Lockdown (And Beyond) Hatchlings

[Jet]

That's the worst, LM. I find it really hard to relax if I have 'I need to call you' and then they schedule it for 10am the next day.

[Squirrel]

Bloody hell! They should know to give you a hint what they want to talk about! That would really annoy me.

G only takes his meds on school days. He started on a low dose, then increased the dose, then moved across to a different (modified release) medication, then increased the dose of that. Which is apparently the normal process by the clinic that we used.

He may change meds again when he goes to secondary school later this year - I can’t now remember why but we’ve got a medication review in the summer.

He has zero appetite when he takes the meds then is ravenous afterwards. So he has breakfast, then takes the meds last thing before he leaves for school as it wears off mid afternoon so he takes it as late as possible. Then eats nothing until dinner time when he will then demolish monster sized helpings.

[olive]

T is on a very low dose so is all over the shop by early afternoon but any attempts to move him up have ended in disaster.

He goes from ok to hangry instantly early afternoon which guarantees a meltdown so we have to really time his meals/ snacks.

Annoyingly our insurance no longer covers the quick release + booster combo he used to take and to pay ourselves is $800 a month!

[Little My]

Oof, that's annoying, Olive! So pricey.

B just called me from school saying he has a sore tummy. He elected to stay at school once we chatted and decided it was probably the medication rather than anything else.

R doesn't even take a lunch to school anymore. Much like G, she makes up for it later on. We take her a drink and snack in the car for as soon as she gets out. But she then doesn't eat dinner and has a big supper. It's not ideal.

Still waiting on this teacher call!

[Little My]

Pfft, she cancelled until next week!

[Squirrel]

Oh no! At least it can’t be anything too urgent then but gaaah.

Olive, I hear ya. We paid for extra private consultations and prescriptions for longer than normal (because nothing with G is ever straightforward) and OUCH. I mean, I’m extremely, extremely grateful that we had the funds to pay for it in the first place but maaaaan it was expensive.
He has transferred over to the NHS for prescriptions now (ADHD meds and melatonin) but I’ll still have to pay for the private consultations.

[Jet]

We had got S assessed at a childrens hospital here that has a dyslexia center that doesn't charge, but the wait was just too long for L (after 2020) so we paid $$$ for his assessment elsewhere. The insurance kindly contributed $178 to it

[Estrella]

The meds J is on last about 12-ish hours (Vynase). Thankfully covered by the PBS here so we pay $40-ish a month. We went out to dinner last night and he was obviously in a bit of a come down. But big step forward, he was able to explain to me how his head was starting to feel, which to me says the meds are helping a lot. He’s super thirsty on them though, and the appetite thing too. Plus he did a random vomit on Monday which I think was related. I’ve got to call his paed on Tuesday to chat about how he’s going on them.

[Little My]

Is that the same as Vyvanse? B is on that one.

ETA: lisdexamfetamine dimesylate

[Estrella]

Is that the same as Vyvanse? B is on that one.

ETA: lisdexamfetamine dimesylate

That’s the one. My poor spelling to blame.

[Little My]

Ah, we can very much compare notes then! I was looking at a comparison of that and the one R is on, and they're both long release drugs.

He's been started on 10mg, and I am convinced it's not enough.

[Estrella]

J is on 20mg and it’s definitely working.

[Little My]

I just had a two week follow-up with the doctor, and she said to stick with the 10mg and we would reevaluate after a month (of being on med) when he can be seen in person for a physical. It's a bit disappointing tbh, but I have not lost hope that it's helping a bit at school.

His teacher was off sick last week, so hasn't been in a position to form any opinion yet.

[Jet]

I hope you get some info from the teacher soon.

Has anyone tried dietary changes that has had any impact to symptoms? I had been thinking about it but haven't really done enough research to know where to start.

[Little My]

No, not really. I try to do the things most parents would do normally for any child, like balanced meals, trying to avoid sugar overload, pushing fruit and veggies, etc.

I have never seen any correlation between food and symptoms that would lead me to specifically exclude something. But I'm open to the possibility.

Warding off a hangry daughter who isn't quite on regular mealtimes, because of medication, is usually my prime concern.

[olive]

Has anyone tried dietary changes that has had any impact to symptoms? I had been thinking about it but haven't really done enough research to know where to start.

I’m quite militant about sugar anyway and we attempted to manage ADHD via diet for a full year. It didn’t really make a difference for us. Additudemag. Com is my go to for all things ADHD related.

