Medications & 3 yr. olds

First I would probably try other things such as diet - take out all colored foods - such as foods w/ dyes….then I’d drop dairy like a hot potato - ALL DAIRY. Try it for 30 days…see what comes of it, if you notice significant improvement (which trust me, you’ll cry if you do cuz I did)…then stick w/ that for now..

What about possible SID (sensory integration dysfunction) issues - research it on the net and see if your son fits the profile possibly. There is OT therapy for this and you’ll be amazed at the transformation as well.

I’m truly not sure if they would medicate a 3 yr old but I TOTALLY UNDERSTAND your frustation right now.

Over these last few mons I’ve learned there is no “magic pill” it’s all trial and error and those trials and erros can such even WORSE than how your child “normally” acts (which sucks as it is)…..so try some of these other things first and see how far you get! You might be pleasantly surprised.

If you need some more help w/ the diet stuff…let me know….I can point you to the right direction and websites.

Loves ;)
S

I would not even consider medicating a 3 year-old. There may be some issues you have not looked at yet. Where are the behaviors occuring most often? Can you start to watch what comes before the behaviors - like what ‘lead up to it’? Tell me what his day looks like - what is he expected to handle?

I also agree that diet can be very helpful - we had excellent success from 3-5 with the Feingold Program. You can find more info at www.feingold.org.

There are actually no ADHD meds that are approved for children under 6. I would look at other strategies at this tender age!

also there is a nutrional drink mix called SPARK that our daughter has had succes with.

It actually has caffeine in it which has been show in studies - w/ ADHD kids - to CALM THEM! She drinks one pkg of mix w/ either apple juice or water before sch.

www.advocare.com

(I don’t sell the stuff but a friend of mine does)

Loves :)
S

You have received good advice!

I also had a complete wild man on my hands at 3. Don’t know how we survived, but we did. He is now 8 and NOT ADHD. My Pediatrician said he was the “busiest bear” she had ever seen. I don’t know who came up with the term “terrible 2’s”. I think 3 was so much harder with all 3 of my children. I would not consider medicating until he was older and in elementary school, and his behavior was affecting him academically. Give him a little time to mature. Maybe you should look for a new school that is a better match for his personality and needs at this time.

Also look at the web site www.drstordy.com She talks about supplementing with LCP, omega3. Very interesting and might be worth a try for you

Good luck

Definitely wait a bit to try medication. A friend of mine’s on was off the chart behavior wise at this age, we thought it was severe adhd but docs told her she wasn’t being ‘strict enough’. Come school age, he was diagnosed with child onset bipolar. Stim medicines would have been a disaster for this kid if he had gotten it. After destroying his kindergarten classroom, he was finally appropriately evaluated. He is in a school for behavior disordered kids and has finally gotten an appropriate medicine regimen. This after being suspended from the behavior school several times. Things are getting better for them but it has been a hard road.

Amy

I would also get the book the Out of Sync Child and see if it sounds like your child. I have a friend whose child was was really out of control too. I thought from talking to her (I have never met her children) that she had sensory integration disorder. Afterwards, the child was diagnosed as severe ADHD. She then took her to an OT specializing in sensory integration—and she said SID. With therapy, she is doing much better. SID is often misdiagnosed as ADHD.

My LD child was a very difficult preschooler. The book The Difficult Child helped us a lot. Also, the book The Challenging Child. I also have a sister with who was working with emotionally disturbed children at the time. She helped me set up a system of multiple levels of punishment. For example, he had time out in a chair. If he wouldn’t stay there, he had to go to his room. If he trashed his room (very typical), he missed a special event like going to the pool. We construed many special outings just for him to miss them.

It was very difficult—I had my mother in law who accused us of not loving him by being so hard on him, and my mother who thought we weren’t hard enough.

Things I wish I’d known—SID—my son was diagnosed with it at age 7, I have no doubt it contributed to his difficulties. Also, my son’s language was delayed and kids with delayed language often are behavioral problems. We had tubes put in at age 4. If you haven’t already, have his hearing checked out. My son had intermittent ear infections that appeared to have caused long term difficulties.

By 6, my son was the easiest of my three kids. We were forced to be consistent with him in a way we hadn’t with our oldest and it paid off in the long run. He is 10, not medicated, and I am constantly told what a nice well behaved child he is.

