ADHD or Not?

Question

My daughter is 5 years old. At school she is ahead of the game, always listens etc etc, shes pretty much perfect.
Her father had ADHD and her half sister,10 ,has ADD. At home my daughter is uncontrolable. She cannot sit still or be quiet for more then 5 minutes at a time, at dinner we ask her to be quiet she says ok and 30 seconds later she is singing to herself again and its like she doesnt even realize she is doing it. She will get in moods atleast 3 or 4 nights a week where she litterally will run all over laughing and yelling and I have to yell at her several times to get her to stop for 1 minute. She gets so engrossed in this mood that she doesnt realize she is bumping into things.
Many other parents who have witnessed her like this have told me her hyperness isnt normal but when I ask her doctor I get told that unless the school speaks up and it interferes there, we cant do anything?? I really dont want to medicate her, I just want to know Im not dilusional.

Frustrated Mom

Answer 1

ADHD is a made up condition brought to you by our government and pharmaceutical companies, so we just keep drugging our children.

Answer 2

Kids are just hyper sometimes (or most of the time for some). It sounds like your only concern is how she behaves at home. I would give her some time, and see if she calms down in a year or two. She probably will. I am very against medicating children unless it is absolutely necessary and other options have failed. I am going through this with my 7-year-old son. He is very smart, and definately has an attention problem--but because of the fact that he doesn't have this problem ALL the time and he is learning and interacting well with other children I refuse to even consider medicating him. This is a sore subject with me, I just think all of this is WAY overdone these days. Kids are playful by nature, and we should just let them be kids. I am not saying there aren't exceptions to the rule...but in general I believe there are far more kids on medication that don't need it, than kids on meds who do. You're her mother, and you know her best so do what you feel is right. Good luck, and I know it's extremely frustrating at times!

Answer 3

If your daughter is doing well in school, try to determine if there is something in your home environment that is disrupting her moods and concentration before you look at ADHD. Even if your daughter does not have ADHD, her behavior will probably mimic those of numerous ADD/ADHD patients, simply because this is a condition that is over diagnosed, one of the reasons being that there is a huge market in ADD/ADHD medication.

You are right to avoid medication at this stage. Before medicating, a reasonable psychiatrist would try to remedy any environmental disturbances and work on behavior modifications. To tell you the truth, environmental and behavioral therapy is what really helps the condition; the medication isn't magic, nor is it a cure.

Answer 4

To me this sounds normal. She may need more time playing outside to tire her out. She sits nicely at school and needs to burn off some energy. When she acts up try the 1-2-3- method. Tell her calmly that she need to calm down, you are going to count to 3 and when you get to 3 she has to calm down or go to her room or another designated area. When you get to 3 and she hasn't calmed down, calmly take her by the hand or pick her up if she is kicking and screaming and take her to the designated area and let her stay there for 5 minutes. Eventually this will work. You should also record whats she eats and the time and dates that she is behaving this way. Excitement, food and lack of exercise can all trigger this type of behavior. Hopefully you can help her control this behavior. Just remember to be calm and have patience. Good luck.

Answer 5

ADD and ADHD can not be turned off and on.

You mentioned half sister...she could be doing this for attention.

My daughter who is 8 now, used to act up when her older sister started school (4 years ago). She thought that was special attention. So to get her share, she would act up. Bad attention was better than no attention.

To get her to stop, we started pointing out all of the good things she did and praise her for them, even if it was putting on her own clothes. Eventually, she stopped acting up and calmed down.

At school, does she always try to answer the teacher when she asks a question? Is she always helping out? If yes, she is craving attention. To help her get the attention she craves, sign her up for dance classes or gymnastics. This will give her the 'spot light' that she needs to shine in.

Answer 6

It never ceases to amaze me the number of people who can read a short description and diagnose someone elses problem. I disagree with your dr. who I assume is a family doc or pediatrician. I also cannot guess from your description if your daughter has ADHD or some other neurological or behavioral disorder. I would recommend a 2nd opinion from a mental health professional who deals with children's behavior. You are blessed that she is successful in school, but you are also deserving of a peaceful home life, some suggestions are good, (especially limits, positive and negative consequences and structure), but if these don't work, do seek professional help.

Answer 7

consistent with what you tell, sure, sounds very very such as ADHD. Caffeine has been basic to calm ADHD. So, it does no longer have the comparable consequence on you as others would think of. "regularly occurring" human beings drink coffee to get a pep of capability, in spite of the incontrovertible fact that it has a opposite consequence on a individual with ADHD. could desire to envision a e book referred to as "Adventures in rapid forward." that's no longer a thick e book, yet could have some issues in there. There are additionally maximum of alternative great books on the subject remember. examine the table of Contents to verify what sounds exciting. The e book I reported could be too previous for a sixteen year previous.

Answer 8

I'm sure it's not adhd. I've taken my son (who's now 6) to several psychologists for certain behavior problems. They ALL said that if they can control themselves when you're not around, then it's basically a problem with parenting & discipline and NOT Adhd or add. Family counseling is probably in order.

Answer 9

If she can behave some of the time, particularly at school it is NOT ADHD. It is another behavioural problem. ADHD can not be turned on and off.

Get a referral to a child psychologist or therapist and get to the bottom of this. You may find it is as simple as changing how you parent or it could be some other problem. But it is NOT ADHD.

Answer 10

I have a suggestion for you, I know alot of people do not like having schedules but this worked for me with 3 children with ADD, I have a schedule of what needs to be done before bed time, like clean there bedrooms, picking up toys, helping with the dishes, homework, dusting, just little things that will keep them occupied, that is what you need to do, and then ask them what they want as a reward at the end of the week for being so good and helpfull, this is one suggestion I am sure there are many other ones out there, but keeping them occupied is the key here.

Answer 11

If she is always listening at school and acting so picture perfect in a controlled setting, then I doubt she is ADHD. ADHD stands for attention deficit disorder with hyperactivitiy. Even if your daughter is hyper, it doesn't mean she has ADD or ADHD.