ADHD / ADD Support Group

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and attention deficit disorder (ADD) are more common than you might think. It is a syndrome that exhibits symptoms such as hyperactivity, forgetfulness, mood shifts, poor impulse control, and distractibility. Join others who suffer from these conditions and share your experiences.

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Alternatives that actually work

Hotmama4
Hotmama4
Hi, we started my 7-year old, first grade son on 5 mg of Ritalin once a day a week ago and have already seen some big improvements. However, I don't give all the credit to the medicine alone. I believe he is being helped by the natural and behavioral alternatives we have been using too. I wanted to know what you are doing, in addition to, or in place of medication, that you have found actually makes an improvement for your child. (Or things you plan to do!)
Hotmama4
Hotmama4
We first saw his behavior go from really disruptive in the classroom to a little more tame, when we changed our parenting/ discipline approach. Instead of constantly correcting him because he is "in trouble", we started being a lot more positive and encouraging. We read a book on building his self-esteem, and we will be starting behavior therapy soon. I would say that, and working on having as much peace and calm in our own marriage, is what first got him to start calming down a little where we could actually believe he would respond to other interventions. We also made our after school time with him much more structured like the school day, and that seems to help him too. He responds well to our constant oversight/ supervision where his sisters were fine with being left to do whatever they chose for a while in the evenings.
Hotmama4
Hotmama4
One more thing that helped is "Attention! Gel tabs" from the Whole Foods store. When he responded to those in a small but obvious way, I could tell we were on the right track by trying to give him something to help "wake up" his brain. He takes two at lunch now and he completely avoids any crash from his morning ritalin. I think the B vitamins, Omega 3's and other things in this tablet are helping him. I want to try "Attend" soon as I have seen a lot of good reviews and the list of ingredients look promising. Does anyone have feedback on that one.
singles
singles
what are these attention gel tabs and whats in them?
Can anyone get them?
Maybe I would be into trying them.
Hotmama4
Hotmama4
They have Omega 3s, phytocogenols (sp?), high B vitamins, and some more stuff that I can't remember off the top of my head. They are made for kids. They seem to help my son, not as much as medication, but I believe using them with the medication will keep his dosage as low as possible. We found them in the whole foods store.