Hi April.  I am so sorry you are having a tough time.  Hang in there.  I do not really have an opinion on the preschool thing.  If it were my son, I probably would not, but every child is different and has different needs, triggers, and some Sx and degree of Sx may very.   One consideration would be that it may be difficult to stabilize or evaluate the stability of your ds if he is going through a major change, though.  My ds has never been on either of these meds so I cannot touch on that either.  There are several parents on here, however, whose children are on these meds, so they may have much more feedback for you. 

Mainly I just wanted to say, "Welcome to the Forum!"  You will find so much support and information through the parents on this site.  I honestly do not know what I would do without it!  I am so sorry that you are going through this and it can be very scary, but know that you are not alone.  Every parent on this forum has a child similar to yours and we are all here to help each other through it and do the best we can as advocates for our babies.  Stay strong! Brenda or someone will likely be through here before too long to offer you many links to very useful resources! =o)

Welcome to the CABF Family!

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Lauren -Mother of 3 boys
ds - 7 year old - ADHD/ Mood Disorder NOS/ PDD-NOS
Meds: Risperodine 1mg 1X per day, Adderall 20mg, Clonidine 0.1 mg at bedtime and prn

Welcome :-)

I think you could try him in preschool and be  upfront with the teachers about what some of his struggles are.  You don't have to tell them every gory detail, but rather some of his triggers and strategies you have used to handle them.  Preschool teachers are used to dealing with all sorts of different behaviors from all sorts of kids and in my experience are pretty tolerant of differences.  This might be a good way to see how he reacts in a school environment.  If you realize that it is very difficult for him or there are struggles you did not anticipate, then you can get the ball rolling for any accommodations he might need when he starts kindergarten.  I think a lot of good can come of putting him in now, and there is no real down side.  At worst, you will see he is not ready and take him out.  At best, he will thrive in the structured school environment.  In the middle, you will see how he responds to a setting he has not yet been exposed to - at a time when you have a lot of leeway to make adjustments.

Good luck - I know the diagnosis can feel scary and make you question everything you thought you knew.  But you will learn to live in this world and you will never stop loving your child.

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Karenj

Self: as sane as I can be everyday
A - DD (17yo) well adjusted, high functioning, motivated, successful, waiting patiently to go away to college
M - DD (13yo) Mood Disorder NOS (dx 4/2011) ADHD (dx 2nd grade), dumb high IQ, mainstream education with 504 only but failing miserably, Abilify 7mg and Equetro 100mg evenings, Concerta 36mg before school
BF - Live in boyfriend of 5 years, supportive and learning more every day
EX - Ex-husband, divorced since 2002, family history of bipolar, unpredictable and sometimes raging

 Hi April, I'm with Karenj on the preschool thing. It's good to try and see how he does, being upfront with the staff. Often they will work well with the kids, but if it reaches a point at which it's too much for him, then you have that to include in any future assessments.

My daughter takes Lamictal for her mood stabilizer and we have so far had good luck with it. It can be activating - bring on a bit more mania, as it tends to treat the depressive side. We use Seroquel as well, which is an atypical anti-psychotic and is also sedating in nature and therefore helps her sleep schedule. Trazadone can have an adverse effect as, in addition to being a sleep aid, I've heard that it also has the qualities of an SSRI which in most cases is best to avoid in BP kids. I would recommend, after monitoring, if you have any issues and feel as though you need to make medication changes, you would ask your pdoc to consider that first.

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Shelle, 49 in So Cal - stressed - Celexa 20mg, Xanax 0.5mg rarely as needed
Mom to Rachel, 12 - ADHD, BP, anxiety - Lamictal 150mg+Seroquel 50mg am/150mg pm, Modified schedule in public at end of last school year / Hoping for placement in therapeutic school for the fall
We also have Birdie, the love bird - she bites; and Velvet, the kitten - she does too

 Hi April,

  It appears our kiddos have got the same diagnosis.  Our daughter (3 in June) was diagnosed with ADHD, ODD, and mood disorder - unspecified but probable Bi Polar.  We have been at a complete loss as her doc says she is too young for medication.  We have had her at 2 different in home daycares.  She did perfect at the first one for about 6 mos.  So perfect that we thought maybe it was only a behavior/discipline problem on our side.  After 6 mos she started to act up pretty bad.  She had bad fits of rage.  She doesn't try to hurt anyone but will throw things, etc.  We decided to pull her out of that daycare and found another.  She stayed at the 2nd one about the same amount of time without acting out at all.  Then just recently started being very defiant, refusing to follow directions, etc.  She stopped wanting to go there and would scream if we left the house thinking she was going to daycare.  Once again we decided to pull her out of that one.  Since my partner (her other mom) has decided to stay home with her.  This has been for about 2 months.  Her rage/anger has gotten worse, almost daily  it seems.  She has started to become very violent with us, including hitting, biting and even spitting.  We are really at a loss at this point for what to do.  She seemed to do much better in a more structured environment, at least temporarily.  It seems once she gets really comfortable she starts to act out....perhaps she feels safe enough to be herself. 

  I'm sorry reading the above was probably discouraging.  Honestly, we are pretty discouraged right now.  However finding this forum today and seeing that there are other people going through this as well has given us some hope.  I hope that whatever decision you make with your son works out for the best. 

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Jessica