I have heard what the docs say about ADHD and what the school says... what does your son say? We are dealing with this with two of my children. My oldest is 8yrs and able to communicate very well. She was interviewed on the ACTeRS self-report by the pediatric psychologist and it was eye-opening. Her responses yielded her perception of severe Hyperactivity/impulsivity. I had no idea that this was bothering her to such an extent.
My husband and I were very against medication at first. Our pediatrician, knowing me well suggested Daytrana. We have since opted to use it. It is a patch that is put on with reaction in 45 minutes and removed with some residual effect for up to 2 hours. It is absorbed directly into the blood stream so it has much less risk for side effects. It took a while to find the right dose, commonly the child is over-emotional on to low of a dose. My daughter is able to tell us that this is helpful to her and she has noticed that she is able to concentrate much better. She is then able to have some control over when to take it off or how long she wears it on a given day based on what she wants to do activity wise.
She is in the process of being tested by the school district(her other testing was done outside the school). She also took MEAP this year so it will be interesting to see what these tests show in comparison. Her psychologist was confident that her scores should be improved since she had such a hard time testing before, and my daughter is now interested in taking some CTY programs this summer so we will see.
The verdict is still out on what impact the medication will have on testing but more importantly it has positively affected my daughters every day. I do know that some research shows that vitamin B6 has shown the same result in clinical trials as ritalin. (I think the University of Ohio Micronutrition Dept.has info on that.) We give my other daughter B vitamin supplements and only use Daytrana when she has to sit for long period like in the car on a trip, we are waiting longer to judge the overall effects. (She has very large problems with impulse control.) Some people use caffeine as a homeopathic treatment for ADHD. You need to judge what amount is effective and it needs to be given in the absence of sugar, it didn't work well for us but I know some swear by it.
Hope that is helpful and since it is getting long I'll stop for now. If you have any questions let me know and I'll try to answer them. I wish you the best, it is sure a challenge.
