Hi, my little girl is ADHD and is 3 years old. Her pediatrician thought she was at age 1 but adjusted what she ate and drank. No more foods with red or yellow dye in it and such. We lived that way until she turned 3 and the pediatrician sent us to a psychiatrist and from there we saw 4 more psychiatrist for more opinions. All came to the same conclusion. ADHD!! She will be 4 in June and she is on Adderall and Clonidine. It has helped greatly. Good luck and get more than one opinion.
Kristi
ANYONE HAVE A CHILD THAT HAS ADHD MIXED TYPE?
mine is combined type but for the most part we have ours under control. ... some occasions not... I think sleeping patterns and nutritional habits can play havic if not maintained
My son was just barely 4 when we went to the doctor/psychiatrist who specializes in ad/hd with children. He started our son on Foaclin XR 5 mg. We have been very succesful on this and he is now 5. My son was a hitter,name caller, hyper active etc... we have very little if any of that now. Still have some issues but for the most part they are under control.
The doctor also had us look into a glucose tolerance test. This test took 6 hours and we drew blood every hour after fasting. We learned that he had reactive hypoglycemia( sugar levels drop after eating certain types of foods) . We were told that this can also contribute to some of the above symptons.
Our doctor believes in the whole picture not just meds. He had us work with a nutritionist and recommended play therapy. We were one ahead on therapy as we started with play therapy before seeing the doctor.
Sidenote: I got to observe my son at soccer Saturday. He was a totally different kid than just a year ago. He was one of the best behaved children and listened very well to his coach. This was our first time for soccer. We tried last year before meds and he wanted nothing to do with it and he was all over the place.
What certain foods was that? We can't get ryan to eat right. It is like pulling teeth. I give him vitamins. He eats oatmeal, poptarts, waffles, pancakes, turkey hotdogs, lean hamberger (trying to get away from mcDonald's happy meal), he loves those. He likes spagetti, chicken nuggets, spinage occasionally. Won't eat salads. Or raw carrots, broccoli. He will try a few green beans. He is a picky eater and can't have cow's milk. Neither can his dad. I can. We have had therapies with him since he was 2. Update on that is he is not cooperating with physical therapist since december. Just found that out yesterday. He did not listen yesterday afternoon (hyper seems to kick in then) at school, so he ends up being rude and not listening, not taking a nap when he is suppose to, hitting and yelling. (But if I was to give him all his risperdal, clonidine and depakote he calms down and turns back into the loving, huggy, sweet child) but he can't fall asleep at school. He has to learn. With his fits he throws then gets taken out of class = he is not learning. We have an I.E.P meeting in April and NONE of his therapies will be cut back, plus we need to add some saftey guards in there with the anger that erupts from the Bipolar part I guess. We are so frustrated. I even dream about helping the child, but helpless because I'm not the doctor.
Poor kid at 5 1/2 can't jump off a 1 foot block. He reaches out for me to hold his hand, then jump. I tried and tried to coax him. He is physically not like a 5 yr old. He still flip flops with ankles and arms when running. His therapy at school is not very good....................
I guess it is combined type. The Psychiatrist used the work mixed type. So what does that exactly mean????????????????? That he is not hyper all the time?
I actually think that it means that they have both the attention/focus issues and the hyperactivity. Some children have the hyperactivity only, but do well academically, and some children (like mine) have no real hyperactivity issues (beyond the fidgeting), but have real problems with focus and attention.
I am sorry that you are having these problems. Is he not eating enough, or are you concerned that he is not eating enough variety? If he is not eating enough (losing weight, etc.) there are appetite stimulants that are relatively benign....periactin is the one my son takes, and he has no side effects from it other than the fact that if he gets a cold, I cannot give him over the counter meds w/o okaying it with the doctor first for interactions. He takes 4mg in the morning and 4 mg in the evening, and he now has a much better appetite.
If it is the variety you are concerned with, I would not be too worried. At his age, pickiness is normal. My son was much more picky at that age than he is now. Just try to continue offering new foods to him regularly, and know that it takes 10 or more times of trying a food before a child's taste buds will become accustomed to it. It took me literally months to get Chase to eat more than one bite of ANY pasta dish. Now he devours it, but only after months of gradually increasing the amounts he was expected to eat.
The Risperdal is making him gain weight. Has a pretty good belly on him. The Ritilan and Adderall made his behavior worse and made him not eat. Two months on Ritilan until we found that it was WRONG for him. He barely ate and made me sick to see him not eat. It is more like too much junk then like an apple, etc.