Learning more

I am still around, been a bit confused lately, as we let Matthew have wheat over the weekend (since it was a long one) to see how he reacted to it - and we didn't see a reaction. Then we tried milk and didn't see a reaction either. So I am confused...

He is still choosing to eat the gluten free alternatives for the most part, so just reducing the amount of wheat he has in his diet is making him feel a bit better - which I understand from having eliminated wheat from my diet myself 6 months ago.

He is having a good week, getting some 3's on his behavior chart at school from his teacher, which is a great thing - he is happy with that, and hopefully his teacher is as well... :)  He was proud of himself to come home with a prize from the treasure box at the counselor's office - his positive reinforcement for the behavior plan in place at school.

I listened to a webinar today by Russell Barkley (a renound expert on ADHD) - and learned a lot... Here's my take away from the webinar...

• A person with ADHD has a disability in their executive functioning - Executive function is a set of mental processes that helps connect past experience with present action. People use it to perform activities such as planning, organizing, strategizing, paying attention to and remembering details, and managing time and space.
• This includes:
• the inability to monitor their own behavior
• the ability to stop yourself from doing wrong
• problems with their working memory - what you are doing and what your plan was to get it done
• skewed sense of time and the management of it
• problems controlling emotions
• It is not the child's fault - these things going on are out of their control, it isn't caused by too much tv, or too much sugar or a type of food, or bad parenting - it is usually genetic
• There is a 30% lag in their development of their executive functioning... So our son is 10 years old, so he has the executive functioning of a 7 year old. Remembering that can help him succeed
• There is a need for immediate praise or redirection - no warnings. He lacks the self regulation to keep himself motivated to keep moving on things (chores, homework, classwork and the like - unless it is something he is really interested in)
• consequences should happen right away -weather good or bad - earning a priviledge for the good, or losing one for the bad
• Their fuel tank of self control will be empty by the end of the day - need to use strategies to help them refuel to work on things in the evening.
• Maintenance of blood sugar is important, allowing him to sip on something with a bit of sugar in it to help with that is all good.
• Exercise is key for people with ADHD - 30 minutes 3-5 times a week
• When working on projects, schoolwork or whatnot using a 10/3 intervals of time works best to allow for breaks.

That was a lot of information to take in & I am looking forward to going back and listening to some of the previous webinars they have had as well to learn even more!  http://www.additudemag.com/webinars

My biggest take-away from this is that it isn't his fault & asking him "why?" he did something and getting a "I don't know" can truly be his only true answer - that he really doesn't know because he wasn't processing what he was doing at that time...

We used a timer like this and set it for 10 minutes of "work" and 3 minutes of  "rest" for
 him to do his time on his learning games on the computer

We downloaded an interval timer on a cell phone that he uses just for the apps/games and he is using it to work on some online software that works on math and reading skills & it is going pretty well - the most interested and calm I have seen him work on stuff like this in a long time!

Another challenge

Today I started out the day talking to the school about my frustrations from Friday- about his recess being taken away & how important I thought recess was for him.

She wanted to know about how the Dr appt went and if there has been any more activity since then.  I told her that he was diagnosed with ADHD, and we were exploring non-medication methods of treatment (not elaborating what they were) and that we had seen great improvements at home.  She commented that he doesn't have all sorts of negative influences that challenge him at home. And that he keeps interacting more with boys in his class that he has been having problems with. That it is a two way street, and if he would stop egging them on (making faces at them and such) that they might stop picking on him back. I stated that it didn't sound like Matthew was all to blame about it.

I shared a point that Mike reminded me that the Dr had made... The Dr stated that usually you don't hear much positive input back from the school from treatment, because the school always seems to be looking for the negatives, rather than the positives...  She was taken aback by that comment and asked me if I really thought that about their school... I told her I did, I rarely hear about any improvements he is making - only one tidbit of a story sharing two nice things he had done in class a few weeks ago... no feedback on his academics at all...  She stated that she would check with the teacher about that and try to get her to provide more feedback.

I said that it was discouraging because we have seen so many positive changes at home and we don't hear anything good from the school.

She said that there were a lot of things that are hard to change when they have been habits. Like always egging on other kids in his class when he is up walking around in the class...  I brought up the possibility of a fresh start being good for him & she agreed, stating that she had been thinking about that idea for Matthew over the weekend as well... (which I found sweet in a way)  I told her that it may be just the thing Matthew needs to get past this problem.  She asked me if I was serious about wanting to change, and I stated yes, and she said that she would get the ball rolling to discuss it with the principal and the counselor, as the principal is the one that makes that sort of decision and the counselor should definitely be involved as well...

I told her that sounded great & wanted to clarify that we were not trying to do it to change teachers, just the student set that he is in class with... She understood...

We talked more about recess & I let her know that I was confident that he would make good choices at recess and that he had asked to be able to have recess because he wanted the exercise he could get from running around... She told me she would let him have the chance today...

I felt pretty good about the whole conversation...

