|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
| Parents of 'Difficult' Children |
| Public online group |
|
|
| |
|
|
hi, my name is lisa and im 31 years old. i have a 11 year old son, and i am now raising my sisters 6 year old daughter. she was in foster care for two months before i got her, and her behavior is..... i dont even know how to describe it. she wears a clonidine patch and takes medidate cd once a day. being adhd combined, it is causing a lot of problems in my household, she wakes up every night around 1-3 o'clock and wanders around the house, i simply dont know what to do with her, im pregnant now and recently diagnosed with chronic hypertension. should i keep her and do my best to deal with her? or should i try to find someplace else for her to stay?. her mom is also pregnant and they are taking that baby too. i feel guilty but i cant get that one either because mine will be born three months after hers.
any input would be great!
~lisa |
| Posted by lisa on 07/30/2007 09:48 PM
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Wow! You really have your hands full. I'm curious though, six seems awful young to be on medicine for adhd. Have you checked the medicine for side effects?? Could that be part of the reason she is not sleeping?? Another thing that REALLY has an effect on behavior is diet. RED DYE makes my son bounce off the wall!! You can google diet and adhd and get TONS of info about it.
You definitely need to establish routines and stick to them because with any child, the routines will help. As for telling you what to do as far as whether to keep your niece, only you can make that decision. You definitely need to get a handle on her behavior. Sounds like a lot of it could be for attention too because of the situation. I'm sure that she is confused.
I hope that this info has helped. Keep us posted and good luck.
Jennifer |
| posted by Jennifer on 07/31/2007 12:26 AM
|
|
|
|
|
| yha, 6 does seem young. but she's not allowed to attend school without it. and i really dont want her in a special school or labeled ESE just because of her behavior. as for keeping her, the decision is hard, but i dont want to see her in foster care either so i keep moving forward. on tuesday she was suspended for three days from her day care center. so now i am taking her to work with me until she can go back. i thought that this would help a little with giving her more attention, but she still acts out at my center, so im at a loss. as for red dye, ive pretty much banned that from my house, and all foods that contain it. but i did google adhd and got some more helpful advice, so thanks! :P |
| posted by lisa on 08/02/2007 01:29 PM
|
|
|
|
|
| Wow, a child who is going through a hard time is hard enough but doing it while being pregnant must fell overwhelming. My aldest son, 13, is ADHD and Bi-Polar, and there are times whe I feel as though there is no way I can make through one more second, let alone the rest of the day. Clonadine should help with sleep, but it does have a side affect of aggresion, which can be worsned by the fact that children with ADHD are easily aggitated. Another option that worked well when my son was younger is Adderral, in small doses ther were few noticable side effects. One thing that really helped me was having a schedule that can be seen easily with a clock close by...it helps with the transitions which can be a triggering point for ADHD kids who are easily "overstimulated". Eating frequent/regular meals and snacks helps a lot too (even if its a really small snack)..it limits spikes in blood sugar, another thing we recently tried that seems to have a pretty good impact on limiting the "mood swings" is limiting both sugar and white flour (it has lots of carbs. which can have the same effect as sugar). It took about 6 months to switch though since ADHD kids tend to be picky eaters. (They feel that what they eat is something that they have control over, while much of the world is out of control.) When it comes to daycare, if possible at home child care is possibly a better option because the number of kids is usually less, and there is a little more flexibility with behavior challenges, where as a center has strict rules to follow and little room for error...my son lasted 2+years in an at-home versus no more than 6 months at any center. I know I have written alot, but I hope that there is something here that can help with you get through this stressful situation. You are doing a wonderful thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
| posted by Tina on 08/04/2007 08:17 PM
|
|
|
|
|
wow, how awesome are you that you are willing to take in your sister's child. I work in the foster care system provding therapy to the kids so I know all about the effects it has on the child. If you can make it work, I highly suggest you keep her in your home so she has close family and the consistency. It is so detrimental for these foster kids to be moved around. Consistency with limits and rules is also important. A great resource is loveandlogic.com, its a wonderful method of discipline and setting limits, we use it in the group home on the foster kids. A great book is 'When love is not enough' you can find it on their website. It gives advice on Reactive Attachment Disorder, which most foster kids under 10 have. She may get worse behavior wise, before she gets better, thats typically how it works, but if you can stick through it, it will be the most valuable thing for her. Good luck!!
-April |
| posted by on 09/10/2007 11:14 PM
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
| |  |
| |
|
|
|
