Help explain add to a 9yr old girl

[Suedub]

Hiya peeps,

Not only having a bad pain Wk but I've also Had to tell my daughter that she has adhd this week she's nine and I've been looking online and there seams to be a gap in the info from younger kids namely boy to teenage girls and not a lot about girls her age. So me heads melted with info and I promised her Wed talk more today when she gets home from school. If there's anyone who has experience with this I'd be really gratefully for all the help I can get. She had just had her initial diagnosis and we now have to wait a few months for more testing as there's the inevitable waiting list. So please contact me if yes can help at all as yet know urselfs with bein in pain and difficult discussions don't always go hand in hand. Me charts breaking but I can't let her see this. Thanks in advance

Sue

[earthwitch]

You might want to look into joining a society like this: autism.org.uk/about-autism/... They often have really good printed materials, and for kids conditions, books targetted at the right age group for understanding.

[johnsmith]

I once had to tutor a child of nine with ADHD. I knew this child up to the time they were 22.

Question is your daughter getting enough sleep? The symptoms of not enough sleep are similar to ADHD. Everyone has different sleep requirements. Some people are "night owls" others are "larks" in regard to when they want to go to bed and when they want to wake and be active.

One of the things that seems to happen time and time again is the person who makes the diagnosis of ADHD never discusses how much sleep a person gets or needs.

As a chronic pain sufferer I have learnt that when my sleep pattern has been disrupted it can be very difficult to get back to getting enough sleep. The mind is not working probably and my mind knows it has been sleep deprived, but the body does not want to get the right number of hours sleep. Been there a few times.

Hope this gives a useful avenue to look at.

[briar-rose]

I have to agree with johnsmith, I do tend to think the ADHD diagnosis is handed out all too easy and most of the time it is wrong. My cousin was wrongly diagnosed and it took a while to figure it out, the sleep thing was a major issue, along with colorants and additives in food - basic is good, I know all of Sainsbury's own brand fizzies use vegetable dyes instead of chemicals, luckily now those things are sorted she is much better behaved. I know how hard it can be, my own daughter is epileptic and has major sleep issues, we have tried all of the homeopathic remedies (banana milkshakes or cherry juice before bed, lavender oil on the pillow and even re-setting her sleep clock) nothing has worked so far, it has turned a well behaved charming girl into a bit of a monster at times I am lucky that her paediatrician is still trying to find answers (now being checked for coeliac disease) please don't despair, help is out there.

Amy.x