Bipolar in the family Support Group

Does anyone have experience with bi polar in very small children? A lady here mentioned that her 5 year old has bi polar, I'm really interested to hear from her or anyone else in the know.

My mom has BPI, I have BPII so need to keep an eye on my daughter. So far so good, but feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks

Hello.I'm Leanne.My son started exhibiting behaviors around age 3.He had his first hospitalization while in 1st grade,then proceeded directly into a residential treatment program.Since 3 yrs old, my son has been in one type of therapy or another.Its been a long road for us.He will be 21 yrs old in March.He was dx when he was 7 yrs old, while in his 1st rtc.

Since then, we've dealt with numerous hospitalizations, RTC's, ART (Accute Residential Treatment Program), which is a hospitalization but a step down, numerous private schools,therapists,psychiatrists.Lets not forget DMH officials as well.

If I can offer any assistance or info, let me know please.

Leanne

Hi Leanne. Thank you for your response. Wow, you've been down quite a road. My question to you is: what is the behaviour that he exhibited that led you to believe he was bi polar? My daughter is almost 5, a dramatic age as it is but am interested as to what to look out for. I will ask my therapist, but my time there is so precious to me that some "hands on" answers would be appreciated. Look forward to hearing from you. Thanks again.

I have been curious about this myself- good question!

Dizzy: I would suggest reading up on bipolar and finding lists of symptoms. It is so hard to diagnose in children that young. I have a daughter who just turned 18. She has only been diagnosed for the last 18 months and there were no outstanding symptoms that jumped out. Of course, looking back, there were some subtle changes at around age 7 or 8 that we should have seen. She was truly diagnosed once they gave her a traditional antidepressant. Antidepressants can send them into a mania or hypomania and then, often, that's how a doctor knows for sure. That may be what happened with the lady who started this post who's child had been on paxil. Just do alot of reading. There are some very good books out there on the subject, including "The Bipolar Child" and others. You're doing the right thing in wanting to keep an eye out for it since it's in the family. The best of everything to you!

When issues first started, everyone thought ADHD.When my son got tested, it was a big negative.He would be happy one minute,then cry his butt off.He'd be fine(behaviorally) then he'd get angry and violent.He got thrown out of a couple day cares because of his violence(hitting others,threatening violence w/guns(didn't/don't own any),trying to throw a baby out of a window).After the psycheval, it was recommended that my son attend a special needs preschool.Again more Jeckyl/Hyde behavior, noncompliance of rules,wanting to do as he pleased led to me having to attend school with him so I could take him out of classroom if needed for timeout.Because the teachers were spending all their time dealing with him, the other kids were going without.

As for books, I found the best book on early onset Bipolar is The Bipolar Child by Demetri Papolos.As I was reading it the first time I was using a highlighter and I swear it seemed like every page was covered in pink.In the book theres a mood chart.Thats the mood chart I used then and it was an extremely helpful tool for me as well as the Pdoc.Today I still use it.

Leanne