New Year....New Hopes & Goals... Part One

Life has it's ups and downs. This is one thing we all learn along the way. For some it's later in life and for others, they learn this the moment they leave their parents home to journey out on their own in this crazy thing we call LIFE! For me, I have had the blessing of learning this young and it's made me who I am today.

 

I see a lot of the "Happy New Year, this year is my year!" or "New Year, New Me." posts on different social media. I'm not one of these people because I'm up for the rollercoaster ride that life has in store for me in the year of 2015. I do know that 2014 wasn't anything that I was expecting when the year first came in. 2014 took me and my family on one heck of a ride. At times it was so stressful, I was close to throwing in the towel and giving up. However, that's not me. I don't give up easily. I am a fighter and will always be.

 

So here I am to give you ANOTHER update on the home front with my family. Where do I start? The past six months have been one hell of a mess but I've kept holding on. One thing that you will learn if you just recently found my blog, is that I do NOT sugar coat anything, nor do I hold back. I'm very real and I'm not one to hide how my life is. I am not a person who tries to make my life look perfect on the internet, while my life is actually falling apart. Some may look down on this type of behavior, but I'm an Author. I'm a public figure. My readers love the fact that I am REAL. I do not write to impress. I write to express and that's what I am going to do today!

 

First up, my oldest daughter, Sunshine! Man, oh man has she been through A LOT within the past few months and that makes me feel like crap. I wish I could give her the easy way of life. You know...the type of life where things come easy and it's not that hard. The type of life where vacations exist and you get everything on your wish list at Christmas. But... that's not teaching her anything. Is it?

 

In my previous post about Sunshine, her doctor diagnosed her with ADHD. She was on the medication Concerta for two months. During this two months, it was hard for her. She had trouble sleeping, no appetite, and her behavior was worse. When brought up to the doctor about these changes within the first month, he suggested that it was because of her body getting used to it and to keep going for another month. So we did. The side effects continued. By the two month mark, she had lost almost fifteen pounds. Her clothes which used to fit snugly had started to literally fall off of her. She refused to eat the little bits of food that she does. This Momma got scared. Something had to be done. I wasn't liking these changes at all.

 

Not only was she being affected physically, but she was also going through a lot emotionally. Sunshine has always been strong willed and very out spoken emotionally. The Concerta changed this for the worse. She became very emotional and mean. Her attitude and her behavior could make a grown person cry. Her grades have even been hit by this change. She went from a high honor student to struggling. I had enough and told her doctor that she wasn't doing well on this medication. I told him that I wanted her off of it and something else done.

 

He agreed. I immediately stopped the medicine. She has slowly started to show signs of the pre-medication little girl. She still has some of the issues that she had prior, but their not as bad. She's eating again and gaining the weight back. Now, her doctor has referred her to a Psychologist to see if maybe it might be something bigger than just ADHD.

 

In addition to the doctors appointment, we have also decided to enroll her into cyber school. Therefore, I have a meeting coming up with PA Cyber so we can have her enrolled. Hopefully this will help her and give us the ability to help her as well.

 

This is part one... I'll keep you all posted on Sunshine as much as I can. Please keep her and my family in your prayers!

 

 

 

*** To finish reading, please refer to part two of this post. ***

 

Parenting a Child with ADHD: Part One

Recently we took Sunshine to the Doctor to have her evaluated for ADHD. What brought us to this decision included several factors that we had noticed over time. Of course, some of these are getting worse and new problems are arising.

Back in June, we were told by our old landlord that she was going to make us move after Rainbow was born. I didn't like the idea of having to move right after giving birth. When we told us this, there was two weeks left with the month. Now, up to this point, Sunshine had been doing very well in school. She made highest honors and was a well behaved child.

The sudden move left us in a tiff. The home we moved into was by no means acceptable for my children. Some have called me ungrateful for this, but I only want the best for my children. (I explained part of the situation here) Sunshine's behavior changed. We were getting letters from the school just about everyday. She would be getting into trouble for excessive talking and not following directions. In addition, she'd also be bringing home failing grades. This blew me away. She was a straight A student at her old school.

In the past, I thought ADHD was apparent since some things react differently with Sunshine. When she has sugar, she'll go to sleep easier. But give her something for sleep and it makes her hyper. We took her into the doctors at the beginning of the month and they did in fact agree with me. She has ADHD. Over the past month, she has been taking Concerta and we have adjusted our lives for her. So, here I am to help any other parent who may think their child has ADHD.

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First and foremost, handle it by keeping calm. Yelling and screaming isn't going to solve anything. In fact, it'll just add to the stress of the situation. Arguing will no get anything accomplished. Give them time to talk and express their feelings to you. If they don't want to talk, suggest for them to draw or write in a journal. This will help them channel their feelings and express them in a healthy way.

Create a well structured environment. Routines and expectations should be made clear and if the child breaks any such rules, the punishment should be fitting. Be sure to make the rules clear. One way to do this is to write them down on a rule chart and hang it where your child can see it at all times. When giving your child instructions to do something, keep it at one thing at a time. Kids with ADHD seem to get overwhelmed easily. If you're trying to get them to do their chores, focus on one at a time. Working as a team instead of against each other helps, too.

When the said child is doing the tasks at hand, give praise for a job well done. Most likely, this will encourage the calm and inviting atmosphere. As an example, my daughter knows that when she comes home from school, she is to start on her homework. This is usually a task all on its own. When she has homework that she doesn't understand or she's brought home a bad test score, I don't tend to yell at her. I go through each problem with her and we find the mistake together. There's also an hour of study time in the evenings to help with her grades.

Well, these are what I have for now. As we go further into this journey, I'll update and post any other tips that I find.