[jkke]

Hello:

My husband and I recently adopted a boy -7 and girl 5 from the foster care system. They have been with us over 7 months and things are going well. The beginning was rough due to some transition behavior issues but most of them have smoothed out.

Question: Anyone out there who has experience with ADHD and adoption issues? Our son was given to us already on medication for ADHD - Tenex. I have added some natural supplements like Omega-3 and Amino Acid which have helped a lot. Our son appears to have mild ADHD. Have not gone for the full investigatory testing to determine this but his therapist and psh. both believe he is so we have kept him on his meds. And we wanted to wait until he was throughly settled with us before really testing him.

He is very bright, straight A's, he can be very calm and focused if he wants to but when he is with a lot of other children or a hyper child - he is gets a little out of control. I know most kids like to get out of control but they have the willpower and knowledge that they can get in trouble if they don't calm themselves down. Or they listen and respond quickly to first warnings. Our son - can't do that yet. He has a tendency to not to listen or do his own thing even after the consolers or teachers told him to do a specific task.

I am not sure if this is typical ADHD, adoption transistion issues or typical 7 year old boy attitude.

Any advice or information to help me help him would be great. I am looking in an occupational therapy evaluation.

His doctor wanted to increase his dosage and add concerta only after 6 weeks with us. I refused and researched and discovered the supplements, Feingold diet (no food allergies), behavior modification with a reward system and consistent love and attention. That all appeared to work well.

Also, his behavior was really bad when he first got here in December and he has improved so much that I am elated. I would just love to help him follow directions better.