ADHD in a baby?

I have two ADD sons and they were very different as babies. My one son was similar to your son - very irritable, sensitive, easily overstimulated. My other was an angel. I noticed something very different about my older son almost from the beginning. He did everything with a remarkable intensity and cried a lot over very little.

No one ever suggested to me he was ADD though until he was much older and I find it remarkable that they would offer this diagnosis so young.

In any case, my son was helped (and so was his tired mother) by certain things. He seemed to be calmed by being pushed in his stroller in the house! He liked the sound of the dryer and certain music. He did not liked being rocked. He liked and needed routine.

It was hard for other family members like grandmothers to accustom themselves to the interesting baby that he was and hard for us because with such a demanding baby, it made a successful adjustment to parenthood that much more of a challenge. We started to put him down for long afternoon naps and keep him up later so that he would spend more time awake in the evening when there were two parents at home and I would take a long nap in the afternoons as well. I actually went back to work part-time just to get some time off from the challenge of raising such a strong-willed baby.

The good news is, after many years, my difficult ADD son became an angel and now is a freshman in college.

I have every confidence that your dear baby will do exactly the same.

Another approach to some of this is “Sensory Intergration Dysfunction” (sorry about any miss spelling). There is a great book out their called “The Out of Sync Child”. I have a child, now 9, who has this and i can go back to when she was a about 10 months and see some signs. The only problem is I thought she was a stubron child - strong willed. About a 1.5 years ago I learned of this disorder problem is finding a doctor who understand it. There are some really good resource on the web - start with www.sinetwork.org.

Good Luck!

Sara,
Thanks for your words of encouragement. I have been so stressed out I cant sleep or eat properly and I have to back to a full time job June 4th. I am a Loans Manager and have a busy stressful job so am wondering how I will cope, whether my babysitter can handle him….We already caught on to several things that got us through his severe colic stage that lasted 3.5 months. Now I thought he just was fussy, but I guess it will be worse than that in the future…
-Tango

I know exactly how you feel, but, as hard as it probably seems right now, things do get better. I have two boys, one with ADHD, one without. The oldest was a holy terror as an infant. He cried constantly, only slept if someone was holding him, usually while standing up and rocking him. He spit up all the time, even though he was breast fed, and seemed constantly unhappy. He was tense and rigid almost all the time. This went on until he was 8 or 9 months old. Even after that he was a difficult baby to please, though he improved. His father and I thought we would never live through the experience and no one in our families really had a clue how truly awful it was. By the time he was 2 1/2 it had all ended. This child is now 13 and is a delightful boy who does not have ADHD and despite his age is not a difficult child at all. My second child was an angelic baby who slept all the time, would happily sit in his baby seat, almost never cried and could basically amuse himself with toys or just looking at things. His nickname was “Happy.” This is the child who has ADHD (inattentive) and LD as well. Once he started school, the nickname no longer applied. I do know of parents whose colicky babies grew up to have ADHD, but just because your baby is difficult does not mean that he does. Doctors are diagnosing ADHD in toddlers (and medicating them), but even that is extremely controversial. The range of “normal” behavior is exceedingly broad in babies and young children and that makes it difficult to diagnose a condition like ADHD. If you are having trouble getting your baby to sleep, there is a book called something like “How to Solve your Child’s Sleep Problems (and Get Some Sleep Yourself)” by (I think) a doctor named Richard Ferber. We found it helpful. Baby massage also helped a little, as did tight swaddling and one of those Snugli baby carriers that you wear like a kangaroo pouch. The most helpful thing though, from the parental sanity perspective, is simply getting out of the house. If you can find someone to stay with the baby it really will do you a lot of good, even if all you do is talk about him while you are out. We found that the grandparents had a much better understanding of how hard things were after they spent a weekend alone with the most demanding baby on earth!

