so no Dolomite.
This is a mix of Magnesium and Calcium ratio about 60/40. You can get Dolomite tablets from you nearest heath store, they are fairly cheap. Take 2/3 about 1 hour before bedtime with a glass of water or small amount of liquid of your choice. When my kids were hyped up at Xmas or just before our holiday, they would say Can't sleep Daddy can I have a lullaby tablet. If chewed they taste as if you have had a bite of school chalk and they are a bit powdery and a bit sticky in the mouth (lol) ( they are also good for period pains if taken 24 hours before onset.During this time there is a low blood sugar and I have been told this can cause muscular stomach cramps. This item stops the drop in blood sugar this caused the cramps. Quite a number of ladies have found this ideal for their teen aged daughters. One daughter in fact was a teacher in her first year of teaching. She used to have a number of days off sick at the onset due to severe abdominal pains. after the start of Dolomite she only had mild cramps and no more time off.

The untidiness can be addressed but over a period of time. Still a mess to start with but concentrate on a regime of all items of a colour or near colour in each pile. You start to get a break down, then there is an order in piles. You progress then from each individual pile. Break down the pile and eventually get to the put away stage( or at least some of it (DO NOT EXPECT MIRACLES).

Their vision is of a a great mass and their brain is not able to compute a starting point, so tough there you go! A MESS, in your eyes.
The colour idea is a one thought that can be learned and is a starting point. The object is to get a learned focus on colour ! You will need to guide by your presence to start just to suggest,ie what about this bit or that bit, what do you think? Nice and gentle talk with pauses for them to have time to concentrate and focus.NEVER use the word NO! say OK let's have another go.( Us means- we share the job/problem/chore. No pressures!( Hurry slowly, you get there quicker!; it is likely to be long and slow!but it can work).
ADHD-recap on the food your son eats. How much of it is home prepared from natural ingredients, fresh veg and fruit.
It may need a slow drip bit by bit if you have to introduce different foods. I suggest you look on the net forums for ideas on food change to give you pointers to start with. You may be spot on with the foods. Check the efficacy of raw food items it can give you a lead. It has helped many so worth an investigation. Good luck. Sorry for so long winded post but you has a number of points to cover.