My son is the best boy!  Isn’t that what all parents say about their kids?  Max has letters after his name that start at A and go all the way through Z.   He doesn’t have a lot of degrees; he is only in the second grade.   But he has a lot of diagnoses.  These are: ADHD, BPD, OCD, ODD, PDD/NOS, SID, Anxiety, and at this time of year, seasonal allergies that plug him up good.  I bet a lot of you parents can relate.

Why all the diagnoses?  One friend calls them labels that help us work with these children.  In my son’s case it is:

1. ADHD – to explain his hyperactivity (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)
2. BPD – this is why he is so manic sometimes and calm other times (Bipolar Disorder)
3. OCD – this covers his recurrent, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and repetitive behaviors (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)
4. ODD – man, can this kid be defiant (Oppositional Defiant Disorder)
5. PDD/NOS – covers his social skills (Pervasive Developmental Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified)
6. SID – he needs pressure or spinning to calm him down.  He used to be overly sensitive to sounds but that seems to have gone away.  He is very impulsive and is a picky eater. Cannot stand tags in his clothes; we have to cut them out. (Sensory Integration Disorder)
7. Anxiety – this is fairly new (in the last year).  He has gone from being very outgoing to having a difficult time being away from his mother.
8. Allergies – I’ve included this on the list because they tend to exacerbate all of the other issues especially when he cannot breathe.

In later posts I’ll address each one of these “labels” and explain how my wife and I address each one of them.

As a lot of parents can attest to we are caught in a whirlwind of differing opinions as to what the real problems are and what we should and should not be doing to raise our kid.

We have been told that the diagnoses are worthless that it is just bad parenting.  Why haven’t we been spanking him, or better still, using a wooden spoon or a belt, to straighten him out?  Or another suggested sending him away to military school.

Get rid of the medications he is fine (yes, he seems fine because he is taking meds right now).  I had one parent tell me to give my son up to him for a week and my boy would come back a different child.

Others believe that that we should institutionalize him, or give him even more meds, to take care of the problems.

Max is in a special school and even though he is in second grade he spend alot of time with the fourth grade class learning more advanced subjects.  He takes pride in the fact that he is the only student in his class that has never been sent to the “quiet room”.  He saves all of that for when he comes home.

He currently sees a play therapist and has a mentor to help him work though his issues and he has occupational therapy several times a week at school.

As I talk about what my wife and I are doing for our son, I hope our readers will share some of what they have found works and what doesn’t as well.