What signs did you see before your child was diagnosed ADHD

[illinoisgranny]

My GS is finally on the road to getting some real help for ADHD. I've been telling everyone that this child needs help and I finally think I'm ready to get him on medication after 26 months of begging for someone to see how severe his problems are.

I'm just wondering what other parents have seen that prompted them to look for help diagnosing ADHD in their children.

My GS has been literally bouncing off the walls ever since he was placed with me as a relative foster child. It's been so hard watching him struggle, seeing him go down the rabbit hole, so to speak, when his behaviors would spiral out of control so much that he would literally wear himself out with tantrums, falling and throwing himself around.

It makes me tired just to watch him! So what finally convinced you to look for help?

[Emmeline II]

Kindergarten; it was awful for everyone. I found it was difficult to get help for a child between 4 and 6 years old; though when I told that to ds' current psychiatrist she was shocked. Ds is now on Concerta for ADHD and is doing well in school. Looking back, we can recognize ds being this way since about 2yrs.

I suggest researching ADHD then make a bullet list of his behaviors that correspond. I also had a stack of school discipline tickets to work from as well.

[hillymum]

I had ds seen by a specialist when he was 18mths old due to over eatting (not just a chubby baby, he was obese), then for speach at 3 yrs. School until 2nd grade was hell. Thirty minute homework took us well over 2 hours. Moved to a new school for 2nd grade and finally teachers there agreed with me and got him assessed. It's been great since then, though I have just got his doctor to agree to testing for Prada Willie Syndrome. School work was the biggest issue. Seeing him struggle was heart breaking.

[SoCaliMommy]

My daughter hasn't be officially given the dx by her dr yet we have a evaluation on the 20th.

She was evaluated by the school and met the cut off for adhd inattentive type evaluation was done in feb/march 2010.

She struggled through K, and it got worse with 1st grade.

2 months into 1st the teachers were concerned... but nothing was done til February since they needed to try other things in class to see if they helped but they didn't help.

I knew she has problems when she was in K, even better is the fact that i was also concerned about her speech and in K was told there's nothing wrong with her speech, well the evaluation the school did while she was in 1st showed significant speech delay & she's below a certain percentage in the 4 main areas of language. I was beyond ticked at the school for brushing me off the year before saying there wasn't a problem with her speech claiming the school speech teacher talked with her and found no reason to put her in speech.

Oh and our previous insurance referred us to a psychologist who was a waste of time he kept wanting to wait to see if the IEP that went into effect in March 2010, he wanted to see her again in Oct2010. Thankfully we changed insurance and got a drs appt and her ped goes i'm shocked that doctor never did his own evaluation and we got referral to the place that does evaluations right then this was back in August and they were booked so the first appointment we got was for the 20th of this month.

[kme]

These behaviors prompted me to get help for my ADHD son:

- couldn't sit still
- had no "filter" - said and did things as they popped into his head
- at school, was obviously less mature than peers
- desk was a natural disaster area as was backpack, room, and play area
- unable to sit and play quietly or entertain self constructively. Play invovled a lot of distruction, but not angry distruction, just messy and unorganized
- teacher reported ds was "out of it" at school - she would call them for art class and he would get his lunchbox
- teacher reported he stared out the window or had little wars with his pencils during class
- grades started tp suffer as ds was unaware of a lot that was going on in class
- I was constantly running back to school to get homework he had forgotten to bring home

etc, etc, etc

[Emmeline II]

A lesson we learned is that if YOU feel something is wrong, keep seeking help until you feel that the issue is being appropriately addressed. It seems to me that one shouldn't completely rely on the school if they have other resources because the school may have different interests than what is best for your child, or may just not have the resources to do what is best.

[Guinevere]

It must be very frustrating to not be taken seriously by others in a position to help your GS. How old is he now?

My oldest DS was just officially dx'd w/ADHD (inattentive type) over the summer, but I've known he has it since he was probably around 2 yrs. old. When he was younger, the symptoms were more hyperactivity and extreme impulsivity. When he started school and academics came into the picture, we started to have issues with it taking him FOREVER to do homework b/c he couldn't sit still and focus. By the time I decided we really needed some outside intervention (last school year, in the 5th grade), he was no longer hyper or fidgety anymore, but he was forever losing EVERYTHING and wasted countless hours searching for what he needed to do assignments, failed tests that he knew the material for b/c he didn't check his work or misread the directions or skipped questions altogether, and still had huge issues with impulsivity leading to negative consequences.

After trying a number of diet and lifestyle changes, as well as various behavioral strategies, with very limited success, DS started on meds this summer. It took trying out four different meds at varying dosages, but we've found one that works and it has made such a positive difference!

Good luck to you, and keep us updated on how things are going!

Kind regards,
Guin

[illinoisgranny]

Originally Posted by hillymum

I had ds seen by a specialist when he was 18mths old due to over eatting (not just a chubby baby, he was obese), then for speach at 3 yrs. School until 2nd grade was hell. Thirty minute homework took us well over 2 hours. Moved to a new school for 2nd grade and finally teachers there agreed with me and got him assessed. It's been great since then, though I have just got his doctor to agree to testing for Prada Willie Syndrome. School work was the biggest issue. Seeing him struggle was heart breaking.

