The start of our ADHD journey...oh, and muffins!

Hello!

We hope you enjoyed our first blog post. Now we have introduced ourselves & given you an idea of what our blog is about we can start to share more ADHD information and easy recipes with you!

After our last post I had quite a few people get in contact asking for advice on how to get their child diagnosed as they suspected they had ADHD. So I thought this would be a great time to give you an insight into our lives with Phoebe before her ADHD diagnosis and explain how we went about getting Phoebe diagnosed.

Please remember everyone's situation is different but this is what worked for us, I can only give you advice on our own experiences and I'm hoping it will help at least ONE parent!!

Before diagnosis

My husband has always had a suspicion that Phoebe has ADHD, even when she was in nursery I remember him asking the nursery staff if they saw symptoms in Phoebe. However, she was only 2 years old

and we were told that it was too early to notice signs at this age.

I always believed that she was just like every other child at her age and that was just what children were like.

In our last post I explained that Phoebe is always on the go, never stops talking, doesn't stop moving etc. Well she has been like this FOREVER! Even when I was pregnant with her she never stopped moving in my tummy!! Weird to look back on that now we know she ADHD!

Anyway, fast forward to Phoebe starting school at the age of 4. Bearing in mind this was September 2020 so it wasn't a normal situation for children to start school whilst we were dealing with a pandemic.

Every day after school, Phoebe's teacher would have to speak to me about her behaviour, she would be distracting other children, doing silly things, not sitting still, to name just a few issues. I initially put this down to her excitement of starting school, meeting new people and being in a different environment.

But as the weeks passed and all the other children were settling in nicely, Phoebe did not. So we mentioned to the teacher that we thought she may have ADHD and the teacher agreed she had the same thoughts.

The school has to do their own observations and try their own interventions first, like giving the child fidget toys to play with to help them sit still, make a special spot on the carpet for them to sit in so they don't keep getting up, lots of little things like that. Needless to say none of these worked for Phoebe!

Then lockdown January 2021 happened and home-schooling was thrust upon us. I'm not getting into that now as I am mentally and emotionally traumatised

by this period in my life...

After lockdown, Phoebe moved schools and we had to start the whole process over again.

The ball didn't really start rolling until Phoebe started Year 1, when we were in regular contact with the school SENCO and the doctor. Again, the school were trying different interventions and making their own observations as were we at home.

The diagnosis

In December 2021, the SENCO confirmed that she was convinced Phoebe had ADHD and with enough evidence she wrote a report for a referral.

We sent the school report and home report to our doctor, who then made the referral. We chased this up probably twice a month, maybe sometimes once a week after the referral had been made. My husband was on it, he would not let this go! And my advice here is KEEP ON AT THEM!!!!! Do not just get your referral and leave it until your appointment comes through. YOU NEED TO CHASE THEM! BE ON THEIR BACKS CONSTANTLY!!! MAKE SURE THEY HAVE THE REFERRAL, MAKE SURE THEY HAVE SENT THE RELEVANT PAPERWORK ON TIME!! You get the gist.

In January 2022 we received questionnaires (after we had chased them) that the school and us needed to fill in and send back. We did this immediately and Phoebe had her first assessment at the end of July 2022.

Now, usually 2 or 3 assessments will be carried out before the official diagnosis, however, Phoebe was diagnosed with ADHD immediately after the first appointment.

Unfortunately, I am not sure how long it takes for the assessments if the child needs 2-3 appointments, but all I'm saying is KEEP CHASING THEM!!!

Also, throughout this whole process we kept in touch with the school SENCO and doctor and updated them regularly on what was happening.

Basically, to sum it up, the process took almost two years for us to get a diagnosis for Phoebe.

My advice, which I tell everyone who asks, is communicate with the school and doctor regularly, write notes on your child's behaviour and symptoms (my husband and I wrote our own lists and compared them) and chase, chase, chase!!!

Phoebe

Hello, I'm Phoebe and I'm here to tell you about my ADHD. I find it hard to concentrate on my learning at school but I really like to bake with mummy. I find sitting down hard to do so I enjoy fun activities instead. We made white chocolate and raspberry muffins and they were easy to make and very yummy.

The Recipe

Phoebe wanted to make white chocolate & raspberry muffins for this blog post, and what a great choice!! Muffins are a very quick and easy bake as you just have to mix all the ingredients together, pop them in the oven and that's it! Don't even need to decorate them!! And there are so many different flavour combinations you can try too.

White Chocolate & Raspberry Muffins

250g self raising flour

1 egg

2 tsp baking powder

90 ml vegetable oil

250ml milk

100g caster sugar

150g raspberries

150g white chocolate chips

Equipment needed: mixing bowl, whisk, muffin cases, muffin tray, kitchen scales, measuring jug, spoons.

Makes- 12

Prep time- 5 minutes

Baking time- 20-25 minutes

Cooling time- 20 minutes (or eat them warm! yum!)

1) Pre-heat the oven at gas mark 4 and line a muffin tray with muffin cases

2) Mix the self raising flour, caster sugar, veg oil, milk, egg and baking powder in a mixing bowl and whisk until combined.

3) Add in the raspberries and white chocolate chips and gently fold through

4) Spoon the batter evenly between the 12 muffin cases

5) Pop in the oven for 20-25 minutes

6) Cool on a wire rack and enjoy!!

Notes-

-You can use any flavour chocolate chips

-You can use any type of berries, fresh or frozen will work well.

-Melt some white chocolate to drizzle on top once cooled if you want them a bit fancier!

-These will last for 3 days once baked, but best eaten on the day of baking.

We hope you have enjoyed this blog post and please let us know if you try out the recipe!

Maxine and Phoebe xxx