Dialated eyes in unmedicated ADHD child

[kmory]

My daughter is 12 and has been diagnosed with ADHD- attentive type disorder for the past 18 months. She was first treated with concerta, and it seemed to help for about 3 months. After that nothing else seemed to work. We've tried increasing dosages, switching to regular ritalin and all six other regularly used ADD drugs, all to no avail. So we took her off the meds, because the psychologist's tests proved that none of them were working, and they would all kill her appetite, and at 12 she weighed only 60 lbs. In the last months we have been considering that she may have been misdiagnosed, perhaps having something else wrong. Now a new symptom, (aside from not completing homework or turning it in; inability to focus or to connect normal actions with reactions) has been occurring. Her eyes are evenly dialted in normal room light. Could this be symptomatic of another type of chemical imbalance that would cause similar symptoms? Drug use has been ruled out. We are currently undergoing a another series of psychological profiles, canted to screen for different disorders (bipolarism, manic-depresion, etc). But I was curious if this lends itself to a particular known issue?

[tessa80]

A related discussion, my son was diagnosed with adhd 3 years ago he is now 13 and only now doctors told me he needs assessed for autism . was started.

[kmory]

I took her for a CT scan on Wednesday and that came out clear. I took her to the optometrist under advice of pediatrician and he detected small amount of swelling in left eye optic nerve. This same eye seems to be having problems holding a constricted pupil as well. We are going today for a second consult with an opthamologist to get a second opinion on the optic nerve diagnosis.

Strange thing is that the optometrist wouldn't talk about possible causes for the swelling before the second opinion, citing them all as "extremely rare" because she didn't fit the profile for fluid on the brain. No infection is present, so I am left wondering what conditions could cause this? It is curious because her behavioral problems are all type a (attentive) adhd, and she has many organizational and other problems that would attribute themselves to a problem on the left side of the brain.

???

[sarah2237]

If you want to call me, I would like to talk to you about your child with ADHD. I have a son who was doing everything your child is doing now.....until I found something that works. Email me at ***@**** if you would like to personally correspond.
Sarah

[kmory]

I know exactly what you're saying about the discipline. I have 2 children. The older has ADHD, and my younger daughter is right on target for her age. (or normal, whatever that is :) ) My older daughter does NOT respond to discipline of any sort. It is not that we have given up on it, it's just that all tactics that we and her psychologist have come up with are ineffective. She just flat out refuses to participate, and when given the choice for doing her school work or taking the punishment, she often takes the punishment. When given the opportunity to "earn" something good for good behavior, she simply does not put forth any effort. It's apathy at its worst. The thing that's so terribly frustrating and makes me feel like its a total waste is she has an IQ of 180. The highest in her school. But at this rate, even with her father and I spending 6 hours a night on homework with her (you can't leave the room for a second, no kidding) and spending ALL of our weekend days just trying to keep her caught up, she's still failing. The weight issue is no longer an issue since we took her off the meds, she's gained 15 pounds! (a big victory for us) Since she simply would refuse to eat when she was on her meds. But even on her meds, it was the same pattern of behavior, and the intesity didn't go down at all. It seems wierd to me that the eye dialation is not considered a serious issue because it is symptomatic of involuntary brain function not being normal, y'know?

[sarah2237]

My 9 year old son was diagnosed as ADHD. I have another son with much more complicated issues, as you have probably seen from the message above. Anyway, I can relate to your situation.
Scotty is almost 10 years old and only weighs 50 pounds. He has a special nutrition plan that includes never going more than two hours without a protein snack, and drinking high calorie drinks before bedtime. I'm always worried about his weight.
He is on Concerta once a day. It works well to control his hyperactiviy, but I still have to control his behavior. Once you take the edge off with the meds, it takes a steady, firm behavior plan for at home and at school. My son is on a 504 plan.
Like your daughter, my son's eyes do not properly dialate. It has been going on for quite some time now, but the docs don't seem to be concerned.

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

This condition, called mydriasis, can be caused by several things. It would be wise to have her examined by a pediatric neurologist, and if everything checks out OK, follow up with an examination by a pediatric ophthalmologist. By the way, the condition can be benign, so there's no automatic reason to be alarmed, but it definitelt warrants follow-up.