Suggestions??

[trinityroyal]

Klmno,
While you're searching, don't forget to check backpacks and other bags, toy boxes, binders. Anything with a hidden compartment or zipper where things can be stashed.

Here are some of the places we found our difficult child's contraband, both at home and at Residential Treatment Center (RTC):
- inside light fixture
- tucked between the window frame and the screen, in the corners
- inside fishing tackle box, scattered in with fishing stuff
- between the pages of books, magazines, newspapers
- hidden under the vent cover in his room
- stuffed inside a teddy bear who had a hole in the back of his head
- inside the lining of his coat (slipped in through a little hole that he cut in a pocket)

They can be incredibly crafty and clever when stashing their stuff. Be thorough.

Trinity

 

[klmno]

Interesting how they all come up with this- we've already had the tackle box/fishing gear, hole in coat liner, stuffed animal experience- along the same lines- in the bean bag chair he used to have. I did think to check inside the dogs' sleeping pillows- which have zippered covers. I had not thought about light fixtures.

I took his girl pictures (not real photos- they were copied from somewhere) and put his empty notebook back where I found it. LOL!! Won't he be surprised!

I must go now- I have to take garbage out! Then, I'll have just a couple of mins before he gets home.

 

[Star*]

Seroquel is water soluable. Check with your pharmacist and see if you can crush it up and put it in a glass of water. If it can - then he has to drink the water - no cheeking medications.

Then you give him a small glass of water (oj glass size) every night and no more missing medications. Check with the pharmacy. I looked on the Seroquel web site for you and the only info I got was that they say it is water soluable.

As far as locking up stuff? I have put (my self) locks on all my doors - and kept a key with me at all times when Dude was at home - NO DOOR was EVER unlocked and the rest of the house was stripped - and I mean STRIPPED - I had junk in rubbermaid totes labled and couldn't wait to stop feeling like I was living out of a box - BUT .....it was better than living with the thought my kid was stealing from me all the time. EVERYTHING got a lock - even locked up the iron, and my ironing board and starch - can't take out the trash but can iron your socks? NO!

Hugs
Star

 

[Star*]

I think we should archive a master list of hiding spots -

I'll add some -

Taped to the fan blades of the ceiling fan
Inside his shoes in the closet
Inside his shoes INSOLES in the shoes he was wearing
Under the box springs - cut a hole and stashed TONS of junk inside the box springs
Pulled back the carpet in the corner
OLD toys and Lego boxes
In the closet in winter coat
Inside the closet on the hangers for clothes (look for stuff buttoned up.
Inside the closet inside shirt pockets of shirts that were hung up with another shirt OVER the pocket
Inside the closet (stand in closet and face out and look up)
Speakers - and not just the covers - took them apart in the backs of them
Inside that shell on a computer tower
UNDER the trash can
In the trashcan (take out liner)
Electrical outlets -
Under MY bed - yup wasnt' that a hoot. Hid his stuff under my bed - last place you'd look is the first place you start.

Oh and in his pillow case -

His room was always such a disaster that I never knew where to start so I would bag and tag stuff - I figured if he refused to clean and I was going to clean - then I picked what stuff got tossed out, and did. In the mean time - I found all sorts of little hiding places for cheeked medications and porn. I usually erased or overtaped the porn and if it had a nude woman on it? I drew clothes on her with a black indellible marker.

Hugs

 

[Shari]

Oh yeah, star, that reminded me, I was gonna suggest crushing pills and putting them in pudding, like my difficult child takes his medications.

 

[trinityroyal]

I think we should archive a master list of hiding spots

Star, this is a great idea.

You reminded me of another one.
Lockers, desks etc. at school.

difficult child used to stash things in his locker at school all the time. Eventually we got the head of Spec. Ed at his school involved. She would have difficult child's EA meet him at the bus and inspect his book bag and make him turn out his pockets. Then escort him from the bus to his locker. The EA would toss the locker and confiscate any banned items, then escort difficult child to his home form classroom. Then toss his desk. Repeat until end of day, inspect difficult child's bookbag and pockets, and then escort him to the bus.

