Anyone with ADHD Kids?

[happymamma]

I'm hoping someone here is going through the same thing I am. Well, not that I wish this upon anyone, I just feel so alone. My 8 yr old has ADHD, and he's on meds when he goes to school, and it really helps him alot. My 6 yr old is in the process of being tested right now to get on meds too to help her. Now, today, my heart just broke to pieces, and I had to leave abrubtly as my 4 yr old's preschool teacher told me about some concerns. She explained how he breaks down whenever there is transision, and cant seem to focus in a group setting, only one on one. The exact same thing I was told with my first son at the same age. So, that will make 3 of my kids with this? My baby is almost 2, and everywhere I go, ppl tell me how busy she is. She just doesnt stop for a second and keeps me on my toes. Im also pregnant now with my 5th, so I dont know if it's my hormones or what but Im just so depressed today. To top it off, my dh actually had the nerve to say, why do we keep having kids. So, I'm here for support, hoping someone has something possitive to say.

 

[leeanne]

I have dealt with a ADHD child from the time she was 4 until she was 12 and she definitely was a handful. My son is in a class with a child who was diagnosed with ADHD at the end of last year, kindergarten.

I give you big hugs as you must be going through a lot and it takes a lot of patience and understanding when it comes to ADHD children.

 

[hollie]

I dont have a child with ADHD, but grew up with my younger brother who was diagnosed with it at about 4 years old, he is now 19. He was medicated for school, and yes there were times when life was really hard with him, but I can say there is a light at the end of the tunnel! My advice, if you get offered help for clubs etc for other kids like them, even just for an hour on a saturday, make the most of them as it gives you time to yourself, and gives them something to look forward too, my brother was usually an angel leading upto such events, even now he behaves better when he wants something off people!! lol

 

[soon2b6]

Hello, My daughter who is 13 has been diagnosed with ADD and I have 2 Autistic boys, one of whom I am convinced has undiagnosed ADHD (he is like a blinkin' tornado, LOL) plus another 3 children. I try to remember that the diagnosis doesnt change them, they are MY kids whatever label is put upon them and I love them. When I was pregnant with Holly I did wonder for a moment what others would think of me, this worried me, now my pregnancy hormones have subsided it does not worry me, my kids are the important thing.
Chin up, pregnancy hormones make everything so much more emotional, Im sure all of your babies are fantastic little people, and I think you are a fantastic Mum, even if you sometimes feel a little frazzled, LOL.

 

[kirsten1985]

I dont have a child with ADHD, but grew up with my younger brother who was diagnosed with it at about 4 years old, he is now 19. He was medicated for school, and yes there were times when life was really hard with him, but I can say there is a light at the end of the tunnel! My advice, if you get offered help for clubs etc for other kids like them, even just for an hour on a saturday, make the most of them as it gives you time to yourself, and gives them something to look forward too, my brother was usually an angel leading upto such events, even now he behaves better when he wants something off people!! lol

Same here, my younger brother has ADHD, he is now 21. He had a rough time in his teens, but is settling down a bit now, he spent 2 years in the army, which was really good for him as it gave him a lot of structure. He has now had a job working with disabled kids for 2.5 years and is amazing at it. He has a great g/f, a house, car etc etc. We never thought he would get this far when he was at his worst!

for your kids, remember through the tough times it will all be worth it in the end.

 

[LunaBean]

Hi, my 6 year old sister has ADHD and spends alot of time living with me as my mum 'cant cope' (wont try to cope more like) and I can honestly say yeah, its hard work, but it does get easier. (Thats her in my profile pic with me). She's getting a classroom assistant, as she wouldnt do any work at all in school, but she's really clever. I think you should see if there's any help you can get because I'm sure there is.

It can run in families, I have the adult version, ADD, which means I have a very short attention span etc, but can spend hours doing one thing too, just dont have the 'hyper' bit. It's hard when I have her out and she plays up, I feel like I have to tell people about her condition, but at the same time, she sometimes plays up for the attention, because some people let her away with things because she has it. She's coming to stay with me for 2 weeks next month, and as much as she does drive me mad sometimes, Id rather she was with me full time!

