When the screens became obssessive with my 8 year old son last fall I crated a chart for him to earn his screen time. I found that by limiting his screen time two things happened: one, he paid more attention to the screen when he was watching and two, unfortunately he still gets bored to death when he is off them. He goes outside alot but inside the house he has such a hard time entertaining himself, even with an environment rich with toys and activities to feed his brain.
It is just so much easier for the ADHD brain to focus on a screen because of the instant gratification. I've got ADHD and my son and I can watch hockey games for hours LOL.
My advice to you is some tough love and constant rules. He can have X amount of minutes a day, and earn more on the weekend if he helps around the house. My son LOVES busy stuff like sorting laundry and organizing tasks as long as we do them together.

Thank you for your response Alleavie. The chart for screen time sounds like a good idea. Im gonna give that a try. I have ADHD as well. So I fully understand what my son and others with it deal with. It is so easy to just watch tv and zone out. My son is the same way he will play outside for a while but when he comes in the house he gets bored very easy. Im like that as well. I get bored so easy and it is so annoying. Thanks so much for all of your advice. I will try it all and see how it goes :)

Hi I had to share I bought a book that geared to help calm the active child it called DOZY POEMS, COZY DAYS to calm the active child By Raven Howell, and the illustration is so refreshing my little girl just love to look at them. I had picked up my copy on Amazon. and i had found her on face book as well.
I do hope this helps

stell

I feel you. I have a 6 year old and watch TV all the time instead of playing. Also, reading posts like this makes me really want to believe that my child has an ADHD. Some of the signs I found were from this videographic http://www.pulseuniform.com/community/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder.asp. Community like this helps me a lot.

We just took on our 8 year old nephew, he has come from a house where he had a TV in his room, free range of wii and you tube. I have found putting him in Judo 2 days a week, has helped lesson his TV time, and got him more active. He love judo and well do his home work after school on Judo nights. Something to try. We have had luck because we did not bring his TV with and only have one in the house. WIth the other 2 kids in the house he is learning to deal. If we can bring a ADHD child into our home and cut his tv time down so can you! I like what the other post said about chores to gain tv. I might just use that one myself. Good luck, and let us know how it goes, what works and what dose not.

Thanks for your reply ChilliPepper. I have made a lot of changes since I posted this back in april. We canceled Netflix, put a password on our computer so he cant get on it without us typing it in. We put the remotes up so he cant find them to turn the tv on in the middle of the night. I also have implemented the chores to earn tv time and its working. My child who once refused to clean at all now will clean his room or the living room or do whatever chore I choose to get tv time. He now will come home and do his homework without asking to watch tv right away. I really want to put him In some kind of mixed martial arts like judo. Im having troubles finding a place that offers it around here. He has expressed interest in it and I believe it would really benefit him :) We had him in gymnastics a couple years ago and he was really good at it but decided at the end of the 8 week class he didn't want to do it anymore because he is small for his age and had a hard time on the pommel horse so he didn't want to do it anymore which is a shame because he was really good on the rings and bars. Im going to do some more searching and find a place to get him into some sort of mixed martial arts :) Thank you again for your advice and encouragement. I hope all is going well with your nephew. Im glad he has someone who loves him to take him in and help him like you are :)

my son just turned 7. he has a huge addiction with Tv and playing games on the iPad or my phone. tonight he had a huge meltdown. he normally sleeps in my bed ( I'm a nursing student and I'm exhausted all the time to spend over an hour to battle him to sleep in his own bed.) i will fight that battle once I have finished my last semester. I know its not healthy but i need my sleep just as much as he does having my own mental health issues.

last night he stayed up until 9 pm fighting sleep because he wanted to watch TV falling asleep. normally he watches one show and falls asleep during the one show or right after. so tonight I have had enough of his disrespectful mouth, attitude and him hitting and kicking me and forced him to sleep in his own bed. I sat for an hour in his room blocking his door so he wouldn't get out of his bed. i was told that i was the worst mother in my sons entire life.

I'm not sure i can handle this mouthy disrespectful attitude much longer.