Sterling

I think I have one of the cutest kids around.  He may be stubborn and opinionated and knows how to push my buttons - but he is adorable!

When he was in 2nd grade, we had major issues with him.  Major.  He was very cranky, very active, very emotional, very wiggly.  He would get so frustrated and then shut down.  He was struggling in school.  He was struggling at home.  I had him with a reading tutor (since he was on an early 1st grade reading level and not progressing) who told me that he had an attention problem. So I started to watch him and observed that he couldn't sit still.  He couldn't focus AT. ALL.  He couldn't catch on to anything he was being taught.  He would then get frustrated and shut down.  With his emotional rollercoaster, we took him to his pediatrician to talk about that and his inability to focus on anything for longer than 10 seconds.

So we did what a lot of people are totally against.  We put him on medicine.  I don't care what anybody says about "drugging children".  Are there alternatives?  I think there may be other options that help - but with Tim and I both working, our options are limited due to finances and/or time.  Do I regret putting him on the medicine?  HECK NO!  It was the best thing we did for him.  We put him on a low dose which helped him to focus - he improved in school, he improved at home.  He could focus on his school work and didn't shut down.  We had a little boy that was cute and fun to be around.  One who would actually listen to me - really listen.  He wouldn't pitch his usual 10 minute fit when we tried to get him to understand something he couldn't quite grasp.

We had an enjoyable year.

But then things started to change.  Our cranky, struggling boy returned.  He was always cranky and uncooperative and argumentative.  So we took him off his medicine and our happy, cute son returned!  Is he super active?  Yes - but what child isn't?  Can he focus for longer than 10 seconds?  The jury is still out on that one - I can see he isn't as wiggly and doesn't sit still for long, but he isn't cranky.  He just started school and so we won't know how well he can focus on his homework until we meet with his teacher in a couple of weeks.  We'll see how well he does in the next few weeks

Do I regret putting him on medicine?  No.  Will I do it again?  If necessary.  I'm hoping we don't have to - but as soon as his school work starts to suffer we may have to.