[DivasMomma]

my younger sister is bipolar, along with my father, grandfather, and uncle. My mother seems to keep insisting that my oldest daughter is acting EXACTLY like my younger sister did. She is worrying me because I odnt see anything but the terrible twos... my daughter is 23 months, is this way to young to diagnose her with it?

[mcmama]

Probably, but I wouldn't disregard your mother's opinion. I have known children as young as 4 to be diagnosed correctly with bipolar disorder.

Check this out for links and info for family members:
http://www.bpso.org/

[jkl123]

I believe it is too early for an 'official' diagnosis. That being said, early signs could be there, and those with experience in dealing with people with BiPolar are sensitive to these warnings and can often detect them. And on the same note, just because your child may have the same 'personality traits' or 'behaviors', it doesn't neccessarily mean they have it as well.

I have a child wjo is 12 with Bi-polar - feel free to pm me anytime if you want to talk. Looking back, there were definite signs as early as 2.

[DK615617]

I just saw a show on bipolar children, and although there are a lot of children now that are bipolar, there are a lot of children being misdiagnosed with it. So don't disregard what you mother is saying, but be careful about any diagnosis, and meds. Make sure you get second opinions if and when you get her evaluated. Even if it is when she is older.

[aspenlm]

This will be a long post!
(I call my step children my own)
My step-daughter is three. Her bi-mother is was diagnosed at the age of seventeen, but she refuses to accept her illness. My husband has custody of both his children.
My daughters symptoms began back in January. She would become very moody. some mornings she would wake up crying for no reason. My step-son was six so i had to walk him two and a half blocks to school. My daughter would cry, SCREAM, and refuse to walk. Then she would would come home and go to her room crawl into bed and stay their ALL day. She refused to eat, peed her panties, and would not play with her toys. My daughter is a Daddy's girl and would want to spend her daddy cuddles. This would last for one to four days. Then she would get super happy. giggle at every thing and then would talk in gibberish. Then she would go back to normal.
At first we thought she was missing her grandparents we had just visited, but January turned to February and still she had her moodiness. Then we thought i was due to the fact I was pregnant. Yet she still had her moodiness and it continued to get worst.
In June we spoke to her doctor and he refused us to a child phy. She is now taking Depakote and her moods have improved and her not so good days a few, short and far between.
Feel free to ask me any questions.

[mcmama]

Are you seeing weight gain with the Depakote?

[DivasMomma]

thanks for all the replies...she does have a lot of the symptoms and traits, but i guess im going to have to wait it out. My doc says it could just be signs of terrible 2's and the fact that her sister has just arrived...all life changes for her...which i sure hope she's right!

[carasel]

just note any unusual behaver. keep track. it will help the doctors later if need be.

[ARTinspired]

I"m gald you are waiting. What a lot of ppl don't understand when they don't take prescribed medication, is how bad the side effects can be. It's a very serious diagnosis in the sense that one, it will follow you around till it is legally removed. I was diagnosed at 16 with it and was on meds for over 7 years. Now i am in my 20s, off meds and doing great. If i look back at it, most of it was mainly depression and ppl who i know tell me that i have no symptoms of it that they can see. So i'm thinking i was miss diagnosed. Either that or i learned to deal with my emotions and figured out ways to keep myself stable.

Second, the first time i was put on medication, i spent two weeks in the hospital while they monitored my blood lvls. I was very sick, my mother had to bath me, i couldn't eat solid food, and i fainted a lot. After i got out, my parents put me in a theraputic high school. I would go to school then come home and sleep till it was time to go to school again. I also could not spend a lot of time in the sun bacause it would make my skin feel like it was on fire. I gained 60 pounds from the meds as well which took me two years to shed. 3-4 of the therapists my parents insisted i see focused more on my sex life than other issues which i took offense to cause i didn't have one at the time. So i for the most part, don't trust therapist anymore. There's a lot more to it than just the diagnosis.

To an extent there is also still a bit of a stereotype on bipolar ppl out there today as well. An ex of mine's father was married to a bipolar woman before he met his mother. He told me after he found out that bipolar ppl want nothing more than to hurt you and make you feel bad. I took a lot of offense to this not only because that's not how i felt, being diagnosed with it but also because of the ppl i had met in treatment who were diagnosed with the same thing.

I guess all in all what i'm trying to say is, just make sure that she truly has it before you start that journey with her. My teenage years were not fun. I experienced many things because of the decision the doctor made when i was 16, none that i would wish upon anyone else. Many of the medications out there she would be on for life as well. Some of them lead to other problems. Because I was taking one of the meds, i had to take another to right one of the side effects.

To you as a parent, i'll give this advice. Please be there mentally for them as they get older. Support them with your words of comfort, dont' think that paying others to fix your children's issues is enough. My parents left me in the hands of the doctors and therapists. I know they tried their best, but they were not mentally supportive of me, just financially. So when times got really bad, and they would ignore me asking for comfort cause i was scared, i turned to scratching myself till it formed a wound like a burn to make the pain go away and to regain self control. I love them but their support would have made it a lot easier to go through.

I live on my own now, work, and will be starting up school again, I am engaged and life's peachy. So there is always a happy out come if we want it enough and work hard enough to achieve it. Good luck to you in the future, best wishes ^^

[Ravenbug88]

My son was initially diagnosed with ADHD at 4yrs, but the psychiatrist mentioned the POSSIBILITY of bipolar disorder. At 5 he was diagnosed as bipolar. I was shocked, so I got a second and third opinion (without telling them of the earlier diagnosis). All three were convinced that my son is bipolar. Since then, he has been hospitalized, evaluated by probably more that 10 doctors and everyone has agreed. Looking back, I can remember things that were signs. I have been super sensitive to any possible signs with my daughter and I do think if she had the characteristics, I would notice them much earlier this time. Thankfully she seems neurotypical so far.