Developmental Disabilities and Car Accidents

If your child has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or another developmental disability, you might want to think twice about letting him/her cross the street without you standing nearby. This is a scary study. I am totally petrified about this in my neighborhood. There are so many kids who dart out in the street on a daily basis and sometimes drivers just are not looking. I am always the one screaming, "Get out of the street!" How about you?

FROM NBC: Children with ADHD may be more likely to be hit by a car while walking. Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham studied nearly eighty children with developmental disabilities -- including ADHD -- and compared them to thirty-nine children with normal development.

They found the children with developmental disabilities chose smaller gaps in traffic to try to cross the street, and had less time to reach the end of the crosswalk before a car approached. However, they did look left and right, and wait to cross the street until it seemed safe.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

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Misdiagnosis of ADHD

I have always thought my oldest son has ADHD tendencies. Then he was tested. Nope. He doesn't have it. I still think he's hyperactive. I guess having a hyperactive boy is pretty normal! I certainly am not saying ADHD doesn't exist. I think it does, but I can see how people might misdiagnose it.

FROM NBC: If you or someone you know has a child with ADHD, you might want to hear new research out of Notre Dame. The diagnosis of ADHD has soared by 500 percent since the 1980s. But this newest study suggests a large number of our kids are misdiagnosed and are often medicated for a disease they don't have.

"All right, pass them up here." This is Bill Evans economics statistics class at Notre Dame.

While he teaches at the college level he and colleagues at North Carolina State and the University of Minnesota joined forces to study ADHD and why so many more children are being diagnosed and medicated. They spent a year looking at the exact birth dates of 60-thousand kids in grades K-12.

Dr. William N. Evans/Department of Economics "What our work tends to demonstrate is that there seems to be a lot of misdiagnosis and we estimate that there are probably about a million kids that are misdiagnosed defining them as having ADHD when they're really just young for their grade."

With start dates for schools varying from state to state, it makes a big difference for the youngest children. Dr. William N. Evans/Department of Economics/Notre Dame
"Every school has a day that you have to turn five by in order to start kindergarten and if your birthday is before that, a lot of kids are going to start and they're going to be the youngest in their class. If your birthday is right after that, then you're going to be the oldest kid in your class."

Using those exact birth dates, their study published in the Journal of Health Economics suggests showing children considered young for their class are misdiagnosed with ADHD at a much higher rate.

Dr. William N. Evans, ph.d., department of economics, Notre dame)
"but if you take a look on either side of the cutoff there are staggering differences in the cutoff of the ADHD diagnosis."

and teachers are often making the suggestion of ADHDwhen the problem could simply be maturity.

Dr.William n. Evans, department of economics, Notre dame"Part of the problem is that a lot of parents are getting their child diagnosed because the teacher says he's acting up in school so you have to ask, 'is the kid acting up in school because of this condition or is the kid acting up because he's just young for the grade?'"

So how do we help out our children, especially those who make the date, but may just not be ready for school.

Dr. William N. Evans/ Department of Economics "I think the solution is to ask a lot of questions. have the kid evaluated by a professional and ask, 'is this really behavior that is consistent with the disease or this behavior that's consistent with the age?' For whose who do have ADHD, the behaviors last into adulthood so a true diagnosis is important.

But just as important is making sure our kids are not misdiagnosed with a disorder that may really have more to do with them just being too young for school. Dr. Evans says more than one million kids may have been misdiagnosed and more than 800-thousand may be taking stimulant medication based only on their maturity.

Once you have a true diagnosis, the national institutes of mental health says treatment options include medication, behavioral treatment, or a combination. Their study found the combination produced better results than just one treatment alone.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

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ADHD Drug Abuse

FROM NBC: As pediatricians write more prescriptions for drugs to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder... abuse of such drugs appears to be increasing at a similar rate. Researchers analyzed data from the American Association of Poison Control Centers from 1998 through 2005. Calls related to ADHD medication abuse rose 76-percent during that time period - faster than poison control center calls for teen substance abuse overall.

Researchers say it appears more teens are using the drugs inappropriately simply because of the increased availability. Estimated prescription rates for teens and preteens increased 133% for amphetamine products, 52% for methylphenidate products, and 80% for both together. Although the majority of adolescents use their ADHD medication appropriately, pediatricians need to know that the increase in prescriptions of ADHD medication increases the potential for abuse."

This is certainly something to watch if you have teenagers. Does anyone know if ADHD medication is still being prescribed like crazy or has the rush calmed down?

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

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ADHD

My son was trying feverishly to pull up his pants, but he was in such a hurry he couldn't get them up.(the picture is not my son. I just thought it was cute) I was trying not to laugh and he noticed. He looked at me and said, "Mamma, it's not funny. I have to hurry or the ants will get back into my pants."

You guessed it. He was referring to the saying "You have ants in your pants." I am constantly telling my son this because he never stops moving. My husband never stops moving either. Seriously. He never stops moving. So, when my son started showing the same tendencies, I didn't think much of it. It is certainly a trait that has been passed down. But when is it more than that? When is it considered Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder?

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, ADHD is common. If your child is in a classroom with 25 kids, on average one of them will have this mental disorder. Would you medicate your child to help him/her concentrate in school? I've thought about this a long time and still have no answer. I've talked to people who are strongly against it and others who say the medication has changed their child's life for the good. I guess we all have to see what works for our families.

Remember, many children are hyperactive who do not have ADHD, so don't fret too much if you have a child who can't sit still. It could very well be normal. A complete evaluation by an expert is the only way to know for sure.

Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or CHADD is a non profit organization that could give you the support the you need. It's always nice to hear from other parents who are going through the same thing.

So, what about medicating kids for ADHD? I have a friend who says the medication has made a wonderful difference in her son's life. He is doing much better in school. Others say it's wrong to medicate kids and they tout behavioral therapy.

For my son, turning off the television, looking him in the eye and reiterating things over and over seems to work. Well, sometimes it works!We'll see what happens when he gets into school.

-NewsAnchorMom Jen