Question:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -To begin, my son has shown signs for awhile, like yours. He has reacted to several situations impulsively and has tantrums like you’ve never seen (i guess you may have), well, like a parent of any *normal* child has never seen. Like your child, he was kicked out of a daycare and we found a family day care that took care of him while I worked during the day. He continued to bite other children without thinking. My provider even told me that once he did bite, he would go sit in the usual timeout spot that she placed him in. He knew the consequences afterward, but he still committed the act. I had tried every single form of discipline acceptable and unaccaptable in the civilized world. Finally, after a Sunday morning when my husband and I both had felt like we had lost our minds, we decided to call the doctor to see if there was another way to deal with our son. We had decided that my son was too dangerous even for his own self. He can climb counters without stools. I never had child locks on *everything* with my daughter, but with him, I have everthing around the house locked up. He insistantly finds crayons that were *lost* and colors on the walls, pours drinks on the floor (out of the non-spill cup), gets into my makeup and beauty products and pours them on the floor and wipes it everywhere. But when he’s done with all of it, he hides under his bed every time when he knows I’m about to find out. Jennifer T McDow
Your son sounds just like my son at that age but there’s one big difference. My son didn’t go and hide. He literally didn’t care about the consequences or maybe he didn’t remember them. In that aspect he sounds more like my daughter. She hasn’t shown any signs of adhd yet and she’s four.
Response:
My son Mike was diagnosed at age 18 months and put on Ritalin at age 3. I think two is very young to diagnose a child but it can happen. I don’t know what other things you are trying or what books you have read. I can relate but it was 10 yrs ago and my memory flounders somewhat. I feel your discomfort and wish I had a more supportive helpful answer Nessa (feeling kinda bummed out tonite) their views about: For about a month now, my 2-year-old son has been diagnosed with ADHD. The condition runs in the family, so it did not surprise me. It only surprised me to see that he has been diagnosed so young. He is not like my daughter when she was two, yet no two children are alike. He has all the classic symptoms. I can’t even read him a book. We just put him on Ritalin and it has worked. He has remarkably slowed down. I just feel like an awful parent sometimes because other people tell me that he’s too young to be diagnosed, etc. I love my child and want only the best for him. Is there any other child out there who has been diagnosed so young? Should I continue a drug therapy or wait until he gets into school? My husband and I are on opposite sides. It really has weighed on my relationship. Can anyone relate? Jennifer
Nessa — G-d always gives us what we need May what you want be what you need. Finally see me at http://www.bestpages.com/nessa
Response:
For about a month now, my 2-year-old son has been diagnosed with ADHD. The The mental health community does not agree with diagnosing ADHD prior to age six. Some serious research should’ve been taken on this child/family/environments. Most agencies would never have taken a child this young. Most professionals would tell the parents to keep the child home, allow the child to play in unstructured but supervised environments. I would SERIOUSLY question such a diagnosis at such an age. The FDA has not recommended any ADHD meds. for children under age six. Be very,very careful!
Careful, smareful! Forgive my attitude, but my experiences are along the same line with Mystique76 and Brian’s. At 3 years old, Ryan was kicked out of preschool … and was dxed ADHD later the same year. At age 4 he was medicated with Ritalin, and his life has turned around since then. Initially, he was medicated just through school hours … until he fell out of a 2nd story window to the 1st story deck below in one of his "off the wall" moods. Thank God damages were limited to a one-day stay at Johns Hopkins Hospital and a broken arm. That was our wake-up call. For his own safety, we needed to keep him on meds while awake. My opinion .. the risks associated from dxing and medicating someone under 6 are lower than the potential damage caused by an off-the-wall unmedicated kid. Yes, we went through counseling, and without substantial success. Shake your head, if you must. To me it’s clear … it’s a chemical thing. Mary H.
