ADHD med
This topic is very delicate because each parent has a different opinion about ADHD medication.
– 4 minutes read –
Just the idea of “giving medication” to your kid is not something naturally comfortable – my 12-year-old son has been on ADHD medication since he was 7 years old, and I can tell you that there’s some parental guilt around it EVEN IF it’s tremendously helpful for him.
⛑️Before diving into details, I just want to make sure that you know this article is personal, not medical advice or anything. And you have the right to have your own opinion.
I’m writing this because I get asked about it often and thought it might be informative to know other parents’ experiences.
So the journey starts when my son was diagnosed with ADHD at 7 years old. We had suspected it since he was 4 years old. At first, we tried natural ways to ease the ADHD symptoms such as:
- Being in nature for at least 30 mins a day
- Doing a lot of physical exercises
- Increase the amount of protein (because the amino acid produced in the body from protein helps to produce more dopamine, which is short in ADHD brain)
- Avoiding all artificial food coloring
- Avoiding gluten
- Replaced white sugar with more natural sugars such as maple syrup
We knew that it would take at least 2 months to see some differences, so we did it all one after another or at the same time (e.g. Avoid artificial colorings & white sugar at the same time) for a while.
So we didn’t jump on to the ADHD med option right away.
😭BUT… we didn’t see any differences. NONE.
Of course we may have been doing the ‘wrong’ parenting techniques that were suitable mostly for neurotypical kids.
(ADHD kids need another parenting approach than parenting neurotypical kids, which I realized several years after.)
My sister-in-law also has an older kid with ADHD and she also told me that after everything she tried, her child needed a med. (She did everything I did + strictly organic food.)
It was time to try something else for us too, because our family life was so chaotic.
🥀I rarely felt peace at home. My oldest daughter told me “he’s ruining my life” a few times, when she was 8 years old. (it still breaks my heart just to remember this.)
So our son started taking medication.
❓How did it go?
We saw improvements when we found a good match and dosage that we’d never seen with natural ways.
❓Fast forward to today, after 5 years of medication, do I think if the med changes his personality?
Yes and no. Because honestly, I think he is himself when the med is working.
He’s old enough to tell me when he feels out of place when he doesn’t take medication.
I can also see that he’s more at ease doing everything without getting overly irritated.
The medication doesn’t solve all challenges and issues (especially Oppositional side, because there’s no med for ODD = Oppositional Defiant Disorder).
But the ADHD med is something he needs in order to be himself right now.
It’s like a cane for him to walk better.
*Known fact, but the medication doesn’t boost your academic IQ. Some sorts help concentration, but it doesn’t give you a higher IQ.
So if you choose a path to give medication to your ADHD kid, I feel you.
If you choose natural ways to manage it because your kid’s symptoms are manageable like this, I support you.
If you choose not to give medication for whatever reason, I respect your choice.
💡Please know that each person can have a different level of symptoms (light – medium – heavy – extra heavy), and what worked for one kid may not work for another.
🌟What is important is to make a decision for your ADHD child in the long term as well as for the rest of the family, because ADHD symptoms can greatly affect other family members too.