Until hours later when I got the email that stated that he got a referral at that recess that I had fought for her to allow him to have...

The referral stated that Matthew threw dirt into another student's mouth... Which that by itself sounds pretty bad... Until I talked to Matthew and learned the rest of the story...

There were several other kids involved and others threw dirt as well - and Matthew was not the one that started it... No, that doesn't make it right, but it is a different story than was portrayed on his referral form...  This frustrates me...  As do many things... but one battle a time I guess...

He is back in at second recess, until a conference can be had with us (his parents) and the parties involved at the school.  Hoping to be able to resolve that this week and hopefully address the classroom change at the same time.

Oh for a crystal ball to see into the future and see if this the answer we need to help him succeed.

My plan for now is to try to move forward with the classroom change for him and to work through some workbooks on behavior modification (made out for ADHD kids) and see if we can help him learn to make better choices.

Frustrations at school

So Matthew hasn't had afternoon recess for 3 weeks now due to the vice principal stating that they didn't feel comfortable letting him go out to afternoon recess that he was a danger to himself and others.  This was following an incident that our son was playing tag with some other boys and accidentally (even they agree it was an accident) punched another kid in the nose when reaching to tag one of the boys...  They were all playing a bit on the rough side and it got out of hand...

With Matthew's great improvements at home, I requested he be given his afternoon recess back on Thursday... He did well on Thursday & then today & got called in to the office during his first recess because someone told on him that he had been calling names and making faces at them in class and at recess...  Matthew admitted to a few silly faces in class and to calling him names (they were both doing it back and forth to each other - and it was only saying stuff like "I don't hit girls..." not anything really bad)

But then it went on to someone saying that Matthew had flipped off another student on the way to recess.

Matthew denied it, and was told that she didn't want to talk to him as long as he was lying. And then I got an email (our standard form of communication) about what happened, stating that the student that reported this activity was very reliable...  And that all recesses were going to be taken away until we could meet to discuss this.

I responded telling them that I was frustrated because it is two steps forward and one step back, and he is doing so well at home, and let them know we would talk to Matthew about this and get back with them.

I met Matthew at the bus stop today and the first thing he said to me (without me saying ANYTHING) was "I didn't do it..."  He was referring to being accused of flipping someone off... He told me that he knows that is wrong and that he would get in trouble for it. He said that he was pretty sure the "gang" of boys that he feels like is watching him all the time in class and at recess put this other kid up to saying that he had flipped someone off to get him in trouble. He said that he was so frustrated that she wouldn't believe him that he cried...  (When Matthew cries, he is sincerely upset... so this is telltale that he was telling the truth)

We drafted another email to the school and let them know what Matthew told us and asked how they would like to handle making sure that Matthew feels safe from the "gang" of boys in his class and at recess & that we are upset about him losing recess over heresay about something.

I have no idea what sort of response we will get, but we are working hard on learning how to respond to things people say and do to him.

We were very proud of him when someone this week was teasing him about having a "girlfriend" - but his response was great - "no, she is my friend because our parents know each other..." (all the truth!)  I love that he didn't let what they said bother him, and he had something clever to say to them!

Here's hoping that they will be able to help him at the school level, and that we won't need to figure out the next level of people to talk to to help him be treated fairly and feel safe in school.

We are so proud of how much he has changed and how well he is adapting to what he needs to do to keep his brain happier (wheat and dairy free)...

Update

So the last two days have been rough, when the previous days had been pretty good with Matthew... I am trying to figure out if it is because he was running a fever last night and didn't feel well, or if dairy may be something else he is intolerant to. As he had cottage cheese yesterday morning (because I had bought some at the store after not having it for a long time because I don't eat it anymore - but I was seeking more things that Matthew could eat and liked...) and then he had a bowl of cereal (rice chex) this morning with a bunch of milk with it...

Yesterday he was very sensitive - like run to his room if anyone looked at him funny, as well as lashing out at others over silly things...

Today he was bawling, very, very upset on our way to go over to the local middle school for me to do a long walk while he and his sisters played around over there... He was bawling because his helmet wasn't on his handlebars to his bike where he had left it... It was the type of crying that you would expect if your puppy got lost, or your world ended... I felt so bad for him, and really, really want to figure out what the trigger was...  (While feeling bad for him, I kept worrying that we were having such a setback that we were going to have resort to meds...  which made me sad...  I hope we can figure out how to help with other things and we don't have to go that route.)

So I am here documenting it and we will try to keep him off of dairy for this week (he does fine if it is small amounts in cooked items and cheese - but it seems to be straight dairy - milk and cottage cheese that doesn't work well) and then let him try it again and see if it is a trigger. Otherwise I am missing something else that is different that would cause this...

One day at a time...

On a great note his blood test came back negative for celiac's disease. Which still leave us open for a gluten or some set of foods that he is intorant of, but way easier to manage than celiac's.

Oh, Amazon how I love thee...

