"Where were all the kids with ADHD 40 years ago then?"

[colditz]

Help me to answer my dad, who has delivered a fantastically ignorant diatribe (mainly along the lines of Ds1 "can't possibly be autistic, he's always smiling at me. He's a happy boy Colditz, he's not Autistic") but he has raised a point I can't answer.

Where were the children with ADHD 40 years ago?

Where were the children with High Functioning Autism?

According to him, and many people in their 50s, there WAS no ADHD, or CERTAINLY there wasn't in their school .... so ... where were they?

So true, tryharder.

Just want to say that mostly this thread has made me smile and also feel sad.. so many anecdotes and yeah a bit of madness.. WTF @ vaccines? I have one DS with ADHD and TS and another who is likely to get a DX probably Aspie and a bit OCD too.

Psych who DS sees at CAMHS has said ADHD has a strong genetic link as does TS and most things on the ASD spectrum. Before dx Ds was "that" child, rolling around the floor in lessons etc but oddly taking everything in and learning. Now, and yes medicated but no zombie, he can actually sit still for a whole lesson ( albeit with tics) and reach his potential hopefully

Oohh, have our families met? I have FIL and MIL who think the same, and told me that the problem with our ds was my discipline...nothing to do with the mild aspergers, but down to the fact I do not follow through with my discipline enough, and in fact, I should smack him more as that would sort it.

We didn't speak with them for almost a year...only just getting back to taking their phonecalls.

Don't you just love your parents generation....soooo in touch. NOT.

ADHD and Autism are theorized to be more prominent today because of the high fat diets in younger children and pregnant mothers, vaccinations and pollution. I think many children are over diagnosed when a simple change in diet and exercise would be the answer. The education system doesn't help either with over-crowded classrooms.

References please chefswife, so we can read and decide and check the source of these theories.
For all we know the studies were funded by Lean Cuisine.

getting the cane or rapped knuckles!

She may well be a woman with a mission starlight. Or perhaps the Thetans told her the real truth about ASDs.
Either way, I like to make my own mind up, which is why I asked for her references.

Yes please, I was told that I'd eaten too much tuna when pregnant and that's what caused my son's AS. I did check snopes...

If they'd said it was too much chocolate I might have believed them.

chefswife I would of loved you to have been there when I was told by a dietitian to put my ds on a high fat diet when he would actually eat as he was so underweight through lack of eating you could count his ribs. A lot of kids with ADHD have problems with being underweight so I'd love to know how your theory works.

In my father in law's case (Asperger's. I'd put money on it), doing A levels at 14 (you can't usually do that now), a degree at Cambridge, Phd and fellowship at ditto and a long and distinguished career in research science. I think that people used to be labelled "odd" rather than have a diagnosis. It was in the 40s that Bruno Betelheim first diagnosed and studied autism, so there must have been some.

To answer the question about ADHD- probably had their hides tanned frequently and sent to trade school at 11 or joined the armed forces. But 50 years ago, it was normal for children to charge around all day and parents were a lot more hands off in their children's lives so may not have been as evident as nowadays. I have theories about diet as well.

My mother once said that there were no "mentally handicapped" (her words, not mine) children when she was a child. I pointed out to her that the village midwife or doctor probably advised parents to leave any disabled newborn in the front room and not to feed it back then- so more a case of infanticide than not being born at all.

Interesting, and SBC knows his stuff so I'll be watching out for any conclusions he comes to.
My DS was a doddle of a birth however, less than 4 hours and no stress before hand. But that's only one anecdotal example.

To answer the OP:

they were the children who were always in trouble at school
they were leaving with no qualifications
they were in prison
they were there all right.

Diet is well known to be one of the causes of ADHD, but not high fat; its food dyes, flavour enhancers etc.

Doesn't cause ADHD but it can exasperate it with some children my ds can have most things but give him chocolate or caffiene and he is a nightmare.some kids it doesn't effect.Sometimes its a bad diet thats the problem and as soon as the additives are gone the child is relatively calm., also some parents never let their kids out to play and burn the energy off.

I wondered if people knew that treating people who have ADHD or Aspergers can be helped by being treadted for Neuro Developmental Delay?

Lots of info on it here - it can help with lots of things such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, cerebal palsy.

www.inpp.org.uk/

This thread is really showing MN at its best.

I have found the posts thought provoking and very enlightening.

I would like to add that all of my DC have at some stage been in school with children with ADHD or on the spectrum, and their acceptance and understanding of these children will stand them in good stead, as they become adults, and in turn parents.

Starlight come back, why have you fallen off a cliff?

Colditz, could it be that your dad is simply in grandparent denial? His, 'he can't possibly be autistic, he's always smiling at me' comment is really quite poignant. As parents, we have to deal with the real issues, but I think grandparents (as well as being a generation removed, information-wise) do tend to live in a bit of a bubble. My DD was very, very sick at 18 months and although she is now a well three year old, she will need an organ transplant at some point. Her illness was complicated and rare and although my mum was always at the hospital, she didn't really take in the 'facts' of DD's illness, and she refuses to accept that DD will need a transplant in the future. I get the same sort of comments, i.e 'look at her, there's nothing wrong with her, she won't need a transplant' etc. I'm not drawing comparisons with our/our childrens' situations, but possibly with our parents' way of dealing with it?