Today I helped a friend do some work on her house. We had a nice time doing our sister-work and then my friend served a lovely lunch. With us was another close friend, whom I'll call K. Over the course of lunch we were talking about our kids and about various issues and the topic of Little J and our search for adequate evaluations for him as well as my strong suspicion that he has ADD came up.

"Oh, I don't believe in that," K. said.

"You don't believe in ADD?" I asked.

"No. I mean, if they think he has it are you doing to give him that stuff? Whadayacallit? Ritalin?"

"If... more

So, if you have followed this blog at all you will know we've been through the wringer with Little J, trying to figure out how we can help him with his behavioral issues. Maybe "been through the wringer" is an exaggeration, because in reality Little J's issue are not as serious as many other children's behaviors, but still - we have been searching and searching for answers to his behavior problems, enlisting all the professionals we can enlist, with limited results.

We've seen Early Intervention twice, a clinic for Sensory Processing Disorder, had the schools do an evaluation, and... more

I was flipping through Deborah Gray's excellent book, Attaching in Adoption the other day (I was actually wondering if Little J telling me I'm a stupid baby mommy in response to me telling him he couldn't have juice before dinner was a sign of an attachment problem...no, it isn't, and no I don't really think Little J has attachment issues I just have too many books lying around) and I found this fascinating passage about ADHD and malnutrition:

Children with Attention Deficit Disorder, or Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity... more

The most common treatment of ADHD is medication. Here's the lowdown from the Attention Deficit Disorder Association's (ADDA)website:

Clinical experience has shown that the most effective treatment for ADHD is a combination of medication (when necessary), therapy or counseling to learn coping skills and adaptive behaviors, and ADD coaching for adults.

Medication is often used to help normalize brain activity, as prescribed by a physician. Stimulant medications (Ritalin, Dexedrine, Adderall) are commonly used because they have been shown... more

Okay, back to my glossary of alphabet soup terms that are often heard in connection with kids adopted from Russia. In my last post on the issue I talked about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and its associated terms. In this post I will talk about Attention Defecit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

I should mention that our Ukranian Adoption Blogger, Angela, has written about her daughter's experiences with ADHD. If you're interested in a first-hand account, you should check out her posts. And for all... more