Is my son ADHD or Bipolar

[Connorsmommy3]

My son is almost 4, and is very active and hard to control. Now I have 4 children and he is my third so I thought that this was normal toddler boy activity. He is always moving he doesn't sit still or listen He has no fear of anything my house is constantly on lock down casue if he gets out the front door he runs off he has already gotten lost twice and has had numerous injuries. When attempting to watch TV he stands on his head moves from one couch to the next jumps off the couch etc. And recently at a routine drs appt my sons dr stated that she thinks he is ADHD or Bipolar but because of his age I am having trouble getting him diagnosed does anyone have any advice on this matter?

[imanaddict]

OMG you just described my 3 year old!! My husband and I have wondered the same thing...if it's ADD or ADHD. My 3 year old is FEARLESS! He will not sit still, even when it's something he wants to be doing. He just turned 3, so I am waiting until he's a little older to bring up the subject to his pediatrician because he is still so young. He destroys my house, is jumping and playing around non-stop, jumps from one couch to the other and to the coffee table, climbs dressers and stacks chairs to reach up high to get whatever it is he's after. I'm constantly pulling him down from things and kissing boo boo's!

[SueNYC]

Don't jump to the bipolar yet. My son has had the whole alphabet throw at him.  He was very hyperactive as a pre-schooler and so ADHD was first diagnosis.  He now goes to a school designed for children who have ADHD, Asperger's, bipolar syndrome, Tourette's  and about every other neurobiological disorder.  He had a really bad reaction to Prozac and is prone to staying up for several days (he is 10) so the doctors (and we are talking the big guns in NYC here) are beginning to suspect it but even they won't diagnose that yet.  Personally, knowing my husband's family (brilliant but with massive depressive moods)we are inclined to believe it is a mood disorder co-morbid with ADHD.  

At 10, he is beginning to calm down but he has terrible executive dysfunction issues.  He has an extremely high IQ so his school work has not suffered but he was so disruptive that he was asked to leave the NYC public schools.  


Oh BTW, one of his fellow classmates is named Connor. My nephew, also named Connor, has ADHD.  I have noted to my husband that there are a lot of Irish boys running around my son's school.   He was just in a big study dealing with celiac and ADHD.  And though most of the children did not have celiac (these were the ones that ad the gene markers for it) there was a high level of gluten intolerance (including my son).  It was a waiting room full of Irish-Americans.  Guess who has the highest rate of celiac in the world - the Irish.  I wonder if there is a connection since gluten intolerance causes behavioral problems.  Just throwing it out there.  

[LetaB]

  Well, we have a bipolar forum here as well and we have had discussions on whether or not it is possible to diagnose a child so young as BP. Certainly your son sounds very hyperactive and like a shoe in for ADHD. Coincidentally I myself am the mother of 4 and my third child's name is Connor! He has been diagnosed with several things since but his original diagnosis (like most people with OCD, BP, etc) was ADHD. My youngest child exhibited some of the same symptoms - not being able to sit still - when he was small. I like to say as soon as he could stand he was hopping up and down and as soon as he could walk he was running, etc. He was diagnosed in kindergarden and there was no doubt as he has a very large "H" in his ADHD. Is your son enrolled in any program with a group setting - such as preschool or an organized daycare? That is where these sort of things really show up and then it's easier to get a diagnosis with that proof.
. Good luck.