When did you realise your child had ADHD?

[Sallyssss]

Please can you tell me when you first realised that your child had adhd? Also, what made you realise?

With an adhd child are they always hyperactive? Or is that they can't concentrate?

Did he/she sleep at night?

Thanks so much. I am really worried about my toddler and think there might be something else going on.

I reckon DD has, she is very impulsive, no off button, needs melatonin to sleep at night, concentration span less than 30 seconds for listening, up to 3 or 4 minutes for something she really wants to do. She is 4.

I knew from a very early age as DD1 wouldn't sleep, screamed all the time, and was very very demanding. She was dxd at 5, she is on equasym now and melatonin to help her sleep, before she was up till midnight most nights

Didn' really realize until ds2 was about aged 7 we had put all the behaviours down to the asd; however Ed Psych told us when he was assessing him for statement that he definitely had adhd and we then pushed for a dx. Now that we know more about adhd it was probably obvious from about the age of 4/5. Features of adhd according to some literature I have are in place by the age of 6.

Ds2 would have 'high activity levels' difficulty concentrating, focusing, no time for anyone or anything but the equasym slows him down which is great. He has always slept at night but will be up early - I put this down to the asd and being overloaded at times x

DS1 was a wired baby, to say the least, and with his autism diagnosis, age 3, came a query of possible ADHD, though we were told that if it was part of his autism, he'd almost definitely have calmed down by now.

He did calm down a bit, for a while, then last summer, he un-calmed down big time. Now, at 6, we're in the process of having him evaluated for ADHD by CAMHS, but their organisation is about as good as his and the investigation is ongoing, to put it politely.

His hyperactivity is obvious. He can't sit still. Even if he is physically tired, he gets tired legs which bang on the floor (nice demonstration going on right now) and kick against everything around. Not all kids have the hyperactivity.

As far as the attention deficit goes, even if he is heavily focused on a task, he's always looking around at other stuff. As a result, his motor planning for tasks like getting dressed is very poor. He almost literally forgets what he is doing in the middle of putting his trousers on. Even though he is a very able reader, he struggles with huge blocks of text. He has learnt to use a hand or bookmark under the line he is reading, but that doesn't stop him from stopping to look at something else and lose his thread.

Oh, and sleepwise, he's OK in winter - bed fairly early, most nights, and up early. In summer he cannot settle at all until long after it's dark.

We didn't realise until ours was 5, although with hindsight there were signs from 3/4. But then he is now 20 and ADHD was only just starting to be mentioned.

Our DS has hyperactivity and impulsivity and a lack of concentration, and also has dyspraxia. He never needed much sleep- not dropping off until the early hours, prowling the house at night then getting up with the dawn. He was also very violent pre-medication, and had the most awful tantrums.

How old is your child?