Hyperactivity label? [titled edited by MNHQ]

[Flojobunny]

Health visitor wants to refer DD (4 yo) for hyperactivity assessment. What is it with health care professionals trying to stick kids in to boxes.
Yes she's always on the go, yes she doesn't sleep but she's my DD and that is that. No good can come of being labelled surely.

Get that help, get the meds if she needs them. This is not about your feelings. I wasn't diagnosed with ADD until I was an adult, and I can tell you truthfully, my life would have been vastly improved if AD(H)D had been "invented" in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s.

I don't have a bad life now, I have a post graduate level of education, friends, successful relationships and so on, but OMG.....what a battle.

I'm a big fan of Ritalin. If it works for you, it transforms your life, your thinking, your emotions. It doesn't flatten your feelings at all, it helps you to take a step back from your (often) very fine-tuned and painfully oversensitive feelings and THINK before you jump in at the deep end, or react angrily to non-existent insults or slights. This costs ADD people a lot of friends, and a lot of time over the years.

At the moment, your DD is four, so the slow tightening of the thumbscrews that is undiagnosed AD(H)D isn't really happening, but it may well do, if she has it.

It's obvious how angry you are about this, and how hurt you are, but put your thoughts and feelings aside and think practically.

Your DD might not even have AD(H)D...she might just be a bit of a live one who needs the challenge of school.

Even Dr. Rosenberg said that AHDA is an overdiagnosed disorder. And one out of ten boys taking ADHD drugs daily is very worrying.

Sorry imtoohecsy my autocorrect has insulted you.

I don't know. I have a friend who's child has ADHD and really, you wouldn't believe this child, he's like a whirlwind, he's constantly, constantly on the go and she finds it difficult to cope with.

I have to say bearing that in mind I suspect if you find this fine to cope with and are not that worried I suspect that she's probably not hyperactive because if she was you would KNOW and be concerned.

Ds went to school with a boy who had glaringly obvious ASD but his parents didn't want a label. Ds had an ASD diagnosis at three. Ds had a TA to support him from his first day at nursery, he went to a resource for ASD children and now attends a specialist school. The boy without a diagnosis was repeatedly excluded and permanently excluded at age ten. He's been to pupil referral units, detention centres and he's well on his way to being in jail.. All because he didn't get the support he needed and he was labelled bad rather than ASD and the label has turned out to be a self fulfilling prophecy

Naughty autocorrect

Oh, and yes, mine too.
Not talking for years, still in nappies at schhol age, smearing faeces...

They'd have been locked away.
Frightening, isn't it?

So much better to have the labels and the support, imo.

Just read MammaTJ's comment upthread and she's spot on. The part of your brain called the reticular activating system is the "control centre" and if it's not working at its full capacity, you don't focus, you're operating on all channels at once, flitting between them at lightning speed, essentially being a Jack of all channels and master of none.

This bit of your brain is understimulated because there's a difference in the way it receives and handles dopamine, and what the stimulant meds do is to increase the dopamine levels in it.

It's quite a simple trick, but it is, quite frankly, a bloody miracle when it works.
You don't have to take it during the holidays, and you can tailor your DD's dose schedule a bit if you want.

Having said all this, though, there's no diagnosis as yet. What I'm saying is that if she does get diagnosed and offered meds, don't worry.

Flojo - if everyone is saying that there is no way she is hyperactive, why don't you have her tested and prove them right?

Davsmum.its not just about that it is also a lack of attention. Maybe you should learn more about ADHD.

My DD displays it..she has concentration span of 2 seconds ..literally.
----------------

FANJO - Yes, I probably should learn more about ADHD but judging by the number of people on here who HAVE this label on their kids it seems to be an epidemic. Thats why I mentioned hoping there is a lot of research going on as to 'why'!
Is it diet? Is it environment? What causes it?

My nephew is easily distracted - He also 'doesn't listen' - However, it seems to depend on who is dealing with him as to 'how bad' it is.

I think the OP is right to resist the label as often, children become what they are labelled.

"Children become what they are labelled" is just trite and meaningless when it comes to a diagnosis of a medical condition.

My DS is autistic and also has ADHD.

Firstly I think age 4 is very young for an ADHD diagnosis but that's just me (and I am a HV too).

Secondly, most parents do not want their children "labelled" but quite honestly if they are not fitting in to the extent that they are struggling then it can be helpful to have an answer.

