Where do I start?

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

I have been reading some back posts to try to get some ideas of where to start

to address my child's ADHD type behavior. It's very overwhelming!

Background info:

We adopted Amy from Hong Kong when she was 18 mos. She has DS and has always

been extremely ACTIVE and LOUD. We have seen positive changes over the years,

for example, she no longer picks up every object in sight to hurl it across the

room. Instead, she picks things up and shoves them in my face while yelling

jibberish I assume means " put this somewhere else " .

Despite homeschooling my other kids, or maybe because of homeschooling the

others, Amy has attended public school up until we pulled her out a few weeks

ago. She will be homeschooled from now on.

To replace ps speech therapy, I took her for a speech eval to get private speech

therapy started. It was the first time in two years that she has had an eval

done that I have sat in on. What I saw was a child whose minds is like a ping

pong ball bouncing all over the room. Amy was not being naughty, defiant, or

uncooperative. She appeared to simply have no control over where her thoughts

landed. She appeared to not have the ability to choose what she focused on. If

she saw something interesting, she had to go touch it right that instant.

Consequently, her speech was determined to be at the level of a two yr. old. Her

expressive speech is pretty much at that level, but I know she has a much larger

database of words she understands than a 2 y.o.

I have not been in favor of medicating her with meds like ritalin to slow her

down. A doctor recommended it back when she was 3 or 4, and we tried Adderall

for one day. Only one day because it made her psycho! It gave her raging OCD,

volatile emotions, and insomnia that made her sob most of the night. Amy is

naturally a super happy child, we we horrified at what that drug did to her!

Now I'm wondering if I should be doing something to address the ADHD type

behavior. My husband is in favor of trying meds again, but I find myself feeling

ill when I think about it. He brother and sisters think it's nuts to try drugs

again.

I see our choices as either trying something in the herbal/natural/dietary

category, or continuing to just accept how she is and work our lives around it.

So, where do I start? There are so many " remedies " out there. How do I know what

is helpful and what is snake-oil? I'm so hesitant to buy anything for fear of

wasting money. My attempts at finding a fish oil/omega supplement failed. She

didn't like how they tasted and wouldn't take them.

Thanks for your help,

Kim