Response:
For about a month now, my 2-year-old son has been diagnosed with ADHD. The condition runs in the family, so it did not surprise me. It only surprised me to see that he has been diagnosed so young. He is not like my daughter when she was two, yet no two children are alike. He has all the classic symptoms. I can’t even read him a book. We just put him on Ritalin and it has worked. He has remarkably slowed down. I just feel like an awful parent sometimes because other people tell me that he’s too young to be diagnosed, etc. I love my child and want only the best for him. Is there any other child out there who has been diagnosed so young? Should I continue a drug therapy or wait until he gets into school? My husband and I are on opposite sides. It really has weighed on my relationship. Can anyone relate?
First of all, ignore Tim. He is schizophrenic, and was prescribed Ritalin, which is contraindicated for schizophrenia. He experienced a severe reaction, and as a result has developed a passionate hatred of all medications, but especially Ritalin. Be that as it may, this is a decision that you need to make yourself. We’ll try to help you out with our experiences, but in the end, only you can weigh the risks and benefits to your son. I think that the consensus will be that 2 years old is quite young to be prescribed Ritalin, though there are obviously many factors that need to be considered. Is he violent? Is he experiencing any side-effects? Have you tried other methods of dealing with him, like Behavior Modification? Just to give you some background – my son is now 7. At about 18mos, it was fairly obvious that there was something going on. By 3-1/2, he had been kicked out of 2 day-cares and was on the verge of being kicked out of nursery school. At that time, we took him to a psychiatrist, who recommended Ritalin. We chose not to medicate him, due to his age. We had no real success with Behavior Modification, and after changing therapists, found a therapeutic nursery school which deals with behavioral issues. We ended up trying a very low dose of Ritalin at age 5. This lasted only about a month, because we started seeing tics, and because we really weren’t seeing much benefit. We tried again at age 6, and found that it *did* help him significantly. The tics resumed, but later went away. Josh wound up staying 2-1/2 years there, and entered a private Jewish day-school this year in 1st grade. While we’ve had our challenges, Josh is really thriving in school. I apologize for the length of this post – I just want to conclude by saying that we really don’t regret the decisions that we made. Yes, we ended up putting him on Ritalin eventually, but he was almost 6 before we did that. In the meantime, we worked with him in different ways. While the meds are certainly a key reason for his success, I give a great deal of the credit to the nursery school for giving him the tools to deal with his issues. Treating ADHD is a process that involves much more than just meds, though the meds are often the key ingredient that allows the other techniques to take hold. It’s up to each individual to determine what combination of techniques is right for them. Obviously, you need to be working with a professional whom you trust, who will guide you through this process. Good luck, and let us know if there are any other questions we can answer. Posted & Mailed Brian Leyton
Response:
I’m curious, what is the rationale behind belladonna?
Hi Mary, I’m still doing the research myself. Today was his first full day since his dose of belladonna and he was slightly better. It’s so hard to tell just how well he is supposed to act because he is two years old. I guess his little 20-minute episode of tantrum as opposed to 2-hour tantrum is better. I guess you could say I use a "biting" meter. If he doesn’t bite that day, it’s a good day. If he does, it’s not. So far, so good. Jennifer T McDow
Response:
Hi, I know what you mean when you say it affects the WHOLE family. my poor 4yo daughter is kind of caught in the middle with nowhere to go. i try so hard to make her feel extra special like have my husband take my son somewhere and her and i will do something together, but i still feel like she deserves more from me. Kody has consumed our lives. From the time he was able to crawl, he has always gotten into things and just been active, irritable, dangerous, and uncontrollable.
Jennifer – my son is now 13 (dx’d at 9) and I too feel consumed – still! I invest much more of my emotional energy on him than on the other children. I don’t resent it as much as I feel guilty about shortchanging the other children. I’ve made a real effort to be more available to them. I sometimes think Kyle took advantage and still does. I have a subscription to every parenting magazine out there. i even have books.
<snip LOL! Me too! One advantage of this is that I think I’m a better parent to the other children because of my efforts to seek out parenting information. anyway, on with his problem, we all know the symptoms of ADHD. we did go to the homeopathic doctor today. he prescribed a dose of belladonna. i am curious but scared to see his reaction to the treatment. i will let you know though. I am supposed to call the doctor next week with remarks on the treatment. thanks for the input.
