lvnmyboys
04-03-2002, 11:05 PM
My son (9) has battled bullies this school year. We began to notice problems, he seemed real sad, lost weight, just looked bad. He has taken Ritalin since he was 5 years old and it worked. His attention was gone. The psychiatrist gave him 25mg Zoloft and increased it twice to 75mg. No change. In Feb. he was given Welbutrin SR 100mg increased to twice a day and switched to Adderal. The doctor kept him on the Zoloft until the Welbutrin had time to work. We were in the process of weaning him off of the Zoloft when he seemed to get worse real fast. He was admitted into the hospital last week for severe depression with psychosis! They immediately discontinued the Zoloft and gave him Risperdal. They have still only diagnosed him with major depression, but we are now watching for bipolar signs. He isn't manic and doesn't cycle through moods, but this psychotic episode may be an early sign of bipolar disorder or very well could have been from the Zoloft.
Has anyone ever had this happen?? I am very concerned.
Has anyone ever had this happen?? I am very concerned.
Sponsor
WallSal55
04-14-2002, 11:26 AM
First of all, I hope something has been done about the bullies. Our schools in this area have taken some
responsibility. So have local TV stations. My son
was put on ritalin when he was really allergic to
ragweed. There is a connection between ragweed allergies and ritalin allergy. He was also allergic
to decongestants in cold meds, food dyes (red & yellow M & M peanuts!), and caffeine. Anyway, we took
the behavioral route with him, as he had an allergic
reaction to the ritalin pill, plus he did not like
himself when the pill wore off. He felt like he had
crashed, was depressed, after all, he was on a drug!
My nephew was put on ritalin, too, to learn. He
also has allergies, etc. Anyway, he was on it only
for a while--just to learn. He felt bad because he
couldn't learn, so my in-laws decided to build upon
his interests. They enrolled him in scouts, camping,
and art lessons. Today he can draw well, is an Eagle
Scout, joined the Guard, and goes to college thru the
Guard. They took a behavioral approach to building his self-worth and self esteem.
Another couple, whose son had hit someone
at school, didn't want their son a zombie on ritalin
because he reallly was lovable with a good sense of humor. So, they found a good psychiatrist who was willing to do the behavioral approach without ritalin. It really helped! ;)
------------------
responsibility. So have local TV stations. My son
was put on ritalin when he was really allergic to
ragweed. There is a connection between ragweed allergies and ritalin allergy. He was also allergic
to decongestants in cold meds, food dyes (red & yellow M & M peanuts!), and caffeine. Anyway, we took
the behavioral route with him, as he had an allergic
reaction to the ritalin pill, plus he did not like
himself when the pill wore off. He felt like he had
crashed, was depressed, after all, he was on a drug!
My nephew was put on ritalin, too, to learn. He
also has allergies, etc. Anyway, he was on it only
for a while--just to learn. He felt bad because he
couldn't learn, so my in-laws decided to build upon
his interests. They enrolled him in scouts, camping,
and art lessons. Today he can draw well, is an Eagle
Scout, joined the Guard, and goes to college thru the
Guard. They took a behavioral approach to building his self-worth and self esteem.
Another couple, whose son had hit someone
at school, didn't want their son a zombie on ritalin
because he reallly was lovable with a good sense of humor. So, they found a good psychiatrist who was willing to do the behavioral approach without ritalin. It really helped! ;)
------------------
Colleen McFarland
04-19-2002, 03:07 PM
My daughter is 12 years old and she has taken ritalin since she was 6. She required a steady increase over the years and is currently taking 120mg every day. This past December she began having seizures and had to start taking an anticonvulsant and the anticonvulsant seems to mask all affect which the stimulant once offered. In response to this change in medications we added risperdal but continued the 120mg of ritalin. My daughter just recently began hearing voices and the medical professionals are attributing this to the high dose of stimulants, so we are weaning her off of the ritalin. I have been diagnosed Bipolar1 with rapid cycling after years of being treated with dexedrine for adult ADHD and I am now wondering if we are seeing a response to new meds or possible bipolar symptoms. I am really interested in what you find out in regards to your son. Feel free to e-mail me any time!
D@N
04-22-2002, 04:29 AM
We had a name for a.d.d. when I was a kid. It was called hyperactivity.
If everyone on this board with a problem child will follow my advice for ONE month without fail, I can save you alot of money, alot of grief, and put your psychologist out of business.
