Definitely one medication can’t do it all, but how many medications are too many for one child? My daughter originally just had her daily injections of Protropin, an older version of human growth hormone that had to be mixed and refrigerated. Then as she got older her thyroid wasn’t working properly so Synthroid was added daily. Then eventually we realized that her body wasn’t going to go into spontaneous puberty so progesterone and the Vivelle estrogen patch were added.

Apparently it is also quite common for children with Growth Hormone Deficiency (also know as Pituitary Dwarfism) to suffer from anxiety. I really wish someone would have told us about that when she was first placed with us, we could have avoided a lot of pain and emotional suffering. Rarely, before anxiety medication, would she express a need. She wouldn’t even ask us to pass her the ketchup at dinner. So Paxil was added to her growing list of daily medications and it really was quite helpful.

Somewhere along the way we realized that she had ADD so the doctor prescribed Concerta which really worked well for her. I remember that before she started taking it her teacher made her call me to tell me she had forgotten her gym shoes everyday for the past month or her homework, or her library book. Well, you get the picture. We may have originally tried Ritalin but then opted for the time released option to avoid midday medications. Personally, I have enough trouble remembering to pass out medications in the morning and evening.

Then I became concerned that she was suffering from depression because she was hording food and I had heard or read somewhere that hording food could be an indicator of depression. It wasn’t just a little bit of food; we found a garbage bag full of empty Mountain Dew cans in her bed and another garbage bag full of wrappers. The wrappers were from chips, candy bars, fruit snacks, and cereal, well you name it. That was why she began talking Welbutrin and it really worked. In fact, she tried to go off it a couple of years later when we thought her depression was over and she almost immediately began hording food again. It seems strange because she is really a beautiful, intelligent girl so some of her behaviors were totally unexpected.

Because of some of her bazaar behaviors she also took Zyprexa daily, so now I believe we are at eight medications a day. All together they really seemed to work well for her and as a result she was very stable for years. She went from being an isolated little girl to a friendly outgoing teen with several friends and actually participated in a short-term mission’s trip.

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