I’m curious, what is the rationale behind belladonna? Mary Levin http://www.delphi.com/add
Response:
Hi, I know what you mean when you say it affects the WHOLE family. my poor 4yo daughter is kind of caught in the middle with nowhere to go. i try so hard to make her feel extra special like have my husband take my son somewhere and her and i will do something together, but i still feel like she deserves more from me. Kody has consumed our lives. From the time he was able to crawl, he has always gotten into things and just been active, irritable, dangerous, and uncontrollable. I have a subscription to every parenting magazine out there. i even have books. none of them describe my son. he is so special and yet so hard to handle. i’m learning now that he needs more structure, more love, more of everything. with all the forms of discipline i’ve used, none have worked effectively. anyway, on with his problem, we all know the symptoms of ADHD. we did go to the homeopathic doctor today. he prescribed a dose of belladonna. i am curious but scared to see his reaction to the treatment. i will let you know though. I am supposed to call the doctor next week with remarks on the treatment. thanks for the input. Jennifer T McDow
Response:
YES, I CAN RELATE, AS WITH YOU, ADHD RUNS IN OUR FAMILY ALSO. MY SON IS 3 AND I HAVE KNOWN FOR A VERY LONG TIME,AS THEY SAY IN RETROSPECT, HE HAS BEEN SHOWING ME THE SIGNS SINCE BIRTH! HE WAS FINALLY DIAGNOSED ONE MONTH AFTER HE TURNED 3. I ALSO HAVE A 15 MONTH OLD SON WHO IS GIVING ME THE SAME SIGNS. I AM AFRAID TO HAVE HIM DIAGNOSED AS WELL. BUT I DO BELIEVE IT WILL MOST LIKELY HAPPEN. MY SON IS CURRENTLY TAKING RITALIN, AND CLONIDINE AT NIGHT, OR ELSE I WOULD NEVER GET HIM TO SLEEP! HE INITIALLY WAS TAKING TENEX DURING THE DAY, THAT WORKED WONDERFULLY FOR THE FIRST FEW WEEKS, THEN HAD TO GO TO RITALIN. HE HAS JUST STARTED PRE=SCHOOL THIS PAST WEEK, AND HIS TEACHER IS WORKING VERY WELL WITH US, AND HIM. SHE HAD SUGGESTED TO TRY HIM AT SCHOOL UNMEDICATED, AND SURPRISINGLY ENOUGH WAS MUCH HAPPIER WITH HIM OFF THE MEDS. SO I HAVE DECREASED HIS DOSAGE DRAMATICALLY, IT IS TOUGH BECAUSE HE IS A HAND FUL, BUT, THE GUILT IS ALSO TEARING MY HUBAND AND I APART. MY HUSBAND WOULD GIVE HIM " HOLIDAY" ON THE WEEKENDS. ALL I CAN SAY IS HANG IN THERE, YOU MAY BE AS SURPRISED AS WE, WHEN IT COMES TO THE CHANGES ONCE HE’S IN SCHOOL. I RECEIVED THE SAME FLACK YOU DO, AND STILL OCCASIONALLY COME ACROSS THOSE FAMILY AND FRIENDS WHO STRONGLY BELIEVE IT IS THE PARENTING! NOTHING MAKES ME MORE FURIOUS! WOULD LOVE TO HEAR BACK FROM YOU, PLEASE KEEP ME POSTED. KRISTEN
Response:
I KNOW I’VE AREADY WRITTEN ALOT, BUT THERE IS SO MUCH ON THIS TOPIC. MY SON HAS MANY OF THE BEHAVIORS I’VE READ AT THIS POST, I ALSO WANTED TO ADD THAT MY SON MOST LIKELY IS ALSO SHOWING SIGNS OF PTSD, HE HAS GIVEN DICLOSURE TO SEXUAL ABUSE. THAT RESEMBLES ALOT OF THE SAME BEHAVIORS OF ADHD. TRUST YOURSELF AND YOU CHILD, YU WILL DO WHAT’S BEST FOR THEWHOEFAMILY. KRISTEN
Response:
YES, I CAN RELATE, AS WITH YOU, ADHD RUNS IN OUR FAMILY ALSO.
