DS is 4 years old and for around a year I have wondered whether he has ADHD. I'm not 100% and I haven't really spoken to his nursery about the possibility of ADHD and they don't seem to have concerns. He suffers with bowel incontinence and this is focused on so much that I don't think any sort of behaviour is questioned, and often it is put down to the bowel incontinence. This is actually one of the reasons I have wondered about ADHD. Everyone I have spoken to who has a child with the same issue (unable to feel when he needs to empty his bowels resulting in extreme constipation. Cannot empty bowels without a medicated regime) - they all seem to have autism or adhd.
another factor leading me to query it is that my partner, his dad, has adhd. It is something he struggles with especially with and has done since a young child.
DS had obstructive sleep apnoea up until early January when his tonsils and adenoids were removed. Prior to this I had put his hyperactive behaviour down to poor quality of sleep. It has been almost 4 months and his sleep quality has definitely improved (apart from his incontinence causing him to wake during the night, the sleep he does get seems to be better).
DS is very hyperactive. He does not keep still and because of this he is constantly having accidents from falling over; hitting his head on things because he jumps so much and just hurting himself in general.
He has episodes of excessive talking where he just does not come up for air. You can tell his mind is on overdrive because he struggles to get his words out as fast as his mind is thinking them so can sometimes get frustrated with this.
If he is focused on something he practically turns deaf and does not flinch when being shouted. This is something I've only noticed in the last few months so I'm waiting for his routine app at ENT after having his tonsils and adenoids removed to see whether the surgery has perhaps affected his hearing or whether this is just because he is focused on something. There has been times where he has gotten upset because he can't hear me and tells me to speak directly in his ear so this could just be a slight hearing loss.
I'm not sure if this is adhd related but he has episodes of just staring into space. I've wondered if this could be petit mals? Although I haven't noticed it happening for a while (unless I'm just too used to it).
There are more things that would take me forever to list and I don't have a lot of knowledge on adhd but one thing I've been aware of from speaking to parents who have children with adhd is their inability to sleep well. DS takes himself off for a nap whenever he is tired, he tucks himself in and falls asleep. Other than waking from incontinence related problems sleep has never been an issue (aside from sleep apnea). He often falls asleep in nursery. He either takes himself off to a quiet corner or falls asleep during story time.
His awareness of feeling tired and ability to fall asleep makes me think that he does not have adhd but I wanted to know whether it seemed like it was worth speaking to his nursery/gp. I just wanted to be completely confident that my concerns are valid and not just potentially related to the effects of his incontinence which have sometimes been like an umbrella for any other issues he has.