Medication Woes.

I was rummaging through one of our cabinets today and found two cups that brought memories flooding back as though they happened yesterday.

Michael was diagnosed with ADHD at age 5.
After over 6 months of trying every technique known to man other than medication, we finally decided to give medication a try.

I can tell you that we exhausted every possible alternative prior to taking this route but I know with 100% certainty that we made the right choice for Michael.

But we had an issue that I had not been prepared for when we got home with his medication.

It was in pill form.

To the average person, this doesn't sound like much of a problem.
To a five year old who's never taken medication that wasn't in liquid form, this was a catastrophe.

The pharmacist recommended that we open the capsule and drop the medication on a spoonful of pudding or applesauce if he couldn't get the act of swallowing the pill down right away.

Well I can tell you this...
We went through months of mornings in which Michael would either:
-throw up multiple times from gagging on the pill itself
-throw up multiple times from gagging after tasting the medication sprinkled on a spoonful of anything
-throw a monster tantrum in order to avoid either of the above.

It was a total and absolute nightmare.

This process went on for months without any signs of improvement in sight.

Until a good friend recommended that I find a "pill cup" that he remembered his brother using as a child.

I started searching the internet and located two such cups.
Obviously, out of desperation, I ordered both immediately.

The first one that arrived was this one.

I found it here.

This one is designed almost similar to a sippy cup.

The pill is supposed to be set inside and should just flow right down with the juice.

Here's the problems we experienced with this one.

First, the pill often sticks to the cup.

If it gets even the slightest bit wet, the pill sticks to the side and does not "flow right down".

We tried to remedy this by flipping the cup back, which would "in theory" force the liquid and the pill into the mouth quickly.

The issue was this. If you didn't put you're mouth completely over the opening, you'd wind up with juice all over yourself. If you did put your mouth completely over it, the pill would invariably get stopped somewhere around the teeth and not make it down the throat.

Unfazed, we waited for the second cup to arrive.

I found this one here.

This cup was designed similarly but was to drunk from as you would a regular cup.

The pill was set on the "ledge" and you just take a big swallow and the pill should go right down with the beverage.

Well... it took a few tries, but it worked!

I think Michael was actually so shocked the first time it went down that he didn't actually believe it himself.

To be totally honest, it still took months of practicing with his cup to really get the act of swallowing medication down completely.

We weren't successful every time in the beginning.

But I can not begin to express the relief as he started to get the hang of it.

It took stress off of Michael.

It took stress off of my husband and I.

And ultimately, he was able to take his medicine and start to see himself succeed at school.

And that... thanks to a silly sounding pill taker's cup... was life changing.

ADHD

My son is almost 7 years old.
He has ADHD.
I know. I know. There are mass amounts of people who truly believe that ADD/ADHD doesn't exist. I know this because once upon a time I was one of those people. It took me forever to accept it. As a parent, it is nearly impossible to admit or accept that anything could possibly be wrong with our children. I remember joking when he was a toddler that "I guess I didn't get one of those docile children." He was active. Really, really active. He never slept. But I thought it was no more than that. He was just on the go. All the time.
In hindsight, there were clues. All kinds of signs that I either didn't notice or chose to ignore. I focused on his intelligence which was off the charts. His speech and vocabulary which was years and years ahead. His ways of saying the most inappropriate things at the most inappropriate times but still managing to charm the pants off whoever he had made "said" inappropriate comment to. His ability to focus so intently on something that at times I thought he was in a trance.
Looking back, I wouldn't change the way in which I came to accept that my son was "different" than most of the kids I encountered. I took my time. We saw doctors. I read books. I searched the Internet. We saw more doctors. We met with his teacher. We saw more doctors.
I was careful and tried everything I could. I removed all the sugar he was consuming. No change. I removed any possibility of food allergies. No change. I disallowed all food dyes. No change. I took away all of his video games and took away all television. No change. I asked his teacher to give him a second desk and let him move freely between the two. A little, tiny change. I blamed myself and tried to figure out what I had done wrong. (This also resulted in no change.) Things were getting worse by the day. School was a nightmare. He'd cry and scream daily begging not to have to go. And finally after a year and a half I made what I felt was my last resort choice. The choice I had so resisted from the start. The choice I had sworn I would never do.
I started my son on medication. I made an educated and informed decision for my son. I did not make it lightly. I begged his pediatrician to refer him for a cardiac workup prior to starting the medication. (I lost that battle.) The day he started it was one of the scariest days of my life.
But it worked. I'll never forget the look on my son's face as he was suddenly able to produce at school. The calm that came over him. The realization that I should have tried this sooner. But ultimately the relief in the face of a 5 year old boy who had nearly lost all hope. It was that, that I realized that day. He had given up. My beautiful, brilliant baby had given up. And the medicine that I had so adamantly refused to try, in one day, gave him hope.
It's never easy with him. I don't expect it to be. And I have found with him that just when something starts to work really well is when I need to be most prepared for setbacks. But he's hopeful now. He's seen what he's able to do. And he's finally starting to believe in himself again. And seeing that gives me hope and keeps me strong.
If there's anything I've learned raising a child with ADHD it's this... everything must be taken one day at a time. And I've got all the time in the world.