I haven't been able to check the forums for a few days....GS has ringworm, a fungal infection, on his forehead and had to be kept out of school while he was contagious and then my computer went on the fritz, too.

What is Prada WIllie Syndrome? I'm new to DX's. My GS is 4 years old (he turned 4 in August) and he has significant speech delays, too. He substitutes the 2nd consonant for most words for the 1st, says tat for cat, etc. He's been working with speech therapists since he was placed with me at 27 months by early intervention. They also sent OT, behavioral and developmental therapists to work with him, but that all stopped when he turned 3.

When he aged out of early intervention he was put into pre-k special ed in our school system. He was seeing a behavioral therapist recommended by DCFS, but she was USELESS, even though she has a Harvard degree hanging on her wall.

His Head Start has a great resource lady who gave me a referral for Community Counseling and they've been sending a caseworker to work with my GS. I'll call him Wildchild to avoid names because of his foster care status.

This caseworker will follow him for 3 months and then make a recommendation to see the staff psychiatrist. She's already seeing what she believes is a form of ADHD but she's still observing and the psychiatrist will make the final determination. Finally!!! She's seen some things that really concern her: aggression, defiance, moodiness, in addition to the hyperactive things that I see.

I'm not one for labels, but I'm glad to know that at last I have found a resource who has listened, watched and will get him some help. He needs it and I would go to the ends of the earth to give him some peace.

Thanks everyone, your replies have been a great help.

[illinoisgranny]

One thing I didn't mention is that his behaviors have gotten worse as he gets older. I was hoping they'd decrease, but actually it hasn't happened.

[fourfallbabies]

Adhd

Symptoms that made me find help for my son.

I didn't seek help when he was newborn, but I noticed some def differences: At 6 weeks old -6 months old he would yelp. A high pitched, hurt everyone's ears, ear piercing yelp- always when he was not being stimulated. It would cycle. Some weeks it was a lot, others it was rare.

At 9 months old, things changed. He began to walk (run actually), and he began to put his fingers down his throat to make himself vomit. It wasn't a phase. It was ALL THE TIME (he cycled, some weeks better) and I videotaped it because I was so tired of hearing docs saying that somehow I was reinforcing it by paying attention to it etc. On videotape (he didn't know what a camera was at 9 months old) he would do it, and he wasn't even looking at anyone while doing it. He often did it alone (playpen) or in the carseat or in bed. He was completely engrossed in this activity. No one had ever seen anything like it!

At 18 months the vomitting stopped. But he began to eat things that were not food (pica) obsessively. I had a list going of at least 20 or 30 things that he would eat. Fuzz, sand, mud, hair, the carpet and couch (pull out threads with teeth), paper, fireplace ashes (not in use for years, but had leftover ashes- also babygate around it he climbed) etc. It would come in phases and cycles like the yelping, and vomitting. Some weeks were horrid, others were okay with only 1 or 2 incidences.

Until he went to school I never ever ever sat down or stopped. He was in 'trouble' constantly. We never went outside until he was 5 (outside of a fenced and locked yard) as he would dart constantly. I hovered him almost 100% of the time. I never took a shower alone. I never went pee alone. i had to take him because he would do something inappropriate almost all day long. And he was EXTREMELY hyperactive. And he would be aggressive/impulsive with other children. I was constantly on edge in public and around other children. He needed constant and total supervision- while his peers his age, the parents seemed SO relaxed (they were typical kids)!!!!

Finally, after seeking help forever (it felt!), school started when he was almost 4. The teacher approached me and told me she felt something was wrong with him. Finally the doctors that I had been seeking listened!

He was dx with severe ADHD (early onset) and giftedness.

JK and SK was a true to life nightmare. Now that he's almost 6, it's gotten better. He sees a naturopath regularly and takes Concerta.

I had SO many people involved with him when he was younger, and I didn't get anywhere. He was developing normally (reaching milestones, beyond milestones actually) so it was either blamed on me (I was an ABA therapist, to boot!) or it was said to 'wait' or he'll grow out of it.

He also was very obsessed with certain things, like driving (little tykes car), 'steering' anything, obsessed with books and information (he would pressure you for information constantly), certain tv shows etc. It really did look like Autism, except without the delays in gross and fine motor, without the social withdrawl and without the communication issues and without the stimming. Autism was ruled out by pedi, developmental pedi and multiple other professionals..although the school continues to bring it up. He has no trouble with transition, tantrums etc.

Anyways, that's our story.

I felt VERY unsupported for years. Even on message boards (mom boards, mostly typical children) I would be begging for help/support and there'd be posters blaming ME on being a poor mother, or letting him do these things, or not disciplining him properly or whatever. I cried A LOT. It was awful, so I can truly empathize. I hope the best for you!!!