Your hormones won't be helping either! You should definately look into getting some help, even if it is only for an hour a week. Cant believe your OH said that, as if you got urself pregnant!! PM me if you ever want to rant, I know when my sis has been driving me mad all day I'd love to be able to talk about it with someone who understands

 

[bek74]

I'm hoping someone here is going through the same thing I am. Well, not that I wish this upon anyone, I just feel so alone. My 8 yr old has ADHD, and he's on meds when he goes to school, and it really helps him alot. My 6 yr old is in the process of being tested right now to get on meds too to help her. Now, today, my heart just broke to pieces, and I had to leave abrubtly as my 4 yr old's preschool teacher told me about some concerns. She explained how he breaks down whenever there is transision, and cant seem to focus in a group setting, only one on one. The exact same thing I was told with my first son at the same age. So, that will make 3 of my kids with this? My baby is almost 2, and everywhere I go, ppl tell me how busy she is. She just doesnt stop for a second and keeps me on my toes. Im also pregnant now with my 5th, so I dont know if it's my hormones or what but Im just so depressed today. To top it off, my dh actually had the nerve to say, why do we keep having kids. So, I'm here for support, hoping someone has something possitive to say.

Hun, they can't diagnose ADHD when the child is 4yrs old (well they shouldn't). I have 3 sons and when they were 4, they didn't stop they were like ever ready batteries.
My youngest son who is 9yrs old, IS ADHD, he is also PDD (pervasive developmental disorder (not NOS) which comes under the Autism/ Asperger's umbrella, he also suffers (diagnosed) severe anxiety (vomits ALOT, screams and cries in his sleep), and has a speech and language disorder (he can't read, spell, add number and is in grade 4, with early year 1 level of skills), he lacks all social abilities and finds it really hard to connect with other children. he attends school Monday's, Wednesday's, Fridays 9am till 11:30am and thats it, then Tuesday's and Thursday's we attempt full days, sometimes successfully sometimes not.

Your not alone...... My elder two children are fine and have nothing wrong.

In the case of your daughter, sometimes it can come down to copying her older brother and how he behaves. ADHD isn't very common in girls ( compared to boys), but don't let them put ideas into your head. ALOT of people think because you have one child with it, then your other kids must as well, and teachers are the worst in assuming that (have seen it happen to another family with 4 kids), she is 4 and isn't meant to have a long concentration span, don't let them put ideas into your head hun, just let her grow and she how things go.
This family I meantioned before has 4 kids and her eldest is ADHD and she was in the office one morning ( I was there) and her toddler wanted out of the pram and had a little tantrum and they deputy said " Oh looks like you have another handful on your hands, lets hope this one coming isn't as well (and he pointed to her pregnant belly).
She has since changed schools and wow what a change in all the kids, non of the others have ADHD, but at one point with the school questioning her other children she started to have real doubts.
I don't know your daughter, but you do, so what do you think? Do you think she is a normal playful active 4yr old that sometimes follows her older brothers bad behaviour ( due is ADHD)?

Good luck Hun

 

[fordy]

Hun, they can't diagnose ADHD when the child is 4yrs old (well they shouldn't).[/QUOTE]

they can diagnose ADHD at the age of 4 as my second oldest son has just turnt 5 and he was diagnose at 4, i have a 9 yr old son with ADHD as well not to end there my 4 yr old niece has been diagnose with it as well and i also have a 11 yr old nephew with it.....its hard i will admit but rewarding at the same time as every day i am learning from them what to expect...my nephew for instance has the worst case of ADHD the doctor has ever seen when he was living with me believe me i thought my two were angels compared to him as he was disrupted so many times in his life and he's been to hell and back that it takes a hell of alot for him to trust someone when his parents took him back he just got settled in a routine and they disrupted his life again....and this routine took at least a good 6 months!

 

[leeanne]

I think they can diagnose at an earlier age, but just that it becomes apparent when they hit school age and the teachers find that the child has a problem with focussing or other issues.

With the girl that I dealt with from age 4 to 12, you can tell at 4 that she did have an issue. She was very hyper, could not focus, liked negative attention and on it went. It was when she was 6 that she was diagnosed because of how she acted in school.

With the boy in my son's class, I heard from his mom that he was kicked out of daycare many times because of his behavior before he started schooling in a regular school.

 

[bek74]

Ladies, if your all happy with your diagnoses then thats great. They tried to diagnoses my youngest with ADHD from when he was about 3-4 and to me that wasn't my issue, as a mother I felt there was something else going on. ADHD is diagnosed to easily.
I didn't follow it up, I just let things be. When school started his behaviour got worse and worse and there were other things that just didn't add up.

