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At 3 months he started screaming and crying a lot for no reason and his temperament continued on like this for years and years. He would bang his head, had communication issues etc. He is adhd with sensory & anxiety issues.

 

I didn't know he was adhd until 8. My ds also has a photographic memory and could fake it. So he fooled me for a long time.

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I knew something was strange about my daughter when I was pregnant with her. She was super active all the time and never stopped moving. They always had a hard time getting a heartbeat tracing on her. She was awake all the time as a baby, hardly slept and never stopped running once she started walking at age 9.5 months. She was diagnosed at age 3.

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Baby - Fully "on" or asleep, little in between (quiet alert didn't exist for him).

 

Toddler - NO fear, never any sign whatsoever of shyness, zero separation anxiety ever. I had no idea what that term even meant (ADHD child was my first). He would take off running and never ever look back or see where mom/dad was. He didn't care.

 

By late 2s and early 3s, we had very definite feelings he was different somehow and started reading up on "The Spirited Child," strong willed books, on and on. Pediatrician agreed and by 3 was bringing up possible ADHD (not saying meds but saying she suspected he was a bit different and to read up). By mid 3 we were looking into Feingold, fish oil and other supplements. As other kids left the pushing, shoving, biting stage and were becoming more civilized, mine definitely was not.

 

As the years went by, the social gap between my ADHDer and his peers was marked. Academically, my kid was average to well above. Socially, he did and still does operate at a level approximately 3 years younger than chronological age (he is 9-1/2 now). When other preschoolers gained attention span, focus, self-control and awareness of others' needs, feelings and property ... mine just did not no matter how I worked at it with him. That was my biggest sign early on. I was told later by two doctors that the lack of separation anxiety (ZERO signs) is a possible early marker for some diagnoses. Be clear here, I'm not saying if your kid didn't have separation anxiety then he/she has this or that. But two separate people told me they are seeing some data of a strong correlation between the two (ADHD and the separation/"where is mommy" radar toddlers have).

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Baby - Fully "on" or asleep, little in between (quiet alert didn't exist for him).

 

Toddler - NO fear, never any sign whatsoever of shyness, zero separation anxiety ever. I had no idea what that term even meant (ADHD child was my first). He would take off running and never ever look back or see where mom/dad was. He didn't care.

 

By late 2s and early 3s, we had very definite feelings he was different somehow and started reading up on "The Spirited Child," strong willed books, on and on. Pediatrician agreed and by 3 was bringing up possible ADHD (not saying meds but saying she suspected he was a bit different and to read up). By mid 3 we were looking into Feingold, fish oil and other supplements. As other kids left the pushing, shoving, biting stage and were becoming more civilized, mine definitely was not.

 

As the years went by, the social gap between my ADHDer and his peers was marked. Academically, my kid was average to well above. Socially, he did and still does operate at a level approximately 3 years younger than chronological age (he is 9-1/2 now). When other preschoolers gained attention span, focus, self-control and awareness of others' needs, feelings and property ... mine just did not no matter how I worked at it with him. That was my biggest sign early on. I was told later by two doctors that the lack of separation anxiety (ZERO signs) is a possible early marker for some diagnoses. Be clear here, I'm not saying if your kid didn't have separation anxiety then he/she has this or that. But two separate people told me they are seeing some data of a strong correlation between the two (ADHD and the separation/"where is mommy" radar toddlers have).

 

Yep, he was either asleep or going, going, going. My ds did have separation issues with me, but remember he has the sensory/anxiety component. I was the person who was able to manage his issues best so I was his safe place. When I left him even with dh he would have meltdowns.

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My ADHD son didn't join us until he was he was two, but we knew right away there was something going on. Like others said he was nonstop or asleep. He couldn't focus on any one item/toy/game for more than a minute and then was on to find something else. He had zero impulse control. It is weird to watch because sometimes you could actually see that his body is moving faster than his brain. He was diagnosed at three.