Hi Kristen, In all the chaos between diagnosing and medicating, we have actually asked for advice from several people. Some agree and some disagree to what we are doing and some say that ADHD does not even exist!! I used to be one that believed that hyperactivity was all in the parents’ brain. Now, I know I was wrong! I never believed my mother when she said my brother was so hyper until I had one just like him. I can’t even go places without him either pitching a tantrum or putting his life in danger. Now that he’s medicated, he’s better, but he whines more now. We’re adjusting. We have an appointment on Wednesday to see a homeopathic doctor. I’ll keep you posted. Jennifer T McDow
Response:
Thank you for the input. Obviously, I’m scared and do not completely understand the whole subject. Yesterday, we bought a few books and next week we have an appointment with a homeopathic doctor.
Hi Everyone It has been a long time since I have been on this group. I tuned back in and thought I could be of some help here. I have three kids a nine year old boy who is NOT ADHD but has been identified as Gifted and is in the program now. My 7 year old daughter who is ADHHHHHD and we feel will also be identified as gifted, and a four year old boy who we are not sure but seems to definately keep up mentally with the other two but is NOT ADD/H. My middle daughter from the day she was born was different. I new in my GUT I had a problem. She walked a 9 months, was in to everything as soon as she could get her hands on anything. I read every book about parenting I could get my hands on and was unable to control this child. FINALLY I got up the courage to fight with the doctors. I went through the whole sinario of you need parenting skills, you need this that and everything, but yet no one new what I WAS doing because no one was living in MY SHOES.Having even one child with ADD/H is a ripple effect on the whole family. All I can tell you people is I finally got smart and had a social worker come into the house and VIEW what was really happening and found out that it was nothing I was doing wrong but that this child needed something to help her control herself because she was unable to focas to control herself and I could not do anything more to structure her life or give her any more consistancy than what she had. Life is different now. She is a normal healthy, bubbly little girl who has great self esteem, lots of friends and we are a normal family in control. My parents and brothers NOW tell me I am an excellent parent and I was smart to not listen to all of them. They should only realize that they almost dug a whole for me with all of there remarks and put downs.Thankfully I had just a tiny bit of dignity still in tact to fight back. I survived the doctors. I even had one doctor realize he shouldn’t jump to conclusions and has followed up on our family in amazement because HE WAS WRONG. My daughter is surviving the system. And we are on an uphill battle to recover the lost years. My daughter is now in grade 2 and is unfogging and learning what she missed out on in kindergarten and grade one. She is far from what anyone would have every believed based on what she was.The school has so much as said once we get her back up to her level she will probably end up in the gifted program along side her brother. I can only say CONSISTANCY, STRUCTURE, and A VERY CAREFULLY MONITORED MEDICATION PROGRAM is the key to our success. It may not be for everyone. All children need consistancy and structure, but these kids need to get rid of the FOG. That FOG can sometimes come out as HYPER and sometimes it comes across as quiet and lazy. It is not difficult to teach your children consistancy and structure, what is difficult is making sure the medication is not too much and not too little. Too much causes a child to be too quiet which is NOT NORMAL and too little makes people think medication is not the answer because it doesn’t seem to be doing anything. Let me just make another point. My daugher also had problems with peeing in her pants until she was 6 and started taking ritilin. As soon as she started the ritilin the peeing stopped. The Eurologist of course set it was a coincedence. I told him he should read up on ADHD before he came to that conclusion as far as my daughter was concerned. He also didn’t beleive that ADHD and hyperactivity could cause a child to pee. STupid me allowed him to probe and take mega tests from the age of 4 until the age of 6 because I thought that maybe they might be right and maybe it wasn’t caused by the hyperactivity. Please don’t think I believe in pushing the concept of medication as the answer. It is not the answer and should be slowly withdrawn once the child is old enough to create there own structure and consistancy to compensate for the lack of ability to control there actions both physically and mentally. I hope this helps.
Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -Thank you for the input. Obviously, I’m scared and do not completely understand the whole subject. Yesterday, we bought a few books and next week we have an appointment with a homeopathic doctor. To begin, my son has shown signs for awhile, like yours. He has reacted to several situations impulsively and has tantrums like you’ve never seen (i guess you may have), well, like a parent of any *normal* child has never seen. Like your child, he was kicked out of a daycare and we found a family day care that took care of him while I worked during the day. He continued to bite other children without thinking. My provider even told me that once he did bite, he would go sit in the usual timeout spot that she placed him in. He knew the consequences afterward, but he still committed the act. Then, I lost my job and had to stay at home with the kids. Slowly, I saw the *bad* side of my son worsen as his age progressed. I eventually found a night job with a pay cut, so we cannot afford child care for awhile since we are still catching up on our bills. Our insurance company is HMO, so you can imagine the doctors available and the lack of proper help we receive. I had tried every single form of discipline acceptable and unaccaptable in the civilized world. Finally, after a Sunday morning when my husband and I both had felt like we had lost our minds, we decided to call the doctor to see if there was another way to deal with our son. We had decided that my son was too dangerous even for his own self. He can climb counters without stools. I never had child locks on *everything* with my daughter, but with him, I have everthing around the house locked up. He insistantly finds crayons that were *lost* and colors on the walls, pours drinks on the floor (out of the non-spill cup), gets into my makeup and beauty products and pours them on the floor and wipes it everywhere. But when he’s done with all of it, he hides under his bed every time when he knows I’m about to find out. I told the doctor I was tired of yelling, I had tried everything I could do, and I asked him what I could do. He asked me several questions about my son’s character and if there was anyone else in my family who was similar (my brother). After an hour, the doctor had concluded that my son had ADHD. Now, I just feel like I’m on an incredible journey without the proper map. I will keep posted…
Well, I can certainly sympathize with what you’re going through. The fact is, that while medication use is not universally accepted for kids under 6, the medical profession doesn’t really have any other answers for kids like yours who simply don’t respond to the other techniques. I would encourage you though, to contact the public school in your area, and arrange to have him tested. I know he’s really too young for school, but legally, the school district is responsible for providing the services he needs, even though he is not of school age (though they may fight you on this, since he *is* still quite young). Once you get him tested, and they agree that he needs help, then they will typically offer you various special-ed programs that they have available. They may not actually have anything appropriate, so you will then need to convince them that he should get NPS (non-public school) funding, so that you can send him to a private program that is equipped to deal with his issues. The great thing about this is that once you get him funded, all of the programs are at no cost to you. In my son’s case, the county actually paid for his play-therapy as well as family therapy, with a psychiatrist who was able to prescribe his meds. The only thing that they didn’t pay for was the Ritalin itself. I might be making this sound a bit too simple. In our case it was, simply because we were working with school personnel who saw that my son needed help, and understood that they did not have any appropriate programs for him. I think it may also have helped that we put him in a public school SED (Severely Emotionally Disturbed) program for a short time. This showed them that we were not simply out to milk the system for their NPS funds, but only wanted what was best for our son. It also helped to have his special-ed teacher there at the IEP meeting, explaining that she could not provide the kind of environment that he needed. Many (if not most) people don’t have it this easy. The process can be aggravating. The schools are great at stonewalling if they don’t want to fund yet another kid at $20-30k per year. You have to keep very good notes of every conversaion you have, and you have to come into IEP meetings will both guns blazing. You may have to hire an advocate. In the end though, you will get your kid the help that he needs, and that is really all that counts. In my son’s case, I believe that the 2-1/2 years in therapeutic nursery school have made all the difference. He is doing well in his English studies, though the teacher is somewhat boring, and he’s at the top of his class in Hebrew studies (even though this is his first semester in a Jewish school, and all of the other kids came out of Jewish schools). You have a long road ahead, but you’re lucky, because you have found this group – hopefully we’ll be able to make this adventure somewhat easier for you. Good luck, Brian Leyton
Response:
For about a month now, my 2-year-old son has been diagnosed with ADHD. The The mental health community does not agree with diagnosing ADHD prior to age six. Some serious research should’ve been taken on this child/family/environments. Most agencies would never have taken a child this young. Most professionals would tell the parents to keep the child home, allow the child to play in unstructured but supervised environments. I would SERIOUSLY question such a diagnosis at such an age. The FDA has not recommended any ADHD meds. for children under age six. Be very,very careful!
