since my son was diagnosed....
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since my son was diagnosed....
| Sat, 04-22-2006 - 12:26am |
Since my son was diagnosed I have been doing research into the fun of having a child with Autism, only to find out that my daughter may have been misdiagnosed years ago with ADHD. She has so many of the things that you are supposed to look for with Aspergers and since I have an appt to go over meds with the ped on Wed, I'm going to ask him what the chances of a misdiagnosis is. From what I've read, there is a high chance that she was misdiagnosed. She fits the 'mold' in so many ways and answers tons of questions I've had since she ws diagnosed. Hopefully I'll be able to get some answers from the ped.
Stacy

(((Stacy)))
Particularly in girls it is easy to get misdiagnosed or not diagnosed at all. Even if your ped doesn't agree I would push for an evaluation.
Kids with AS can tend to have horrible executive function skills which looks just like ADHD. Well actually in alot of ways it is the same thing but the main issue is AS and not ADHD.
Curious, is she on meds? And did she respond well to them? One of Cait's first diagnosis was ADD and we tried stimulants early on. Within 3 days we knew that we could never use stimulants with her. No doctor since has even recommended ADHD meds though the school keeps wanting to stick it in as a medical diagnosis even though she hasn't had that as a dx or even a comorbid dx for about 6-7 years.
Renee
Actually dh and I were talking about that last night. Any of the meds the ped has tried for her adhd didn't work. IT looked like they did for a day or two, but then nadda. The dr didn't want to try her on stimulants as my older son had problems with them and I refused. It's one of the questions I'll be bringing up with him when I talk to him on Wed. I kept asking him why the meds didn't work and he kept telling me it was because she needed a higher dose. Hopefully we'll get her diagnosed and move on from there. She doesn't have any of the ADHD signs that my older son has. He would alwasy tell me that it was because she was a girl.
Stacy
She was seen by Neuro last summer but the dr and I had a disagreement. He told me that I shouldn't expect so much of her because her IQ was only 81. HE told me I was expecting too much out of her to try and have good grades and to finish her assignments among other things. I told my ped I wouldn't go back to him again. Hopefully they will send her to someone different.
Stacy
Before you take her off her ADHD meds, keep in mind that ADHD and Asperger's can coexist. She may have both.
Ian has ADHD and Asperger's. If we were to take him off ADHD meds, life would be very hectic here. One day Ian was sick and I forgot to give him his meds. At about 11:00 am he was crying and saying, "I have too many things on my mind! My head hurts! I have too many things on my mind!" It was really scary to see him that way. He just cannot manage his thoughts without his meds -- his thoughts are too disorganized. Yet he also has Asperger's. We treat the ADHD with meds and work to maximize the Aspie benifits and overcome the obstacles.
Kelly
Stacy,
Joel was on stim and non-stim meds for a year when we had our pediatric neurologist tell us "true ADHD responds to meds, if he's not responding, it's not ADHD." He was diagnosed with Aspergers this year and with no meds, it's much better at our house. Good Luck!
Paula G.
I know you don't have much time before your appointment, but I will suggest some reading for you:
The ADHD-Autism Connection: A Step Toward More Accurate Diagnoses and Effective Treatments, by Diane Kennedy, Rebecca Banks, Temple Grandin.
It was a very, very interesting book.
That response sounds alot like my son. He was diagnosed ADHD amung other things for years (despite a question of PDD at 3 and numerous times after). We tried every ADHD med in the book. It would work then nothing or his behavior would be worse.
Finally, we were in the med study for strattera before it was approved for general use. The psychiatrist recomended it because none of the meds or med combinations she had tried had worked and she was out of options. During the strattera study, the study psych brought up ASD again. I again gave my usual line about how he has severe stranger anxiety and only acts like this for doctors (well and new teachers, strangers, in public, at school, lol). And he says "Wow, doctor induced autism. You aught to have that one added to the DSM cause I never heard of it. Until then you may want to have him re-evaluated". We did and sure enough he was ASD.
My youngest son also has been diagnosed ADHD and responds immediately to ritalin. He was like a new boy on it, HOWEVER, it also caused absence seizures so no more of that. He also has some cycles and there were periods when the meds would make his moods worse. He could be diagnosed BP I have found but we are lucky. He is very bright little dude and we have lots of tools available to us for now. As such he has learned to cope really well and some neurons reconnected from toddlerhood. So he doesn't need a full diagnosis or medication. He more just has that personality and he will likely be a CEO and in charge of the world given the right kind of supports and flexibility yet structure from us and his teachers.
Renee