ADHD Kid

Okay, I have an 11-year-old and a husband with ADHD/ADD. I'm going to tell you exactly what to do, and it will work!!! I have chosen not to medicate my 11-year-old. My husband takes medication. He also just started taking Constant Focus. For your child, do this without fail:

1. Get rid of all simple sugar foods and snacks, and get rid of all artificial colors, dyes and most artificial flavors and additives. This means NO juice, NO fruit snacks or fruit roll-ups, NO sugary breakfast cereals, NO fake pancake syrup (use only real maple syrup...yes, it's expensive), NO Nutrigrain bars, NO soups with MSG, etc.

2. Replace all snacks with low sugar, complex carbs containing whole grains...NOT enriched whole grains. He will have trouble with this diet change at first, b/c his body is addicted to this stuff. He may even have withdrawal headaches.

3. Add at least double or triple the fiber into his diet.

4. Add the following supplements:

Attentive Child: http://www.iherb.com/ProductDetails.aspx?c=1&pid=974&...

Jr. Strength Fish Oil: http://www.iherb.com/ProductDetails.aspx?c=1&pid=4199...

You can order these on this website for cheap with fast shipping:

www.iherb.com

You can also get these things at Mother's Market, Henry's or any whole food store.

Try this for at least 4 weeks to see a big difference. Trust me (a perfect stranger on the internet - haha)...I made these changes 3 years ago (food) and over a year ago (supplements). Life has been different. My son has given me positive feedback, and he is like a new kid.

Besides these supplements, I will add that I also do behavior modification with him to work on his behaviors. I have ordered a whole slew of ADHD workbooks just for kids like him. If you want some ideas, e-mail me back. I also use a computer-based program called Easy Child to help him maintain his responsibilities. He also has a big bulletin board to help him stay organized. It's a lot of work, but, for us, it's a better alternative to medicating him. I'm a SAHM, so I have extra time to give to all my kids. I have a 2-year-old boy and a 13-year-old boy, as well.

Hope this helps!

I am having the same problem with my son. He has been acting out more than usual and at times will hurt or bully other kids. I am in contact with the school and physician to see if there is something besides ADHD going on. My son is currently on Daytrana patch 30mg. Did ok when he is home but school is when he acts out. I would suggest you call his physician and talk to the school to see what plans can be put into place.

Dear M.,

I have been waiting for you ! About a month ago our local newspaper published 10 Strategies to help ADHD students succeed in school, (and I say in life).

I would like to copy this into my computer and send it to you, because it is really long and has a lot of great advice.

One of the main things that it says is that we need to remember that the child has a lot of feelings that they do not know how to handle and we need to teach them and guide them into knowing how to handle them.

So I am going to check and see how to send this to you.

C. N.

Ditto to Georgia with the diet suggestions!! It is amazing how diet affects our kids!! My daughter is ADD, so I don't have quite as severe of a problem with acting out. But I will tell you- if I really watch what she is eating and then we have an "opps" day- you know the ones..someones birthday party, or spend the night at a friend's house- she is a mess for 2 or 3 days afterwards! And God forbid she have Gatorade or Crystal Light with any Red food dye (some of the colors other then red have it too!). Then she is a basket case!!

Another thought- all the kids in her class are acting craz right now! The teacher tells me it's an end of the school year thing, but they seem worse this year then normal!!

Good luck!!

I agree completely with Georgia S. Diet has so much to do with it and you need to have a behavior modification plan. Can the school help you with providing behavior therapy???