Likewise, if this is real then it definitely doesn’t sound right at all to me. Who ‘diagnosed’ this child at this age? Ian ‘You have the air of someone who is looking for something.’ Sophie said, ‘yet you are the one who is missing…’ – John LeCarre, ’The Night Manager’
Response:
First of all, ignore Tim. He is schizophrenic, and was prescribed Ritalin, which is contraindicated for schizophrenia.
Thank you for the input. Obviously, I’m scared and do not completely understand the whole subject. Yesterday, we bought a few books and next week we have an appointment with a homeopathic doctor. To begin, my son has shown signs for awhile, like yours. He has reacted to several situations impulsively and has tantrums like you’ve never seen (i guess you may have), well, like a parent of any *normal* child has never seen. Like your child, he was kicked out of a daycare and we found a family day care that took care of him while I worked during the day. He continued to bite other children without thinking. My provider even told me that once he did bite, he would go sit in the usual timeout spot that she placed him in. He knew the consequences afterward, but he still committed the act. Then, I lost my job and had to stay at home with the kids. Slowly, I saw the *bad* side of my son worsen as his age progressed. I eventually found a night job with a pay cut, so we cannot afford child care for awhile since we are still catching up on our bills. Our insurance company is HMO, so you can imagine the doctors available and the lack of proper help we receive. I had tried every single form of discipline acceptable and unaccaptable in the civilized world. Finally, after a Sunday morning when my husband and I both had felt like we had lost our minds, we decided to call the doctor to see if there was another way to deal with our son. We had decided that my son was too dangerous even for his own self. He can climb counters without stools. I never had child locks on *everything* with my daughter, but with him, I have everthing around the house locked up. He insistantly finds crayons that were *lost* and colors on the walls, pours drinks on the floor (out of the non-spill cup), gets into my makeup and beauty products and pours them on the floor and wipes it everywhere. But when he’s done with all of it, he hides under his bed every time when he knows I’m about to find out. I told the doctor I was tired of yelling, I had tried everything I could do, and I asked him what I could do. He asked me several questions about my son’s character and if there was anyone else in my family who was similar (my brother). After an hour, the doctor had concluded that my son had ADHD. Now, I just feel like I’m on an incredible journey without the proper map. I will keep posted… Jennifer T McDow
Response:
For about a month now, my 2-year-old son has been diagnosed with ADHD. The
The mental health community does not agree with diagnosing ADHD prior to age six. Some serious research should’ve been taken on this child/family/environments. Most agencies would never have taken a child this young. Most professionals would tell the parents to keep the child home, allow the child to play in unstructured but supervised environments. I would SERIOUSLY question such a diagnosis at such an age. The FDA has not recommended any ADHD meds. for children under age six. Be very,very careful!
Response:
For about a month now, my 2-year-old son has been diagnosed with ADHD. The condition runs in the family, so it did not surprise me. It only surprised me to see that he has been diagnosed so young. He is not like my daughter when she was two, yet no two children are alike. He has all the classic symptoms. I can’t even read him a book. We just put him on Ritalin and it has worked. He has remarkably slowed down. I just feel like an awful parent sometimes because other people tell me that he’s too young to be diagnosed, etc.
Ritalin for a 2-year-old. What is this world coming to? — "A capitalist is eager to sell a rope for himself to hang with" –Abe Lincoln Read The Last Word — It’s your road atlas to freedom! Conservatives prove: Stupid is as fascist does…
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