Home

Adoption Under One Roof

Covering adoption from every angle, every view, for everyone

Read the Traumatized Child Blog. Use AUOR for 10% Discount at Dream Catcher

Main Menu

  • Home
  • How To Adopt
    • Getting Started With Adoption
    • Adoption Types, Costs, Timeline
    • Hague Intercountry Adoption Treaty
    • Definition of Adoption Terms
  • Resources
    • Foster Care
      • Contests
    • After Adoption
      • Searching for a Birthmother
    • Adoption Statistics
  • Blogs
    • Guest Blogger
      • Dee Thompson
      • Janine
      • Jeanette Schnell
      • John
        • Older Child Adoption
        • humpty series-older child adoption
      • Linda Lach
      • Linny
      • Marjorie Shaw
        • A Legitimate Life: A Forbidden Journey of Self Discovery
      • Michael
      • Patricia Dischler
      • Scrapsbynobody
      • Shelia Davis
      • Susan Metters
    • Adoption Maharishi
    • Amy Adoptee
    • AngelaW
    • Ask An Adoptee
    • FaithA
      • Baby Names
      • Trauma Thursday
      • Trauma Tuesday
    • Foster Mommy
      • Educational Testing and Assessments
      • Friday Activities
    • Julia Fuller
      • Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Diaries
      • Parenting Mistakes Saturday
    • JulieC
      • Friday Funnies
      • How To Tuesday
        • How To Tuesday
      • Hump Day Hippie
      • JulieC's Sites to See
    • LisaS
      • Chanuka is not Christmas with a twist, teaching your adopted child's friends about Chanukah,
      • Corrupt and Questionable Adoption Agencies
      • Making the World a Better Place
      • Running With Scissors
    • Sandra Hanks Benoiton
  • Polls
  • About Us
    • Blog and Comment Posting Policy
    • Contact Us
Home

ADHD

Non-Stimulant Medications for Adopted Child with ADHD

Submitted by FaithA on Mon, 06/28/2010 - 06:25
  • ADHD
  • Clonidine
  • Intuniv
  • non-stimulant medication for ADHD
  • Special needs
  • Strattera
  • Wellbutrin

ADHD child (c) Lynda BernhardtWhen my adopted child was diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) a few years ago, the doctor said that Strattera was the only non-stimulant option available. The doctor advised against using Strattera because of my son’s high level of hyperactivity, so we have been using stimulant medications to manage his behaviors.

While the stimulants do a great job in the classroom, we pay dearly at home. He does not eat until after 7:00 p.m., and he has a very difficult time sleeping even with prescription-strength sleep aids. He has not had healthy eating or sleeping patterns in 2-1/2 years. Additionally, when the medication wears off, my adopted child gets ornery. Both he and I are ready for a break from stimulant medications.

We now have a new ADHD doctor, and she told me that a few new non-stimulant medications are now FDA-approved to treat ADHD. She has told me to research each one, and then we will decide in July which one to try with the hopes of the medication building up in his body to be effective before school starts back.

  • FaithA's blog
  • Login or register to post comments
  • Read more

$#*! My ADHD Child Does

Submitted by FaithA on Mon, 06/21/2010 - 06:07
  • ADHD
  • Special needs
  • wild child

ADHD Child (c) Lynda BernhardtYou might have already heard that the CBS Fall line-up will include a sitcom entitled $#*! My Dad Says that originated from a Twitter account of the same name (without the symbols). A man who moved back in with his adult parents started tweeting bizarre things his dad said, built a huge following, which led to a TV series starring William Shatner launching this Fall.

I think we parents of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) need to do the same thing, only we can entitled our Twitter account $#*! My ADHD Child Does. I know I would subscribe!

Think about it:

  • I had to explain to my child … AGAIN … why he may not sled off the roof.
  • Jimmy only shimmied up the basketball goal three times during the game today.
  • Sam yelled out “Boring!” in the middle of the pastoral prayer at church today.

Yes, all three of these could be tweets about my adopted child with ADHD. In fact, I think my life could make a great sitcom. Imagine this …

  • FaithA's blog
  • 1 comment
  • Read more

Difficult Adopted Child: Spoiled Brat or Special Needs?

