Band Parents

Band Parents

Saturday, November 29, 2008

A Day without the ADHD Meds

I promised my 13YO's new psychiatrist that we'd try a medication vacation. She's the first Doctor who has though this was necessary. I got the impression that she was worried about his small size and weight. (The 9 YO wears the same sized shirts. His leg are not as long).

I was expecting (and dreading) him
to be mouthy and obnoxious. But this was not the case. I believe that they boy tried really hard to contain himself. He was definitely restless. At one point I made him drop to the floor and do 10 push-ups. 9I also did 10). About 20 minues later, we both did some situps.

We had to remind him multiple times to eat breakfast, get dressed, brush his teeth and put in his contacts. Actually, as a new contact lense wearer who has had difficulty getting his lenses in, He seemed to not have trouble.

More than once he'd be in the bathroom just singing or chanting "peanut butter jelly, peanut butter jelly." We went to the tree farm and cut down our Christmas tree. He was loud and dacing around, but pleasant. Dad would not let him carry to bow saw, but the boys carried the tree back. At one point I was worried we'd have to haul them both and the tree out of the pond. They wanted to trow sticks and try to break the partial sheet of ice.

After the farm we went to the little town and had lunch. Walking on the sidewalk, he wanted to stomp. This drove his dad nuts. On the way back he stomped a bit and then I told him "take Baby steps now", then "skip".

In the evening we had company. My brother, SIL and their 4 kids came over for dinner. His twin cousins are his age and he usually enjoys spending time with them. But he withdrew. I think he felt like he needed to stay away from everybody. While it was a shame he missed out on visiting his cousins, he was quite aware of his state of mind. This seems like the first time he has been aware of him own actions and state of mind.

In the evening he did complain about his stomach hurting. He did graze all day. We stopped for lunch and he only ate half of his sandwhich. As I expected, he ate the rest about 2 hours later. While preparing for dinner, he scraped a carrot and ate it (while repeating "What's up doc?" about 5 times.

Dad could nto tolerate the extra noise he generated. Dad thinks he can control himself more. I am happy that he was quite aware of his state of mind and his actions. I'd not really like ot repeat the experiment again. If the psychiatrist wants to do it just to assist him in piling on the caliries, I sure hope she gets his records from other doctors and sees that he has been growing and putting in weight in an upward curve.

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