I Need Help ,My Daughter I Believe Was Mis-diagnosed with Adhd,shes Out of Cont

Have you talked to the psychologist about trying bi-polar meds with her. I have a cousin who's child has both adhd and bi-polar and he is now doing wonderfully on meds for both. Keep trying new meds and go to a different doctor if things aren't working. You are doing a wonderful thing for her.

M. K

Hi D.,

Have you considered a holistic doctor? My daughter goes to one. She has a lot of allergies the doctor does NAET treatments and several allergies have cleared up. I had found out about her through a work associate who's son had autism. He also could not have any gluten or dairy as it would make his symptoms worse. He went to the same holistic doctor and she treated him for the allergies to gluten and dairy etc. Now he can eat any food he wants and is fine with it.

Also, they can help with medicine (if it is needed) to get dosages correct, etc. If you google on NAET doctors, I think you'd be able to find the NAET website that lists them.

Best wishes,
C.

I have heard great things about changing a child's diet to help deal with hyperactivity. I also think structured activities help. I mainly wanted to give you my support and let you know that I think it's really great that you are taking care of your grandchild, and to offer my sympathy for the passing of your daughter. I can only imagine that that is a pain that never goes away. I really hope you find a solution for you and your girl. I'm glad that there are women like you around and I only hope that if anything ever happened to me that my daughter would have such a caring individual to look after her.

D.

I know how frustrated you must be but I encourage you to work with the Psychiatrist until you find the right medicine for her. I went through a similar situation with my son. I adopted him from Ukraine when he was 5 years old. It took several medicines before we found the right combination but things are much better than when we started. He has severe anger and attachment issues as well as ADHD.

I hope this helps,

C.

Hello D.,
First my hat is off to you for understanding her issues based on her life experiences and for thinking she is misdiagnosed. My son was diagnosed with ADD and the psychiatrist wanted to put him on meds at age 5 but I refused. Two years later, we have the right diagnosis which is autism spectrum - Asperger's.
What my understanding is from my research is that if the child actually HAS ADHD or ADD and the medications DO NOT WORK, then the diagnosis is incorrect.
Medications have so many side effects and create additional problems. Of course they have their place but it sounds to me like they are trying to medicate away her problems which are probably more in line with attachment disorder or even reactive attachment disorder.
I would like to suggest that you take a look at this website and see if any of the characteristics are like hers or not. It may not be the case but I bet it is partially due to her great losses.
www.attach.org
and
http://www.nancythomasparenting.com/
I would also recommend that you see if you can get her into some regular counseling. There are probably some groups for children whose parents have died. I imagine a lot of what she is experiencing is a normal response to her incredible loss. You can also try your church if you have one for resources. Ask the school if they have a counselor or other recommendations too. You might also contact the state social services or children's services to see about services. If you are her guardian now then I think you should qualify for services for her. I would take her off all the medications. You also may want to consider a naturopath or supplements for her. DHA and echinacea may really help..... There are also DAN doctors who can probably help with the physical issues. They are autism doctors but if she is out of control in the same ways she could probably benefit esp given the immune issues. You can also try diet changes. Lots of kids benefit from reduction or elimination of dairy and gluten (in things like breads). You can also try to eliminate food dyes. I found out that my son's issues of hyperactivity were really a reaction to red dye. It isn't that hard to eliminate that but I would stronly encourage you to start with red and reduction of other food dyes.
I wish you only the best. Feel free to email me privately for more info or support. My email is ____@____.com is the link to symptoms of reactive attachment disorder. http://www.nancythomasparenting.com/rad.htm
L.

Hi D..
Your whole situation seems very frustrating right now. I wish I could help you more. However, what I can do is to HIGHLY encourage you to look into a particular specific technique in chiropractic called upper cervical care. The results with children, specifically with the conditions you have listed above, are awesome! My husband and I are upper cervical chiropractors - and we see people in your situation all the time. I want to tell you that my heart goes out to you because the patience and love it requires to be a mom when these types of things occur is outstanding.
Here are some good websites:
www.erinelster.com
www.upcspine.com
Our website is www.familyfirsthealthcenter.com
Please call me directly if you have any questions.
J.