Submitted by FaithA on Wed, 06/09/2010 - 06:38
  • ADHD
  • ODD
  • Oppositional Defiant Disorder
  • pampered children
  • Special needs
  • spoiled brats
  • strong-willed child

Boy pushing away (c) Lynda BernhardtYesterday, Lisa wrote a blog entry entitled Does Your Adopted or Biological Child Have Pampered Child Syndrome? in which she said the following:

So what behavior is characteristic of a pampered child? Firstly, these children expect to get their own way all the time, and when they don’t they cry, throw tantrums, sulk and whine. They simply refuse to accept the word “no.” ~ Lisa

I agree with everything that Lisa wrote about pampered children, who I, myself, call spoiled brats, and I have seen the parenting that results in this annoying behavior. That being said, I would like to point out that there is another “breed” of child that fits Lisa’s description that is not the result of bad parenting but, instead, the result of special needs.

Let me use my friend’s daughter, L, as an example.

  • FaithA's blog
  • 1 comment
  • Read more

How to Stop Adopted Child From Playing With Matches

Submitted by FaithA on Mon, 05/31/2010 - 06:25
  • ADHD
  • Adoptive parenting
  • child and fire
  • child interested in fire
  • child play with matches
  • How do you stop a child from playing with matches?
  • playing with matches

Fire (c) Rosanne MooneyMy adopted child has recently developed a fascination with matches and lighters. He has been to numerous fire safety programs since he was little, and our family has had a fire plan in place for years. Despite all of my efforts, my adopted child has absolutely no regard for the dangers of fire. Couple that with his impulse control issues due to his attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and we have a real problem.

Of course, I don’t have matches and lighters just lying around my house. Nevertheless, there is nowhere in my house I have been able to store them (on high shelves that even I cannot reach easily) without my adopted child figuring out a way to access them. After this last incident of getting into my supposedly child-proof lighter (there is no such thing with my kid) in my bedroom (where he wasn’t even supposed to be), I have decided to buy a lockbox with a combination lock (no key that he can steal) to store all lighters and matches.

I went online to find advice for how to stop my adopted child from playing with matches and was shocked to find very little helpful information. Reasoning with my child is not going to work (he also has learning disabilities), and clearly no other consequences I have imposed are working, either. I am not going to remove all lighters from my house because I use them to light scented candles in my bedroom while I unwind at the end of the day. I suffer from insomnia, and the scented candles help with this.

Many of the sites try to make the parents feel guilty for not supervising the child closely enough. In this last incident, I was on my computer in my office while my son was playing quietly in his bedroom only 20 feet away with the door closed. I cannot handcuff the child to me until he turns 18 years old!

So, I called the fire department to seek some advice. Here is what the fire captain told me:

  • FaithA's blog
  • 2 comments
  • Read more

Your Adopted Child Might Have ADHD If… (Round Three)

Submitted by FaithA on Mon, 04/26/2010 - 06:46
  • ADHD
  • Special needs
  • wild child

Boy pushing away (c) Lynda Bernhardt

Here is my latest installment of “your adopted child might have ADHD if…” Click on these links to read Round One and Round Two. For Round Three, all of these things have happened within a few days. (He is nine years old.)

Your adopted child might have ADHD if…

  • Your house smells like burned popcorn on multiple nights because your child likes the taste of black popcorn, even though eating burned popcorn make him sick.
  • You hide every box of microwave popcorn in your spouse’s car and ask him to dispose of it.
  • Your thermostat has been set to 88 degrees when it is 73 degrees outside, and you only discover this 90 minutes before seven guests are expected to arrive.
  • You confiscate a box cutter and a pocket knife (with blades out in both) within an hour.
  • Your 70-pound greyhound squeezes through the railings on the stairs to escape your child and get to you.
  • Your car keys are missing from your purse and discovered in the ignition of your car.
  • You have to explain multiple times why it is not okay to climb on the roof of the house.
  • Blood-curling screams followed by peals of laughter happen at 6:30 a.m.
  • Your child goes to sleep later than you do and wakes up just as early.
  • You find a pile of uneaten pancakes hidden behind the trash can.
  • Your child walks across the top of the uneven monkey bars.
  • Your child shimmies up the swing set pole and sits on the top of the swing set.
  • You cannot hide matches well enough to prevent your child from finding and playing with them.
  • Your child writes a bad word on a piece paper and tries to put it in a public drawing.
  • Your child’s idea of walking around a pool is keeping his arms straight while he continues running.
  • You strongly consider increasing the frequency of hair coloring appointments because the gray is coming in faster and faster.
  • FaithA's blog
  • Login or register to post comments
  • Read more

