an update on the ultimate biology experiment

[sistawendy]

The Wendling spent most of his weekend with me sleeping & eating. I'm guessing it's another growth spurt, among his last. He's 5'8" now, or 173 cm.

A while back my son lied to me about taking his ADD meds before he drove us around. Therefore I didn't let him drive us home yesterday because I hadn't seen him take them. He was cheesed off about that. Tough noogies, kiddo: consequences.

Speaking of ADD meds, Aspiring Ex heard on NPR about a pricey set of games designed by neurologists for younger kids with ADD to teach them how to work their brains, thereby reducing or eliminating the need for meds that wreck your sleep & appetite, stunt your growth, and make the kids (and, in a different way, their parents) feel not so good. AX asked me if I wanted to go for it.

I said, in essence, "Sure, but it'll be a tough sell to him." I envisioned his responses: "I'm too old for this." "I don't really have a problem." And so on.

Wrong. He hates the meds so much that a possible reduction therein was all it took to sell him on the idea. I'm relieved he's willing to try it - maybe it even shows some welcome signs of maturity - and I feel that much worse about one of the hardest decisions I've ever made as a parent.

Comments

[gement.livejournal.com]

"Sounds like the goddamn Spanish Inquisition if you ask me!" - Bones McCoy on 20th century medical practices

We do what we gotta, and sometimes there are no good choices. When we learn about potentially better ones, we try those too. I'm glad that more cognitive brain training choices are showing promise, and I hope that works out for him.

I don't know if the AX was hearing the thing this morning, but the thing I heard this morning was talking about the utter unrealism of trying to get a game certified by the FDA, which tends to be about a 4 year process for drugs or medical equipment.

My immediate thought was that what they needed to do was start building up a body of evidence on *existing* games, with an eye toward getting a class of game features identified as therapeutic so that new games would just have to go through a much shorter "yes, game meets therapeutic criteria" process.

(Meanwhile, I made the decision last Friday not to do chemo because if the percent chance of later cancer happens, I'd rather do *next* decade's chemo, thanks.)

[ximinez]

and I feel that much worse about one of the hardest decisions I've ever made as a parent.

You made the best decision you could with the information you had at the time. Imagine how much worse off he could be now if you had said, "Nah, we'll just wait for him to outgrow it."

[eeyorerin]

so these games are called, said the person trying to make the call about whether or not to put her 6 year old on the meds? :)

[sistawendy.livejournal.com]

Activate (http://www.c8home.com/).

[m-cobweb.livejournal.com]

If I could go back twenty years with the information I have now, I wouldn't let an antidepressant pass my lips. But that's the thing--I can't. I made that decision with the information I had, and the people who put me on that path had the same information (assuming they were acting in good faith, and I think they were). Am I bitter? Maybe a bit ;-). But I can't do anything but move forward from here, and do what I can with what I've learned. Maybe it all shakes out in the end anyway.