Early signs of ADHD?

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My husband has a history of attention deficit disorder in his family and I am worried my 9 week old baby is displaying symptoms. He is constantly agitated, squirming and moving his limbs. His eye gaze is extremely alert and always jumping from one thing to the next. He lifted his head from birth and is physically advanced (rolled over at 4 weeks). He finds it very difficult to switch off and fall asleep and when he does (always with lots of help) he wakes again after 30 mins or so. I am a new mum and to be honest I am exhausted and terrified about this but I am also concerned I will label him, causing a problem where there isn't one. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I don't have direct experience, but I do know that 9 weeks is waaaay way to early to be sure of anything like this.

Are you ok otherwise? You sound anxious (hope you don't mind me saying that).

Have you spoken to your health visitor?

9 weeks is brand new.

Congrats on your new bundle

My eldest is Autistic and has ADHD, my middle son isn't/ doesn't, my youngest is being assessed at present (she's 3).

I was fretting a bit about my youngest to a health professional involved in the diagnosis process, when at a conference about special needs, she was 2 then. The advise I received made lots of sense for me.

'At this stage what difference does a diagnosis make? Do you need support, will diagnosis change the way you treat your child, do you need medical support/ medication for your child?' She said that if I didn't need support or medication then maybe I should consider waiting until I have an outcome I desire from diagnosis.

For me the outcome I now desire is extra support to get her settled in school. She doesn't cope in a crowd, has limited eye contact, misses lots of little social nuances etc. So now I have something that diagnosis or assessment would help with I'm in the system and she's being assessed.

Do you think theres anything you would/ could do differently with a diagnosis if it is in anyway possible at this stage?

TBH it would be very early to tell and is there a chance that you might just be reading things into his poor sleeping due to your DH's diagnosis? It might be he does have ADHD (DS does and was awful at settling to sleep as a baby - you have all my sympathy, it's draining!) but maybe he's just a very difficult sleeper.

If you're concerned then maybe you could simply record behaviours as you've done in your OP and come back to them as he gets older. Might prove to be a useful record. Keep them objective, just stating how his sleep is, what gets him to settle or what agitates him, or diary a typical pattern of sleep during the day. When we went through the diagnosis process, sleep was a major point of discussion.

Thank you for your replies, this is the first time I have ever posted on a site like this. Yes I am anxious, to be honest i am pretty heartbroken at the realisation my little one may have this problem to face in life. As I said he is my first and up to now I never contemplated anything could be wrong but the more people point it out the more I worry. My husband works away a lot and I haven't really slept much for a while which is making me even more emotional and unable to think clearly.

I guess the reason I want to know is so that I can start making plans of how I can help him. There must be things I can do to help him develop his attention span and encourage calmness, maybe try to avoid over stimulating him. But then I worry if there is nothing wrong I would be taking away things he would otherwise enjoy and learn from. I just don't know what to do for the best.

Sweetheart, honestly he sounds like a completely normal baby. A little physically ahead of some of the milestones perhaps but that really doesn't mean anything - some babies will be ahead, some behind and they all level out over the next couple of years.

You however sound like a woman who needs significantly more sleep. Everything feels worse when you're tired and looking after a baby mainly on your own is incrediblyk hard anyway.

So, are you getting naps during the day when DS sleeps? Could you go to bed earlier? Who can you call in to give you some time to sleep - friends? Family? Paid help?

Honestly more sleep will make the world (and all your anxieties) feel more manageable. Start with that and if you're still feeling very anxious, you could try having a chat with your health visitor.

You can't tell this early.

He sounds like a newborn. The 30 min nap thing is very common.

You have to be careful and not try and think too far ahead and worry because you will drive yourself mad. If you knew now there's nothing you can do now about it.

I know you are right, thank you for your advice I think i'll try and nap now while I can! I have friends and family to help but they cant do too much as i'm breast feeding. I will make an appointment with the health visitor tomorrow.

If anyone had a baby with the tendencies i described I would love to know how they are doing now.

My DS2 didn't sleep for more than an hour and a half in the first two years of his life. Daytime it felt like as soon as he was down he was up again. He's 8 now. No ADHD, no Autism like his big brother, sleeps well and goes to bed quite happily. He wasn't fussed with early toys and didn't seam to concentrate (that was when he was a little older though). Physically he loved to jump and jump and jump in one of those platform babywalker type activity station things (again when he was a bit older) but wasn't fussed by walking or crawling he just got frustrated when he tried.

