Day 12 - Final weigh in for the boy found him at 49.2 lbs, an increase of 4.2 lbs! His cheeks are rounder, his shoulders and shoulder blades less jagged, his little tummy full. He looks so wonderful.
And now it ends. Today was the first day back on meds, which he surprisingly took without a fight this morning. He had a bit of tummy trouble at breakfast which kept him from eating much, and by lunch time his appetite was very low. All I could get him to eat was 1/2 a hotdog - a far cry from the *3* hotdogs he polished off only a few days ago at lunch. Yup - it's really that dramatic a change. We baked and decorated cookies today together while his brother went back to daycare for the first time in two weeks. (He only goes once a week to give Mommy a little sanity...) He ate a cookie or two, but only to please me. While we were decorating, he kept getting frustrated that my cookies "looked better" than his, and wanted to avoid decorating them all together.
In the afternoon he just didn't seem to know what to do with himself. He wanted me to play with him, but then he couldn't decide what to do, and seemed very low.
We're now 12 hours since meds were given, so supper went a little better. I anticipate a very difficult bedtime, however.
The last 12 days have been such a roller coaster, in a sense. While many days were frustrating and filled with 'managing' Alex, overall the time went by really fast. He and his brother loved spending so much time together (fighting aside), and it was so wonderful to see him with a 'normal', healthy appetite. I got more hugs out of him than I have in ages, and my parents remarked how he was just so much more 'himself' again.
I really feel somedays like I will never know if I'm making the right decision in medicating him.
He's looking forward to seeing his buddies in a couple of days, but NOT looking forward to the 'learning' part of school. :) I suppose it's really not exciting enough for him. The only time he got really excited about school was the last few days before break when they had alot of extra time in the gym!
Well, I'll be sure to update this blog after school begins later this week. Should be interesting!
From the heart, I can tell. Wow, this roller-coaster is tough. My tiny guy just wasn't keeping any weight on to speak of. So...here's what we finally discovered: Big breakfast. Try everything til I find just the stuff he'll eat. Pill afterwards to decrease chance of tummy ache. Not much lunch at school but that's ok cuz the second school's out gets high-calorie snack! Then by dinner he's starving and eats like a horse. After a while the food problems improve!! ~charlotte charlottesadhdweb.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteHi Charlotte! Thanks for the comment. Sorry I have been away from the blog for several days. Well, we do try our best to get him to have as big a breakfast as possible, and whenever possible to give him full-fat, higher calorie foods. It was interesting though, the first day he went back on meds after being off for 12, he said to me "Mommy - food just doesn't taste very good!" I said "What do you mean? You've been eating like crazy for 2 weeks!" And he said "Well everything tastes like burnt potatoes."
ReplyDeleteI had often wondered if part of his lack of appetite was something more, like the meds made food taste different, and this was the first time he verbalized his feelings like that. Does your son ever mention food tasting differently?