I contacted my brother (child psychologist) and asked when he comes back home (travels overseas with his work and studies) to catch up with me regarding my son (his nephew).

We caught up with each other and we talked and he spent time with his nephew and he said I need to get him into the mental Health unit, he wouldn't diagnose my son, but sent a letter out to them, along with the school making contact.

Once in there and months of meetings etc they diagnosed my son with what I listed in my previous post. I am so glad I didn't settle for a quick diagnoses and a quick fix pill back when he was little. Now I can actually work at helping my child and making a positive difference in his life.

A lady I know whose son was also diagnosed ADHD when he was 5, well it turns out after YEARS of searching for help and not settling with that diagnoses that it turns out he also suffers anxiety but is also NON VERBAL, huge difference from the quick diagnoses of ADHD and wow what a difference it can make once the child is diagnoses correctly and they can work with that. He has come along in leaps and bounds and is now 13.

JMO

 

[AimeeM]

My 6 year old child's consultant told me he absolutely can NOT diagnose ADHD until the child is at least 7-at the very least!! He is a fantastic paediatric specialist. My son has seen the consultant since being 4 due to his behaviour not at my request but at the doctors request. He is seeing him every few months until he gets to 8 years old and they will take it from there. 4 years old is too young to differentiate between 'normal' and 'un-normal' behaviour.

 

[frogger3240]

Hi,
I have 4 children, my oldest Jacob is 13 and he was diagnoised with ODD and then my 2nd child Darrien~12 was diagnoised with ADHD and he is on concerta 54 mgs daily and then my 3rd child was put on concerta 18 mgs and also clonaden (sorry for misspelling) at night time and he takes the concerta in the morning and now he is doing great Darrien and Patrick and now with my 4th child Emma she is having trouble in kindegarden and now i'm going to have to make an appointment to see about if she will need any meds for her behavior...so I know what your feeling its very hard and it really gets at your heart...I'm here if you ever need anyone to just chat with...glad that there is others that I can talk to about it also....

 

[hollie]

My brother was diagnosed at an early age with ADHD - im pretty sure he was 4 although may have been 5, definetly before he started school, but my brother wasnt just diagnosed by our local GP (like my OHs brothers neice, her mum took her to docs and said she was being naughty, doc diagnosed ADHD there and then!!) My brother was seen by a number of specialists, went to a specialist nursery, had a team come out and spend time with him every other day and my mum, me and my other brother all had to be interviewed to explain my brothers behaviour. We also had to sit in this room for what seemed like ages, it was full of toys, food etc and we were told to wait whilst someone came to assess my brother, little did we know the specialists were sat behind a mirrored wall watching to see my brother, watching the real him, not the boy who performed for the cameras.
My HV has also said that children with ADHD and other similar problems are normally easily detected at an early age because of certain things, as obviously we are concerned that Alfie could have the condition too if its a genetic thing.

 

[Eve]

My son Jacob is now 7 and when he was around 2 I knew something wasn't right. Everyone said terrible twos but I KNEW that wasn't the case. When Jake would get upset and have trantrums, which by the way were very frequent, he would scream for hours! Trying to console him was pointless and it went on from there. I was referred to Dr. Margret Hurst, who is the best and only one of her kind in our province who does what she does! She has her own ADHD clinic where they do numerous testing at a young age and determine if the child may or may not have ADD/ADHD. My son was diagnosed at 4 years old with his behavioral problems. I believe with the help of parents/care givers/ daycare workers/ specialists a child can be diagnosed at a younger age but not just from one person dealing with the child if I am making this understandable lol.

I go through hell with my son and thank god we are finally getting his tonsils removed, and he is seeing a child psychologist on the 27th, so maybe we will have some light shed on our situation soon!

 

[carrieanne]

hey my son brandon has adhd ocd severe anxiety and tourretes' life is a struggle and very hard work he is a whirlwind of anger most of the time but he is the most talented child ive met! he is a great artist he plays the drums and an amazing sports man he is 12 now and goes through life like nothings wrong lol, most children like him are labled trouble causes but dont realise whats going on inside their heads he was diagnosed at 9 but we knew something was wrong but getting the help was very hard, we are with childrens mental health clinic and he gets support at school but people have no idea how hard it is with a child with these problems and for their siblings cus they are usually in the middle of chaos when brandon is having a bad day i have 4 kids luckily the others have showed no signs as yet as i knew with brandon from him been 12 months old i think adhd is very mis-understood !