Sleep deprivation is used as torture for a good reason. It does make it very hard to rationalise these very natural though processes you're going through. Do talk to your health visitor and get some real world reassurances that you're doing okay (it really sounds like you are).

Moving limbs is often a sign of over tiredness, which I guess is possible on 30 minute naps.

My dd was just like this. Needed to be taught and soothed to sleep.

My DS would not sleep in the day. VVV occasionally he would nap for 30 mins. He was totally full on.
He has not got ADD or ADHD. Not at all.
All babies are different. Do what suits you and your baby for now.
Good luck and good health x

Please try not to worry about your child 9 weeks is too young to pick up symptoms.
My neice who's 4 never slept threw the night until she was 3 she doesn't have ADHD or anything else.
My ds on the other hand slept 12-14 hours from 2 weeks until 2 years old he's now 3 and has autism and possibly ADHD.
Every baby is different x

Health visitor is a great idea, op.

Everything is worse when you're sleep deprived.

Look after yourself x

I had worries about my ds when he was tiny, actually I worried about him ultil quite recently. He was very advanced physically, lifted his head up on day one, he rolled over the first time I put him down on his tummy, sat at 4 months, crawled at 6, walked (ran) at 10 months. He was just non-stop, he would literally run circles around other babies the same age and even older, other parents made comments like "god, I thought I had a hard time" "he makes me tired just watching him!" He's 18 months now, he is still physically advanced, he jumps and climbs up ladder type climbing frames and can almost do a roly-poly but he has really calmed down, he loves to sit in the sandpit building sand castles and he will sit and cuddle (not for long but it is an improvement!).

it feels like he was just in a hurry to reach his physical milestones and once he got there he was content.

It's far to early to be able to predict, never mind diagnose ADHD, but I know that having a baby like this is exhausting because they're just so full on.

You will probably find that a lot of the Dr Sears info about what he describes as a "high needs baby" rings true. When DS1 was awake, we had to keep things interesting for him - lots of safe things to explore. Quiet and dark was no good for getting him to sleep, he needed the TV or radio on to sleep - as he got older, I would put a CD on that he loved to help him get off to sleep. His swing was helpful, too - he loved it and it meant that we could have our hands free for a bit and eat a bit of lunch, or whatever.

And swaddling - was wonderful, though hard to break him out of when he started wriggling out of it and waking up cold. A grobag was useful, here. He also rather enjoyed having his bottom patted quite heavily.

Ds has ADhD, diagnosed officially at age 7.

Just to put your mind at rest a bit, he slept through the night from 4 weeks old. He would have some issues getting to sleep, but honestly that was partly my fault as being a firstborn he was rocked to sleep at first. Yes your baby sounds very alert, but so was my dd at this age, and she does not have ADHD.

Just because it is in the family, doesn't mean to say that it will be passed on. And if it does, you deal with it when the time comes (around school age). Please enjoy your baby, the time goes so fast when they are small, you will blink and it will be his first birthday.

Keep a log of milestones, but it is too early tell now.

You need to be looking after you as well.

Oh - and how is he doing now? He actually 10 and has ASD and ADHD. Milestones all over the place. Still likes to block out the world with music. Still into everything. Also incredibly bright and funny.

And he sleeps a heck of a lot better.

His significantly more placid brother, OTOH...

Definitely read Dr Sears' 12 features of a high need baby.

My DS1 was like this. He's nearly four now and still quite, erm, spirited - intense reactions to things, always on the move, hard to settle to sleep. I have sometimes wondered about ADHD but even now he's too young to diagnose it. Nine weeks is way too early.

I did end up with PND and anxiety when DS1 was a baby so do keep an eye on your mental health. Sleep deprivation can really affect your mood.

DS was like this, very alert and over sensitive from birth, fed a lot more and slept a lot less than most babies, he only occasionally sleeps through now at 18 months. But he is a much, much easier - and I think, happier - toddler than he was a baby and doesn't seem ADHD at all, just very curious. He is still sensitive but much much less fragile than he was because you can already explain things to him, which is great. He does love lots of routines and will invent/insist on them himself after doing something a certain way just once, this seems to be very soothing for him. I think he found babyhood a bit scary and overwhelming, or maybe that was just me! I'd not read those sears things before but they rang a lot of bells.