Patience with 5 year old ADHD

Kelly60-

Wow, sounds challanging... What is his daily routine like ( what time does he go to bed at night)? Did this just start? Do you have him in sports? Just curious why your pediatrician is giving him medication? Do you know if he is sleeping through the night? Hard to tell unless he comes to you in the middle of the night.

My son was an early riser until he was 5 years old. I set the rules for him. If you get up this early DO NOT wake me up. He’s pretty much on his own. My son is safe, doesn’t try to cook, or leave the house. He usually will get up and watch tv in his room until the rest of the House gets up. I did the same thing with my daughter (who doesn’t have adhd). I know it probably sounds a little mean or neglectful (to some people), but I was tired of getting up so early everyday. My house is very safe and he has never gotten himself into anything unsafe.

My 6 year old son is on the go from the minute he wakes up until he finally falls asleep. He is now on 5 mg Focalin XR and 3 mg Guanfacine ER. Both are taken in the morning. At night he gets Nordic naturals fish oil 1,120 mg in the minis and 200 mg magnesium glycinate. Look into the magnesium. It is supposed to help relax them and my understanding is a lot of ADHD kids are low on magnesium. I also bought him a weighted blanket on Amazon that he sleeps with every night. He loves it and it seems to help him sleep better.

My son did this exact thing when he was 5-8. It was exhausting. I would take a pillow and blanket to the couch and lay down there and let him run around. It wasn’t a perfect solution but it was all I had.

My son is now 13, almost 14. He would sleep until noon or later everyday if I let him. So... it does get better as far as sleeping goes. Also, if he wants to be awake, he no longer needs an adult with him constantly.

We have other challenges now that he is a teenager, but in general I would say that it has gotten easier with maturity.

He still gets suspended from school at least once a month. And he argues with everything just for the fun of it.

I wish I had a magic trick for everyone to use. Hypnosis? Anyone tried that?

Sorry to hear that! Sleeping issues I find the hardest - I can deal with all the rest of it if I can just get good sleep!

My first advice would just be to talk to your pediatrician or diagnosing / prescribing doctor (which you already seem to plan to do.)

Not sure how much this will help, but we’ve always found the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth to be very helpful for us. It’s largely aimed at infant sleep, but does go through the teen years, I believe. I haven’t referenced in a while, as both of our kids have become pretty awesome sleepers (once you run the gauntlet of getting them in bed.)