Has anyone ever heard of a 3 year old having ADD/ADHD? My daughter is having a hard time right now & it has been suggested to me to consider ADD/ADHD. Any info you can give me is appreciated!

Thanks,
Violet

She MAY have ADHD symptoms.
That doesn't mean she has ADHD or ADD.

Children are in a massive developmental stage for the first 5 years. And this puts them on a roller coaster ride both physically and mentally.
Wasn't it yesterday that she was just a baby? I mean literally yesterday. It is TOO early in her life to consider ADD!

At age 3 I would look to see if she has food allergies, isn't getting enough sleep, isn't getting enough outdoor play, or might even be dehydrated.
Then, when she's in 1st grade you can look again at whether or not she has ADHD if the symptoms still appear.

Very well said, FB.

Yes, I've heard of it. In fact, I've seen it myself,however, not too often. The one or two times I have seen it in 20+ years here it was overwhelmingly apparent. However, that is obviouosly the exception to the rule.

I agree with what FB said . Most clinicians will not go there (and I'm one of them ) unless you have to call Service Master into to clean up the debris afterwards,lol. Even in those cases you encourage second opinions.Those really have not been common in my practice, which is about 80+% ADHD now.It's taken awhile to build up to that but along the way you see lots of kids who look like they have ADHD and really don't. By the same token, you see many many more who actually do.

The best thing to do is try and wait it out; if the parents can. If they can't then we're fortunate here to have some excellent pediatric psychiatrists and a pediatric neurologist to refer to. The main concern here would be for safety issues with the child in terms of being so hyper they might get injured or worse. I believe every therapist I know would require a second opinion from a specialist as a matter of course in such cases. Either way, you do establsih a baseline for symptomatic behavior(s), which is good.

Good question and an excellent response.Thanks.:)

Well i have a 2 1/2 year old boy and live in the uk and the doctors over here are to say the least incapable of diagnosing anything, let alone add or adhd.
It is clear that my son is suffering with ADHD as we are left at the end of every day with the aftermath of world war 3, and are completly drained. now i do not except that this is terrible twos or an allergy to food additives as we have tried this approach along with countless others, when will people that are supposed to be looking after our children in this country going to start to listen and open there eyes to what the parents are telling them. After all dont the parents know our children best.

Please checkout these 3 books when you get a chance........1) Taking Charge of ADHD.......by Russell Barkley 2)The Parents Guide to Attention Deficit Disorder......by Stephen McCarney & Angela Marie Bauer ( Hawthorne Press) and 3) The Out of Sync Child.......by Carol Stock Kranowitz

Good luck and Im glad you're here.:)

Many children do appear to have ADHD, especially early childhood. They are still in their developmental stages and are exploring the world as well. The world can be an exciting place to a child and they simply want to explore and experience it... Look at other young children. How many actually sit still and are quiet for a long period of time? They are unaware of their behavior and have "sudden out bursts" aka impulsivity. Unless the childs' "life events" are being "significantly impacted", (such as grades later on in school, trouble with friends, etc.) I wouldn't worry too much about it.

That was very well said. The key word with diagnosing any age child is "impairment."

Looking at the other side of the coin and I welcome any critisum on this

and what I have to say is very simple

I agree with all the other replys above me and I feel the child will be very lucky weather or not he or she does have ADD or not for a mother who is looking into the posibillity at this age of the child , that mother should be very well informed by the time it is possible to really make an accuarate diagnois , and that mother will probally be able to help the child along in ways many of us here could only have wished we had that type of help and caring.

i do not believe any child under the first grade can be accurately diagnosed with adhd/add. to me the doctors who do diagnose children this young need to have their heads examined. sheesh that's just way too young for such a diagnosis. children need this time to learn, grow, develop in many many different ways to many people out there are in a rush to put kids on meds because of one thing or another. give the kids a chance to be themselves there is nothing more priceless than that. to be ones self.

On the other hand, I realize now if I would of sought treatment for my daughter at an earlier age that there would of been alot less arguing, sleepless nights, hitting, explosive rages, ect.... It would of been a much more enjoyable time, and not remembered as a nightmare!!! I would never wish that upon anyone and if you feel you need help, wether it be meds, natural supp., therapy then do it!!!!

