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…
You guys are awesome. Keep this up! It will help so many people.
We had to take our son off sugar and yellow #5 products at about that age – food allergies were triggering ADHD type symptoms and preventing him from concentrating at school. When we took him off those things in about 4th grade, his ability to concentrate improved so much that they put him in the gifted program. When teen-age body mass increased, his baody was able to metabolize things better and we didn’t need to restrict those foods. It was a hard thing for our family, though. I bought specialty treats at health food stores to take for substitute Cub Scout snacks for him, etc. But he stayed in the gifted program and the food restrictions were a blessing to him that way.
Also, a doctor with an ADD son had success with putting electrodes on him while he played PAC MAN and charting what was going in the brain’s attention center (lights up with electrical impulses when you are paying attention). He told his son to learn to recognize how it felt to him biochemically when he was paying attention while playing the game. Then he could learn to put himself in biochemical “attention mode” by recognizing how it felt for him. He helped other kids train, about one hour a week for a year allowed them to master it.
We never did medication, but I heard an adult scout leader give a talk once on having been diagnosed recently with ADD and put on ritalin. He was really pleased with his improved ability to concentrate. He said that things became more “linear”. Before, he had to really study and look for things like stop signs because his brain didn’t just “notice” them. On the medication, he could process seeing a stop sign more normally. He was happy with meds.
ADD often improves with adulthood. People become bank vice-presidents, architects, etc. I also fasted breakfast most Sundays for several years for our son – that was when the food restriction helps surfaced. During that time he also completed most of the requirements for his Eagle Scout. Fast Sunday is this week here. I will fast for your son and your family.
I attended a program with 400 parents for ADD about 20 years ago. The doctor explained that it was biocehemical. The attention center at the back of the brain does not light up normally when tested for “paying attention”. If he can learn to recognize how it feels for him when he is focusing his attention (like with a game), it should help.
Sorry It’s my first time on your site(and it is awesome by the way)and am not sure how to navigate to following posts on this. What have you done to help your son and how has it worked so far? I know my son is always all over and everything and I already have people commenting on labelling him (he’s 4yrs) but I feel he’s too young for a ‘label’ like ADHD or ADD and agree that throwing drugs at them is not the way to go.