Our journey with ADHD…

My child was diagnosed with ADHD at the beginning of this year.  I had often thought that he probably had ADHD but we never had him evaluated by a doctor.  I am not sure what was holding me back.  Since he was my oldest, when he was younger I just thought all boys were that rambunctious and that he would calm down when he got older.  The opposite seemed to happen.  After his diagnosis, we were told to cut out all artificial flavors, colors and preservatives.  Well, let's just saw that limits tons of things that we were use to consuming.  I was never one to watch what I ate.  If it looks good and tastes good well then that was good enough for me.  I remember in high school, I had a friend that would always read the labels on everything she ate.  I thought that was weird and sounded like too much work.  Can I just saw I was a little lazy and naive?  Well, my son has forced me to open my eyes, get educated and now embark on territory that is pretty foreign to me.

I was told to put my son on medication by the doctor, the school and pretty much everywhere I went online it seemed to be the way to go.  I didn't feel comfortable with drugs and I kept feeling that this would not help my son and could probably harm him.  The more I read about medicating a child with ADHD, the more I found very disturbing side effects to the drugs leading up to substance abuse, depression and some even to suicide.  Well, nothing I read sounded good to me so I thought I'd stick to no meds until I clearly studied, pondered, prayed and asked not only those around me but primarily my Father in Heaven.  I am still in the learning stages, but I thought it might help me sort out my thoughts and perhaps bring help to someone else in my shoes since their seems to be an epidemic with ADHD and other behavior problems.  This is our families journey as we try to find answers to heal our bodies and home.  For these little ones, it is worth the time, sacrifice and all my effort to help them have the best chance at a happy, healthy life.  And so the journey begins…

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