To wonder if there are signs of ADHD in infants

[user873628]

I remember a thread about autism in infants and was wondering if anyone had an older child with ADHD and noticed signs before 18 months? I have a feeling my DC has it but it's not based on anything much other than a strange feeling and the fact they are very high maintenance and absolutely cannot cope with boredom for even a second.

Yes, things like not following a point, or pointing/indicating with a hand.

Using an adult's hand as a tool (taking your hand and using it to turn book pages/open a door)

Very very fussy with food textures.

Not bothered about people apart from parents, a take them or leave them sort of feel.

Already parenting responsively when the diagnosis was received.

Is this your experience or did you get this information from somewhere?

Wondering because my experience is quite different.

I mentioned as a jokey comment that my son had zero attention span at his 2 year HV check "God it's like he has ADHD" as she watched him flit between 1 toy to the next. She said "hmmm".

He was diagnosed at 7.

My daughter is not diagnosed but I suspect it.

I would say she had definite traits from when she was young that would correspond to neurodiversity.

Freaked out standing in sand, meltdown if her water bottle had water droplets on the outside (but happily goes swimming) Cannot bear to be rushed, needed time to adjust

I thought my ds1 had adhd when he was a baby but he didn't, although he was diagnosed with autism aged 9. I didn't suspect my ds3 had adhd until he was about 9 but looking back, there were signs from when he was about 18 months.

Low birth weight, early talker, early walker, poor sleeper. I read an article years ago which listed these things as early signs. My son was all of the above. Another article said family history of Parkinsons disease was also linked to increased instances of ADHD (which was another box we ticked). Can't remember what else was on the list, but these are the ones that I remeber because they resonated. It was a long time ago when I read them, but if I find the articles again I will link them.

Personal experience.

These sound more like possible indicators of autism to me, rather than ADHD.

Never stopped moving, always trying to climb stuff and chuck himself off, never calm, early talker, early walker. Looking back the signs were always there.

One of our ADHD kids talks a lot - like really a lot - in their sleep. To the extent that as a young infant they would cry in their sleep and be very annoyed when you picked them up and tried to feed them. It took us about 6 months to work out what was going on.

They were also a 'happy chucker' they had a dairy allergy but no one initially realised because they acted completely unbothered by the symptoms.

Neither of these things are symptoms of ADHD specifically, but I do look back and think that they are signs of a child whose brain doesn't work quite the same as a neurotypical childs would.

That's what I thought, @Littlefish

I've never heard of the low birth weight, early talker early walker characteristics. One out of 3 in our case.

Can you point me to the Parkinson’s research? Have both in the family

Wow thanks for this . Going through the ASD / ADHD assessment with my DD as she is like your DS

DS1 is autistic and will be assessed for ADHD next year at 6. I will be surprised if we don’t get a diagnosis but who knows.

He was an extremely alert, high needs baby who cried excessively and slept in half hour chunks until well over 1. Didn’t take well to weaning. Very early talker, delayed gross and fine motor skills, but once moving didn’t stop and still doesn’t now. As a baby/toddler/pre schooler he couldn’t stand boredom but equally had no idea how to entertain himself. I used to be amazed at MN posts where people said their baby would happily watch them fold washing - DS1 wanted varying, exciting stimulation from weeks old. Found and still finds frustration completely intolerable. Has special interests now he will hyper focus on and did this as a toddler. Since being able to speak, will interrupt adult conversation without any thought.

Those are the primary things I can think of prior to age 2.

My DD2 has inattentive ADHD. The problem with trying to work out whether there were any early signs is that I only have DD1 to compare her to. It's hard to know what is individual differences and what is neurodiversity.

DD2 was a happy baby, as was DD1. She was better at self soothing, DD1 needed to be held to get to sleep, but DD2 preferred to be put down. She was quite self entertaining. I did wonder if she had a secure attachment style as she didn't look back for me when she was playing at toddler groups. I think that might have been hyperfocus on what she was doing.

