Child symptoms of bipolar
Hi... I was looking for some characteristics of bipolar in children. My daughter has had 'issues' as I call it since she was about 3. Recently I got an adhd diagnosis, but the medication they put her on has not helped much at all. She is 6 years old, does well in school, they've seen a few of her episodes in school but for the most part she does well there because she has been going to the same school since she was 3, and she likes the routine they have so she isnt always 'wondering' what she is doing next in her day. She does get notes home from the teacher though and low marks on report cards for doing things like talking out in class, interrupting, trying to correct the teacher and other students, having problems resolving conflict with other students, and using her words instead of her actions. She does have a hearing loss from being sick as a baby, so Im wondering if they are just a little lax with her since she has that going on and has been diagnosed with sensory processing disorder when she was 2. Some of the things she does is completely not normal for a child, she has a twin brother so its like night and day with the differences between them, and all I get from dr's we see is that I "need to be stricter with discipline" and then get blocked out when I ask if Im doing bad at parenting them then why is it only her that has these issues? anyways lol! She has a lot of issues with change for one, when we plan something new to do on the weekends, or go somewhere, she gets a lot of anxiety and its like she cannot calm her mind down to rationally think about things, like if she is getting ready and cannot get her shoes on thats the end of it and she going into a meltdown screaming. She has self injuring behavior, when she gets upset she will bang things into her head, pinch herself, or hit herself. She talks non stop, like racing thoughts talking and she cannot talk fast enough to get the words out of her mouth. They Dx her with adhd because of the talking, she is very impulsive if she wants something she grabs instead of waiting to ask or something, she is also always on the go most of the time, she will be non stop running and jumping from the moment she wakes up until she goes to bed, the medication has helped some at first with this but its been 2 months and worn off on any affect on her. She has terrible mood swings, we could be having a good time and having fun, then if she gets in trouble or something goes wrong she is done and goes into meltdown mode, will kick walls, throw toys, kick and hit me and her brother, throw things at me, scream at the top of her lungs for hours, and when she gets like this its like there is no talking to her I can try to talk but she will repeat things over and over and just not hear me or if she does hear me she goes back to whatever it was that set her off and gets upset about it all over again. She also has anxiety over simple things, like the other night she literally cried for 45 minutes because she couldnt pick a pajama shirt... she kept saying over and over "If I wear a short sleeve shirt I will get cold, if I wear a long one ill get hot, if i take my blanket off my feet will be cold, it i leave my blanket on ill be hot but with a short shirt ill be cold " she just kept repeating that and i had no clue what to do for her i mean it was just a shirt! she worries about things like that all the time, about things that arent happening but 'could' happen, im just at my wits end at what to do for her, Ive had doctors say 'maybe bipolar' but that she was too young to diagnose, ive had maybe autism, maybe depression, maybe she has a cognitive impairment...... so any help at all would be greatly appreciated!!!!! thanks for reading
I also have twins that are like night and day. I am not an expert, but live with this behavior everyday. I would be willing to say that there is something else there besides ADHD especially since the ADHD meds didn't work. Having a son that is Bipolar, Asperger's & ADHD - I think they overlap in many areas. I can say that this all sounds like my son, but that doesn't help you much since he has had three dxs. Keep looking for a dr that believes that there is something else going on. It took me a long time to find someone that would listen to me, the MOM. I would take mother's intuition over their fancy dianostic criteria anyday :)
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Sheryl
Son: 9 - ADHD, Asperger's, Bipolar
Daughter: 9 -Typical (twin of bipolar son)
Daughter:6 - Autistic
Me: OCD, ADHD
Husband: Stay at home dad till he finds another job
Hey mom~ First and foremost - realize that I am not an expert on behavioral issues or meds, but I am MOM that has lived what you are going through. I do not know how much you have researched, or experienced. There is a spectrum of "disorders" and co morbidity that can present itself different in each and every human which makes it even harder to diagnose and treat. My son is 22 years old is undiagnosed (or maybe self diagnosed) BPII, my daughter was diagnosed BPII at 13 years of age she is now 18 1/2, I was diagnosed BPII at 40 years of age. As my son was growing up there was NOTHING to help me through our experience because all the studies of the brain came behind us, my daughter thankfully has benefited. I am pouring my heart into all these support groups because there wasn't any support when my son was a baby. I was told I was a bad parent. I was told I had no patience (HA! if they only knew!). I was told my child was colicky, finicky, bad and on and on. By experts and family alike I was told everything but WHAT WAS "WRONG."
