adhd/odd

[selenalane24]

My son has been severe enough to be diagnosed as having adhd/odd at 3 years old. We have tried behavior therapy, drug therapy, and still no change. His aggression continues to grow and there seems to be no help for him. He is a wonderful child and i dont want him labeled "THAT KID". His therapists have started suggesting maybe there is something more than adhd/odd. What else can we try to give my baby hope?

[RockRose]

Why do you say he is a "wonderful child"?  I'm honestly asking,  so you can sort through all this information.

He's been on behavior therapy,  and drugs,  and he's not mproving.  His aggression is continuing to increase.  

What are his positives that make him a "wonderful child"?   Somehow you need to document those characteristics.  

[selenalane24]

He is wonderful because he is my son, he can also be very sweet, loving, and is very intelligent. His problem is when he gets around more than one or two people he gets overstimulated and pretty much short circuits. But no matter what his problems he is my child and to me he is wonderful. Whatever is wrong causes him to be like night and day. To me my child is wonderful no matter what his faults. He just needs help. Does that make him NOT wonderful? He cant help how he is.

[RockRose]

I didn't mean to be ugly,  selena,  and yes,  every child is wonderful.

I thought you meant he had characteristics that you could actually document when you go in for his behavior assessments that make him a "wonderful child",  not just loved by you.  

So I think you need to actually document what you are saying - he does very well in small groups,  he's very intelligent,  and is sweet and loving to family.   That's for the doctors or therapists to know.

[HeatherP]

Selena - I have a son who was formally diagnosised with ADHD and ODD at the age of 5 but we had issues back to the age of 3.  Behavior theropy is important... don't give it up,  you may want to consider finding a different Dr. if you don't feel they are making progress.  My son is also on medication - mainly because I was told by all his teachers and care givers that they felt he truly wants to behave and do good - which broke my heart.  My child too is a wonderful person, he's extremely athletic, very bright and is cute as can be.  he can be loving and caring especially with younger children.  He too gets over stimulated - sometimes we refer to it as Sensory Integration Disfunction.  This occurs when he is in large groups of children, loud noisy and uncontrolled environments, like daycare.  He used to be extremely aggressive and needed major help with anger management.  But he has made a ton of progress over the past year, is still in a normal classroom setting and can articulate how he feels more so than he used to.
I would look into services in your area that can help - we have what is known as a Wrap-around service - where he has a TSS come to the daycare/school so many hours a week to help him work through the situations he has issues with.  The toughest thing for us was that he had major behvior issues at daycare/school - but not at home.  And it wasn't cause he was ruling the home sort of speak and getting his way, it's mainly because home was not overstimulating like the other social situations were.  We did change meds 4-5 times before we found what has worked.  It's been a rough road and I wish you the best.  We are still working on some issues but if you are not satisfied - seek help from everyone you can think of.  Schools, behavior theropists, phychologists, etc.  I found that the behavioral health organizations in the area were a big help and many of them provide services through medicare/medicaid.
Good luck!  Just remember your his biggest advocate so don't give up!

[selenalane24]

Thank you guys so much and if i got touchy i am so sorry. I just get people every day coming up saying your kid is so bad and just needs a good a** whipping. But that just makes it worse. Show him aggression and his aggression gets worse. If he is only around a couple people he is great and calm and smart and hilarious child. But put him around 5 or more people and you can see his eyes start to jitter then he actually turns into the tazmanian devil on crack.  Only with more aggression. And his emotions go up and down. It's like he knows something is wrong but he is sooo helpless. We have so many people trying to help but live in a very small town so they havent dealt with this. Right now we are working on getting him to the Weiskoph Center to see if they can help. I'm not sure i spelt that right. I will not give up until i get my baby help. He is a gifted child and just needs the right person to see him. And i sooo appreciate the advice you guys are giving me. Plus it helps to be able to talk to people that deal with it too. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Sebastien's mommy

[HeatherP]

Your welcome.  Trust me - been there and are just now seeing some true change with our son. (after 2+ years) And I too used to believe (in the beginning) that he just needed more discipline - why not? That is the way we were raised...but when you think about - when any parent thinks about it - Why would you think that spanking or beating your child when your child hits, bites or does anything aggressive to another person would help him learn not to be aggressive?  It's just stupid if you think about it logically.  Some children it works cause they are intimidated.  Children with ADHD or other issues are not intimidated.  My child especially modelled a lot of the behavior of us and his family members - when you have the attitude of they just need their butts beat - well, they are going to model that as a means of dealing with a situation.  Not good to learn!

It does help to talk to others who have been there.  I often felt very alone and didn't know where to turn - but you can always turn here... it's a great resource.