Finally found something that helped our son!

by Monica
(Illinois )

I haven't written in this blog for over a year but my son's story was called "at the end of my rope." The purpose of this post is to share something that worked for my son in case other parents are open to trying it.

Our son is in 1st grade. He has SPD that was diagnosed at age 3. He flaps, and displays many sensory seeking behaviors: crashing, oral seeking, rolling his body along the walls in the hallway, running into people, etc. He has problems with coordination and has some gross and fine motor struggles. He's been in PT/OT since age 3 and has made many strides as far as that goes. He has had some behavioral issues as well.

The first 3 months of the this school year have been extremely tough for him and us. After weekly meetings and daily talkings to, we were forced to open up about our son's sensory processing disorder. We saw it as a sort of coming out of the closet. The school tried to work with us but immediately he was singled out as a child With "issues". The teachers had us bring his sensory box to school and eventually our son even had to wear a vest off and on throughout the day. He is extremely bright and is in all the advanced classes but his inability to control his body was affecting his grades. He began to struggle deeply with every subject. He attends a private school where aides and OTs were not available for him and we finally had to hire an OT to sit with him in class. His self esteem was deeply affected and he became very depressed. He already struggled with being an emotional child but now he was talking about himself as "bad" and he felt no matter how hard he tried, he could not control himself.

We decided we were open to anything, even if it meant medication. He was tested for ADHD just to make sure we weren't missing anything. He was found to have Very mild ADHD. But we decided to try Tenex as recommended by his pediatrician and psychologist. It was a nightmare. Headaches, nightmares, fatigue, weight gain, depression, etc. we tried it for 3 weeks and finally decided there was no hope. Our Doctor recommend we switch to Adderal. It was light flipping a light switch!!! Our prayers were answered.

Long story short, it's been 3 months and our son now makes perfect marks in school. He doesn't suffer from side effects. The teachers sent home his sensory box within 2 weeks of being on the medication. He doesn't need his vest, although it's there if he chooses to wear it. His OT tells me he feels his services are no longer needed. The teachers are amazed at our son's new ability to make mature choices and he has become a leader in class. Our son's friendships are intact again and his self esteem is much improved. One thing people may not agree with is that neither our son nor the school knows about the Adderal. We put it in his morning juice each day once a day. Our son takes all the credit for his remarkable turnaround as we feel he should. He has been through so much and we feel he deserves to feel he has done it 100% by his ability to make better choices and by controlling his body on his own. His OT is in the know. The medication is out of his body by 4pm on the dot each day and he goes back to being his flappy, crashy self, but I feel this is an important part of the puzzle because he still is able to apply skills he has learned to self regulate at certain points of the day but without the consequences of school involvement. This medication has been a life changer and I hope it can be helpful for others as well. We will eventually tell our son that he is on medication when he is mature enough to understand. We are hoping it will be only a temporary need for him. Please no negative comments. This post is meant to help other parents that were in a situation as hopeless as ours seemed.