Since birth I always knew my son was a unique. He did not act like a typical baby. He was a serious child, could stare you down like he was an adult reading your soul. He cried nonstop 24/7, was very hard to calm down and could not self soothe. Hated to be alone yet hated to be held. Fearful and anxious even as an infant. We took him to a Child behaviorist at 3 months and again at 11 months trying to understand his quirky habits. (Note that I am trying to remain positive but it was actually a hopeless, heartbreaking nightmare). He started talking at 6 months of age and complete sentences and conversation at 1 year, yet did not walk until he was 15 months.
Separation anxiety was off the charts so I quit work and stayed home with him. We joined a co-op parent/child preschool so I could be with him. I will never forget his first day of preschool as a 2 1/2 year old. I peeked in the window and saw he was standing in the middle of all the happy, exciting and bustling kids and was wringing his hands. Not crying, but pure anxiety was written all over his face. I made it as far as the parking lot before the staff called me back and said I need to stay with him. So for the first 6 months I was with him every day. And even though I am thankful for the opportunity because I could witness his behavior and ease him into life... it was hard to be there every day. After routine settled in I finally was able to leave him on his own and only attend on my assigned days.
There was so much drama going on for my son that I cannot begin to remember it all. My son could not stand tags in his clothes. He could not wear anything with buttons or zippers everything had to be pull on. He was obsess over certain toys (aliens, dinosaurs) and could tell you everything about it. (Not autism spectrum though). He would have violent temper tantrums that would come out of nowhere and we would lock him in his room with soft padded things and use his Koosh ball to throw around in anger to calm himself down. All this on the recommendation of his pediatrician because no one understood his problem.. not even Stanford (yes THAT Stanford CA) Children's Health Council where I took him several times to be evaluated. Unfortunately at the time it was never even considered that children or teens could be diagnosed as Bipolar and Autism was just starting to be recognized and diagnosed.
He is/was a brilliant, sensitive child, very artistic. He was always drawing and inventing things, had an offbeat sense of humor and loved his family and pets. He had a hard time making and keeping friends because he could never say the right thing, and was very uncoordinated. He would cry in tough or fearful situation.. even up to 13 years of age. In middle school he excelled in school and calmed down some but still had rapid mood changes. I was worried that puberty would bring out true brain challenges but surprisingly it calmed him down further and he matured greatly. (He graduated college May 2007 has a job in his field and has successfully lived on his own since he was 18 years old)
My daughter was a different story. She was a sweet lovable, easy going child, but also a bit quirky. When she hit puberty at 11 years of age our nightmare with her really began. She was bullied on campus, we lost a lot of family members in rapid succession. We all were traumatized and my sensitive daughter the most.Not until 2007 when I read an article in Readers Digest (What is Happening to My Son, Irene Levine) about a family with an 11 year old BP son and how long they had suffered did I get any answers. See if you can google the article or go to Reader's Digest archives and read it. The article could have been about my family, my son. When I went to the link included and completed the CABF questionnaire provided.. the more I completed my son's the more it described... my daughter! She was by now a freshman in high school, and though she maintained stability through middle school only NOW do I know some of the horrible stuff she did and experienced.
I trusted my gut and KNEW something was different with my son even as an infant, and later my daughter. I worked hard to get answers even though they were not there until years later There was so many indicators that my children were plugged in slightly different. Not wrong, just different. And it takes a parent with strong resolve to get answers.
Maybe your daughter self injures because she is releasing her anger/fear/pain in the only way she can see and feel deeply, whereas my young son took it out on the environment. My daughter's story is more severe but she was older when she presented her symptoms and in her case I think puberty was a big trigger.
I suggest you continue to try to find a good team of doctors. My daughter instantly improved with Lithium as a Mood Stabilizer, then all other drugs could help. Prior to taking Lithium any medication she took (and myself also) had adverse reactions and worsened the moods. We found that a neuropsychiatrist was the first step to understanding what was going on because he understands the brain and medication.. did not bother with the Freud and Jung stuff. And a talk therapist that understand young children is crucial.
