Did you hear the one about the kid with oversized tonsils?

[legion]

I have a friend at work who has an eight-year-old daughter (now a third grader). Since she started school, her behavior has steadily declined. It had gotten to the point that she had a violent outburst almost every week. Screaming, kicking, throwing, biting, hitting, etc...

He teacher last year (with her vast medical expertise ) decided that this little girl was ADHD and contacted the parents (my friend) and told them to take their daughter to the doctor.

Their peditrician essentially says: "Sure, I'll buy that." I'm unclear on what happens next, but the kid ends up on meds.

The outbursts get worse. They both became more intense and more frequent--averaging once every other day, but sometime happening three or four days in a row.

The parents are at their wits end. They go back to the pediatrician, and he recomends they go to a neurologist. Upon arriving at the neurologist, he starts by doing a basic physical. He finds something interesting. This poor little girl has severly oversized tonsils. He believes this is affecting her sleep adversely.

My friend has to take his daughter for a "sleep test". From what I gather, they hook her up to machines and observe her sleep. Apparently she is waking up something like 16 times in the average night, and only spends 3% of her sleep time in phase 4 deep sleep. She suffers from sleep apnia and they are able to attribute this directly to her oversized tonsils.

Finally, they get the little girl's tonsils removed. The day after her surgery, she is a different little girl. She is tolerant, thoughtful, and the violent outbursts have completely ceased (6 months later now and still none).

This story was relayed to me today at lunch. We openly speculated that the decline of childhood tonsilectomies seems to coincide nicely with the rise of diagnoses of childhood ADHD. (Both seem to have happened in the late 70s early 80s.) While I don't think that all cases of childhood ADHD are probably really tonsil problems, I'm open to the idea that some are. I also think that childhood ADHD has become a catchall for any behavior problem.

This story came up because the same people's 5 year old son has developed some severe behavior problems. Mom looked down his throat with a flashlight last night and saw what she believes is oversized tonsils. Their neurologist moved his practice across the country last month...

[Joeaksa]

Funny but none of the people I went to school had to take medications for something like this when we were young and I am sure my parents generation did not either.

Personally I feel that this is a medical scam that is being pushed upon everyone. Why? Who knows but I do know that we did not have this BS when I was a kid and the world has not changed that much...

Hope that its something simple like this as I do not feel that its right that so many kids are on medications.

[Vipergrün]

My daughters (almost 4) tonsils are very large and sometimes she only has a dime-sized opening in the back of her throat. She snores and is very tempermental. We wanted to wait a couple of years to get it addressed, but maybe the sooner the better. Thanks for sharing.

Joe, as for the world changing "that" fast, no one had peanut and all if these other allergies when I went to school. Now days, you cannot even have peanuts ingredients in some schools due to the severe allergies. I think something has changed big time. Whether or not the ADD/HD thing is over-hyped. One thing foir sure, kids today spend wayyyyyy too much time watching the tube, playing video games, talking on cell phones, etc.

[skipdup]

My neighbor's young daughter recently had her tonsils removed due to sleep apnea. I am not aware if she had any behavior problems or not.

- Skip

[sammyg2]

I believe that most ADHD diagnoses are pure bunk and are motivated by greed or incompetence.

given the chance, these so called "professionals" would diagnose everyone under the age of 40 as having ADHD.

[Icemaster]

[DaddyGlenn]

Although I believe ADHD is over diagnosed, I know that hit the nail on the head with an ADHD diagnosis for my daughter.

Glenn

[nostatic]

My son's school was pushing ADHD and meds (although they couldn't come out and say it directly). We pushed back and did alternatives, but finally tried the meds. Made him worse. We found a doc that specializes in pediactric neurology and she said the stimulants made him worse because he didn't have ADHD, but rather a "mood regulation disorder." The treatment? omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Yup, cod liver oil.

As with any behavioral issue, it is hard to figure out cause and effect. The between him getting older (turns 10 next month), mom and dad splitting (relatively amicably), "play therapy" and the cod liver oil, he is like a different kid. Not sedate by any means, and still a bit of a pita for the teacher, but that's ok...given his genetic makeup I don't expect a teacher's pet

[Schrup]

I found this interesting. http://psychcentral.com/news/2006/09/20/adhd-linked-to-prenatal-smoking-lead-exposure/

[pmajka]

my father and i were just discussing the Medical Busiess. (notice i didnt say medical practice).

My father, a Physician Assistant, who has worked for over 35 year with over 40 different doctors, loves his job and loves to help people. In his opinion 50% of first diagnosis are incorrect because doctors are treating the tests and the xrays and the Mri's and not the patients.

My wife has all (and i mean al) the symptoms of Hypothyroidism, but 2 doctors have diagnosed her as fine cause her "numbers" are Low, but in the normal range.

Not bashing doctors here, but lets face it... Modern medicine is just as sterile as the tools it uses: It has lost the personal touch and caring.

