Our 3.5 year old was diagnosed with ADHD, which is very young to be diagnosed, and were told the diagnosis could change. However, after going through 3 day cares and no longer being allowed to drop him off at the drop in day care/preschool close to us it was clear we needed to seek help. The specialists we take him to at Children's first thought he had ASD, and he still shows signs of it, but thankfully as he gets older his symptoms are becoming more strongly ADHD. We knew that something just wasn't right by the time he was a year old. He didn't know how to play or interact with other kids and is excessively disruptive in day care and preschool. That's the main reason I'm working full time, going to school full time AND am a full time SAHM. He's starting at our school districts special education preschool, which we're actually very excited about. His 3-4 hours temper tantrums(not and exaggeration) have gotten better. They usually only last an hour or so at most. Anything and everything can set him off, but we've found certain things that make it more likely, such as being too tired, hungry, over stimulated, the usual stuff. We love him to bits, but he is so very draining mentally, physically and emotionally. I've struggled to not gravitate towards our youngest, who's such an amazingly easy and pleasant child and always has been. No family will baby sit for us because of our oldest. My mother told us flat out a year or so ago that it's just miserable to watch them and won't do it anymore. That was very hurtful, but we did understand. I've had trouble making friends because taking him out when he was younger never ended well. Thankfully it's gotten quite a bit better. He still has some oddities that we're worried he could get bullied for as he gets older, but he's only 3.5, and thankfully he has his younger brother who has already stood up for him when another preschooler called him "weird". He's a very sweet and empathetic boy. He's just all over the place emotionally.
We're hoping he was just a difficult baby/toddler/preschooler and he'll grow out of it. I started on an antidepressant which has helped me cope tremendously, although his behavior has gotten better, it's hard to tell if it's because we pulled him out of day care and he's just getting to do what HE wants most of the day or not. I do make them do "class" and we eat lunch and dinner as a family, which always results in meltdowns. We will put him on medication when he's older if he still struggles in school, but he's just so young to put him on anything now.
Thanks for listening to me rant/vent a bit. Did anyone else notice differences in their child when they were very young?
i feel like now he has a diagnosis im looking at him in a different way if that makes sense?? X