Once every couple of weeks, the head of Spec. Ed would collect all of difficult child's contraband and leave it in the Guidance office for husband or me to pick up.

I never thought to check the insoles though...

Trinity

 

[Steely]

Just wanted to send hugs.
Sorry I am late coming into this.

Cheeking medications is really common - my suggestion? Make him open his mouth as if he is a toddler and pour them in this mouth. Watch him swallow. Then take a popcicle stick and make sure they are completely gone. Then make him watch TV with you for a half hour, so you know they are gone, gone. In addition I would scare the bejeezus out of him, and tell him that if he keeps cheeking his medications, his medication dosages will go up - and then he could be taking too much - and it could become deadly. This is nothing to fool around with, and unless he would like to lose his life, you suggest he adhere to your rules.

 

[alongfortheride]

OMG, parallel universe here. Stashed seroquel, asthma/steroids, even rock (boulder to me) held over head in a threatening manner, January to June cycle. My difficult child couldn't tolerate both the seroquel and the lithium. It made him way too tired and impossible to awake in the morning. So we kept moving the time of the evening seroquel back to ease the morning problems but then he stopped taking them because he was asleep way too early. Sad to say but I miss my worry free evenings.

Hiding spots:
all of the above, plus
cassette tape drawer on stereo
battery compartment on bottom of alarm clock
linen closet
under bathroom sink

The question remains to me...why not just throw the medications out in garbage or toilet? Do they want to get caught on some level? Its not like the seroquel has any street value.

 

[klmno]

Boy, Star- Dude was good at this.

I usually erased or overtaped the porn and if it had a nude woman on it? I drew clothes on her with a black indellible marker.

I'm going to do that- it sounds like something I would get a kick out of seeing him react to! I did the locks about 18 mos ago- difficult child took the door and door trim off to get in the room anyway. I left the door off (it wasn't my bedroom- it was my spare room "office"- you know- my corner of the world.

Definitely - a list is needed as a sticky or something.

Steely- that IS THE EXACT talk that I gave him yesterday. And I meant it- he was supposed to have a blood draw about 10 days ago- the medications probably would have been raised- then what would have happened? He told the therapist (I heard on the slide) that he started taking them again- this was today. I will be checking very closely just to be sure.

Alongfortheride- boy, we do sound in the same boat- almost everything. And that is exactly what my difficult child said about the seroquel, after I started giving it to him earlier and this is why he said he couldn't stand to take it. Mind you, though, he was already hypomanic and thus, wanting to stay up half the night and find girlie photos on the computer- you know- the computer in my corner of the world that has no door on the room. LOL!!

Oh- yes I did find a little something (not a great big deal) between towels at the bottom of the stack in the linen cabinet. (We never use the towels at the bottom of the stack.) I will be revieweing the lists in this thread over the next few days, too.

 

[gcvmom]

I can relate to a degree. difficult child 1, who does not have a mood disorder (just straightforward anxiety and ADHD) frequently squirrels away medications. I think he just gets tired of taking so many every day. He gets 5 every morning, plus a patch. And 5 every night (used to be 6... and when he was first diagnosis'd with Crohn's 2 years ago, he was taking as many as 25 per day when I add up all the medications and supplements he had to take). It can really add up over time to become plain overwhelming -- heck, I don't even like to take vitamins because it's such a pain for me to do that every day.

I just found two day's worth of medications in his room this afternoon! My fault for handing them to him and walking away I get lazy because he's one of these kids who has to take one...pill...at...a...time no matter how small they are.

Then there's difficult child 2 who can gulp down 3 Depakote ER's and a couple other smaller pills at one time...

Hope your difficult child gets the message and starts taking medications more seriously.

 

[Sara PA]

At some point you have to wonder why kids don't want to take some of these medications. It isn't just because kids don't want to take pills. How many posts have there been from parents who have said they stopped taking medication because they didn't like the way it made them feel? Some of them the very same medications some of the kids don't like taking.

