ADHD / ADD Support Group

Hi everyone,
My son is sixteen and over the years Ive tried alot of thing. I even tried ritalin but don't like to. Just a note to remember...doctors always overprescribe pills so be careful what you give your little one. A teacher once told me that she cut her eight year old's pill in half making it 5 mgms per day and I tried that when my son was prescribed 20...and he did great. But my fault, I said something in front of my son about ritalin maybe causing heart problems and he never wanted to take it again. now eight years later and many years of hell at school, he is willing to try it again but only a low dose like before.
well alot said here but be careful because doctors love to prescribe lots and lots of pills so please use your "own" discretion beause you know your own child and don't want their little hearts and brains to be pumped up way too much.

also, I wanted to say, a few things I eliminated (and still "try" to) are; melon, cantalope, watermelon, any cerial that has been reduced to a liquid corn, and formed into things like frosted flakes. Anything with a corn base I find to make his insulin act crazy. Also soda's , especially natural ones like root beer, coke etc...the dark sodas are bad but orange crush is bad too beause of the cafeine so we rarely drink sodas, and when we do, its sugar free or caffeine free.
Other foods that affected him sometimes for three days were chocolate, chocolate cake etc...freezies, liquid sugars etc...
I found that milk chocolate wasnt' too bad because of the protein from the milk.
But chocolate milk (nestles quick) was bad. There are more foods but I can't remember right now. Ill add more later for you to read if you want.

I went to a seminar on add/adhd/dislexia. a woman from England. She talked about how the brain of add etc...has a shortage of "long chain fatty acids", something you might want to look up. She said the shortage is from lack of "zinc" and "magnesium" in their brains/systems. So I went to a naturpath and bought my son "trace minerals" (which the naturpath assured me was comaritive to a drop in the ocean" and I noticed that my son calmed down quite alot. It really helped until he didnt want to take them anymore.

hope any of this helps, sorry for my bad spelling. I look forward to trying some new things from this site, Take Care!!
Gery

I was recently diagnosed with ADHD and was told by an osteopathic physician that microdistilled fish oils helped improve focus. I have yet to try it, but it's an idea you could look into.

I hope this helps.

After careful research and a very supportive family we put our daughter on the Feingold Diet..It's a diet that's used for children with Autism and Asperger's...but since ADHD is in the same gene pool it works also. It has done wonders for our daughter....It's not just cutting out red dye's or sugar(which studies show actually does not make a difference) there are seven main ingredients you must stay away from: 1. ARTIFICIAL FLAVORING (VANILLIN, MARGARINE) 2. ARTIFICIAL COLORS( RED, YELLOW, BLUE ETC. 3. PETROLEUM BASED PRESERVATIVES( BHA, BHT, TBHQ AND SODIUM BENZOINATE) NO BREAD CRUST OR SHREDDED CHEESE B/C THE PACAKING CONTAINS TBHQ OR BHT. This may seem overwhelming at first but it's just all about learning how to read labels. My husband and I went through our pantry and put red X's on anything that contained the above...you would be amazed at what we were feeding our children! She has been on this diet now for 6 months and it has done more than what any chemically induced medication did for her. You don't have to buy all organic!!! Instead of buying the regular kraft mac and cheese opt for the white cheddar mac and cheese....Instead of Eggo's I buy the kroger brand waffle's...no bad stuff and actually cheaper! It's all about reading labels. It was overwhelming at first but when I saw such a change in my daughter I knew it was worth it....I also started her on some herbal remedies...1) Thai-Go 2) DHA and 3) Focus Attention Formula. Just surround yourself with family and friends that support you and it will get easier....Every once in a while I will come across a skeptic who tells me that it would be so much easier if I just put her back on medicaiton but my response is.....You should be glad she's MY kid then and NOT YOURS! Good Luck !

please dont anyone hit me on the head, but i am one of those who thinks add and adhd is not real, or is very rare. everytime i look at the list of symptoms it looks like a list the school system came up with for normal kids. i think they came up with it ,and use it more and more as there is no discipline allowed in schools caused the parents took that right of the school away, so this is the only way to have control. i think these drugs are really bad for our kids. i think with proper exercise and diet any problems with hyeractivity can be resolved.

jmj516 i think you should spend a week with one of our kids and say that...so easy to think that way from the outside lookin in.

well have you tried a different diet free from sugars, additives and over processed junk? have you made sure you kids are stimulated by exercise, music and art? this problem is over diagnosed and we as a society need to fix it. where was this problem when we were young, when our parents were young; this is a newer problem that we created and a magic pill was found for it. it is junk science and our kids are paying the price!