The last thing I wanted was medication for my DS. Eventually a paediatrician said that I wasn't allowig my DS to reach his potential, she pointd out how fleeting his concentration was and said the medication would help. My DS was 8 then and a non reader. Within three months of starting medication he could read, the medication allows him to concentrate long enough for the teaching to make sense.

I don't give it at weekends or in the school holidays as he is my in,y child and I can manage him. He does have it if we are doing anything special...so to or row we are going to a museum and he will have medication before we go as he will get far more from it that way.

You wouldn't tell someone to resist a label of diabetes/epilepsy etc so why this?

My post was to Davsmum.

I would welcome medication for my DD..because it would help her learn. .nothing to do with labels..she has enough already!

It is really insulting to talk of ADHD as a "label" and saying people are desperate to "label" children.

However you dress it up that comes from at least partially not seeing it as a "real" condition and not believing in it.

Davsmum, there is some investigation going on about why so many children are diagnosed with ADHD.

I think there are many reasons and (this is just my opinion) that some children show signs of ADHD when there are other issues.

I have seen children come out of families here there has been terrible DV for example who show signs of ADHD but in fact are really showing signs of PTSD. Very easy to not look at the background of these children and to think "it's ADHD".

However, I am not a doctor, I have no experience of ADHD apart from my own and what I see in practice. I see lots of children with ADHD and the vast majority have nothing in their background which would explain why.

I don't know why MY child has it except that it is known to be a common co morbid diagnosis to ASD.

I have seen some pArents desperate for the diagnosis as they think they will the get a magic pill to help. Truth is that there is no magic pill, you still need to parent the child and focus on the strategies which help.

I see others like the OP who don't want a diagnosis for fear of labelling a child.

Tbh my child has benefitted very positively from diagnosis, other children might not.

It's not as if these "labels" are handed out willy nilly. Ds and dd got their autism diagnoses really quickly but it was still 6 months from referral to diagnosis. They were seen by a team of health and education professionals who each assessed and observed before as a team a diagnosis was given. It wasn't a case that I went to the GP one day and asked for a label for my difficult children.

It is real - I knew early on there was something different about my attention span....from the age of six or so. Spent the following 20 years in a constant battle to stay one step ahead of it, while waiting to grow out of it. At 27, I realised this wasn't going to happen, by which time adult ADD/ADHD was a bit more public, so I sought help.

Its because no matter what they say, people still have this feeling that developmental disorders are bad/wrong/shameful.
We may have ditched the institutions, but not yet the attitude, not in full.

You wouldn't agonise over diabetes, or cf, or asthma, or exzema, or shortsightedness, because there isn't that thing about them. Its not shameful to have a child with asthma. There's nothing wrong with them.
I don't think its even a conscious thing. I think that most people would be outraged at the suggestion and totally refuse to accept it.
But what other reason is there?
I can't think of one.

It's a "magic pill" in that you don't have the running battle to keep a lid on uncontrollable behaviours (including not paying attention properly...I'm not referring to just hyperactive behaviour).
Also, as the child gets older, and they start to see more and more differences, that's when the emotional rot sets in, and the medication can stop that.

Hecsy..you are so right.

My daughter has eczema. I didn't agonise over whether to label her with it. She just has it.

"I hated seeing some if the little children in school have a complete personality change from happy boisterous normal child to that of a sombre overly calm zombied child."

That is not the desired effect of medication and if that is what is happening parents should be alerted to that so that they can go back to their doctor and have the dosage looked at or different medication prescribed...exactly like any other medication producing an unwanted side effect.

"Children become what they are labelled." Indeed and all teachers while training are taught about the expectation effect...in fact that's precisely why children with undiagnosed ADHD struggle in secondary school - they've been labelled as naughty, they're unable to modify their own behaviour in a way that will get rid of that label so they decide they might as well live up to that label and stop trying to please teachers. Which is why it is a good thing that ADHD is not a label, it's a diagnosis that supersedes labels that unqualified adults may give to a child.

"Children become what they are labelled" is just trite and meaningless when it comes to a diagnosis of a medical condition.
----------------

Not if it is NOT a medical condition in a particular case!

Hecsy - I think it's because it carries the "bad parenting" Trojan horse with it (IYSWIM).
You get the Telegraph brigade muttering about National Service and a clip round the ear, as well as the Special Glare at the parents.

The other reason is that people don't understand ADHD and say "normal kids are a bit lively".

Or they believe people just make it up to excuse their parenting or get money (thanks to Daily Mail)