ADHD is the Devil

I said I was going to be a bit more truthful and open in the blog so here goes.

The kiddo has ADHD.  We started taking him to see a counselor a little over a year ago because his anxiety had gotten way out of control.  He wouldn't go to movie theaters, he wasn't riding any of his favorite rides at Disney, he was afraid of the dark, etc.  The final straw came when one morning he was to scared to get into the car and go to school.  So we did some research and found a counselor not to far from our house.  After some interactions with him she asked if he had been diagnosed with ADHD.  To be honest I was shocked.  He had some problems concentrating in school, his handwriting was atrocious but he was a smart kid with a big heart and as much as I hate to admit it, I had a preconceived notion of what ADHD/ADD kids behaved liked.

So around March of this year we took him to his doctor to see about what our next steps were and to see if he could be tested for ADHD.  After talking to the Dr for a while and getting some information on it I was starting to see that he very clearly has it. Not only that but we also found out that he has a condition known as amblyopia which means he never learned to see out of one eye.  So not only were we dealing with the ADHD diagnosis but now he had to wear an eye patch and glasses every day.  I have never felt like such a failure as a parent as I did those first few months after the diagnosis.  What could I have done to prevent this, how was I contributing to this?  Did that soda I have when I was 6 months pregnant cause it?

Luckily the kiddo is extremely bright and he gets it.  We have sat down and explained to him what ADHD is and different ways to help him manage it.  I remember when we met with his pediatrician and he asked us what was up the kiddo said "I am here to find out if I have ADHD"  We chose to not medicate him when we first found out.  We did this program called PCIT with his counselor which he just recently graduated from.  However, the biggest thing we changed was his diet.  We have taken processed foods and foods with dyes in them completely out of his diet.  He has been so understanding about it and he even reads the labels to see if he can eat certain foods.  It's kind of sad in a way because I feel like I am depriving him of a lighthearted childhood, but I feel like it's what's best for him.  We have found a ton of really good recipes and there are a lot of things out there now that  use natural ingredients to color things (ex: beets, carrots, etc) He had improved by leaps and bounds and when we met with the teachers earlier this year they said that other than a few minor issues in math he was doing amazing.

Flash forward to our trip in November.  We tried really hard to keep him on his diet, we bought him the few all natural snacks they sold in Disneyland (all 3 of them) but we still had regular meals that he had to eat.  We stayed clear of most everything that we knew had dye in it, the cupcakes, anything colorful etc but it didn't work :(  It was really eye opening to see him act the way he had less than a year ago.  We almost kind of forgot how bad it really was.  He was all over the place, he couldn't sit still, he couldn't finish a full sentence, he was high anxiety, he was emotional and getting him to sleep was a fight. Then we got back and we got the emails from the teachers.  He isn't sitting down, he's refusing to do his classwork, etc etc.  It was heartbreaking.  He had worked so hard and now it felt like we were back at square one.

The hubby and I started talking about the possibility of putting him on medication and we are torn.  I have heard some statistics where if you don't put the kids on it by the time they are 10 or 11 they are more likely to become addicts, then other reports of the kid just turning into a zombie.  I honestly don't know what to do.  We want to do what is best for him but we honestly don't know what is best.  So after some discussion we decided that we would put more of a focus back on his diet.  The hubby and I have the next two weeks off so we are going to focus on really purging his system and go 100% back on the diet and stay on top of his vitamins (he takes Omega-3 and a pro biotic which we have also found helps him a lot)  We will then schedule a follow up with his pediatrician and evaluate if we should do medication or not.

If anyone has any stories or advice I would love to hear about it.  If there is one thing I have learned it's so helpful to talk about it and find other people who have been through this or are going through it.  It makes you feel less alone.