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I knew at 3 months something was "wrong" with ds. He would not make eye contact or coo/smile at you very much. He would smile but generally it was to things like the bar on his swing. He did eventually start smiling etc but later than that. You used to be able to bang pots right by him and he wouldn't even blink let alone startle. He was in his own little world. He started smiling and cooing etc so then everyone but me thought he was fine. Then at 6 months he started smearing and eating feces, and head banging. By 18 months he would climb out of his crib, flip the dead bolt and be gone in the middle of the night. Age 5 he was climbing out windows on to the roof, running away to ride elevators etc.

 

He knew the north end of our city better at age 5 than I did because he would wander for ages and then show up of course after I had the police etc out searching for him. Age 5 the school deemed him unteachable. HE spent his 6th birthday in the chlidren's mental ward of the hospital.

 

We have always known he was "off" right fromt eh start, other than adhd though it has been hard to pinpoint specifically what it is because when a behviour would show up I would work hard training him out of it and then the next would show up etc.

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My son walked at 7 months and ran at 9. At 5 months he crawled up a bookshelf and pulled himself and a large heavy object down. I was 6 feet away and couldn't get there quickly enough.

 

At about 18 months he picked a locked medicine cabinet at 5am and drank nail polish remover. He woke me up to tell me that it "tastes baaad!"

 

At age 2 I turned away from him in the back yard of our triplex to answer a neighbour's question across the fence and (with 4 adults in the yard) he managed to climb up to the outside of the 3rd floor balcony and hang by one arm.

 

At 2.5 he figured out how to unlock his bedroom window and remove the screen and I found him running naked as a jaybird around the back yard at 10pm. We had to nail the window shut.

 

In all of these instances I was nearby and on high alert. He was not being ignored and we were very, very watchful of him!

 

Yep, I had some inkling that he was a little different....espceially since I'd been working in daycare for 10 years at that point and had never met a kid as active. :)

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Okay, I had to nod as I read some of these. My ADHDer has been in the ER multiple times for accidents. They too asked at one point if he had ADHD. We said we suspected it, and they nodded and said, "We see a lot of ADHD kids here frequently." :D

 

:lol::iagree: Nice to "meet" parents with similar kids.....until my son was a teenager we'd never met any others in real life.

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My son walked at 7 months and ran at 9. At 5 months he crawled up a bookshelf and pulled himself and a large heavy object down. I was 6 feet away and couldn't get there quickly enough.

 

At about 18 months he picked a locked medicine cabinet at 5am and drank nail polish remover. He woke me up to tell me that it "tastes baaad!"

 

At age 2 I turned away from him in the back yard of our triplex to answer a neighbour's question across the fence and (with 4 adults in the yard) he managed to climb up to the outside of the 3rd floor balcony and hang by one arm.

 

At 2.5 he figured out how to unlock his bedroom window and remove the screen and I found him running naked as a jaybird around the back yard at 10pm. We had to nail the window shut.

 

In all of these instances I was nearby and on high alert. He was not being ignored and we were very, very watchful of him!

 

Yep, I had some inkling that he was a little different....espceially since I'd been working in daycare for 10 years at that point and had never met a kid as active. :)

 

:iagree: This was us too. It got to the point that I had his window nailed shut and locked us both int he bedroom with him tied to me with a skipping rope. Being the houdini that he was that didn't stop him. Eventually I had to get a letter from the ped saying to lock him in his room at night and I slept in the hallway outside of it (I was paranoid of an emergency and him being trapped).

 

I would sit down to potty, door wide open trying to watch him while I went and he would be gone in no time.

 

The one time he was about 5 yrs old, he climbed out his window (it was before it got nailed shut) totally nekkid and walked across the overhanging roof part that both sides shared (we were in a side by side duplex) and then climbed into the neighbor's open window. She was falling asleep (it was 10 pm). Nothing like your doorbell ringing at 10pm with your neighbor holding your 5 yr old wrapped in a towel to say he climbed out and then in a 2nd floor window.

 

Oh and of course the time I was tidying up the livingroom after putting the kids to bed to see said son (still 5) jump off that roof that was under the 2nd floor window, and take off running. That was the incident that led me to nail shut his window (of course it didn't stop him much from going out dd's window during the day if I turned my back for 1 second)

 

He has been a going concern since the day he was born.