We have made the decision to take T off his meds. He is on 10mg of adderall XR which he started about 6 months ago (I think). His anxiety is through the roof and I think it’s getting worse. It’s so hard to separate was is normal almost 12 year old hormones at play and what is medication related.

He isn’t sleeping until gone 11pm most nights and last night he was crying from 10ish onwards. This is less than a month after another epic meltdown.

The last time he said that his friends don’t like him and left him out at lunch time. It turns out two of his besties had an argument and spent all lunch time bickering and actually ended up not speaking to one another for a day or so. It seems like a bizarre reaction from T though as he doesn’t typically insert himself in drama but his takeaway from the situation wasn’t that they were arguing but that he was being ‘left out’. I only heard about the fight from one of the other mums. When I spoke to T the following day, he was much calmer and agreed that actually it was a bit of a silly way to look at the situation. He actually has a really lovely group of friends and there haven’t been any fallings out as far as I know either.

Last night he decided he wanted to drop soccer. He plays up a year (not by choice, ours or his - his club made some changes and the team were moved up to join the year above) and he plays against some massive 12/13 year olds. He move to club has been really tough and he seems to have these almost euphoric highs after games and practices but is now convinced he’s the worst on the team etc. He cried until 11.30pm. He woke up absolutely fine and is talking about joining the school soccer team in addition to his club but has practice tonight so we’ll see.

Sorry, this is really long and ramble but thanks if you made it this far.

TLDR version; my kid is melting down regularly, not sure if this is normal pre teen behaviour so I’m taking him off his ADHD meds. The end.

[Jet]

That's the site I was on taking notes from when I wrote that post about food :highfive: We are generally following normal food expectations, but some 2020 habits stuck that could do with some work. I had thought about maybe a high protein breakfast might help with focus so we're going for that, but I suspect some mornings I'll struggle to get him to drink a whole smoothy. Otherwise, also driven by allergy related stuff I was thinking about a stint with no or reduced dairy or even just replacing cows milk with oat for a bit and see how it goes.

Sorry to hear T is struggling. I wonder how much of it is hormones. S can be highly strung at times (although is only 9) and he does tend to reserve his panic and anxiety until bedtime (as often it's the time he relaxes and remembers all the stuff he forgot to do or starts thinking about the things that are worrying him).

We are pretty set as of today (because of multiple phonecalls from school) that we will try the medication route. Our paed is closed this afternoon which deflated my gung ho attempts to start that process. There was an incident at school which feels to be a bit blown out of proportion but it's just a shit sandwich flying out of the existing shit storm so I can't really be surprised at the reaction. I'm going to class on Monday to observe him in class. To what end I'm not sure.

[olive]

Poor S, I hope he’s ok re: the school incident. It’s all so wearing isn’t it?

I will say for T that initially the medication really helped. He took a quick release morning pill plus an afternoon booster and that combination really worked for him. Our stupid insurance doesn’t cover it any more so we’re on meds #4 now.

T has come home after a brilliant (according to him) soccer practice and is full of beans which is lovely to see.

The flip side is that he spent an hour on his homework tonight and produced about 10 minutes worth of work.

[Estrella]

All of this is so relatable. I’m sorry things are so tough.

We are braving making a 3 page PowerPoint presentation with J this weekend. He’s come from a school with no homework expectations to one with loads and it’s such a struggle!

[Jet]

I was totally unclear, although I mentioned S, today and current struggles are L I realize I didn't say that.

Homework though - what a beat down. We didn't even touch any tonight because we were all so preoccupied.

He was overall ok, not happy about getting in trouble, saying he didn't know he'd get in trouble etc, just didn't want to have to talk about it until we established it was actually a friend of his who has been to his birthday and vice versa and now his parents have been told some vague shit (because it's all they had) about what happened - half the facts like I was also told today which I have since established to be quite alarmist and I'm not very happy. He got pretty upset when I told him what this child's parents have been told about what happened, and in what context (because of how he explained himself and how literal he took the principals questions). And while I understand things now how he's told them to me that they occurred, the kids parents will feel how they feel about it and I can't do anything about that.

It's so frustrating because I know deep down he can't help half of what he does. It's impossible to teach certain boundaries and expectations to a kid whose brain and body basically steer him wrong half of the time. Suffice to say some strongly worded emails have been sent tonight. I'm exhausted and over emotional and hoping tomorrow they just call Mr J instead of me.