help for adhd son

Hello. I have posted separately for my autistic daugher and am posting here for help with my ADHD son, Joey.

Joey is now 8.5 years old. He was a late talker. Was evaluated and placed in an early intervention program. Speech therapy worked for him and he began using phrases like "I want..." at age 3 yrs 2 months and steadily progressed from there. he is now in an inclusion 2nd grade class and doing pretty well. At the age of 6 he was Dx as ADHD due to his inability to sit and focus at school and even at home couldn't sit a watch a TV program without getting up 10 times and running around the house. He was put on regular Ritalin 2x's perday but had too many highs & lows throughout the day. So we put him on Adderall XR. The extended release formula worked great for him. however afer abouy 9 months on it he bagn acting very emotional. Crying at the slightest thing. For example if we were looking for his shoes and I found them first he would become very upset to the point that I had to put the shoes back and let him "find" them just to calm him down. We switched him to Concerta and this seemed to diminish until about 2 months ago. Now, he's back to the dramatic, emotional, sometimes incolsoleable boy he was.

Pregnancy with Joey was uneventful with exception of morning sickness for 1st 6 weeks. He was born 1 day early via vaginal birth with pitocin and epidural. He was developing normally and was ahead of other children his age in many areas including gross motor. His verbal skills were on target. He would point and name things and if I asked him, "Where's the light?" He understood what I said and would point to it without hesitation. Then, at 18 months he got his MMR booster and his development started to unravel. He lost the vocabulary he had, started becoming more distant and would not respond when we called his name. We had his hearing tested which came back perfect. We had him evaluated by the local children's hospital's speech/lamnguage department. the SLP suggested that he had more than just a language delay and suggested we get him into a preschool program to get him around more children who spoke. We did this but he would not engage in the program with the children. Would not sit in circle time unless he was in someone's lap. An aide was approved by the school district but we opted to put him in a special ed preschool with a trusted friend who was the special ed teacher. he did well there but they began to suspect autism after about 3 months. We had him evaluated by the local Autism Program and 3.5 years. The director told us "He's interesting but he's not autistic". I suspected this since he knew his colors, alphbet and #'s up to about 50. So, when he turned 4 he was placed in a special needs school. He did great there and after that year they decided he was ready for inclusion Kindergarten. he did well but we decided since he was a young 5 when he started kindergarten we owuld have him repeat. He wnt to a new school and entered his "senior" year of kindergarten. It was 1/2 way through this school year that his hyperactivity began to really emerge and become a problem at school and at home. After 2 years of med changes we finally got it right or so it seemed. Now at 8.5 he's back to being emotional, defiant and very oppositional.

His favorite foods are chicken nuggets, fish sticks, pizza and french fries. He won't drink anythink except water and sprite. If it has a color he will not drink it. he drinks more water than anything. He's always thirsty. He sleeps well however. He tucks his hand and arms underneath himself and sticks his bum in the air. He likes to be tucked in and covered up at bedtime including a pillow on top of his head. He has a few flat light brown birth marks on his body...one on his right temple and one on his rear end. He has clear blue eyes, typical blunt chin and well shaped head. Although when he was born he was a definite "cone head". His cheeks and ears turn bright red when he is warm and/or excited. As I said before he is very emotional and hates to lose. If he and his dad are playing a video game, he has to win or it's a huge drame. Luckily, he is better at most video games than his dad. Which brings me to the fact that he he very bright. A math whiz. Can install/uninstall programs on his computer by himself (this started at age 4). Does not like to write however which is a problem when it's homework time. He has very dry hair and skin with frequent bouts of eczema.

I guess that's it. Please let me know what you all think. I'll answer any additional question you have.

Thanks so much.
Deanna