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The neat thing about him now, at 19, is that he has a lot more impulse control and is very, very watchful of his siblings! And he can keep up with the preschooler. :)

 

That is good news! My son's impulse control issues are better, but he has a cautiousness related to anxiety. I think his anxiety has helped him. We are treating for adhd with meds and it has helped with the anxiety, too. He was so anxious about his adhd limitations. In the future we may need to medicate for anxiety.

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I knew something was strange about my daughter when I was pregnant with her. She was super active all the time and never stopped moving. They always had a hard time getting a heartbeat tracing on her. She was awake all the time as a baby, hardly slept and never stopped running once she started walking at age 9.5 months. She was diagnosed at age 3.

 

Same for me, only my daughter was diagnosed at 4.

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I knew something was strange about my daughter when I was pregnant with her. She was super active all the time and never stopped moving. They always had a hard time getting a heartbeat tracing on her. She was awake all the time as a baby, hardly slept and never stopped running once she started walking at age 9.5 months. She was diagnosed at age 3.

 

:iagree: Same here with ds. Dh was an ADHD kid too and so is his nephew so we knew we could be dealing with this and were more watchful for it.

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It was funny because the twins were my only kids, so I thought all toddlers were super escape artists and didn't have impulse control. I thought every parent had to "fort knox" their house to keep their kids safe. Mine could outsmart every baby lock or gate on the market so we had to get creative to keep them inside the house.

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ummm don't want to turn it into a "vaccine" post---but right after he received a group of vaccinations (can't remember which) but right after that I could tell something had changed. My ds also has asperger's which depending on which description you look at is considered mild autism....was it related to the vaccines? no idea--that's just when I noticed a change.....it was subtle but I remember thinking what's wrong with my child....

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My adhd kid was my most active one before birth. Several sonographers commented on active she was. After birth, she was intense. She cried a lot and wouldn't sleep unless she was touching someone. I wouldn't leave her with a babysitter, because I was afraid of someone hurting her. We couldn't leave her out of our sight until she was about five because we didn't know what she'd do or get into. As a toddler and preschooler, she didn't really play with her toys; she just left a trail of destruction behind her. She also wouldn't listen to books being read to her. Those were some rough years for the whole family!

 

In addition to ADHD, she has SPD, APD, and dyslexia, so I don't know how her intensity compares to a kid with just ADHD.

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Thanks so much for all the replies so far! A lot of your descriptions sound awfully familiar...

 

My 3.5yo has been a non-stop challenge since birth. I've been wavering back and forth between 'he's just an intense kid' and 'okay, there's SOMETHING WRONG here' a lot.

 

Would love to hear more from anyone with an ADHD kid!

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Thanks so much for all the replies so far! A lot of your descriptions sound awfully familiar...

 

My 3.5yo has been a non-stop challenge since birth. I've been wavering back and forth between 'he's just an intense kid' and 'okay, there's SOMETHING WRONG here' a lot.

 

Would love to hear more from anyone with an ADHD kid!

 

I had a friend who kept telling me that it would get better when dd was 5 yo, and one day when she was 5, I realized that she really was much easier. It's helpful that dd wants to please her dad and me; she doesn't have ODD as many ADD kids do. So once she was able to reason, it was easier to reign in her behavior. She's still our loudest, most intense child, but she's a dream compared to the early years.

 

One thing that helps is lots of physical activity. Dd plays piano and does Irish dancing; those activities help channel her energy.

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I had a friend who kept telling me that it would get better when dd was 5 yo, and one day when she was 5, I realized that she really was much easier. It's helpful that dd wants to please her dad and me; she doesn't have ODD as many ADD kids do. So once she was able to reason, it was easier to reign in her behavior. She's still our loudest, most intense child, but she's a dream compared to the early years.

 

One thing that helps is lots of physical activity. Dd plays piano and does Irish dancing; those activities help channel her energy.

 

Thank you! I truly hope it does get a bit easier!

 

I'm starting to brainstorm ways to help him channel all that energy. He's so much easier to be with after you really run him ragged!

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