Beth

I don’t think it is unheard of to medicate a 3-year-old, but if you can wait till late 4 or 5, that might be better bec you will have a better idea of what kind of meds are best. It may not be ADHD meds. Based on your description, I’m not sure you are looking at ADHD or just ADHD, but a combination of ADHD and something else. Violence is not a part of AHDH unless it’s related to poor impulse control. Yet, everyone thinks of ADHD first when there’s a kiddo have trouble. Have you looked at the criteria for Oppositional Defiant Disorder? Someone else mentioned bi-polar and another two mentioned Sensory Integration Disorder. So many of these type dx overlap and you might go from one to another as your child gets older and certain behaviors predominate.

It’s important to have a behavior management plan in place that you use consistently. 123Magic is a good method for these little ones. The book The Explosive Child is helpful, too. It’s important to compartmentalize the bad behavior so that when kiddo is being good, you react postively to him and not carry over you anger and frustration into the happy moments.

Since he is 3 you can request an evaluation through your public schools and he may then qualify for a special ed preschool. I’ve also seen difficult kids do better in a home daycare setting with few other kids. I have seen other kids improve when the family went from 2 incomes to 1 income and there was a parent home all day using consistent behavior management plans and very limited preschool classes. I’ve seen other kids improve when they went to full time daycare from being home all day. Some kids need a team of people to take care of them so no one person gets burned out. Think about a major lifestyle change. Consider all options. This child may require a different parenting technique than the one you were planning on doing.

My son was an out of control toddler as well. He took a hammer to our car when he was 2. He was always jumping in the swimming pool and sinking to the bottom. Sold that house and bought one without a pool.

Then there was the time he handcuffed his baby brother to the baby swing. Oh, what fun!

I empathize with you but please don’t medicate him, he is too young and if he has side effects like hallucinations he can’t verbalize them
.
Things that worked for us:

He had to have a strict routine, nap at the same time, strict bedtime, music at bedtime helped calm him try “The rockabye collection.”

We developed a system of consequences for his actions that worked like a charm. We had to learn to not yell but just provide appropriate consequences to negative behavior. It is all about not projecting or accepting negative behavior.

Try to understand his triggers and then avoid all such triggers. Lack of sleep was the big one for us it made him extremely hyper.

I wish I had looked at diet and sensory integration when he was little. We have only tackled these issues within the past year but it has made a dramatic change. The right sensory diet made a very big difference. He really needs time to move. They can work out alot of these sensory integration issues on the jungle gym. Also, my son responds well to a big bear hug but some kids have the opposite effect.

My son is a wonderful, unmedicated 9 year old. He is kind and thoughful and almost never acts out anymore. He still has a ton of energy but that is a positive thing when you take away the impulsive aspects. He is a real go getter, willing to try anything.

I would not medicate a three year old and I would definitely explore diet and behavior management plans. The number of children whose symptoms are helped by dietary changes is thought to be quite small, based on current research, but I wouldn’t rule it out.

You may also consider having your son evaluated by an occupational therapist, especially if he shows symptoms like tactile defensiveness or being overstimulated by crowds and noise. You should know, however, that there is no research that supports the effectiveness of occupational therapy for treating true ADHD and only limited research showing that sensory integration therapy is a useful treatment for most children. Still, some people here have had positive results, and if it works for your child, great.

Also, you may wish to ask your doctor about a new, non-stimulant treatment for ADHD called Strattera. I would be loathe to start a three year old on any medication because kids can change so rapidly, but Strattera might be a better choice than stimulants if you find that other methods of dealing with your child’s difficulties are not working.

You may well find that as your child gets older, his symptoms change. At three my son was wildly hyperactive, though not violent or angry. Just very, very extremely busy and into trouble every minute of the day. By age 7, he was spacy and almost hypoactive. He ended up with a diagosis of inattentive ADHD, along with LD. We tried dietary changes, occcupational therapy and nutritional supplements. OT helped his gross and fine motor skills but did nothing for his ADHD symptoms. Diet and supplements were also a flop. We ended up medicating him successfully (at age 9), but we felt it was very important to first explore these other approaches. He is now 12 years old and doing great. We wouldn’t have predicted that when he was three, believe me!

Andrea

What great advice here! I wouldn’t medicate a 3 year old either, there are so MANY reasons for kids’ behavior that we don’t know or understand, especially when they can’t tell us what is happening.

Auditory Processing issues are one more difficulty that can lead to behavior issues (which in fact are one of the ways the little ones are telling us “something is wrong….help me!”)