I need to respond to this issue because I think that by generalizing that a child can't be diagnosed until they are in school only results in losing an enormous amount of valuable time. The most formative years, as far as I understand, are up to five years of age and with an early diagnosis there is so much "training" that can be done. It is also such a relief for the parents to know "what" is wrong and to be able to start taking steps to build a better life for their child and themselves.

My son was diagnosed at 3 years of age through a thorough physical and psychological evaluation that took place over months. At that time, we agreed that we didn't want to medicate and worked out a program of individual psychological care for him with me as an observer. That way the psychologist could explain to me where the "perceptual disturbances" were and how the "games" helped to teach, calm, direct my son. He also received physical therapy to help with coordination problems. Lastly, my husband and I joined a parents support group. We also maintained close contact with our pediatrician.

At 4 1/2 we (our pediatrician and ourselves) decided that he needed Ritalin. The process also took months starting with 1/2 tablet and building a 1/2 tablet at a time up. It was like opening a door. We could finally communicate with him.

I have to acknowledge that my son has severe ADHD with ODD and he was clearly different from birth on. For example, at the age of six weeks he slept an average of 5 hours per day and screamed the other 19.

I only know that without the early intervention I don't know what would have become of us. My son is now 14 and remains very difficult, but he has made it in the mainstream school system until this year, and, most importantly, has remained with us. We have always combined medications with therapy and I wouldn't recommend it any other way. Understanding how he ticks enables us to teach him long-term coping strategies. Medications only help him connect, so he can learn the rest.

I guess what I'm trying to say, is that I don't think it's ever too early to start trying to find answers. I'm so thankful that we had such active, informed people to work with. I've heard horror stories about mis-diagnsoses, too. Check out any psychologist and pediatricians thoroughly.

Hope I haven't rambled too much.

Kim

Kim,
That was one of the most impressive posts I've ever read here.

I have a 3 year old that leaves me utterly exhausted by the end of every day. We are aware that ADHD may be present and we are open to having him evaluated at some point.

After a lot of thought on the subject I have decided that my first step will be to have myself and possibly my husband evaluated and, if necessary, treated for our own ADD. Once that is accomplished my plan is to try some ADHD friendly parenting with my son to see if things improve. His teachers have agreed that some of his behavior points toward ADHD although he is usually able to hold things together for the 2 1/2 hours that he is there each day(it's in the morning) We did speak to the pediatrician but since the teacher and dr have differing opinions on where to begin for an evaluation we decided to wait on a formal evaluation for him.

For my personal situation I think the first step in this process must start with me and how I handle situations. I am farly sure that I have ADD and I know that this affects my parenting and how well I am able to assist my son in channeling his energy.

I will be mentioning my son to the Neurologist that I am seeing tomorrow to get his take on things.

I guess the bottom line is that we are keeping our eyes open and plan to try to ease the situation by trying some behaviour modification techniques until we determine that other avenues of treatment might be in his best interest.

Not sure if this really applies to the topic 100% but it's my take on my personal situation.

Hi,all: I'm new and posted to the general parenting board yesterday.
Our son is 3 years, 9 months and is very, very clearly ADHD. In addition to being his mother, I'm also a psychotherapist. I exhausted my colleagues' funds of knowledge (and patience, I'm sure) when we first noticed that Alex was having trouble at about age 2.

Alex has been "different since birth"- he was more alert, more active than his peers, and was the first to crawl, walk, and run. He's been to the ER three times for serious facial injuries he sustained while running full speed ahead into immovable objects (and we were *right there*).

He is also sweet, bright, and nearly perfect (!), but his brain is clearly wired differently. Neither his father nor I have ADHD, though one of his cousins does.

We are currently working on behavior mod with a great therapist, and are struggling with the medication issue. We understand that meds will likely help his hyperactivity but that they may not do much for his aggression.

He will be evaluated by our school district next month so we can obtain (free)
early intervention services. We desperately hope that we can help Alex learn not to bite and hit his peers, and that we can strengthen his overall social skills. It is terribly painful for us to se how much he wants to connect, yet how often his efforts are intrusive and bothersome to his peers.

I'd love to hear how other parents with young ones are doing, and what anybody has found helpful for aggression. Taking Charge of ADHD, The Difficult Child, and Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline have become our new summer reading.


Thanks for the space to vent!

Amy in PA

That was also an excellent post and I wish you and your son well.