DD2 has some sensory issues. That was apparent when we started weaning. She couldn't stand lumpy food and would gag and throw up the entire contents of her stomach. I remember the "weaning expert" at our local children's centre telling me not to feed puree and thinking, "that's fine for you to say, but you're not cleaning up the puddle of puke". She was much slower to wean and carried on getting a lot of her calories from milk for ages.

I don't think either of those signs were particularly specific to ADHD. Probably the better indicator of ADHD was that her dad probably has it too. But we didn't realise until she was diagnosed.

And not low birth weight, pretty standard walking/talking age.

That's interesting @SausageinaBun Puree food was an absolute no go for us. We switched to BLW really early on and that worked.

My DD, never stopped twitching, making a lot of noise from six months, different from other babies. Hardly slept. Wouldn't be put down or sleep away from me. She had really sensitive skin, I'd have to let her lie on coth nappies, because she'd get rashes. She's also dyslexic and could be on the spectrum.

My GD, couldn't be put down, hardly slept, had to co-sleep, very 'nosy'/hyper aware of everything and everyone. She has a MPA.
I've spotted ADHD ad autism from a few months old in other children. I've not been able to diagnose of course, but see that they were ND. I'm also on the spectrum.

Low birth weight, early talker, early walker, poor sleeper
My DS was the opposite except he did walk at 10 months.

He was such an easy baby.

I have one child with Autism (and inattentive ADHD, not severe), one with severe hyperactive/impulsive ADHD (diagnosed at 5 as he wasn't looking like he was going to be able to attend mainstream) and a neurotypical child.

Compared to my NT child:

My autistic DC -had a spikey profile from infancy -delayed head control while other things were fine, extremely early explosion into full speech while struggling with walking, was more interested in things than people and could play with toys for hours without seeking interaction, reading and doing simple maths before starting primary school (we did not coach this, he basically just toddled about with me reading signs in the supermarket and adding up the cost).

My ADHD DC -i knew something was up from the get go. Born at 37 weeks but strong and active from the start, a new born baby holding his head up long before he should, then lots of little juddery movements (infantile myoclonus) without having actual seizures. The juddery movements gradually settled in the first year but I'd looked into it, and it can be indicative of neurological underdevelopment/immaturity. And kids with ADHD tend to have delayed maturation.

I don't think these are the same articles I read before, but they have some info about a possible link:

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/adhd-and-parkinsons#the-link

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33028106/

My SD has ADHD and seemed to have quite the opposite of a lot of the signs listed here; late walker, late talker, great sleeper (still sleeps as soon as her head hits the pillow) very content/compliant baby/toddler, only started showing signs at almost 3.

To clarify is it autism or adhd or audhd you think your baby has? All present different. At 18 months though just going on your post it sounds like your child is not getting enough interaction maybe at home and just needs more. I have a very neurodiverse household here and being high maintenance and or bored was never a 'symptom' of anything. All mine presented much differently.

My dd met all her physical milestones normally, apart from being slow to talk. She went from only making animal noises and a few invented words at 22 months, to full sentences within about 5 months. Once she started talking, she simply didn't stop. It was like a stream of consciousness.

For the first year of her life she was an incredibly light sleeper, but after a year, slept excessively (12-13 hours every night plus 2-3 hour nap every day.

The 12 hours per night continued until her late teens.

Absolutely.
ADHD signs were not sleeping, basically from birth. Having said that by 5 weeks they were sleeping through 11pm to 5/6am. No sleep throughout the day though, occasional catnap if 10mins at absolute most. Spent the whole day just watching everything intently. I reckon they had the most developed eye muscles of any baby as when not mobile their eyes were constantly scanning everything. Thin, had trouble gaining weight.

Looking back, their signs of ASD as an infant was not really crying/reacting to anything. Didn’t talk/walk until really late but then immediately did it all in a pretty advanced manner, they obviously just couldn’t be arsed. Preferred to point/gesture and be carried than talk/walk (even after proving themselves very capable).

They are an adult now. Gets by just fine in life, good degree, good job, good friends (all have ASD but are the same). All enabled by a good combination of meds that suits, if not they couldn’t function at all. Even with ADHD meds, they are still ‘active’, need a long run every day, play sports (they love the structure, rules etc), and need very little sleep.