Andrea

Andrea,
Thank you very much for your reply. I only pray that my son will be OK. He seems to have alot of pent up anger in him I dont know why. Do you remmber your son being angry and frustrated alot? Did he startle easily? Mine also has had reflux when breastfed although the colic did improve when I put him on formula at 3 months, he still has some reflux. He is gassy which is worse when he is upset, etc. He likes to be held in order to sleep but lately he fights me when I try to rock him to sleep. Likes to be held upright and rocked -sometimes it works. Now he has started squealing all the time, just seems mad. I just didnt think it was normal for a baby to be that uptight and angry all the time. He is also impatient, he cannot wait to be fed. He knows when the bottle to his mouth (when bib is put on) is coming but he panics and wimpers for me to hurry up (and I am pretty fast!) I have a Snugli, he cant sit in it for too long without getting fussy. I am massaging him daily as the clinic suggested. He is very squirmy so sometimes this is hard to do. He seems to get a bit calmer when I massage his legs and feet. (?)
Oh I cannot leave him with my Mother in Law (she is the only one living) because she is truly awful, telling me that the reason he is like that is something I am doing wrong as a parent. She has suggested that I hold him wrong, burp him wrong, tease him, spoil him….the list goes on and on as you can well imagine. I am sure that I will have trouble getting anyone to watch him. I am preparing to “up the ante” to the babysitter when I go back to work…
Glad your situation worked out. It sure is a hard adjustment to parenthood though - all these trials.
-Tango

yes, all of your descriptions sound like my oldest as a baby. It really is difficult to go through and very few people understand that, even those who have raised children. Ignore your mother-in-law — she doesn’t know what she is talking about! I know it is no comfort to hear that things will get better, but only after a while, though that certainly is the truth. You must be one savvy mom to have found this website when your baby is still so young. You are doing a good job, the best you possibly can, under very difficult circumstances. You should pat yourself on the back and not listen to those who don’t have the sense to recognize this!

Andrea

Some babies are just more difficult than others and I don’t know if there is a clear correlation between babyhood and toddlerhood, if it makes you have any hope. My two easiest babies both were very rough toddlers (and the 4 year old still makes me tear my hair out). One of my friends has had the most trouble with her now teenage daughter who was a easy baby. Her tough baby has been an easy child.

You might look for the book The Difficult Child. I found it a godsend when my middle child was tearing our house apart (literally). (Now he was an easy baby—but turned into a terror at about 15 months). It was written by a psychologist whose fourth child turned their lives upside down. One advantage they had was because it was their fourth child, they knew it wasn’t them. I don’t remember how much there was on babies but it might help give you some perspective.

Sensory integration issues, like one poster suggested, can be the culprit. My understanding is babies don’t have it–but some are worse than others. That is why it is very common for babies to scream when overstimulated. In retrospect, my now 8 year old had sensory integration issues as a toddler. He outgrew most of them
and we survived by using the techniques in The Difficult Child and some help from my social worker sister who had worked with emotionally disturbed children.

Don’t pay attention to those who critisize you. When my middle child was three, we were being critisized by both sets of grandparents. He was hitting, biting, and tearing his room apart when confined to it. One thought we weren’t firm enough. The other thought we were too firm. The later went as far as to ask us if we loved this particular child!!! My parents (the ones who thought we were wimps) were there one particular thanksgiving when said child did one of his usual tantrums. I didn’t let him get away with it but still my mom critisized me because he dared to tantrum (you kids would have never done that). I asked her what she would have done differently. She had nothing to say. Anyway, he now eight and is a marvelous child and both sets of grandparents have applauded us on how well he is turning out. I don’t think either side of the family had ever coped with a child like him.

Beth

Thanks Beth and Andrea for your comments. I will look further into Sensory Integration Disorder. I also ordered the book the “Difficult Child” from Amazon.com. Internet is just soo handy!
-Tango

My dd (CAPD, expressive language deficits - not diagnosed ADD, but I’m sure someone out there could put that label on her), was a very colicy baby too. Did not sleep thru night until she was 2 - she would go to sleep either in a swing or to the sound of a specific hair dryer. I could go on and on about other ‘symptoms’.

What I am realizing now is that I think she was allergic or sensitive to many of the foods that I was eating (I breastfed until she was 9mo. - I was under the impression at the time that since I breastfed, she couldn’t be sensitive to these). The fact that your child had the reflux and the gassiness makes me very suspect!!

I think somehow this blocked her auditory sensory channel- which can mess up your vestibular system and cause all sorts of neurological disorganization problems. The allergies (which could also be triggered by dust, stuffed animals, bedding etc.) can cause fluid pressure in the inner ear - for every bout of an ear infection, they say you can have 20 instances of middle ear fluid and pressure).

