Worried About Too Young

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Sometimes I worry that children are being diagnosed to young for any numerous disease. Some of them directly deal with autism and well other disorders such as ADHD.
Shouldn't we wait? What harm is there in waiting?

Children can tune into their parents emotions. If the child is feeling anxious, its probably because the parent is anxious. A child who misbehaves is more likely reacting to the energy and emotion of a parent.

How do we know when something is a disease and when its just the kid feeding off the energy around them?

I guess these come up because I'm suddenly reminded of this Frontline documentary called The Medical Child, here is the link to watch on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCfRqNISQZg

I seem to notice that most of the kids being diagnosed with adhd are diagnosed as such by teachers who just don't want to deal with the natural eboulliance of children.

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Some lifelong neurological challenges can take decades to diagnose correctly. One can take a look at books (first person accounts) like: Living With Mysterious Epilepsy: My 48 Year Victory Over Fear book by Ruth C. Adam and Walter C. Alvarez, M.D. (about Dilantin - not a cure) and the How To Cure (part of the misunderstanding/ignorance surrounding) Hyperactivity book (1981) about ADHD Inattentive by C. Thomas Wild and Anita Uhl Brothers, M.D. (about Tirend, NoDoz, Bonine, and nutrition - not a cure)(a 32 year journey to understanding).

But then shouldn't the parents then take responsibility? Shouldn't the parents do research? Because it seems easy that a doctor just labels their child with a sticker.

@PGD: Thank you, I'll look those up.

Isn't having constant questions about how best to parent their child going to make parents anxious?

I've commented at length on the Frontline website on that program: I think there are serious issues with combining psychoactive drugs and developing brains, and they should be used as an absolute last resort, for instance if the child is a threat to him or herself or others.

IMO, the pharmaceutical approach is not the same as a diagnosis: in general, mental health professionals worth their salt accept that diagnoses for children may change or even disappear as a child develops. What I've found is that it doesn't matter if we have the "correct" diagnosis (was Asperger's now PDD_NOS) right or not - those accommodations are appropriate for him. Doing what's right for your child is what is important: if a diagnosis helps that, it's a good thing.

I don't have a child, lol. But I do have a younger brother whom they want to diagnose with ADHD. I don't think he has it. Much the way my parents don't think I have Aspergers.
But in reality, I really don't think he has ADHD. Mom and dad are making such a big fuss about it. But whenever he's around me he's calm and isn't jumping off walls. He seems to me to always be focused when I am babysitting him and such.
I don't know what to do. I don't want to see my younger brother become something he isn't.

I don't want anyone to slap a label on him, when they don't have any proof.

At young ages like that, most shrinks are going to ask the people who observe the kid in real time situations rather than do much studying of the child in an offiice setting. Office settings aren't an easy place for a correct diagnosis with some of the milder conditions (or depth of condition) because you don't get to see the child interact with peers/adults/stress etc and a kid hasn't got the mind or vocabulary to discuss their activity logically and in a self-interrogative manner.

So they rely on the teachers' and parents' perceptions.

And yes the parents should be a line of defense, but usually parents will take the word of someone who deals with kids everyday (teachers) or someone with a white coat and a framed paper behind his desk (shrink). Usually because many parents feel overwhelmed by taking care of their child in this non-stop connected always busy world of ours and thus start to doubt their own instincts (Bowing to the almighty peer pressure and outside 'authority').

So yes, I put some blame on the parents who fall for the con game.
But I put more blame on the teachers who overdiagnose in order to get some peace in a profession that is ultimately all about kids and chaos.

It's hard to diagnose an adult condition that is based on the neurology of the adult brain on a child who is still developing and changing very rapidly. For children, I think they should evaluate the symptoms, and if they find any significant results, they can treat the symptoms and monitor them as the child develops. It makes no sense that so many clear and definitive diagnoses are being made on such young children, and I think this is indicative of significant flaws in the diagnostic process.

I'm not diseased, I'm disordered.

I am a parent and I can tell you that when you know something is "different" about your child and you see them struggling you want to find the cause of that so that you can help them.

The nature of these syndromes and disorders is that they are so different and yet alike in many ways. It is so difficult to find which "label" accurately applies to your child. this can be very dangerous. They treated my daughter for anxiety and OCD symptoms came out. Now we are dealing with obsessions and rituals, all which may be part of AS. And she also has mood swings which can also be Bipolar, or perhaps she's just "different" and will grow out of these things as time goes on. Who knows, only time will tell.

I am definitely opposed to medications because they can cause more issues in people who don't tolerate them or respond with side effects. It's not an exact science unfortunately. The best "treatment" is a understanding, stability, caring and patience.

And that' seems like a big problem. A lot of parents want to fix what's wrong. And not understand what's going on.

Well, they buy into what the "professionals" are selling them-namely meds pushed by big drug companies.

Its called False Authority Syndrome:

http://anti-virus-rants.blogspot.com/20 ... drome.html

My mom's a pre-K teacher in a school that is in a very low income area & lots of her students have different mental disorders like ADHD & I think a lot of it is because of horrible parenting. Some of the parents are 13year-old crack whores who are staying at a different relatives house every week. One parent last year bragged about how she tells her son to give the teacher hell when she puts him on the bus. A lot of parents want the kids to get diagnosed as having things so they can get bigger welfare checks & get meds for the kid so they don't have to deal with it. A lot of the kids are on meds & they will probably be on crack & other stuff by the time they get into Jr.high. It seems like society would rather diagnoses a mental disorder & put kids on meds instead of trying to fix the real causes. I do believe that some kids have major problems that should be diagnosed; I had a lot that weren't diagnosed & I'm having lasting problems in life cuz of it; But I belive that lots of kids are having problems that meds can NOT help

There are also the Jenny McCarthys of the world, who want their babies to be flawlessly perfect. (Puke).

I'm more worried about "too old", though that may be a personal bias. Growing up undiagnosed set me up for a world of hurt, and forced me to miss out on many useful things I could've learned much earlier.

I do agree that a doctor who diagnoses a young child needs to explain to parents how much children vary in development at that age, and that their child's oddity could even itself out over the next few years. Early intervention should consist mostly of providing an environment in which the child's stress level is lowered and he is given every opportunity to learn. This would not harm misdiagnosed typical children, who at the most would be given an opportunity they don't really need. Whereas, 40 hours of ABA and no opportunity to be a child... More harm than good.