Changes for the better at school

January 27, 2009

Hi all-

My 9yr old restarted meds in August. Homework (and all things school in

general) has always been very taxing - very unpleasant, usually dissolving into

frustration and anger after well over an hour of struggling to keep him on task.

He seemed to be doing well enough that I wasn't really planning on treating him

other than the SSRI and Tenex (for financial reasons and because his labs still

looked good).

Tonight (and maybe the last 2 weeks?), he sat leisurely on the couch, with

plenty of distractions going on around him, comfortably focused on his math,

doing a complicated worksheet, without having to be reminded to stay on task

once. In at least 2 weeks, he has barely protested starting his homework, we

have not had one fight, and it has been no problem keeping him on task at all.

What has been a nightly hell for as long as I can remember has suddenly become a

great opportunity to spend time with him.

And then I went thru his takehome folder. We just received a bunch of his

tests. ... all A's except for 2 B's. He was a C & D student this and previous

years (well he's only in 3rd grade so he's just starting to get grades, but

comparable).

I really just can't believe the transformation. We went thru a rough spell

because he reacted badly to his allergy med (Allegra, and once before, Zyrtec)

and he was very oppositional. The antifungal brought him out very early and

made me decide to stick to having him on meds, because he was soooo much more

agreeable - he even asked me a few weeks into the Nizoral: " Mommy, can I stay on

this new medicine forever? It is so much easier to be good now " . (Then

everything tanked when I requested to switch him to Allegra because of the low

copay.) I'm thinking the few months that have passed on the antiviral and some

minimal diet tweaking (he's cut back more on carbs and snacks now w/no trouble)

is the only thing I can pinpoint that could possibly have done this!

It's like he and his brother have swapped bodies. Now poor little brother has

taken on all of the difficulties, and I need to figure out how to help him.

Just wanted to share! (and rejoice)

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