What Happens to the “Crack Babies” When They Grow Up?

Submitted by FaithA on Mon, 04/19/2010 - 07:48
  • ADHD
  • behavior disorders
  • Crack Babies
  • Foster adoption
  • Foster care
  • Older child adoption
  • prenatal drug use
  • prenatal smoking
  • Special needs

Rum and coke (c) Lynda BernhardtDo you remember in the 1980’s and 1990’s when everyone was freaking out about “crack babies”? I sure do, and I marked “will not consider” next to “prenatal drug abuse” on our adoption application. I might have considered prenatal marijuana drug use, but there was no way in Hades that I was adopting a “crack baby.” The predictions for these babies were dire.

Guess what? Society was (thankfully) wrong. MSNBC recently ran an article entitled ‘Crack babies’ defy mother’s curse that follows up on some of these “crack babies,” who are now young adults. Are they all perfect? No. However, as a group, these “crack babies” are functional adults who have not increased the crime rates throughout the United States as predicted.

According to the article, the most common aftereffect seems to be attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which has also been linked to prenatal smoking. So, checking the “will not consider” box on my adoption application did not prevent me from dealing with the same issues. (My adopted child’s birth mother smoked throughout her pregnancy.)

  • FaithA's blog
  • Login or register to post comments
  • Read more

Finally … a Good Report Card for Special Needs Child!

Submitted by FaithA on Wed, 04/14/2010 - 07:22
  • ADHD
  • Learning Disabilities
  • Special needs
  • special schools for learning disabilities

Boy (c) Lynda BernhardtAs I have shared previously, third grade has been a rough year for my adopted child with special needs (ADHD and learning disabilities). Hub and I decided to pull him out of his wonderful Montessori school and enroll him in a private school that specializes in teaching children with ADHD and learning disabilities. He has been there for a month, and I just got his report card. He did great!!

This is such a relief after seeing lots of C’s and “below grade level” messages, and don’t even get me started on the end of grade (EOG) test remediation. Here is the quote of the year from my adopted child:

 At my old school, I made an 11 on a math test. At my new school, I made a 94!

  • FaithA's blog
  • Login or register to post comments
  • Read more

Frustration with New ADHD Meds

Submitted by FaithA on Wed, 04/07/2010 - 07:32
  • ADHD
  • Daytrana
  • Focalin
  • medication for ADHD
  • Special needs
  • Strattera
  • wild child

Child with ADHD (c) Lynda BernhardtI need to vent about my adopted child’s attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medication, and this is a place I can do it, so here goes… We have been using stimulant medication to manage his ADHD for over two years. While the stimulant medication (Daytrana and then Focalin) have been great in the classroom, they have caused a number of side effects, including lack of appetite and insomnia. Let me tell you – it is hard watching your stocky child get skinny, and it is even harder living with a child who goes to bed as late as or later than you do.

We have a new ADHD doctor who suggested that we try Strattera, which is a non-stimulant medication for ADHD. The issue is that you cannot tell immediately whether it is going to work because it takes six weeks to build up in the body. I was feeling hopeful as I did not use the Focalin on the weekends, and I could see changes.

Yesterday was the six-week mark, and I sent my adopted child to school on only the Strattera. It was a big fat disaster, and I spent about an hour yesterday crying tears of frustration.

