Grandparents Raising Children Support Group

This community is dedicated to grandparents who are the primary caregivers of their grandchildren. In cases where the parents are not willing or able to provide adequate care for their children, grandparents may take on the role of primary caregivers. Join the support group to find support, share your experience, and get advice from other members.

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SaraBT 09/30/2011

We took our youngest grandson to a neurologist yesterday, and he has ADD (not the hyperactivity part).

I've just joined the ADD group, because I do NOT want to give him medication if at all possible. All of the drugs are stimulants, and they shouldn't be given to anyone with a history of drug addiction. Pinky did just about every drug there is when she was pregnant with him, including meth. One of the side effects of one of the medications is "craving for cocaine."

JEEZE! You can't win, can you?

I suppose we'll try behavior therapy and diet first. Anything to keep from putting even more drugs into that poor little kid.

Kat51 10/02/2011

My GS also had problems with writing but it was because of Sensory Integrative Disorder, which also goes along with ADD. He had handwriting therapy, along with lots of therapy to develop his fine motor skills and it helped tremendously. When I asked the doctor who diagnosed him with mild ADHD about his SID, he said that the symptoms of the two overlap so much that in Europe, they do not even distinquish between the two - SID symptoms are counted in the ADD diagnosis. Does your GS have any Sensorty Integrative Disorder symptoms? The major one for Tyler that was a dead givaway, is that he loved to spin and he never got dizzy from it. I don't think that's necessarily always true of SID kids, but it is one of the symptoms. If your GS does have SID, the earlier he gets therapy for it, the better, because the results decrease with each passing year.

SaraBT 10/02/2011

Thanks, Kat -- I'm going to look it up. He doesn't spin and the few times he did he got dizzy. But I'll look into that -- see if we could help him better.

SaraBT 10/02/2011

I just looked up the symptoms of Sensory Integrative Disorder and he definitely doesn't have that.

As one teacher told me, he could just be a poor speller. It's just that his handwriting is horrific -- but, as someone mentioned, it's inconsistent. Fine one day, awful the next.

Liam2010 10/04/2011

I don't blame you Sara for going with the Diet, first...there is a lot of info on Diet, and other therapies that don't include Medication.

The program I am in @ UCLA in california for my GS they did a presentation @ a foster parent conference and it mentioned that medication doesn't work for children who were exposed to drugs or acohol. This is why they are doing this study we are in it will cover more holistic treatments. They even said this program would help children who weren't exposed.

You already give those kids a great diet...Dairy products is something I don't like to give my kids much of. I will switch off with Cow's,Rice and Almond milk with my grandson.

I just got a bunch of apples on my tree that I have made my own apple sauce & apple butter now I thought I would make some fresh apple juice for grandson.

Just another project added to your already busy schedule....

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