I don't mean to be harsh, but back in our day if a kid was acting strangely or had educational issues they were 'retarded' (and I absolutely mean zero disrespect by using the term). That's pretty much it. Sure, there were some shades of differences but we didn't have label upon label (much needed) for the various aspects of the spectrum of emotional/mental issues.
We can go on and on about processed food this and environmental that but...formula was likely worse when we were children. Things like birth control pills and other medications were much stronger and now we know that the strengths were pretty dangerous. Tools for diagnosing illnesses like cancer and such have become much more sophisticated, leading to early detection and management of the illness as opposed to just waking up on day saying "Oh sh!t, you have cancer and will die in two weeks".
Additionally I think parents in our generation are way 'softer' than earlier generations. There is more family wealth, more access to material goods, and more mama bear/helicoptering going on, so sometimes a kid that is actually a pain in the butt and does not know how to behave is often described as "spirited", "misbehaves due to exposure to too much sugar, dye, caffeine, etc.". In my day we didn't have time out...we had knock out! Now, I'm definitely not advocating physical punishment for our kids whatsoever but nowadays it seems like parents want to be 'friends' with their kids and avoid parenting them.
I don't think kids are more sick or have more disorders.
I think we tend to freak out over the tiniest little things and have a chicken little the sky is falling mentality at times.
It's "fussiness." Parents run their kid to the ER if they sneeze too many times. Doctors that call everything from napping too long to eating a bit less ADD or ADHD. Medications for EVERYTHING. People who google every symptom all day long and read the scary rare diseases that they think their kids might have. Frankly, it makes me angry. A lot of it can be extinguished by simply eating at home more and letting the kids get dirty once in a while.
But it's an interesting point you bring up. How does one KNOW that there is more of that "these days?" In my opinion, there just SEEMS to be. There have always been issues like that, just not as diagnosed and widely available to read about. In addition, doctors take pride in being able to pinpoint the diagnosis, because parents don't feel satisfied if they take their kid to the doctor who says "there's nothing wrong with him."
I firmly believe, that ADD is a variation on normal, I have a ADD hubby and an ADD kid, and they can function in the real world, just in a different way.
50 years ago they would have been called "busy", "difficult" or awkward. Now there is a term for it, but it has always been around. We just like to give things labels these days. My husband thinks that in prehistoric times they would have been the hunter types, the runners, lol
I think these things always existed but now they have a name and that is why you hear of more children being diagnosed with these particular disorders.
Well it is true that nowadays we don't really know what is in a lot of our foods. Back in the past foods were simpler and there weren't all these choices of gazillions of different processed foods. Condiments and salad dressing and everything didn't have msg and all the corn products in them like they do now. People made most things themselves. They jarred much of their own veggies/fruits. They did not buy boxes of mac n cheese or bags of ranch flavor Doritos with stuff like calcium casienate and hydrolyzed soy protein and maltodextrin. Meat from the butcher was just cut off a chunk of cow or pig. Nowadays our meat is injected with sulfides or nitrates or who knows. Our sausages are loaded with msg. Our yogurt even has crap in it. It sucks to have to be hyper vigilant about ingredients and not many people have the time. Another issue would be the amount of toxins in the environment, the stuff coming off our plastic tupperware containers, the stuff coming off our non-stick pans, the stuff coming out of our flooring...Anyway, I don't know the answers. But things have definitely gotten more complicated.