Is your pediatrician helpful? (ADD or?? diagnosis issues)

[Gillian]

I'm feeling kind of stuck right now because DS in 1st grade needs help (attention/behavior problems) and I don't quite know what to do. His Doctor says the school needs to have him evaluated, or I can do a private evaluation, but the school seems to think the Dr should be doing something more.

I did push the school to set up an evaluation. We're in private school, so it's not as easy as public. They mentioned behavioral therapy, but that seems like a strange first step. It's all very upsetting to me and I don't know what to do about it.

Should I be looking for a new pediatrician? How can I find a good one? Most of my friends have younger kids, and I don't think any of them have dealt with behavioral issues.

 

[freckles and boo]

I am sort of dealing with this as well. My daughter, who just turned five, is clearly autistic but she currently has a medical diagnosis of developmental delay. She has received amazing services through the school and is in an special education classroom designed for kids with autism. Because she is getting what she needs, we haven't pursued an autism diagnosis. However, by the time she turns six "developmental delay" isn't acceptable for these services. Our pediatrician is clueless. I just spoke to the school nurse today and she gave me some great advice. We are in an HMO so she advised that we first make an appointment with the doctor who is the head of our HMO group. We are to ask what resources exist within our group for an assessment and if they don't exist we are to get referrals. If they aren't helpful, we are to contact our insurance (Blue Cross) and get pushy. If we need more help, the school will get involved.

Whatever you do, don't stop pushing for the assessment!!! Try the behavior therapy - it might help him learn to focus. Unfortunately private schools sometimes can't be bothered with kids who need extra help. You could also look for a "developmental pediatrician". Good luck.

 

[Gillian]

Thanks, I think I will give our insurance company a call. I have the name of a Dr who does private evaluations, but I'm not sure what else she does.

It's all so hopelessly unclear to me. It's very hard to know who to push, or what to push for.

We knew private school might be an issue, but the public schools here are so big, and last year DS mainly a discipline problem, not a kid who needed help. It made me mad that they had time to send DS to the principal for being annoying, but didn't do anything about the bullies in the classroom.

 

[cymomtx]

Depending on the state, even though you are in private school, the public school system should test your child. Call school district and see if you can set up an evaluation. I know in Texas special education is paid for by the state so the school district must test for special education even though you are attending private school.

 

[belle&beast]

I have had to switch pediatricians because our previous ped. was too laid back. She was really nice, but her wait and see approach did not fly for me. (DS had horrible ear infections and she did not want to treat them- he now has speech problems and I credit this to his inability to hear for a year and a half.) Anyway, if you feel like your ped. is not listening to you or is not knowlegeable in that area, I would not hesitate to switch. Good luck!

 

[KirstenB]

I have 3 friends/acquaintances with children who have ADHD. Our 3rd grader has always made decent grades, but since kindergarten, each teacher has always commented on her inattentiveness. I chalked it up to it being just a part of who she was.

This year, her teacher would not drop it. She persisted in asking for conferences etc, really stayed on me. I asked my friends and one acquaintance to walk me through how they got their child's diagnosis. Each one started with a child psychologist. I don't even know that ped's will do the screening here. Anyway, this doctor met with our dd, and then gave me, and her teachers a questionnaire. She was 2 standard deviations from the norm, and we've decided to try meds. So now we have a 2 mth waiting period to see the child psychiatrist. Dd is not hyper at all, quite the contrary, so I think she's flown under the radar longer than I should have let her. I'm very greatful to her teacher this year.

Anyway, long story short, I would look for a child psych if I were you.

 

[barkley]

we had a similar issue-ds was in private school and we had an hmo to deal with. we checked into our then state's laws re the public schools testing but found we would have to enroll ds in the local public school and then he would have to demonstrate the need for an evaluation prior to getting any help. since we were not into enrolling him in a public school let alone having to have him experience problems before he got attention that was a non choice for us.

we ended up sharing our concerns with our pediatrician (who is the 'gate keeper' as the primary care physician for son's hmo). ped. had us do vision, hearing and allergy tests first to rule out contributing factors, then got us a referal to a child psychiatrist to do the evaluation for adhd. psych. did the same forms with us and the teachers that a previous poster mentioned.

look at your hmo coverage and see if they even cover any type of mental health-if they don't then talk your ped. into doing a referal to a ped. neurologist who can do the same testing but may be covered by the insurance.

 

[BeckyScott]

My understanding of it is this-

In the case of autism, the school can diagnose for an Educational autism diagnosis, which isn't the same as a Medical diagnosis. Our DS has both, but they aren't the same thing. The schools aren't responsible for doing medical diagnosis, only for diagnosing educational problems. And if it's autism, you're going to want both. Having a medical diagnosis will pretty much force the school to acknowledge a problem and do their testing. But it's just like the Disney GAC one size does not fit all, a medical diagnosis is no guarantee of any particular service at school.

We went round and round with our other DS because I was pretty sure he was ADHD. The school said his performance/grades weren't a big enough problem for them to do an eval on him. (which roughly translates to: he might be ADHD but he's not flunking, so it's not our problem) I pursued it with his ped, who tried to get us a referral, and had such a problem with that, she eventually just diagnosed him herself. (it's pretty obvious)

The school saying the dr should do something, and the dr saying the school should do something, is pretty typical of what you're looking at for the rest of your life, welcome. And in the meantime, the kid is put "on hold". So my two cents, go back to your dr and insist on a referral. If he hesitates, find out who's on your PPO and find someone yourself. And you'll end up paying for it, yes, but it's either that or you could spend a long time battling with the school. In the meantime, get your hands on a copy of the Wrightslaw book.