adhd

Oh I can feel your pain. My son was diagnosed with ADHD and ODD at 3years old. Just to stop responses in their track, you can tell the difference between "normal" child behavior and a child that has problems. I dealt with the night terrors and I tried the Benadryl and it didn't work at all. He was put on Tenex and it worked great! Also, I have been putting him to sleep earlier and that seemed to work too. No matter how busy you seem to keep them the energy will be there!

Please don't jump to the ADHD conclusion just yet. Kids at 2-3 years old are developing their imagination, and also becoming more active. If she is able to concentrate on learning new tasks or doing puzzles, I wouldn't think she has ADD. As for her high activity level, she's a kid, and honnestly just bing around a 2-6 year old exhausts me. She is at the age where she is going to be more inquisitive, and thus, more active. The nightmare issues, well, I'm not sure what would be causing them, but I used to have bad horribile dreams as a little kid. I think it is just the product of a child having a very vivid and active imagination. At that age, I'm not sure there's any trauma she could have encountered that would cause the night terrors. Maybe she's seeing things on tv that may have scared her. Are they an every night thing, or just sporadically? Maybe keep a journal of your nightly or evening activities and document when she has the night terrors. Then I would take that information to the doctor if it persists. But it could be as simple as seeing something that scared her that day. Maybe if she's had a high stress day, you could read her a fun story or watch a fun show that might help her be calm when she falls asleep. Hope that helps!

I have two children of my own and a stepson with my husband. Only one of them is ADHD and that is my son (from a previous relationship). He was just diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 4 1/2. Like you I started noticing things weren't right when he was about 18 mos., but no doctors would diagnose him because he was too young. From what I have read about your daughter, she may very well have ADHD. My son was very similar to yours. Time outs never worked and it seemed like he had hearing problems. Because he would never listen. If I tried talking to him from a distance, he would not make eye contact with me. He would just look around and never look at me (like he couldn't hear me). So I would actually have to get right in his face and hold his head to look at me and even then his eyes would wonder. My sons main problem is focusing but he also is slightly hyperactive. He could be playing with something and being calm then all of a sudden he would just start screaming and running around like a wild animal out of no where. It was like a light switch was turned on. The only difference from your child is, mine never had the nightmares, so I am sorry I can't be more helpful on that part. Like someone else stated. There is a difference between "normal" 2 year old behavior and those that do have ADHD. Yes, normal 2 year old children are full of energy. But the difference between them and a child the same age with ADHD is a normal 2 year old will eventually wear down and get tired. Where a child with ADHD will not, they seem to have an endless supply of energy that never goes away. I do understand your concerns at such a young age and that you do want to wait until they are older. Fact is most doctors won't even test children for ADHD until they are school age. To me that is a good thing. Those doctors that won't test until they are school age are the doctors that you don't have to worry as much about misdiagnosing them. They understand that not every child has it. Of course all misdiagnosed children is not always the result of poor doctors. You also have the parents who should never be parents that just don't have the patients to deal with thier normal children so they immediately assume the child is ADHD and go find doctors that will test them and stick them on medication. Now I understand that this is not something that you talked about in your discussion, but I wanted to touch on this because you have had responses saying too many children get misdiagnosed. Anyways, the best suggestions I could give you for now is: One, research ADHD/ADD. That way you won't be surprised about anything when your child gets older and you decided to have her tested. There are many statistics that will surprise you and also there are other conditions and learninig disabilities that come with a child having ADHD/ADD. For example: My son who is ADHD also has OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and has a speech delay learning disability. Second suggestion: keep a daily journal of your childs behaviors. That will become helpful in seeing patterns of abnormal behavior. Well, I wish you the best of luck and you are doing the right thing about waiting until your daughter turns school age. I hope everything works out. Best of luck.

I have on child who has ADD and she was diagnosed when she was 4 1/2 and my son was diagnosed with ADHD which was around 4-5 closer to 5. Before you make any decisions about anything you must make sure you have all the information about Adhd/ADD here is a site that you can check out about it. http://www.add-adhd.org/ADD_attention-deficit.html and here is a site that has information on night terrors. www.nightterrors.org Good luck.

I knowing my daughter ran a risk for adhd, recognized the signs immediately. 2 year olds can be pretty crazy. My daughter's first sign was the fact that she stopped taking a nap when she was one year old. The next was that she would only fall asleep if I could get her to lay still, either strapping her into her car seat, or laying with her in bed and telling her to stop moving, every 30 seconds or so. By the time she was 3 both her doctor and I knew, but children have to grow and be children. My daughter now takes meds for her adhd, which I don't like giving her. We tried several diets(certain food allergies or sensitivities can have the same "hyperactive" effect). Off her meds she is a C student, on them she is an A student. Off her meds she only hears about 25 percent of what anyone says and she forgets things within seconds of you saying them(imagine discipline huh?). We have to tilt her chin up, make her look us in the eye and say "Don't touch the dvd player? What did I say?" She knows the process, and repeats it back, then remembers it for awhile. Also very impulsive, which can be scary. Even knowing the difference between right and wrong, she might just look at the yellow line on the road and decide to walk on it. Until she realized what she was doing, but the thought comes AFTER the action. Good luck.