Hello again!

[quietplz]

Hello, all! I just wanted to update a bit on the kids, for those who remember me.

My bunny is 2.5 years old. She just had her ados. You ladies were all right and it is officially autism. She also has sensory processing disorder (SPD) and they think dyspraxia, but are not sure yet. Her language has improved and she speaks regularly to us, although I am the only one who can understand her usually. She also now seeks social contact with other children and if allowed will rub their face and hair blissfully even though playing together is still a mystery! She is showing her 2ness with some sassy behavior, so we are now trying to figure out how to effectively discipline her when there is so much she doesn't understand. Our case worker is now working with us for hopefully transitioning to a Special Education preschool as soon as she is 3, so that is also wearing on my nerves. She still seems to need much less sleep than average and will wander the house when she wakes and that is eating my sleep time.

My gosling, her seven year old sis, is also struggling recently. They thought she had ADHD and her activity level, attention span, and impulsivity combined to make school enormously difficult. The docs gave her a low dosage of focalin XR to see if it helped. It did for a bit, but then came the sleep disturbances, seeing people who weren't there, paranoia, increased impulsivity, more hyperactivity, and cool stuff like that, that continued after the medication was stopped. So they said they now think she has bipolar and ADHD. They put her on intuniv. So she is just now done with her week of 1mg and will have 2mg next week. She takes longer to get to sleep now and will destroy stuff if she gets the chance so I stay up later too.

Baby bug is starting to cruise now, in his 8th month and nurses every 3 hours even at night. He is such a good, patient baby!

And then there is me, losing my mind slowly, propping my eyes open with toothpicks due to little sleep and looking in every which direction to try (and normally fail ) at heading off troubles ere they start. So, where were all you other moms issued those back-of-the-head eyeballs, 'cause I must have missed that line! ~Barbara

 

[SRL]

Godo for you for recognizing there were issues and pursuing answers at such a young age. Very well done, Mom!

Wish I could help you with the lack of sleep and the eyeballs in the back of the head. There was a year where I almost never left one of mine alone unless sleeping or else I might find...well, never mind. It was a rough year.

Treat yourself to a big stack of paper plates. You have our permission to use them often and save yourself the clean up time and get to bed early instead!

 

[BusynMember]

I'm wondering if, instead of bipolar, your older daughter is also on the autism spectrum. She may be higher functioning and hard to diagnose, but it runs in families and it sounds like her hallucinations were due to the Adderrall. Many Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) kids are medication sensitive. You may want to take the older one who a neuropsychologist for a fresh and very intensive evaluation.
My son is on the spectrum. It took forever for him to get the right diagnosis.
Good luck!

 

[quietplz]

I think they are thinking bipolar based on both her reaction to the focalin and also because her dad has bipolar. It makes me worried that the seeing things hasn't yet stopped even with having been off the focalin for two weeks. I thought it was supposed to be out of her system in 12 hours, but obviously I was wrong.

Is it possible for her to still be autistic if she spoke and walked at 8 months old, is ahead of grade level in most subjects, and very outgoing? I just don't know any more, and what's more, it seems that no one else here (in real life) does either!

 

[HaoZi]

Yes, it's possible, as autism is a spectrum, too.

 

[Hound dog]

It's possible for her to be both outgoing and not have speech issues and still be high functioning autistic. Travis is low functioning and still could be very out going..........he just did it very poorly and tended to drive other kids away when he did seek them out. When you look at the list of signs and symptoms for autism you need to remember that not every child will display every symptom listed, despite any possible diagnosis they are a unique individual. I'd be hesitant to have them label her bipolar at this age without a complete neuropsychologist evaluation to rule anything else out. Her symptoms after being given the medication sound much more like a reaction to it than symptoms to be diagnosis as another disorder.

Don't get me wrong,......I'm not saying she does or doesn't have whatever...........just that you have to be careful when kids are young to make certain you're not overlooking something else.

As for little bunny, I can tell you what worked for Travis (who is now 24 and doing much better than we ever dreamed). It was simple. I didn't treat him any differently than I would any other child. He had the same rules and the same consequences. I'll admit that it took years for him to get it.........and those young years were an exhausting blur lol......but with consistancy, patience (some days I don't know where it came from I swear!), and being far more stubborn than he could ever imagine.....he did get it. He is now a college student. A strict routine also worked wonders, autistic kids thrive on routine. And even when life got in the way and disturbed part of a daily routine......like an afternoon doctor appointment.....once we got home and put the routine back into motion he'd settle down every time. (also worked great for his sisters too)

I hope you can figure out what the issue with the older girl is. You might want to keep a log of her behavior for a few weeks and see if you notice any patterns.

Hugs