Pregnancy Complications and ADD

[raylea]

So, this post is actually about me, age 48 and I struggle with adult ADD. I dont have the "hyper" activity part, just attention defecit. I was diagnosed 4 years ago and have since been on adderall which has made all the difference in the world. I started a new career and my job performance was suffering horribly due to the focus needed and importance of being able to stay on task. I always knew I was just as intelligent as the next guy but my brain felt like a tornado inside.

So...
I wanted to get input from parents here who have children with ADD, ADHD. Were your pregnancies and births normal?

When my mom was pregnant with me the placenta slipped at some point. I was born full term but was really small. At first they thought I was stillborn because I didnt breathe right away. Just as they were taking me out of the room, assuming there was nothing more they could do, I gasped a few times and started crying. I spent my early days in an "incubator". This was '67 and medical technology was pretty new for neo-natal care I suppose.

During my childhood I was healthy but did horribly in school. It was never anything to do with my behavior, I was always one of the well behaved, but I just couldnt remember the lessons! Ask me five minutes later and I had no clue what the teacher had just said. parent/teacher conferences were always the same: she would do better if she would just pay attention. Hello?? I TRIED MY HARDEST to pay attention. I had to work twice as hard to just be an average student. back then ADHD/ADD was unknown. To this day I dont think my parents believe its a real disorder. They dont even know I was diagnosed let alone take medicine for it.

So back to my question for parents here. Has anyone had experience with pregnancy or birth complications and your child having ADD/ADHD? I suspect the small amount of time I was oxygen deprived contributed to my brain function. Not enough to be "brain damaged" but enough to cause an attention defecit.

 

[KTMom91]

I agree with you.

My pregnancy with my daughter was uneventful, except for being 11 days past my due date when the doctor finally decided to induce labor. I had no contractions...none...but Miss KT's heart rate went down. Three nurses rushed in, the needle was pulled out of my arm, I was put on oxygen, and ended up having an emergency C-section.

She was VERY INTENSE as soon as we got her home. INTENSE. Crawling at three months, pulling to stand at five months, walking at nine months. Very busy, all the time. The terrible twos started about sixteen months, and lasted till she was about 4. She talked constantly, about everything and nothing.

She was finally diagnosed in the fourth grade with ADHD, heavy on the H, in my humble opinion. She was messy, unfocused, but smart. She made it through high school relatively easily, in part because I read every scrap of paper the district sent home, and insisted that state requirements for graduation were perfectly acceptable as opposed to the requirements the district was pushing. There was no way she'd get into the UC system anyway, so the plan was community college, then transfer.

She's now 24, a college graduate, no longer on medications, married, and living fourteen hours away.

 

[InsaneCdn]

I was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult. To the best of my knowledge, there were no issues with either the pregnancy or the birth itself. However, ADHD runs strongly in the family tree. There are probably multiple "causes" of ADHD.

 

[in a daze]

Hi. My son has ADHD, among his many other diagnoses, more the inattentive type. No labor/delivery issues. He was big and healthy, almost 9 lbs.

When I look back on the family tree I can see whether his issues came from. Various second and third degree relatives with depression, substance abuse, anxiety, job instability. And he's got a poor short term memory, just like me, trouble with organization and losing objects (this has improved a great deal with medication and sobriety).