Testing for AD/HD... - ADD / ADHD Message Board

grioghair · 02-16-2005, 10:24 PM

Can someone give me any feedback about the tests for AD/HD and how much it costs for these tests.

Thanks,

Steve

mgildea22 · 02-20-2005, 07:02 AM

When I brought my son for the test. There was no specific test. I took him to the mental health dept at the local health care ctr and they gave him some tasks to accomplish w/ building blocks and puzzles..he was 2.5 yrs old. Afterwards it was explained to me that there was no specific test and he was given a derivative of ritalin to try. It was quite obvious that he was abnormaly over active at the time when the doc saw him. I was told that if the medicine worked..slowed him down to continue use...if it made him more active..to discontinue use. It worked ...however we used an alternative method of controlling this which is very difficult for any parent. In short..bring him to a mental health professional and if it's an affordability issue you may want to try a free care facility.

mgildea22 · 02-20-2005, 07:39 AM

Forgot to mention this in prior post
Before you are convinced that your child needs testing..you may want to make a check list for the following because although the drugs help...some of them may have long term side effects:

Are you putting the child to bed at a reasonable hour? ie...before 7:30 for an child under age 7 that has to wake for school.

Is the child getting 2 hrs of exercise daily?

Does the child have activities that stimulate learning such as crayons, drawing tools, interesting books readily available? Children's brains are able to absorb lots more daily than an adult.

Is the child getting proper nutrition? Foods that are truly foods and not packaged w/ oodles of chemicals & artificial colors. If it doesn't appear to be food..in other words..if it's not a fruit, grain or meat or you can't look at it an figure out how to make it yourself... You may want to think about trying to omit these things from the childs diet for a few weeks to see if it's a chemical reaction. Some good healthy snacks are cheeses, breyers ice cream, grapes, apples w/ cinnamon & sugar.

CyberGodess · 02-20-2005, 08:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grioghair

Can someone give me any feedback about the tests for AD/HD and how much it costs for these tests.

Thanks,

Steve

I could tell you a lot about testing but it depends on whether it's for an adult or a child. Which?