Irritated with peds MD

[janaq]

I've been telling her I thought my child had adhd. She brushed it off. Now that I've had her tested by a psychologist and have a diagnosis (which wasn't cheap) her office is refusing to medicate her without doing their own testing. So now I have to find a psychiatrist to see her and get her started on meds. Anyone had this problem before?

[Teachermom1]

What do the teachers say? How old us your child? I'm a teacher so I understand how important it is for a child to be on medication if needed. If a child can't focus/pay attention, learning won't happen. I recently just had one of my students who's been struggling for the last 3 years, Conners assessment completed. Now he's starting to understand math and is reading. I teach 4th grade. I urge you to be proactive by communicating to the teachers.

[janaq in reply to Teachermom1]

We had the conners assessment along with others that concluded with the diagnosis. Now im having difficulty getting her in to see psychiatrist for meds. One odfice i called had a 10 month wait list!

[Teachermom1 in reply to janaq]

Oh my. Where do you live? I guess we lucked out because my daughter sees a nurse practitioner that deals with meds and is the expert. Won't pediatrician prescribe? Don't give up hope. Will pray that you find someone that can help with prescribing.

[Jmnt80]

We’re having trouble too.

Our pediatrician states that he is not comfortable with the diagnosis and referred us to a counseling center.....that had nothing to do with assessing for ADHD. We are in private school and we’re having trouble from that end too. We’ve just finally got a special ed teacher that is helping us get connected with the public school system to get a Conner’s. To make it more difficult, our insurance has very little options for pediatric psychiatry in our area. It’s all so frustrating. The system should be much better at supporting children.

[eeyore13]

We had that trouble. We knew our kids (twins) had ADHD due to heredity (their father's parents, sister, and he have it) and from their symptoms. After going to the ER for stitches and staples 6 times over 10 weeks at age 3 I brought it up to the ped. She firmly believed that children could not exhibit symptoms and be diagnosed until the age of 6. We then had them go through Child Find and they were not helpful despite the fact that Thing 1 escaped a room of six adults 3 times and was climbing the bookshelves. Fortunately for us, that was a Friday interview and Thing 2 decided he was going to drive his father's truck (again we were lucky it was a standard) released the emergency break and coasted into some trees where he proceeded to jump out of the truck and cut his leg on a broken sapling requiring stitches. His interview was on Monday and then one of the interviewers noticed and referred us to the local special needs preschool. There they couldn't even complete the interview with the school psych and Thing 2 had a bloody lip from hitting a chair while running 15 minutes in. The school psych was shocked they didn't have an ADHD diagnoses and was the first of 3 psychs to tell us they were the worst cases they had seen. Needless to say they were accepted into the preschool and given IEPs. She then said we really needed to get a new ped and we did. 15 minutes in his office and he gave us the manditory forms to fill out for the teacher and home and a month later they were started on meds at age 4 1/2. Within 1 month they had met all of their IEP goals.

Now they are 13 and we still have the typical ADHD issues because the meds are only a help, not a cure. A good psychologist we found, but cannot afford. Fortunately we have a good ped and a great NP who understand ADHD and I continue to read and implement any new research on the disorder.

All this to say, you really, really need to find a new ped if at all possible. It will make the difference for you and your child.

[BVBE]

Skip the general pediatrician and go straight to a child psychiatrist. They are more qualified to diagnose ADHD medication for the kids.

[janaq in reply to BVBE]

That's what I'm trying to do. The wait list is almost a year out to see someone

[BVBE in reply to janaq]

Really? That is crazy. Have you googled local pediatric psychiatrist? I found the one my son sees on the website Psychologist Today. I had to make a lot of phone calls and read a lot of reviews, but we finally found a great psychiatrist who was only a 6 week wait.

[BVBE in reply to BVBE]

Here is the website psychologytoday.com/us/psyc...

[janaq in reply to BVBE]

Yes I did. Everyone I called had either a crazy long wait list or weren't taking new patients. It really sad these kids have to wait so long to get help.

[BVBE in reply to janaq]

Wow! I am so sorry. And, I can't believe your ped MD won't accept the professional evaluation from a pediatric psychologist. Maybe you need to find another ped MD.

[janaq in reply to BVBE]

we have an appt with her on Monday and hopefully we will get this thing figured out. This was an office worker who told me the peds would want to do her own testing.

[BVBE in reply to janaq]

Good luck! Please keep me posted.