The root problem in most cases of a.d.d. or hyperactivity is DIET. I can firmly state this because I was a child diagnosed in 1976 as hyperactive. If I had grown up in the 90's I would have been diagnosed with A.D.D. and put on Ritalin (kiddie dope) and given a death sentence. I can remember how I felt. I could not change no matter how hard I tried. I knew how much I was hurting my mother (lived with her...divorced family) I just could not stop my behaviour. She noticed that on some days, I as a good boy. I noticed those days too but we never put 2 and 2 together until she saw Doctor R. Feingold on a talk show talking about hyperactive kids. This was back in 76....and such a thing was a rare topic because most kids with hyperactivty were paddled in school, and whipped at home so it was controlled out of fear to a point.
After researching Feingold's material, I was put on a NO SUGAR, No artifical flavor, no artificial color diet. Mom read the ingriedents on every thing she bought to ensure there was nothing artifical. After she detoxed my blood of all that garbage that my body was reacting to, I began to gain control of my own behavior. As I grew into an adult, I found that I had a problem digesting sugar. So what most of you parents have on your hands are borderline diabetics in the making. That awkward behavior is his the reaction from his body's inability to break down sugar properly. At a young age, it manifests itself in bratty behavior and superhuman endurance. When they are adults that same jet fuel will backfire and do the opposite. If I eat a doughnut today, I ruin my entire day due to the resulting downer effect. I want to nap all day and I am (still) very grouchy during this side effect.
Save the money on the doctors and spend it on more expensive groceries and spend more time shopping for those groceries. The kid is worth it.
They say that you always pay for your childhood when you have a kid because your kid will pay you back for everything you did when you were a kid....and today I have a 7 year old son, who is JUST like his dad. Although it took me some time to realise I had a clone in the family. He always acted fine at home because if he didnt I spank. I don't waste time on Time-outs because they never worked for me. So he acted great at home. When he got to school, juiced up on FROSTED Flakes, or SUPER SUGAR Crisp cereal or FROSTED mini-wheats, he turned into Mr. Hyde. Talking out of turn, always wanting to be the center of attention, couldnt sit still, always bouncing around at inopportune times.
After my mother (his granny) pointed out the resemblance to my problem, I got on track and put him on my old diet. Within the first few days, he was sitting still, paying attention, and began to enjoy his time at recess instead of spending it in detention. The old Feingold Diet of '76 worked on my 21st century child.
In order for this to work, you are going to have to change yourselves before you can change your child. This business of "time-outs" and taking away stuff that the child knows will be given back does not work.
You are going to have to tan a few behinds because the child is going to naturally rebel at this new diet, and challenge you on it. Get stern, do not falter and make sure the child knows that there is no option to this. YOU are the parent, and they will eat what you give them. If they lash out....and they will, lash back, in a way they will never forget. Spanking a child is never easy. I hate it and I dont spank hard. I havent spanked my kids in 3 years because they REMEMBER what a spanking feels like and do not wish to have another.
Get control of you kids back...take control. Control their diet, and trade that time-out for an eye opening spanking. If you do the diet correctly, the spankings will not be needed. If you do the spankings correctly, you need only do it enough a few times. A good spanking paired with some cooling off time, and a hug a few hours later, will go much further as long as the child understands that the hugs will be returned and so will the spanking, if it warrants.
When they had the paddle resting on the chalkboard at school, there was no such thing as school shootings. Such a thing was absurd and nothing more than Steven King Fiction. When they had the paddle in school, the parents got to deal with the hyperactive child (no-one wanted to be paddled by the golf coach...ouch!) because the child knew that their behavior would not be tolerated in school, so they did it at home. When the behavior got home, my mother did something about it. Today, kids just lose their video games.
If their diet is fixed, they will be in more control over their actions, they will spend more time talking to you and less time playing video games because their mind will be in a better position to accept information from you, instead of the opposite, which is them always wanting YOU to take information from them.
Also, be on the look out for anything you buy from the grocer containing CANOLA oil. Children/Adults affected with the symptoms of hyperactivity or A.D.D. are also usually allergic to canola oil and its no wonder. Most people believe that Canola oil comes from a canola tree. There is no such thing. Canola oil is named after Canadian Oil, a product Canadians use to lubricate machinery, but also happens to be a cheap edible way to fry your food. A child allergic to Canola oil will be a brat, an adult allergic to it will turn beet red at the face within a few hours of ingesting it, and feel like doggie doo for the rest of the day.
I am sharing this info because I hope that someone can benefit from years of my being a total brat, and years of my mother trying to deal with it and finding a solution that is not known today because there are too many psychologists and doctors making big bucks off of writing prescriptions that do further damage to your child. I don't think all doctors are evil, I just think that their training these days, relies more on medicene than prevention.
Do not let any doctor or psychologist put your child on ANYTHING until you rid your childs diet of artificial flavors, colors, preservatives, and loads of sugar.
By now, you must be saying that all of this sounds great but you just don't think you can spank your child.