[Chocaholic]

I've heard that ADHD medications won't have positive behavioral effects on kids that don't need them. Or, conversely, if the effect is positive (better grades, reasonable attention span, etc.), then the diagnosis of ADHD is correct.

Obviously, medication is not a diagnostic tool, but in our case, our son's attitude, grades, and self-confidence have improved dramatically following the administration of ADD medication.

[K.B.]

With the pressure to educate our children at younger ages, we do not allow them all the time they need to "be kids". They need an oportunity to run around the playground but we are pushing more education at a younger age. We will over diagnose cases of ADHD because we are making them sit still too long.

We also have a higher incidence of ADHD/ADD due to divorce, working Moms, video games, internet, and a host of other reasons.

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by K.B.
With the pressure to educate our children at younger ages, we do not allow them all the time they need to "be kids". They need an oportunity to run around the playground but we are pushing more education at a younger age. We will over diagnose cases of ADHD because we are making them sit still too long.

We also have a higher incidence of ADHD/ADD due to divorce, working Moms, video games, internet, and a host of other reasons.

First part I can buy but the second part no way. When I was a kid a lack of attention resulted in a whack on my head or bottom by either Mom, Dad or the teacher. Attention returned immediately and remained for a long time, with no drugs needed.

[K.B.]

Originally posted by Joeaksa
First part I can buy but the second part no way. When I was a kid a lack of attention resulted in a whack on my head or bottom by either Mom, Dad or the teacher. Attention returned immediately and remained for a long time, with no drugs needed.

Thats what I mean by divorce, working Moms, etc. The kids in the middle of a divorce always are a little more unfocused as they are trying to figure out what is wrong - with them, with their parents, with their life. A lot of their parents time is foucused on conflict and the divorce proceedings and what the other parent is doing wrong. The harmonious family environment is lacking. That lack of harmony and consistancy when they are young makes a big difference whant they get a little older.

In those presious first 4 formidable years if Mom works and they get the average child care, they get no consistant attention when they need it the most. Nobody focusus on them so they learn to be unfocused. Anything goes as far as their early mental structure is concerned. This has its consequences as well.

Research supports that kids who spend inordinate amounts of time on video games or watching TV seem to lose a sence of self direction and control.

[Joeaksa]

KB,

My parents divorced when I was 8 years old, we moved to Padre Island Texas only to be met with a hurricane and a car accident that put my Mom in the hospital for months. Then moved to Mexico for 4 years until my Dad came down and kidnapped me back to America.

You want an unsettled childhood with one parent who worked, I had it and I knew other kids in the same situation. No drugs and no ADHD. Sorry but I just do not buy it and feel that this is something that has been pushed upon us by the docs and drug companies.

[azasadny]

My wife is a 5th grade teacher and said that the "tonsil scenario" is fairly common. Our 10 year-old daughter had her tonsils removed in last April and she's been much happier (and healthier) since. My son still has his tonsils but my wife and I both had ours out in the mid 60's. Seems like all the kids had their tonsils removed back then...

[id10t]

Heck, I was that way until I did a sleep study, and now I sleep with a cpap machine. Wife isn't grouchy 'cause I snored all night, I can stay awake thru meetings, I don't fall aslees while waiting for a large chunk of code to finish compiling, etc. My numbers were bad, but not quite bad enough to fall in the "apnea" definition. Cure is the same. And yes, I have *very* large tonsils, never removed (I'm in my mid 30s)

[Superman]

Teachers are pretty quick to suggest meds. Based on the stories told about me when I was a child, there is no question whatsoever that I would have been diagnosed with ADHD. Maybe I am/was. A psychologist recently seemed convinced I am ADD. He suggested Aderol.

No thanks. I've been on a few meds over the past several years and have come to the conclusion that "Ya play the hand yer dealt." I don't care for the side-effects, and the meds create a moving target.

Still, doctors can help and teachers can also help. But most certainly, a parent HAS to take an active role in ushering the child through the maze of social, medical and educational high-speed hairpin turns that we call "childhood." I dunno if you guys remember it, but childhood was not a bus ride. It was a Baja 500-style road rally on an overpowered hard tail motorcycle. Get through that, and the rest is cake.

[Rot 911]

I too used to think that ADHD/ADD just meant you were a bad parent until my daughter was diagnosed with ADD. Basically she is a funny, smart, loving 6 year old with ZERO attention span. I mean you could sit with her 24 hours a day making threats, spanking, withholding privileges and she still couldn't focus on things. She wasn't being deliberately disobedient, she just couldn't focus. On her medication she is able to get through school and work with others. You can always tell when it is wearing off in the evening and she will lose focus again.

[Phat Ham]

Originally posted by bb80sc
Joe, as for the world changing "that" fast, no one had peanut and all if these other allergies when I went to school. Now days, you cannot even have peanuts ingredients in some schools due to the severe allergies. I think something has changed big time.

One of the theories is that parents are overprotective of their children and don't allow them to be exposed to the germs/bacteria/whatever when they are little. They never develop immunity to the various allergens as kids and end up developing allergies.