I have been busy shopping on Amazon & loving the results...  I LOVE the great prices, quick shipping and reviews of books. The reviews of books and products are what makes Amazon the best for me... Seeing what other people have thought of a product I am considering is SOOO VALUABLE.

I have gotten this book already and can't wait to have time to read all of it - it talks about many ways to help the ADHD symptoms our children have. How to explore things that might be causing certain behaviors. I will fill in more as I read it more.

We were told to explore behavioral therapy for Matthew, so I started looking for books about that to see what we might be able to learn in and effort to help Matthew. (not to say that we won't take him to actual behavior therapy at some point)

These highly rated books (on amazon) two books are more of activity books that are supposed to walk him through problem solving strageties for everyday things he encounters...  I will report more on these when they arrive.

And one more that I ordered that is supposed to walk through different things that can be done to help him succeed in school.

I can't wait for all of these to arrive and to keep reading!

Pediatrician appointment

Today we went and saw Matthew's pediatrician for an evaluation for ADHD.

We started out with a cutie little nurse checking us in and taking Matthew's vitals and we mentioned that he had complained about blurred vision recently - and she did a quick vision check on him as well (which told us that we need to visit the optomitrist soon).  Somewhere in the talking with this gal, we mentioned to her that the school was who was inisting we come in for this evaluation appointment & she laughed and said "it's always the school..."  I thought this was funny...

We waited a bit and then the DR came in and she was very thankful for all of our completed paperwork that had been turned in last week & she really liked the notes/letters that the teacher and school counselor included as well... All of that information helped her a lot in getting a picture of what Matthew is like at school.

She then went on to ask lots of questions about how Matthew is at home with us, and what the issues were at school as we understood them. We talked a lot about that & we shared how the elimination of wheat has seemed to improve his symptoms of ADHD. She stated that there is not much scientific evidence that proves that elimination diets work for ADHD... I told her that we didn't care what science says - we know that Matthew is a different person without wheat.

She asked Matthew how he felt and what areas of concern he had as well. He shared the book that we had been reading and showed her the checklists inside of it that show how he feels.

She then went on to explain the results of the Vanderbuilt tests we took (we as parents, and then the teacher) - both tests showed that he has ADHD. She explained what that means - and the treatment options that different people choose. Some work with behavioral therapists, some choose to medicate their kids, and some choose other options.  She went into how medicines would work - she generally prescribes the stimulant type of medicine - Adderall or Concerta (I think) were the two that she mentioned. And that she starts children out at the lowest doses she can and then see how they react to them - watching for sleeplessness, weight loss, headaches, stomach aches and some other rarer side effects.  She also talked a lot about no medicine is a magic-cure - that the child still has to WANT to do what he needs to do in school - that the medicine just provides some stimulation in the brain where it is being a bit "lazy" and it helps the child focus on what needs to be done.

We talked about how he is feeling better being off of wheat products, and she asked us if we would like him to have a simple blood test for celiac disease. They look for antibodies to gluten in the bloodstream... She checked with another doctor to make sure that after 2 weeks of being off of wheat products that there would still be something there to look for (antibody wise).  Since we hadn't gone totally GLUTEN-FREE (only wheat free) they stated that a blood test would be valid at this point. So she put in orders for blood work.

She also stated that even if the blood tests come back negative for celiac disease, it doesn't mean that he doesn't have a gluten intolerance.

She told us she would call with the results in a few days. She gave us a letter to provide to the school stating that she had diagnosed him with ADHD and requesting them to start a 504 education plan to put in writing the accomodations that are needed in the classroom for him to succeed.  She also gave us a bunch of reading material to look at about ADHD. She said there really wasn't any follow up at this point, the ball was in our court on how we would like to proceed. We can keep seeing how well he does off of wheat and see if that makes enough of a difference for him to succeed, or in a week we may call her up and say we are ready to talk again about the option of using medicine to help provide the focus and such that he lacks.

So we left feeling good that we are in control - that it is our choice what to do to help our child succeed in life. For now we will provide the "diagnosis letter" to the school and see what that will prompt with them on getting a 504 plan in the works. And we will wait to hear back about the results of the blood tests and continue to support his wheat free diet.

Quiet car rides

Though my kids don't look like this and are older - this is a good analogy to how they have been on car rides together.

Before Matthew went wheat free car rides made me want to pull over and get out of the car until they figured out whatever they were bickering about at any given time. Matthew could not control his hands and Jenna over dramatized anything that Matthew did and mayhem ensued. 

In the last two weeks (since Matthew has gone wheat free) the kids have gone on a few car rides - a quick one to pick up Jenna from a friend's house, and a ride to Awana's last week. Today they had a lot of time in the car to go from school to goodwill, to the dentist, to my physical therapy appointment and then home - in total a few hours in the car...

You know what I notice in the car since Matthew has gone wheat free???  Drama free car rides... It is so pleasant - I go out of my way to praise them and point it out to both of them how well Matthew is doing...

It is the little things like this that all add up to more peaceful feelings all around.  :)