ADHD — A Check Up

We had Bud in for a check up today.  We wanted to monitor his growth and check on a heart murmur that was recently discovered, and basically check in with his doctor about his medication to make sure everything was as it should be.  Turns out, everything looks good, weight gain surprisingly included.  The doctor wants a few more tests done to make sure the heart murmur is “innocent” in nature, but he was not concerned and neither are we.  So, overall, we have been reassured.

As an indication of the change we have seen in Bud over the past few months, let me relay a couple of incidents that have occurred this week:  First, one of his Sunday School teachers approached me after church and I didn’t cringe inside, wondering what Bud had done this time.   Actually, she told me Bud was doing so well in class now.  She said, “I only teach his class about once a month, and one month he was one way (always in trouble), and then the next month he was completely different.  It was like night and day.  We have been able to get to know him now!  Did you do something different?”   It was encouraging to hear.  It kind of balances out the time in a different church when his Sunday School teachers told me they wouldn’t take him in their class anymore ( a couple of years ago).  The second incident that occurred was just this morning while we were going to the different stops at the hospital to check out his heart.  In the doctor’s office, he played quietly with some toys for an hour while the doctor and I talked.  When he got bored, he came and sat on my lap.  (This is the same boy who, while we were being “interviewed” about his ADHD originally, was pounding his paper with the crayons and slinging a rubber lizard about the room within 10 minutes. ) Later on in the EKG room, the receptionist commented to me, “He is so well-behaved!  Most kids are running around and yelling !  What is your secret!” 

Fortunately, Bud got to “overhear” these compliments on his good behavior, which is a perfect reinforcer.   I wish I could take credit for the “change” in Bud, but we haven’t done that much differently.  It is almost entirely the benefit of the medication.  Conversely, however, a great deal of our trouble before cannot be directly charged to me either, but rather to the ADHD.  So the conclusion?  We weren’t horrible failures as parents before and we are not suddenly new and improved perfect parents now.  We just found out what we were up against, and found the right (for us, for now) tool to  combat it.