I, for one, hate that sleepy, drugged feeling and won't take pills that make me feel that way.

 

[Star*]

Boy, Star- Dude was good at this.quote]

YOU HAVE NO IDEA -

I have a few more "classic" hiding spots reminded from DF -

The popsicle box in the freezer
Under his bedroom window
In a trash bag sitting NEXT to the trash
BEHIND POSTERS taped to the walls
behind pictures
Behind pictures in frames
Under the keyboard of the computer
In the top of the printer lid

And I mean my list could just go on and on and on - but I promise you if I toss a room - it got tossed.

Df silently calls him still the maniuplative disordered child.

 

[Christy]

My son is younger (nine years old) but all medication management is husband and my responsibility. We get the correct dose for each time of day, and put it in a little dixie cup. We get a second cup with water. He opens his mouth, we put the pills in. He takes a drink and we check his mouth. So far, he doesn't fight this but I have every intention of continuing this procedure as long a we are responsible for him. I agree with smallworld, it's nonnegotiable. Your difficult child has shown that he can't take his medication responsibily so you need to supervise it.

 

[klmno]

Thanks for all the input (and side humor)!

Christy, the medication management wasn't turned over to my son. He was apparently cheeking them- primarily the AP's and a couple of times, the evening dose of lithobid. I am now taking different actions to prevent the possibility of cheeking or sneaking as much as I can. He told psychiatrist yesterday that he could not stand the way the AP's were making him feel.

 

[smallworld]

Whenever my son has said that he doesn't like the way a medication makes him feel, we take it very seriously, but we also tell him it is not his decision to make ALONE. We say that it is something we all need to talk over with the psychiatrist and explore all our options so we can make things better for him. Our psychiatrist is very respectful of my son's opinion and listens very carefully to what he has to say. Sometimes the psychiatrist says these are temporary side effects that will lessen the longer he takes the medications. Sometimes the psychiatrist comes up with a different medication option that he hopes will both treat the symptoms as well as elimate the bad side effects. Your son is old enough to be a part of his medical team, which should help him buy into the treatment and improve his medication compliance.

 

[klmno]

I, agree, Smallworld. We never had a problem with his medication compliance before (2+ years), so even though I am watching closer and handling things differently now, I still encouraged difficult child to discuss how this medication was making him feel with psychiatrist. From that regard, I think it might have been good that psychiatrist changed to a different AP. Inspecting difficult child's mouth can only last until he's 18, at the longest. Him learning that he needs medications to function appropriately and that if one is making him feel worse, to discuss it with the doctor is a lesson that he'll need for the rest of his life. And, one I will support. If a medication made him feel that bad then it wasn't the right answer. He has hung in there pretty well in the past.

Every increase in lithium caused him stomach flu-like symptoms for several days and he withstood that. When it got to a point of lasting several weeks, he still took the lithium but I said we would discuss it with psychiatrist because it wasn't an acceptable solution. psychiatrist then switched him to lithobid, which solved the problem. So, I will just keep an extra eye to see if there is a remaining problem or if this does it. Of course, there will be times in the future when he thinks he can come off medications for a while, I'm sure.

 

[SearchingForRainbows]

I really don't have anything to add to what the others have already said. I just came here to let you know I'm thinking of you...

Anyway, I've learned so much from reading all of the responses to your post!!! Our difficult children certainly are a creative bunch, lol!!! Too bad they can't put all of their creativity to a good use!!! WFEN

 

[klmno]

Thank you, WFEN!

And I need to give credit to you all- I came home from work today and as I was walking toward the house from the driveway, I glanced up to difficult child's bedroom window. what did I notice? A pack of cigarettes between the window sash and the screen. After a few mins. of me calming down- I told him to go get them and bring them to me. This turned into a very minor "thing" but as it turns out- he gave them to me- and I learned a new hiding spot- the origami sculptures he has been making. And, to think, I thought he was just starting to develop a little Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) when I saw all the origami! UHMM!