In early October, my son (and I) were blessed with our usual seasonal allergies*. We both experience coughing (from the sinus drainage), itchy eyes, sneezing, and stuffiness. I usually enjoy a cocktail of Sudafed Allergy + Sinus and Mucinex. The boy has taken Zyrtec in the past, but does not like the taste. A friend mentioned he and his daughter both take Claritin and it works well for them. So I bought some for both of us. Children’s Claritin** Chewable in grape flavor, for my son.
While the Claritin provided wonderful relief from the allergy symptoms, it seems to have wreaked havoc on my child’s behavior…
Half way through the first week on the meds, my son earned a Red at school. His school utilizes the Traffic Light system to keep behavior in check. Now, it’s definitely not uncommon for my son to get the occasional red, so this really was no big deal. (He moved into the Pre-K class at the beginning of September, and there seemed to be some transitional issues which resulted in more reds than we felt he should have earned, but the reds became fewer. We thought we were on the road to recovery.) However, the next day he earned another red. And the day after that, and the day after that, and finally a yellow, but then 2 more reds. This pattern repeated the following week. My husband and I were at wits end trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with this kid and why he seemed more hyper than usual.
On the days he earned a Red, we would all sit in the foyer and talk (er, yell/scream) about what happened. When he told us about his day: I hit so-and-so, I was upset because I didn’t get to go first, I didn’t want to stop playing to listen to story time, I was mad at the teacher for putting my name on the board, etc. After the talk, we usually made him sit in the naughty chair, with no toys/no cartoons/no distractions, for what seemed like hours. After this, he was allowed to play quietly while we got dinner around. After dinner, more quiet time, no cartoons, etc. The first few times we even threw away toys. Trucks, his favorite stuffed animal, etc. (most of which were rescued by me after the fact and hid) While this tactic seemed to have an immediate affect, he got over it quickly. During this time he lost 2 play dates and a special outing with his Grandma and Grandpa.
He started taking Karate in September, and while he was hyper and easily distracted (normal) during his lesson, he wasn’t the only one, so I didn’t think much of it. Besides…isn’t that why parents enroll their young children in Karate – to help with focus and self control? We noticed that during the same 2 weeks he had terrible reports at school, he was completely and utterly out of control at Karate as well. We are with him at Karate (as opposed to school) so we had the pleasure of witnessing the insanity. On October 14, after witnessing him bouncing off the walls and dancing around like he had ants in his pants and doing everything except karate, we decided that he had attended his last Karate class until he could show more self control.
I posted on Facebook numerous times about our frustrations with his behavior. I received a lot of advice from other parents who have experienced, or are experiencing, similar behavior from their child(ren). Of the MANY welcomed suggestions, we decided to implement two of them when other tactics weren’t working: “don’t punish at home for something that happened at school” and “incorporate some structured activity into every day at home”.
Those tactics, along with a suggestion (from the person who recommended Claritin) that maybe the Allergy meds were to blame, seem to have joined forces to re-create our energetic, fun, happy child who listens as well as most 4 ½ year olds do - but who doesn't act like a complete lunatic.
Last week he earned 3 greens and 1 yellow (had one sick day), and so far this week all greens. We are so happy to have our boy back.
*I did not have seasonal allergies until a year after my son was born.
**The warnings on the box of Claritin do indicate that the medication may cause hyperactivity in children. But who really pays attention to that stuff?
