Ask Doctor G: ADHD & Field Trips

Ask Doctor G: ADHD & Field Trips

Welcome to HH6 & You!  I rotate topics each week and feature a fellow blogger or guest in that niche. Today, I am sharing the page with Doctor G.  She is answering a reader submitted question from Brandy C.

Ask Doctor G: ADHD & Field Trips

My daughter is 10 and has ADHD/ADD and takes medications twice a day to cope with her severe hyperactivity. She is going on a school field trip for 5 days and I am worried about her medication administration. She is not responsible enough to keep up with the medicine and remember to take it and when. She has to be heavily verbally prompted and watched. My problem is I don’t want her to be judged by other parents or teachers for being on medicine and so many other parents have commented about children being “doped up” and how medicine is not a good thing. Not sure what the question is… But how would you handle this? –Brandy C.

This is a great learning opportunity for your daughter.

As you might guess, a lot of people with ADHD have trouble remembering to take their medications. Without it they are scattered and forget things, but how are they to get on a schedule? In addition to that, no 10 year old should be solely responsible for remembering a crucial medication while away from parents.

It sounds like you are confident that this medicine is useful to your daughter in treating her very real medical issue.  Since that is the case, it is important that you – and she – feel empowered to get the help she needs.

I hope that there is a truly trustworthy teacher on this trip with whom you can entrust this private information and this medication. Good teachers keep lots of information confidential. They help students with personal issues all the time.  Figure out who is the best steward for this information and medication on your daughter’s trip and get them in the loop!

How is this a good learning opportunity for your daughter?

• Teach her to respect herself and her own needs. She can guard her own privacy out of confidence or out of fear and embarrassment. She (and you) have nothing to feel ashamed of here. Don’t let “what people might think” put either of you in a difficult situation.
• Teach her to be responsible about her health. It is an important skill to be able to ask for help. There is no shame in having a medical problem. She is treated and that is a GOOD thing! Help her feel proud that you both are being so responsible about both her health and her education.
• Teach her to be resilient – able to overcome obstacles – by example!

You’ve gotten your daughter the help she needs. Keep doing that, and she’ll learn to do the same.

About Doctor G: Doctor G (Deborah Gilboa, MD) of empowers parents to raise respectful, responsible and resilient kids. Doctor G focuses on practical tools and teaching skills, not just dishing out advice. She’s the host of the new PBS show “iQ SmartParent!” From one minute tips on making your life easier while building kids’ character to her downloadable guides(chores at every age, boundaries for tech use and more) Doctor G makes parenting more simple and more effective. As a Board Certified Family Physician, mother of four, author of Teach Resilience: Raising Kids Who Can Launch! and a professional parenting speaker, she captivates parents through her humorous straight talk and takes the guilt out of parenting. Find her on Facebook or Twitter!

Thanks to Dr. G for her wonderful post and answering a great question from a reader. Please stop by her website and read more from her. Don’t forget to leave some love!

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Ms. MommyHH6