Please help. I think DS has ADHD but he's so young and long wait to see Dr.

[Anonymous]

Hi OP. The pps have really said it all, so I just wanted to add my vote to the consensus that all will be fine. Your child is young and is probably learning so much more than he is able to demonstrate at this moment, especially is ADHD is the diagnosis. Children really have until the end of 2nd grade to get reading down pretty firmly, which leaves your child LOTS of time. So try to relax and don't let your stress make your child feel any more stress than he likely already does. Best wishes to your whole family.

[Anonymous]

Don't be surprised if your regular ped is useless and/ or refers you out for the final diagnosis. They will help us out if we need an occasional refill and we are already there, but otherwise they won't willingly help with the psych meds for the little ones just starting out.
I have two boys w/ ADHD. The youngest was diagnosed under the age of 4 and the older one when he was 6. Both are medicated and would be unable to function in school without it.

[Anonymous]

Regarding the NIH study...How did your child respond to the MRI? Was he/she sedated? I can't imagmine my kid being able to do an MRI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Regarding the NIH study...How did your child respond to the MRI? Was he/she sedated? I can't imagmine my kid being able to do an MRI.

I just posted on the other thread about this. There's no need to sedate/medicate the kids for the MRI. My DS has some sensory issues and we practiced listening to the MRI sounds with headphones. We looked at pictures of the machines (called it the big white donut), talked about it taking pictures of his brain and that while it might be noisy, he would have his ears covered and it definitely would not hurt. He had some initial resistance once we got there but the staff were very patient and when he asked for headphones (in addition to the ear plugs), they scrambled and got him some right away. He was in his PJs and had his favorite teddy/pillow with him, they got him a blanket and he was comfortable. I was also with him the entire time. The first scan was the hardest because there was no video but it wasn't a big deal because it was fairly quick. For the second scan, they set up a video (no audio) and he was quite content. He's now been back for a yearly MRI twice now and he's always happy to go. He can see the brain scans on the computer right there (they really are pretty neat) and they also send us a hard copy.

The staff understand that not everyone will tolerate the MRI and we were surprised at how well DS did. I think the key for us was practicing and talking about it.

[Anonymous]

8:59 again. I just wanted to highlight the importance of the ongoing research the NIH group is doing. They've had some signficiant findings relating to brain differences between people with and without ADHD. There's so much to learn about these disorders and, for us, participating in this kind of research has had minimal costs and multiple benefits - including being in contact with a team with unassailable expertise in ADHD, a thorough evaluation, an report which has been invaluable during the IEP process and contributing to the body of knowledge regarding ADHD. We know our kids have benefitted from willingness of others to participate and given the hereditability of ADHD, we're sure our grandkids will benefit from what our kids are doing.

[Anonymous]

Thanks all for your feedback.

17:58 - thanks for your words of encouragement. It's hard when all I see are 'advanced" kids around mine, but you are right - we have plenty of time. And you raise a good point about me stressing - which stresses my son. I really don't want him picking up those vibes.

18:45 you are right about some regular peds. I talked to my DH last night and we actually both agreed that we don't trust our reg ped for this right now. I'm sure there are great pediatricians that know a lot about it, but we personally don't think ours is up to snuff in this area.

8:59 - we are definitely going to look into the NIH study. It really sounds like a win-win.