Hi,
I am new here and looking for opinions from others in the trenches.....not my wellmeaning relatives (a great number of whom are medical professionals)
My 3 1/2 yr old son has been a go-getter from the start....crawled at 4 months and never looked back. Talked early and exceptionally well...his reasoning abilities are amazing....the kiddo is smart and uses it to his advantage. He Has always been strong willed....ready to go to battle over everything...If I tell him not to touch it he will do it to spite me and see how far he can push it. HE is not defiant all the time, but when he doesn't want to do something.....oh my! LOL
He is my sweet loving imaginative boy.....but we have some issues going that have finally come to a head and led me to seek a diagnosis....so here I go and I may jump around....I'm sleep deprived and depressed myself!!
He does not sleep....that was our biggest problem. He's always been busy....never sits still, no impulse control, no concern for safety...If he can jump off it he will. He squirms like he's about to wet his pants when he has to sit down. Then the not sleeping got bad...really bad...I put him to bed at 8 and he is still awake at 11, 12, 1am. He is up and down all night and will even go so far as to leave the house and go outside to play at 3 am....that is un-nerving! He gets up and raids the pantry or will wake up his 2 yr old sister in the middle of the night to play.
He cycles from being calm, quiet loving to running laps around my house jumping off furniture and tackling his sister. Then he will be sullen sitting in the corner and scowling. If we ask him what is wrong he will say "Please leave me alone" and turn his back on us. He will stay like that or even leave the room to sit grumpily by himself in a room on the other side of the house and if we ask why he's upset it is usually "because sister looked at me" Etc, etc. that will last for an hour or so and then he's up and playing like normal. Sometimes he goes off about how an object is dumb or stupid. For example he might say he has the dumbest car seat, he hates his car seat, it's the dumbest seat I want my old seat back. He has imaginary friends that are "his Kids" five of them...two sons and a daughter....not sure what the other two are supposed to be! LOL He one day told me that we was tired of his "old son" and he was going to kill him...he has told me before that I am "the stupidest mommy and he hates me" these horrible, hateful things come out of his mouth and then he's back to my sweet momma's boy. it's heartbreaking and scary at the same time
Did I mention he does not do change? LOL we got a new dining room table and he cried about it for a week...refused to eat at the new table and wanted the old one back.
He had normal seperation anxiety when being left at nursery, etc at about 4 months and never out grew it...he crys and throws a fit when ever I leave him somewhere. HE is fine after a bit, but I always have to peel him off me and run for cover!
Tags on clothing and seams on socks make him crazy....to the point of me having to pull over on the side of the road and take his pants and undies off just to get home in peace because he is having a melt down over the tag on his undies.
The bad mood and tantrums might be several times a day or might be several times a week. I never know what to expect.
Some days we can pick up the toys from the floor and clean no problem, some days he informs me "you do it" or "I don't know how...I don't know how long it will take" and he will cry and not do it...I have tried changing my discipline methods....rewards often don't work...he will tell me he doesn't need a cookie or a candy or a sticker, etc punishments and consequences don't work because he will just say "Ok, that's fine"
I know he's only 3, and 3 year olds are hard and defiant, and hyper....but He is outside of the normal range!
Pediatrician diagnosed ADHD originally... tried Melatonin for sleep and that worked great for a few weeks then quit all of a sudden. Also ADHD medication....can't think of name right now. He reacted badly to the medications....severe anger and mood swings. So now Dr says he feels it is bipolar (I have a strong family history of depression and my grandfather is manic and so is his mom). He wants to start Rispiridone and I don't yet....I want to try addressing the sleep issue first and seperately to see how that affects him....remove any possible environmental factors and other possibilities and be sure before just jumping in and medicating him.
We have an appointment with a specialist but not until Dec. 9. I want to at least talk to her first before starting medications...
So I guess what I am getting at is....am I right in wanting to wait or am I just in denial? OR am I reading too much in to his behavior and trying to make the horrible 3's into something more?? We had a follow up appointment today to see how medications were working and I told the Dr. I had not started them....Dr was a little confused and wanted to know why I did not want to do medications.....I just told him I don't know....just not convinced yet? So we are trying clonodine for the sleeping issues at my request but he feels we will ultimately still end up diagnosed as bipolar...I just want to be sure when we do that we tried to be sure before just medicating?