If you can present this dietary change to your child with out a major rebellion, there is no need to spank. In my case, I rebelled, and I got my bottom roasted for a major wake up call. I knew my mother ment buisness, I knew she was fed up, I knew that times were changing, and I knew there was a new general in town, and it was her. I did what she told me to do, and within 2 days, after feeling the results of her efforts, she didnt have to give me any further attitude adjustments....the diet had done it for her.
As a result, I finally got a desk that was not positioned two feet from the teacher, I stopped getting paddled in school, I could finally read from my text book and COMPREHEND what I had just read, and I could sit still long enough to realize that my mother maybe, just MAYBE, was a little smarter than I was. 10 minutes in the corner of my bedroom would have been easier for her to sentence me to.....but the hard way kept me from being diabetic today.
Goodluck...and keep your kids drug/sugar free!
D@N
[...as per board guidelines messages may not offer personal contact information. Please do not post your email address. Thank you. mod2]
[This message has been edited by moderator2 (edited 04-22-2002).]
If everyone on this board with a problem child will follow my advice for ONE month without fail, I can save you alot of money, alot of grief, and put your psychologist out of business.
The root problem in most cases of a.d.d. or hyperactivity is DIET. I can firmly state this because I was a child diagnosed in 1976 as hyperactive. If I had grown up in the 90's I would have been diagnosed with A.D.D. and put on Ritalin (kiddie dope) and given a death sentence. I can remember how I felt. I could not change no matter how hard I tried. I knew how much I was hurting my mother (lived with her...divorced family) I just could not stop my behaviour. She noticed that on some days, I as a good boy. I noticed those days too but we never put 2 and 2 together until she saw Doctor R. Feingold on a talk show talking about hyperactive kids. This was back in 76....and such a thing was a rare topic because most kids with hyperactivty were paddled in school, and whipped at home so it was controlled out of fear to a point.
After researching Feingold's material, I was put on a NO SUGAR, No artifical flavor, no artificial color diet. Mom read the ingriedents on every thing she bought to ensure there was nothing artifical. After she detoxed my blood of all that garbage that my body was reacting to, I began to gain control of my own behavior. As I grew into an adult, I found that I had a problem digesting sugar. So what most of you parents have on your hands are borderline diabetics in the making. That awkward behavior is his the reaction from his body's inability to break down sugar properly. At a young age, it manifests itself in bratty behavior and superhuman endurance. When they are adults that same jet fuel will backfire and do the opposite. If I eat a doughnut today, I ruin my entire day due to the resulting downer effect. I want to nap all day and I am (still) very grouchy during this side effect.
Save the money on the doctors and spend it on more expensive groceries and spend more time shopping for those groceries. The kid is worth it.
They say that you always pay for your childhood when you have a kid because your kid will pay you back for everything you did when you were a kid....and today I have a 7 year old son, who is JUST like his dad. Although it took me some time to realise I had a clone in the family. He always acted fine at home because if he didnt I spank. I don't waste time on Time-outs because they never worked for me. So he acted great at home. When he got to school, juiced up on FROSTED Flakes, or SUPER SUGAR Crisp cereal or FROSTED mini-wheats, he turned into Mr. Hyde. Talking out of turn, always wanting to be the center of attention, couldnt sit still, always bouncing around at inopportune times.
After my mother (his granny) pointed out the resemblance to my problem, I got on track and put him on my old diet. Within the first few days, he was sitting still, paying attention, and began to enjoy his time at recess instead of spending it in detention. The old Feingold Diet of '76 worked on my 21st century child.
In order for this to work, you are going to have to change yourselves before you can change your child. This business of "time-outs" and taking away stuff that the child knows will be given back does not work.
You are going to have to tan a few behinds because the child is going to naturally rebel at this new diet, and challenge you on it. Get stern, do not falter and make sure the child knows that there is no option to this. YOU are the parent, and they will eat what you give them. If they lash out....and they will, lash back, in a way they will never forget. Spanking a child is never easy. I hate it and I dont spank hard. I havent spanked my kids in 3 years because they REMEMBER what a spanking feels like and do not wish to have another.
Get control of you kids back...take control. Control their diet, and trade that time-out for an eye opening spanking. If you do the diet correctly, the spankings will not be needed. If you do the spankings correctly, you need only do it enough a few times. A good spanking paired with some cooling off time, and a hug a few hours later, will go much further as long as the child understands that the hugs will be returned and so will the spanking, if it warrants.
When they had the paddle resting on the chalkboard at school, there was no such thing as school shootings. Such a thing was absurd and nothing more than Steven King Fiction. When they had the paddle in school, the parents got to deal with the hyperactive child (no-one wanted to be paddled by the golf coach...ouch!) because the child knew that their behavior would not be tolerated in school, so they did it at home. When the behavior got home, my mother did something about it. Today, kids just lose their video games.