Dear D. ,

I only have a moment but wanted to let you know about a book that may help you find some answers and direction. (I know--another book recommendation-grrr) I am in the middle of my copy at this moment and am implementing alot of the recommended changes and seeing alot of improvements already.
The book is:
Healing the New Childhood Epidemics
Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies
by Kenneth Bock, MD and Cameron Stauth

Best Regards

Well, I don't want to do anything but help here, but I came from a bipolar family. All the firstborn from my father's side. However, my daughter has it on both sides, and she is was my first. So, she got a double whammy. So, I am a carrier, and her father was full blown bipolar. VERY MANIC!!! AND IMPULSIVE! Dharma was very hard to figure out as a young child. She cried all of the time and couldn't ever seem to be pacified. She had fits, and was VERY HYPER. Seems that once she started school and had more of a constructive schedule, she got a lot better. BIPOLARS THRIVE ON STRUCTURE, this is the best way to help them function. Pills I would say or meds of any kind other than herbal (and I would be leary of this too)
are not necessarily the way to go with juvenile onset bipolar.
Behavior modification techniques are a wonderful way. I don't know what kind of access you have to healthcare but we really don't, so we have been working with our daughter ourselves. Redirecting her though patterns. When she starts getting "freaky" as I call it, I tell her to calm down and think about what she is trying to say, I force her to calm down and take a minute, this is where most bipolar people have their problems, they just can't slow down, they are operating on a much higher frequency than the rest of us. And to slow down, is almost painful, but very necessary, if they are going to function in the mainstream. Most times bipolar kids and adults are extremely intelligent. Which is wonderful, but they need to have ways to cope and get their points across. Obviously you have internet, go on sites for juvenile or adolescent bipolar and you will probably find quizzes to give you a clue in to if this is what is wrong. And then if you can get her evaluated
you might be able to get her qualified for all kinds of services. Believe me if you can get help or find support groups it would be very helpful. Sometimes you just don't know how to handle this illness on your own. Getting support and lots of information is always helpful!!!
Best of luck!
N.

I understand how you feel. My son was just diagnosed with adhd as well and he is also 4. The first medication they gave him was horrible and it seemed to make him worse as it did in your daughter. The second one seemed to help a little better, however, now it seems to almost not have any effect. To help assist you though, I found out by trial and error that my son has an allergy to red dye that most children with some form of add or adhd do and let me tell you that was a godsend because he also had anger issues and was very destructive and we found out this was most of the cause.

You wouldn't think something so trivial as red dye would have such an impact on a child but it sure does. Not long after having it he would be so wound up and every little thing would throw him into a fit, sometimes it would be a fit of rage and destruction combined.

Now by my trial and error, I read on the internet, to take them off all the bad foods and give them only foods that come from nature for about 2 weeks. After that two weeks, slowly add in processed food and food with dyes. I didn't completely take him off everything as they suggested but I did take everything with red dye out and then one day, I gave him a strawberry yogurt. It only took about 30 minutes after for me to realize that this was the major source of his problem. Now don't get me wrong, this is not a cure by any means because he is still extremely hyper, however, we don't have quite the anger and destruction issues we had before. The fits and the temper tantrums have decreased alot compared to what they were before.

My child's father was diagnosed with adhd as a child and as an adult, he also it bi-polar and obsessive compulsive. Doctors will tell you 2 out of 3 of these aren't necessarily genetic and don't have much to do with your child's condition, however, you being in almost the same situation as I know firsthand that it probably does.

Anyhow, good luck to you and hopefully you will find that while it may not be a red dye allergy that's affecting your child, it may be some sort of food allergy you're not aware of.

I wish you all the best.

Look into the Feingold program. www.feingold.org. It is a special diet that removes certain manufactured and some natural ingredients from their diet. Once they have been on the diet for a few weeks you can slowly introduce 1 item at a time to see if they have a negative reaction to it. My son is 5 and I sure if we had him tested he would be ADHD. The problem with a shrink is that they only test the mind, not the entire child. If you get a chance do some research on the Feingold program. Some foods that are good for you like apples have certain natural chemicals that have adverse effects on us. We are getting ready to start out son on it after Thanksgiving. My aunt used it on her son who is now in his 20's with great success. Good luck!!