Along with the other books suggested, read up on food senstivities - there is a book by Doris Rapp that is good. Consider going on an allergy free diet yourself and see if you notice anything (I know - easier said than done). And allergy proof your home and where he sleeps.

I also suggest NACD’s Guide to Child Development and Education - you can order at www.nacd.org. Boy, I wish I had this when my kids were babies. You want to do lots of auditory stimulation - and other kinds of sensory stimulation. Consider getting some classical music to play(Mozart is the best) - Baby Mozart looks like a good one and look at ABT’s Sound Health Series for background music(www.advancedbrain.com). With my oldest- who has no LD’s, but had similar type of problems with allergies/gassiness, ear infections- he would only take his afternoon nap with Mozart playing in background - I now wonder if this helped wart of some of the issues we see with my daughter ? He has very good auditory memory.

The NACD tapes will help you to understand how to stimulate and WHY and how to create a learning environment. It will explain the importance of the developmental steps and how to encourage each stage. (My son never crawled - went straight to walking and used a walker BIG NO NO- however, he still ended up establishing a good cross pattern to his walking. My son does not have any academic problems, but he does exhibit some sensory issues- and his expressive language is not real hot.). Most important, you can be looking out for neurological disorganization signs (which is what causes LD and ADD) and be able to catch them at early stages.

The 1st 3 years of life are extremely critical for proper development of your central auditory nervous system and language development etc.

I thought maybe I would offer my thoughts. My son, who is now 10 and had been diagnosed quite a while ago with ADHD and ODD, had difficulty as an infant too. He really didn’t care for physical touch sometimes. I couldn’t figure out why for a long time but then realized that it depended on what I was wearing. He would become very aggitated at the feel of certain types of fabric. He would also get very aggitated in the bath. Many people told me when he was upset to give him a bath and it would calm him down. It never did. He would get very upset, cry and shake. It actually wound him up tighter. He liked to have constant stimuli whether it was a radio, tv, washer, etc. He also liked to do several things at a time.

I don’t know if this will help but if it does - great!

Has anyone ever suggested your baby may have Sensory Integration Dysfunction? go to a library or book store and check for books on the subject. A. Jean Ayres wrote “Sensory Integration and the Child” (original theory) and there have been many other book s on the subject.
You may want an “occupational therapy evaluation”. I teach special ed and work closely with the OT in my school. We work on sensory behaviors to soothe, calm, comfort, etc. kids that react in various ways to sensory input around them.
Your baby is very hypersensitive to senses around him. Also, I always suggest to my parents a book by Carla Hannaford, “Why Learning is Not All in Your Head”. It explains the central nervous system in laypersons terms and you will understand how parts of the CNS develop over time and will effect your child’s learning processes.
Good luck and don’t ever stop believing, “ALL CHILDREN CAN LEARN”
in their own time and space. If you don’t feel comfortable with one doctor, try another! I went to 3 different psychologists before I found one that I thought was competent and knowledgeable. God Bless!

HI,
I did some research on SID and I am not convinced that this is what he has, but I guess it could be - just a bit different than how I understand it. I understood that SID could be from babies being premature and hospitalized for a long time. My son was born full term. We got home 11 days after he was born and I had him alot while in hospital because he was so colicky that no nurse wanted him. Also, he likes to be held, just in a certain way - so that he can see the world around him (from what I can tell). He always loved breastfeeding too. He is fussy/mad but I dont know if it is because of anxiety, overstimulation or understimulation. I noticed today that he enjoyed a stroller ride. He was quiet and did not kick or anything, just looked around. (was heavenly) But tonight I had a hard time getting him to sleep. Was it too much for him? I just dont know. I noticed another thing tho, when he tries to put a toy in his mouth he does do it with alot of force, but this might be because he is concentrating so hard?
-Tango

Tango,

My child was full term - 9 days late and very healty (9lbs 7oz) who has sensory intergation problems. I have never heard it was found only in premies. My daughter is very sensitive to different types of fabric. As a infant and toddler, until the age of avout 6, hated loud noises. We lived in AF Base housing at the end of the flight line which didn’t help and she hated the fireworks on the 4th of July. She love things to be swung - higher the better, spun - the quicker the better.