If their diet is fixed, they will be in more control over their actions, they will spend more time talking to you and less time playing video games because their mind will be in a better position to accept information from you, instead of the opposite, which is them always wanting YOU to take information from them.
Also, be on the look out for anything you buy from the grocer containing CANOLA oil. Children/Adults affected with the symptoms of hyperactivity or A.D.D. are also usually allergic to canola oil and its no wonder. Most people believe that Canola oil comes from a canola tree. There is no such thing. Canola oil is named after Canadian Oil, a product Canadians use to lubricate machinery, but also happens to be a cheap edible way to fry your food. A child allergic to Canola oil will be a brat, an adult allergic to it will turn beet red at the face within a few hours of ingesting it, and feel like doggie doo for the rest of the day.
I am sharing this info because I hope that someone can benefit from years of my being a total brat, and years of my mother trying to deal with it and finding a solution that is not known today because there are too many psychologists and doctors making big bucks off of writing prescriptions that do further damage to your child. I don't think all doctors are evil, I just think that their training these days, relies more on medicene than prevention.
Do not let any doctor or psychologist put your child on ANYTHING until you rid your childs diet of artificial flavors, colors, preservatives, and loads of sugar.
By now, you must be saying that all of this sounds great but you just don't think you can spank your child.
If you can present this dietary change to your child with out a major rebellion, there is no need to spank. In my case, I rebelled, and I got my bottom roasted for a major wake up call. I knew my mother ment buisness, I knew she was fed up, I knew that times were changing, and I knew there was a new general in town, and it was her. I did what she told me to do, and within 2 days, after feeling the results of her efforts, she didnt have to give me any further attitude adjustments....the diet had done it for her.
As a result, I finally got a desk that was not positioned two feet from the teacher, I stopped getting paddled in school, I could finally read from my text book and COMPREHEND what I had just read, and I could sit still long enough to realize that my mother maybe, just MAYBE, was a little smarter than I was. 10 minutes in the corner of my bedroom would have been easier for her to sentence me to.....but the hard way kept me from being diabetic today.
Goodluck...and keep your kids drug/sugar free!
D@N
[...as per board guidelines messages may not offer personal contact information. Please do not post your email address. Thank you. mod2]
[This message has been edited by moderator2 (edited 04-22-2002).]
beckiebutler73
04-27-2002, 02:00 PM
I wish it was the easy just change my sons diet....but its not...I do have a child that cant handle suger...but I do have a child with true ADHD as well, we tried to diet thing, we chose not to midicate him for years, trying every herb on the market, and diet changes nothing worked...til the stimulant meds...it has made a big differnce in him. He was recently hospitalized for suicide attempt...and tehy agreed his is not diet, he is now in behavior programs..he was diganosed with ODD/ADHD while in the hospital...he was diagnosed with ADHD when he was only 2 years old, he is now 11...he is much better with the behavior programs, and the hospitalization helped him as well. There are kids who are hyperative that are effected by diet..I do have one of those as well, but there are some TRUE ADHD children out there as well.
BEckie
BEckie
claujuh
06-28-2002, 10:31 PM
and what of a child who gets A's doing the most basic, bare minimum of work, all through grade school and junior high, is a high honor roll kid, hits highschool where there is no hand-holding unless you ask for extra help and the work comes at you faster and more difficult than ever before, and suddenly your mothers' suspicion since you were eight years old becomes glaringly clear.....ADD. i am speaking of my daughter.
she WAS diagnosed with an anxiety disorder two years ago and has been seeing a counselor regularly since then; she began FAILING in classes as a freshman last year.....FAILING THINGS. freaking out, saying she felt like she was going to jump out of her skin in the classrooms, etc.......without skipping a beat, my husband and i said yes to ritalin, for her to use it during school hours....the very first day, instant success, instant improvement.....she was never a "trouble maker", or hyperactive, of misbehaved....i believe she has attention deficit disorder, not a poor diet and an inability to digest sugar. just my two cents....but, ofcourse, i am looking for feedback! http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/bang.gif
she WAS diagnosed with an anxiety disorder two years ago and has been seeing a counselor regularly since then; she began FAILING in classes as a freshman last year.....FAILING THINGS. freaking out, saying she felt like she was going to jump out of her skin in the classrooms, etc.......without skipping a beat, my husband and i said yes to ritalin, for her to use it during school hours....the very first day, instant success, instant improvement.....she was never a "trouble maker", or hyperactive, of misbehaved....i believe she has attention deficit disorder, not a poor diet and an inability to digest sugar. just my two cents....but, ofcourse, i am looking for feedback! http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/bang.gif