ADHD: Quick and Easy Guide for the Stressed Parent of a Child with ADHD

ADHD: Quick and Easy Guide for the Stressed Parent of a Child with ADHD

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Copyright © 2022 Dr. Martin G. Meindl

v4.0

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Attention Reader:

The information contained in this publication is intended to supplement and should not be used as a substitute for medical care and the advice of your health practitioner. There may be variations in treatment that your health practitioner recommends based on your circumstances. Each individual’s health concerns should be evaluated by a qualified professional. All forms of exercise pose some risks. Although the yoga poses presented are intended to be basic, they should be approached with the child’s safety in mind and are not intended to replace any exercise routine prescribed by your health professional.

To my wife, Julie.

Without your support,

the more important portions of the book

would not have been possible.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1  Introduction to ADHD

Chapter 2  Basic Plan of Treatment

Chapter 3  Conditions that Co-exist with ADHD

•  Specific Learning Disorder

•  Mood Disorders

•  Disruptive Behavior Disorders

•  Anxiety

•  Autism Spectrum Disorder

•  Language Disorders

•  Tics

Chapter 4  Sleep and ADHD

•  Tips for Problems with Sleep

Chapter 5  Behavior Therapy for Parents and Children with ADHD

•  Nurtured Heart Approach™

•  Parent-Child Interactive Therapy (PCIT)

•  Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) --for Anxiety and Depression

Chapter 6  Behavior Management

•  Helping Your Child Learn to Pay Attention

•  Responding to Problem Behaviors

•  Anger Management Suggestions

•  Helping Your Child with ADHD at School

Chapter 7  Medication Management

•  Medication for ADHD

•  Medications for Anxiety Disorders and/or Depression in Children

Chapter 8  Meditation and Yoga

•  Introduction

•  Benefits of Yoga

•  Yoga Poses

Chapter 9  Food Sensitivity as a Cause for Behavior Symptoms

Chapter 10  Additional Resources

Introduction

In a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon by Bill Watterson, Calvin is sitting at his school desk, looks up at the clock on the wall and smiles. Look, it’s almost 11 o’clock! Wow. The last two hours really flew by! Then with a look of uh-oh on his face Calvin says, I hope the teacher didn’t say anything important. In another Bill Watterson Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, Calvin is at home hammering nails into the coffee table. WAP-WAP-WAP. His mother comes screaming into the room, "Calvin! What are you doing to the coffee table?!? Calvin looks at his handiwork, then says, Is this some sort of trick question, or what?"

If similar situations as described above sound familiar to you, then my book is for you. Kids with ADHD have difficulty focusing. To them it is as if everything that stimulates them needs their attention. In other words, the bird chirping outside the classroom window is as important as the teacher’s lesson for the day. Or if the teacher mentions something about a frog, your child starts to think about the frog he saw jumping around in the grass three days ago and gets lost chasing that memory. Because our attention is so important, we all must learn to protect it. Unfortunately, for your child with ADHD, that is hard to do and we must help her point it in the right direction.

Next hyperactive-impulsive behavior of the child with ADHD leads to many unwanted consequences and frustrations for the child, parents, and teachers. For your impulsive child, he must explain the obvious. For you, there is a feeling of frustration because of the need to repeatedly provide some corrective measures that frequently prove ineffective. The teachers are faced with a child who is not only difficult to teach, but who is disrupting the rest of the class.

There are many books, podcasts, blogs, newspaper, and magazine articles that discuss the treatment options. But I have found that even when I direct parents to these options, most don’t read them. They get a prescription, maybe go to a therapist once or twice and then request a higher dose of medication or a different medication. The trick is to keep moving. There is more to treatment than just medication.

I am a pediatrician who has had additional training in ADHD and for 14 years was involved with a multi-disciplinary behavioral clinic that evaluated and treated children with ADHD. Our team went to the homes and the schools of the children we were evaluating to see first-hand what was happening. It was a great experience, but unfortunately could not be sustained financially and because of privacy issues relating to the other students in the class.

If you are like many parents of children with ADHD, you may have ADHD yourself and you are wondering, Do I really have to read all this stuff to know what’s going on with my kid and how to manage the situation? Or perhaps your child is just keeping you so busy you really do not have a lot of time to spend reading a bunch of boring information. In presenting this book, I have tried to simplify this information in infographics so that you can quickly gain an understanding of your child and develop a plan with your healthcare provider. So, if you are so inattentive or stressed or pressed for time and just want the meat of the story, check out the infographics and then decide if you need to read more to get a better understanding of the material.

The words used to describe ADHD and the classification of types has undergone many changes over the years. Chapter 1 familiarizes you with characteristics of the various types of ADHD. Next in Chapter 2, you are introduced to some of the conditions that frequently accompany and complicate the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD. Such co-existing conditions can be present in as many as 60% or more of the children with ADHD. Eighty percent of the children with ADHD may have sleep problems as discussed in Chapter 3. Behavior therapy for parents of children with ADHD is one of the most important and effective treatments along with medication for ADHD. Parent Child Interactive Therapy (PCIT) and Nurtured Heart Approach™ are given as examples of such behavior therapy in Chapter 4. To get you started right away with management of behavior, I have provided some tips in Chapter 5 for helping your child learn to pay attention, responding to problem behavior, anger management tips, helping your child cope with anxiety and depression, and helping your child at school. Of course, at the present time the most effective treatment for ADHD is medication and that is discussed in Chapter 6. But my initial impetus for writing this book was to introduce parents to meditation and yoga as complementary treatments for ADHD and its co-existing conditions. In Chapter 7, I have provided various techniques for starting a meditation practice that you can do along with your child. Through photographs of yoga poses that you and your child can imitate, I hope to introduce your child to the mind quieting possibilities of yoga.

Although to get the most out of this book, it is probably better to proceed in order through the various chapters—however, this is not a novel. Therefore, if you wish to jump into one section of the book that is of more interest to you--go ahead. And if you do not read any other chapter, at least check out the one on meditation. Then I would hope that even if