There are many things I learned about Sensory Intergartion and why they like to spin or be in motion and how the nervous system works though my OT. So don’t rule out Sensory Intergaration just because he was full term and it may be that he is just a fussy baby.

The one thing I have leard as a parent is I know my childern better than anyone! Like the eariler poster said if you are not comfortable with a dx, follow-up with someone else. Occassialy weas parents - dads too - get gut instincts you just know something is just not right - persue those. Sometimes I have had to accept the dx is correct (older daughters growing pains). Also, we as parents are learning how to parent just as the child is trying to learn about their world. We will make mistakes. We just have to attempt to learn all we can and do the best we can.

Good Luck and keep us posted.

Margaret

Maybe it was that my own son had SID but your description of your baby here brought back strong memories. My son hated to be held on his back. He had to be held straight up. He put toys in his mouth with tremendous force and loved sitting up in the stroller and being pushed even if was in circles around the living room. He seemed mad so much of time of the time and I just kept wondering what could make a little baby so mad?

But this terribly fussy baby became the calmest child. Even though he did have ADD and did benefit from some medication in his early years in school, with or without his medication he was a wonderfully pleasant child and became a wonderfully pleasant young man.

But the first few months were a tremendous challenge. Have you tried vaccuming around him? My fussy son loved the sound of the vacuum cleaner, needed a pacifer badly, screamed bloody murder in the tub, learned to love to swim, liked the sound and feel of the dryer if we put his infant seat on top of it and seemed to be calmed often times by car rides and always by stroller rides.

Good luck.

Like Andrea, I also have anecdotal evidence to offer about the correlation between colicky babies and ADHD. My oldest child (daughter) was extremely colicky and continues to be a high-strung child. She didn’t sleep through the night reliably until she was 2 years old and required constant attention. My sister-in-law is a pediatrician and says that staying at our house for a week when my daughter was 4 months old changed the way she practiced medicine. When parents complained that their babies cried all of the time, she didn’t believe it was possible. After a week with us, however, she say that a baby really could fuss and cry for hours on end. I should add that now, at age 12, my daughter is doing extremely well in school, but continues to be a challenging child to keep happy.

The only advice I can offer is to very carefully monitor your colicky baby to minimize stress. With our daughter, we tried very hard to avoid situations in which she was tired or hungry. If friends wanted to have dinner, we had them over to our house so we could put our daughter to sleep at the same time every night. I always carried (and still do) food in the car and my purse to make sure she isn’t overly hungry. As a baby, we also found that she was happier in a snugglie - she like to face out, not in, however. We also used Dr. Ferber’s book on how to deal with sleep problems as a bible for getting her to sleep.

Our younger child (son) was a very easy baby - began sleeping through the night at 6 weeks; smiled all of the time; very easy to satisfy. When in second grade, he was diagnosed with ADHD. Now in third grade, he is doing well in school but my husband and I spend a lot of time working with him.

Best of luck. Having a colicky baby is no picnic, but you’ll pull through. If you can afford help, by all means get it. If you have family to help, call on them.

Since your baby is not breastfed, he needs essential fatty acids! Even some breast fed babies need EFAs because the typical American diet is deficient in them and most moms probably don’t have optimal amounts in their breastmilk! This is very important for neurological development! In Europe, infant formulas are required to contain essential fatty acids but formula makers in the U.S. are resisting despite proven scientific documentation.

Please try to find a neurologist or nutritionist who can help you figure out the proper amount. You need to buy high quality fish oil (without Vit A and D) or flax seen oil to put in your baby’s formula. An infant only needs tiny amounts and it will probably make a HUGE difference!

Two companies that make excellent products are Nutricia (they have a very confusing web site but sell their products at all GNCs and RiteAid drug stores) and Nordic Naturals. They have a better web site.

Two books that will tell you lots about essential fatty acids are Smart Fats by Michael Schmidt (hope I spelled that right) and The LCP Solution: The Remarkable Treatment of ADHD, Dyslexia and Dyspraxia by Dr. Jacqueline Stordy. You want to PREVENT your child from having these problems!

Good luck!