Best of luck to you..
PS My son is successful and my daughter has stabilized into an amazing life that we are quite hopeful for. ( Go to forums See my story of hope "There has to be a Rainbow Somewhere." and understand more about what I experienced with my daughter.)
Another resource:The Juvenile Bipolar Research Foundation (JBRF) is the first and only charitable organization dedicated to the support of research for the study of early-onset bipolar disorder. Demitri F. Papolos, M.D. is the director of research of JBRF, and Janice Papolos is a co-founder.. Ikept use these books as my Bipolar Bible -they have helped me through many day/night. He has a questionnaire you can fill out that might help you understand your daughter better:
http://www.jbrf.org/pdf/CBQ_Development.pdf
http://bipolarchild.com/resources/jbrf/
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Lmmom 53 yrs BPII PTSD Lithium 300/mg Xanax as needed.
Hubby 54 yrs my rock of 30 years
22 yr old son/undiagnosed
18 yr old daughter/BPII 300 mg Lithium, Yaz, Zoloft
I agree with Sheryl. If you are managing to raise her twin brother without any issues, then why on earth would a doctor think your parenting was to blame for your dd's issues? That just doesn't make sense.
I strongly encourage you to seek an evaluation at a large university center with a good child psych dept. You already know she has sensory processing issues, she most likely has more than one dx going on, and many of them overlap in sx. Sometimes you have to get one problem addressed with meds or therapy, then you can tease out what the other problems are.
It's also important to be aware that stimulants given alone to a child with BP can sometimes accelerate the course of the illness and make things very bad, and this can take a month or two to show up. In the meantime, are you keeping a mood diary or chart of some sort? This will be a good tool for monitoring her stability or lack thereof and responses to treatments.
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Brenda,51, TBMF Parent to Parent Volunteer
Mom to A, 17, BP, Tourette's, OCD, ADHD: Eskalith CR, Lamictal, Cytomel, Allegra
E, 15 1/2, BP,AS: Seroquel, Eskalith CR, inositol, Buspar
B, 14 & H, 11
Married 18 years to DH, 50
FROM TBMF: Do not start, stop, or change medications or other treatments for yourself or your child based on what you read on this Website or elsewhere on the Internet. Information presented here should not replace the considered judgement of a doctor who knows you or your child.
I would also encourage you to pursue an evaluation by the school. That may enable you to get an IEP in place, or at least classify her under section 504...and it sounds like potentially she could get services such as OT. If all of that is already in place, then it may be time to revisit it, possibly request a functional behavioral analysis. I know that you are experiencing more of her meltdowns at home, but that still sounds like a considerable amount of difficulty with behavior at school (and the frustration over that spills over into the home environment too.)
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Chris Stanley- DS 11, ADHD ( ?) ODD, Bipolar NOS
currently taking Lithium, Risperidone, Trileptal (weaning off), Melatonin
I want to thank all of you so much for your replies.... Its really helped me a lot in feeling like Im not alone in all of this and its not just me thinking there is something wrong,
@LMMom ... a lot of what you said sounds so much like my daughter it made me want to cry, she was the same way as an infant, she had cancer and chemo as an infant, yet through all of it she always had like a serious look on her face, she cried 24/7 for a long time, wanted someone with her but never wanted to be held, she had severe seperation anxiety until she was 4, from 18 mos until she was 3 she had PT,OT,DT,ST 4 days a week and I could never leave the room without her trying to crawl/run after me and screaming. She does take her anger out on other things as well as herself, she will throw things, we've used soft foam blocks for her to throw around, and she will kick at everything and everyone around her...
She does have an IEP in place at school, and get speech and occupational therapy through the school right now. Her teacher is starting to see more of the behavior in the classroom that I had mentioned before... She doesnt talk out her frustration or issues with other kids like all the other students do, she will either impulsively grab things or yell, or tattle on them (which I explained to the teacher today was partly due to what I have kind of trained her at home to do, instead of grabbing or throwing to tell me and I help her talk it out) and whenever the teacher or someone catches her doing these things she crosses her arms and will refuse to talk for awhile, the teacher said she wouldnt talk to anyone for almost an hour when she was told to stop 'tattling' one day.