I had a student a couple of years ago with ODD. I do think it's goes beyond being stubborn. He was a great kid one on one - very bright, very funny. But he loved to be the class clown. I worked on training the rest of the class to ignore him because his fits if I said something to him could horrific. It was not a pleasant year.

Has your daughter always been difficult or is it a new thing since baby bro came along? Have other things changed in your family? What's your husband's role? Is she just as difficult for him?

I know it's hard as a parent to medicate your child. But if something works for her it's worth it. If she had asthma would you deny her an inhaler? I say this because my first three years of teaching were at a private school were all the kids had ADD. I had one student whose parents REALLY wanted drugs to be the answer. Over the years they tried everything and nothing really worked. They finally looked into diet. Taking him off wheat and sugar totally changed him. Same year, different student, parents desperately wanted to keep him off drugs. They had tried diets, biofeedback, various behavior management techniques. They finally put him on Ritalin. He became a different kid too - in a good way.

The human body is so amazingly complex.

I hope you get this worked out.

Veronica