I am new here and looking for opinions from others in the trenches.....not my wellmeaning relatives (a great number of whom are medical professionals)
My 3 1/2 yr old son has been a go-getter from the start....crawled at 4 months and never looked back. Talked early and exceptionally well...his reasoning abilities are amazing....the kiddo is smart and uses it to his advantage. He Has always been strong willed....ready to go to battle over everything...If I tell him not to touch it he will do it to spite me and see how far he can push it. HE is not defiant all the time, but when he doesn't want to do something.....oh my! LOL
He is my sweet loving imaginative boy.....but we have some issues going that have finally come to a head and led me to seek a diagnosis....so here I go and I may jump around....I'm sleep deprived and depressed myself!!
He does not sleep....that was our biggest problem. He's always been busy....never sits still, no impulse control, no concern for safety...If he can jump off it he will. He squirms like he's about to wet his pants when he has to sit down. Then the not sleeping got bad...really bad...I put him to bed at 8 and he is still awake at 11, 12, 1am. He is up and down all night and will even go so far as to leave the house and go outside to play at 3 am....that is un-nerving! He gets up and raids the pantry or will wake up his 2 yr old sister in the middle of the night to play.
He cycles from being calm, quiet loving to running laps around my house jumping off furniture and tackling his sister. Then he will be sullen sitting in the corner and scowling. If we ask him what is wrong he will say "Please leave me alone" and turn his back on us. He will stay like that or even leave the room to sit grumpily by himself in a room on the other side of the house and if we ask why he's upset it is usually "because sister looked at me" Etc, etc. that will last for an hour or so and then he's up and playing like normal. Sometimes he goes off about how an object is dumb or stupid. For example he might say he has the dumbest car seat, he hates his car seat, it's the dumbest seat I want my old seat back. He has imaginary friends that are "his Kids" five of them...two sons and a daughter....not sure what the other two are supposed to be! LOL He one day told me that we was tired of his "old son" and he was going to kill him...he has told me before that I am "the stupidest mommy and he hates me" these horrible, hateful things come out of his mouth and then he's back to my sweet momma's boy. it's heartbreaking and scary at the same time
Did I mention he does not do change? LOL we got a new dining room table and he cried about it for a week...refused to eat at the new table and wanted the old one back.
He had normal seperation anxiety when being left at nursery, etc at about 4 months and never out grew it...he crys and throws a fit when ever I leave him somewhere. HE is fine after a bit, but I always have to peel him off me and run for cover!
Tags on clothing and seams on socks make him crazy....to the point of me having to pull over on the side of the road and take his pants and undies off just to get home in peace because he is having a melt down over the tag on his undies.
The bad mood and tantrums might be several times a day or might be several times a week. I never know what to expect.
Some days we can pick up the toys from the floor and clean no problem, some days he informs me "you do it" or "I don't know how...I don't know how long it will take" and he will cry and not do it...I have tried changing my discipline methods....rewards often don't work...he will tell me he doesn't need a cookie or a candy or a sticker, etc punishments and consequences don't work because he will just say "Ok, that's fine"
I know he's only 3, and 3 year olds are hard and defiant, and hyper....but He is outside of the normal range!
Pediatrician diagnosed ADHD originally... tried Melatonin for sleep and that worked great for a few weeks then quit all of a sudden. Also ADHD medication....can't think of name right now. He reacted badly to the medications....severe anger and mood swings. So now Dr says he feels it is bipolar (I have a strong family history of depression and my grandfather is manic and so is his mom). He wants to start Rispiridone and I don't yet....I want to try addressing the sleep issue first and seperately to see how that affects him....remove any possible environmental factors and other possibilities and be sure before just jumping in and medicating him.
We have an appointment with a specialist but not until Dec. 9. I want to at least talk to her first before starting medications...
So I guess what I am getting at is....am I right in wanting to wait or am I just in denial? OR am I reading too much in to his behavior and trying to make the horrible 3's into something more?? We had a follow up appointment today to see how medications were working and I told the Dr. I had not started them....Dr was a little confused and wanted to know why I did not want to do medications.....I just told him I don't know....just not convinced yet? So we are trying clonodine for the sleeping issues at my request but he feels we will ultimately still end up diagnosed as bipolar...I just want to be sure when we do that we tried to be sure before just medicating?