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So I'm requesting guidance from experienced parents, here's the story:
My daughter is 8, we adopted her at birth and she had crack in her system (exposed, not addicted), additionally her bio-mom told us she drank a very small amount.
At 15 months we sought early intervention for her behaviors- namely sleep disabilities, agression towards other children & us, needing to be held constantly. She was dx'ed w/ sensory processing disorder.
At 2.5 we took her to a children's hospital out of state where she was d'ed w/ sensory processing & ADHD. Have been seeing the local children's psych (only one in town), he's been pressuring us for years to add FAS/E to her list of dx. Because the biomom disclosed alcohol to us, H would get the dx no matter what, but I've always been really reluctant because, well I don't know why, but it can be a fairly useless dx w/ other dx'es, and the last thing she needs is yet another label.
So this spring we were being pressured to retain her by the school, with the IEP they cannot w/o our blessing, we had a neuropsych eval done and she came up w/ learning disabilities and she referred to the alcohol too. Though I feel like people keep grasping onto that for no good reason. We did decided to retain her this year.
Fast forward to earlier this week. I found out that H's biomom is finally clean and has recently been dx'ed w/ bipolar and depression. So now I've been researching BiP non-stop & trying to figure out where to go w/ this info. My gut tells me to bypass our regular doc and go back to the children's hosp for an eval, my concerns are that they don't know her so would they miss something? I am not sure about our hometown doc though, I feel like he's just taking the easy way. I also can't figure out how she'd be dx'ed when her ADHD meds keep the rages down most of the time.
So in other words, what the heck to do? Based on the checklists I've found online, I feel there is a distinct possibility of BiP, but I'm no doc.
Thank you for slogging through this long post.
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Bipolar disorder is hard to diagnose in kids because the symptoms mimic other disorders and look different in kids than in adolescents or adults.
One thing to look at is sleep pattern. Does she sometimes get very little sleep but not seem tired, then other times want to do nothing but sleep?
Another characteristic is grandiose thinking, but that can be hard to differentiate from just being an imaginative child.
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If you suspect bipolar disorder I would highly suggest seeking out a psychiatrist that specializes in childhood bipolar. Many will not diagnose children with the disorder and will mis diagnose with everything under the sun. My DD was diagnosed with so many disorders from the age of 4-14 I can't even count then at 14 finally diagnosed with bipolar 2 with rapid transitions. She can transition between maniac and depression in the same day. We as her parents knew it was bipolar all along. Since her diagnosis and being treated properly, correct medication and therapy she is doing amazing. Now 20 living on her own supporting herself and going to school. It has been a rough road to get to this point and I truely believe that if I could have found a doctor sooner that would have listened she would have been successful Mutch earlier. Advocate for your daughter and don't take the answer they give if you don't feel that it's right.
Some things we dealt with. My daughter could not deal with change. We had to prep her for everything we could not just say come on we are going to the grocery store and run out the door, she would have a melt down. No impulse control if she wanted something or wanted to do something she would do it even at an early age. I would ask her why did you do that and she would look at me with the most sincere face and say " I don't know I just wanted too"
She was extremely intelligent way beyond her years. She was in a gifted and talented program in school. This is common with bipolar children. She was very good at getting her way (master manipulator) she knew when to turn on the tears and pull at your heart strings.
Sleep patterns were crazy some days she would nap long hours some nights she would be up half the night! We would hear find her out of bed at 12-2 in the morning often even when she was 9-10 years old. When she was around 4 or 5 we would find her outside our bedroom door many many mornings asleep on the floor.
If she got upset a screaming fit could last for 3-4 hours. Once she was in a rage it was almost impossible to calm her down. Little things could send her off the deep end. We felt as if we were walking on eggshells.
She had absolutely no problems what so ever at school, no discipline problems, she was well liked by all of her teachers.
When manic She would talk a mile a minute and when talking could go between subjects rapidly. Within a 5 minute conversation she could go back and forth easily talking about 2-3 different subjects. Each sentence being a different subject. She would not skip a beat and we would be trying to follow the conversation as she jumps around back and forth between the subjects.
When depressed would cry all the time. Tried to commit suicide twice. Once by taking pills once by trying to jump from a moving vehicle. She was 12 and 13 years old at The time.
This is not all inclusive but I hope this helps.
I hope that you are able to get the correct diagnosis what ever it is and get the help you need for your daughter. I know that an early diagnosis with bipolar can make all the difference good luck :)
It will probably be hard to get her diagnosed with bipolar so young. I would take her to a really good child psychiatrist like pp recommended because if they can get her on the right medications that will probably help. There are parent support groups with kids with mental illness. You might be able to find out some more information there.
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