This whole story about this child breaks my heart. There is no way possible that a child can be diagnosed with bipolar at 2 years old.I am not a psych nurse but this topic really upset me, so I had to get on my soap box.
As a mother of five and someone who suffers from ADHD, medications should be the last resort. I didn't medicate myself until I was an adult. I do however have several children that are showing signs of ADHD, but since it's not affecting school work, I have decided to wait until they are old enough to decide if they want to take meds are not.
There are so many other theraputic methods to treat children. Diet, routine, sleeping habits,homeschooling, etc that can help these kids.
I would take this child for a second maybe even a third opinion. Then I would research other ways to help this family cope with the situation.
With my kids, when all else fails, I pray, and pray hard. Sometimes our environment affects our outcome. As a parent, if we see our children struggle we need to step back and look at their environment. Is it healthy or dangerous? I promise you if you went to a psych ward and asked the patients questions about their childhood, 99% of them had a disturbing event or events that made them the way they are. If this is the situation now, I would hate to see this child in 10-20 years.