Your child does not have adhd. If the meds she is taking have that effect, then it is not adhd. adhd meds are supposedto do the opposite than hyper. but will have the effect of being hyper if she does not have adhd and is taking them. I had my son completely evaluated when his teachers kept telling me he had adhd. You are aloud to have a second opinion. I took my son to rockford hospital system. At the hospital there is an office, specified for children and early development. contact me and perhaps i can help you better, i have a lot of information that I can give to you, ok. ____@____.com

Hi D.. My heart goes out to you and your grand daughter. I live in Rock Falls and if you need some babysitting in the evenings or the weekends pleez let me know as I would be happy to spend some unbiased non-judgemental quality time with your precious girl. I have a 3 year old myself and just finished the CNA program at the local college. My personal opinion is that the doctors are wrong and she is just feeling way too much for a little girl to have to feel right now. If you need a break I would be very glad to help out, for free, and I will feed her too! May God Bless this child, she is in my prayers now.

Hi D.,
I agree with a number of people who have responded. ADHD med. are SUPPOSE to calm the child, if in fact the child is ADHD. Sad to say most the Rx's on the market make the children zombie like at times. Many people with bi polar are misdiagnosed as having ADD/ADHD or a number of other mental issues. It is very hard to tell at such a young age what her exact "problem" is to be labeled. Maybe some family counseling would help, at the very least for your grand daughter. Its hard for adults to explain their feelings sometimes and its even harder for childern who dont fully understand what has happened or whats going on with their lives. Bi polars do need structure and anything that messes up their routine can & will trigger a high or a low. My husband and his son are bi polar (so is his Ex wife). I have 2 young daughters and I watch for signs all the time. Your best bet is educating yourself on bi polar, ADHD, and anything else you might think could be wrong. Diet of course is a big issue as well. Red & Yellow dye, MSG and such are major triggers for a host of health issues. Good luck with this and keep us posted on what you find out. God bless you for raising your grand baby, so sorry about your loss as well.
T.(Rockford, Il)35 yrs mom of 2 girls ages 7 & 9

I would be very careful, subscribing to the idea of ADHD, if it makes her hyper, that is a big signal that she is not ADHD, look into PTSD-- post traumatic stress disorder secondary to, ODD oppositional defiant disorder. bipolar is not dignosed intil much later in life. Handle it now, it will only get worse, intensive specialized behavior therapy, maybe at Wash U, i heard they are very good, I am ADD (truely) and have 2 children with ADHD, diagnosed with brain scans. it runs in my family. they are not medicated, I am. I was diagnosed 2 years ago. and the meds changed my life. I have done extensive research on medicating kids and personally i have found behavior therapy helps the most.
good luck

My sister's daughter (my neice, 4 now 5) is said also to have adhd, but her doctors explained to my sister that its best for her not to be medicated until she is regularly in situations where she needs to pay attention and sit still and concentrate, example: kindergarten. So, they told her to wait until she starts school and see if she does okay without meds. Perhaps your daughter doesn;t need meds and there is some other problem? Have you sought second opinions?

D., I am an R.N. and adhd is commonly misdiagnosed. first off all any reputable phychiatrist would not diagnosed a child at 4. It usually takes until they are 7 and have reached the age of reasoning. also they evaluate school progress. How can you do that at 4?
Really educate yourself. ADHD is where a childs mind goes faster than average and their activity threshold constantly tries to keep up with their mind causing them to be hyper
These children are usually more intelligent than the average person. their mind just runs tooo fast. what the medication does is bring the activity threshold up so the body isn't constantly trying to keep up with their mind. If they do not have ADHD the medication raises the threshold too high and causes them to be hyper. I wish i could draw you a graft. in adhd the threshold is low and mind high and the medication brings the threshold up to the mind... in children without it the mind and threshold are equal. so the medication raises the threshold higher and causes hyperactivity as the body tries to to try to equal them out.
maybe rules and guidlines are all you need and alot of consistantcy! Do not give in because you feel sorry for her loosing her mother or want to spoil her because you miss your daughter.. I am not being critical. It must be very hard what you are going through. Grandparents ready to retire, loosing a child and having to go backwards and become parents again at an older age. but you will do her no favors in the future by letting her have poor behavior or spoiling her. She will only have worse problems in the future.(tough love)
She is probably having emotions she does not understand and the only way she knows to behave is to "act out" because she knows no other outlet! Also don't be surprised if she starts to regress and wetting herself or sucking her thumb and stuff like that it is common in children going through emotional drama. the regress to a "safe" time.
Also, just an educated opinion, look for another child pyschologist!. Psychiatrist prescribe medication. pyschologist give therapy and can not give scripts. psychiatrist tend to want to hand out meds to everyone. and make sure their specialty is young children.
Hope this helps,
Becky, R.N.33y.o. single(divorced) mother of 4-- 14g,12g,6b, and 2g.