So new to this I'm green

[The tired Mom]

I have a 3 yr 10 month old son. He has been
attending preschool since last August. He's
very very smart, testing way above his age.
He is also kind, imaginative and a naturally
athletic. Sounds great so far! He is also
progressivly developed to the point that he
is a living tornado. My son literally runs
from the minute his feet hit the floor in the
early morning until he goes to bed which is usually around 10:00. He has stopped being able to nap in the afternoons and also has
a hard time falling to sleep (which is why
the 10:00 bed time) at night. Even after a
day of physical and mental overdrive. His
diet is good although he is anemic and takes
vitamins w/iron. I greatly limit sweets and
snacks, most weeks I have nothing in the house like that but some graham crackers and
sugar free jello. But even when he does have
something with sugar, I don't really see a
change. He isn't more active because of it.
His preschool teachers are really terrific
but have limited experience with ADD or hyperactivity or whatever we are dealing with. I am trying to work within our health
insurance and we have already had one appointment with a child psychologist, where
my son clearly exhibited his inability to sit
still etc etc. I agree (at this point) with
the psychologist about our next step which
is getting some detailed info from his teachers (besides the info I provided), also getting medical reports and feedback from his
pediatrician (my son had a complete physical
two weeks ago) and in the meantime, he wants
us to go ahead and set up an appt with a
psychiatrist to discuss the possiblity of
medications. My son does suffer from allergies. We live in rural Kansas where
pollen & ragweed and blowing winds are almost
a daily thing from spring until fall. He is
more miserable (of course) at these times but
his allergies just kicked up in the last few
days and this has been an on-going situation.
I know nothing about medications and he seems
so young for that, it scares me and I don't feel good about it...but I just don't know.
This is our story in a nutshell.

Ok, please be kind. I'm totally totally new
to this and I'm feeling quite frazzled lately. Any advice? Any other Mom's in a
similar situation?

[mlgable]

First off what is his allergist doing regarding his allergies? Does he have your son on medication or shots? If so could the hyperactivity etc be a side effect of the medication? If he is not on anything for his allergies then that would be the first place to start. Allergies can play a big part in all of this so they need to be under control. Next you need to see if they will test your son for ADD at clinic that does this type of specific testing. They may feel he is to young to take the test but hopefully they would be willing to attempt to test him. Medication regarding ADD or ADHD is a personal choice as you many people are dead set against it will others like me feel that if it is a benfit then use it as these kids sometimes need all the help they can get. Hope some of this info helps you out.

[FaultyLogic]

While medication can be a godsend, I cringe at the thought of such a young child taking stimulants. Also, very often, it simply isn't helpful for preschool aged children. Their brains are simply too immature to respond in the 'typical' fashion to the medications. Please, if you can, hold off until he's 6 or 7 before trying any stimulants

[The tired Mom]

Thanks for responding. I appreciate
the feedback. I have a lot of homework
to do on this subject obviously. The
pediatrian told me that they cannot test
for specific allergies until a child is
around 5. The only thing he takes is
some prescribtion nose inhaler and over the
counter allergy med's. It sounds like I
need to get some other opionions and not
just take his word for it.

I will talk with the pychologist about ADD
testing. I also have about a half dozen
library books checked out on the subject
so I better get to reading also.

Thanks again.

[mlgable]

Glad you are getting things organized and taking things a step farther. Allergies can play a big part in behavior. You may want to take a peek at the allergy message board and see some of what is recommended there regarding allergies and diet. You may want to read some of the labels on the food in your home already since you may be surprised to at what you find is in some of the things we buy. Peanut butter for example is often made with rapeseed oil aka cannola oil. Rape seed is what they used to make mustard gas which was used in the wars. Granted this is supposed to be a very refined rapeseed oil but I still don't think I want to feed my child something that mustard gas was made out of. This I just found out this morning as I read the jar of name brand peanut butter while preparing my son's lunch. Good luck.