  • FaithA's blog
  • 1 comment
  • Read more

Special Needs Adoption: IEP Versus 504 Plan

Submitted by FaithA on Wed, 03/24/2010 - 07:12
  • 504 Plan
  • ADA
  • ADHD
  • IDEA
  • IEP
  • Special needs

IEPA reader wants to know if a child can “get out of” an IEP and “into” a 504. My first question would be why someone would want to do this. When I was looking into both options for my son, who has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), I consistently heard that I should seek an IEP (individualized education plan) for him if I can get it. Then, if he did not qualify for an IEP, I should seek out a 504 plan.

I inquired about the differences between the two. Click here for a good summary of the differences. In a nutshell, a 504 plan comes from Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. This was the only protection offered for those with disabilities such as ADHD until the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) came along in 1990, providing greater protection for children with disabilities. Because your child has better protection with an IEP, I don’t understand why someone would want to “get out of” an IEP and “into” a 504 plan.

Perhaps the person asking this question doesn’t like all of the screenings and evaluations involved in an IEP. Here is a good explanation of the differences:

  • FaithA's blog
  • Login or register to post comments
  • Read more

Special Needs Adopted Child Moving to a New School

Submitted by FaithA on Mon, 03/01/2010 - 07:25
  • ADHD
  • IEPs
  • Learning Disabilities
  • school and the adopted child
  • special education
  • Special needs
  • special needs and school
  • special schools for special needs

IEPAs I have shared several times over the past couple of months, hub and I have been facing the agonizing decision of what to do about our adopted child’s special needs and school. Our adopted child has been attending a Montessori school since he was in pre-K, and he loves it. Most of his close friends go to this school, and many of my close friends have children there as well. (We met doing PTA work together.) This school was such a great fit for our adopted child, even with his special needs (ADHD and learning disabilities), as long as it was mostly Montessori.

However, thanks to my “favorite” (NOT!) piece of legislation called the No Child Left Behind Act, this public Montessori school is “forced” to change to a more traditional format in the third grade so that students can pass the end of grade tests. (Don’t even get me started on pressuring eight year old children with standardized testing and preventing them from advancing to fourth grade based upon a test score.) That is when everything blew up with my adopted child. As long as he could work at his own pace using the Montessori materials, my son was successful in school. As soon as it went traditional, he started failing his classes with abysmal benchmark scores for the standardized testing.

Hub and I have found a wonderful private school that specializes in teaching children with ADHD and learning disabilities. You must have an IEP and one or both conditions to apply to the school. The upside is that every teacher has a degree in learning disabilities, and the classes have a 1:6 teacher-student ratio. The downside is that you have to pay out the nose for this.

  • FaithA's blog
  • 2 comments
  • Read more
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • next ›
  • last »

The Connected Child:
Bring hope and healing
to your adoptive family

buy from amazon

 

User login

  • Create new account
  • Request new password

Popular content

Today's:

  • Adoption Poem
  • Update on Baby Vanessa’s Birthfather who is Fighting for her Custody
  • Difficult Adopted Child and Frustration with Other People Not “Getting It”

All time:

  • International Adoption Statistics for 2007
  • Trauma Tuesday: Orgasms During Rape and Sexual Abuse
  • Guest Blog: Humpty Dumpty Had a Great Fall - I’m Outta Here

Last viewed:

  • adoption_under_one_roof_jaguar
  • Get Involved - Make Your Voice Heard
  • Temple Grandin, Cows and Autism

Recent comments

  • ART [The DHS. Adption
    3 hours 18 min ago
  • both bad guys
    6 hours 21 min ago
  • Uh, no
    16 hours 28 min ago
  • ART - A Blue October's Moonlight Hire
    1 day 26 min ago
  • ART - Adoption's Real Triad
    3 hours 54 min ago
  • A Point of View
    3 days 1 hour ago
  • Selective reading
    3 days 6 hours ago
  • Greetings from Guatemala
    4 days 7 hours ago
  • A Garden State poem
    4 days 23 hours ago
  • You're doing the right thing
    5 days 6 hours ago
Site Map
© 2010 Adoption Under One Roof LLC. All Rights Reserved. email: info at ouradopt.com
Opinions expressed in posts and blogs belong to the person who is expressing them. So then it follows that these opinions are not those of Adoption Under One Roof.
RoopleTheme