ADHD Questions

I have ADHD and my husband has ADHD. With this gene pool, my two children (one 3 and the other 4) may have ADHD, but my children are young to say. I am an occupational therapist that works with children with ADHD and other sensory integration disorders for the last 15 years. I will say my husband and I have been on meds during hard times in our lives, but do not like the way the drugs make us feel. There are a lot of new drugs out there for ADHD. This topic is often discussed in my house due to the above and my husband being a pharmacist. My husband would tell you all about how you do not know what the drugs are doing to the nervous system, etc. He would never give a child medication. I on the other hand work with the highly ADHD child and have seen night and day in children. I am for medication if the child really can not function without them. You are afraid for the child's safety. There are many ways to help child with ADHD.
I would suggest starting up with an evaluation to see if your child truly has ADHD or if the behaviors could have another reason. Remember that you are the mother and you see your child more than anyone else. If you do not like one doctors assessment, get another opinion.
My other suggestions are to read the out of sync child. It has practical suggestions in the book. Others are if your child is hyper and you need him or her to sleep or sit, give a big bear hug or wrap him or her up in a quilt or blanket. Do jumping jacks or push on the wall. Decrease stimulation in the room (turn off lights and sounds). This will calm the nervous system down to allow your child to concentrate or calm down. You will have to find a task or set of tasks that work for your child. If you notice your child responding in a positive way then great. The task will not work every-time or will not take the amount of time. Good luck.

My oldest son who will be 14 next week has been diagnosed since Kindergarten... I was a single mom then and did what ever the doctors told me to do... Now I am married and we have another son who is 5 and is showing the same behaviors my older son displayed at this age... I will have a more difficult time with DH opposing medication... I have done some looking around as far a natural stuff for years... I didn however come across some stuff that I am planning on getting this week... http://nativeremedies.com/focus_for_adhd.shtml plus my mom is getting them both involved in Juice Plus...www.juiceplus.com
If you want to know how things are going... let me know in a few weeks and I will be more then happy to let you know... Here is to HERBAL REMEDIES!!! :)

Like you my son was ADHD. I did not want to medicate him either. He went through a lot of testing before I finally put him on medication. Please have your son completely tested. A lot of people like to just put that label and let it go, but there could be another reason for the behavior or inattention. Just a thought monitor his food. I found out my son acted up more when he ate pickles. He is 17 now and no longer takes medication. Some kids do out grow it. But have all the test available run before you make a decision.

Sorry, I don't have anything concrete to tell you. My daughter is having some behavioral issues similar to ADHD and I've started taking her to therapy. We've tried the no processed sugar diet and also cutting out red dye #40, which has helped a few people I've talked to. The no sugar helped my daughter, but did not eliminate all of the behaviors. Like you, I do not want to medicate my daughter, so therapy seemed like the best option, and so far it is helping.

My son is now 14 now but when he was in 1 st grade, His teacher's suggested having him tested for ADHD. I cut out almost all sugar and saw a huge difference!!! He still struggles with school but has never been medicated. we're not as strict with the sugar with him being a teen now, but I still try. Thank god for better sugar alternatives now!! I recently found a sugarfree honey at super walmart that we use almost everyday now. hope this helps! Kat

I was talking to someone who had a nephew that was on a strict diet for autism that helped him immensely. It sounded a lot like this diet I found for ADHD. http://www.newideas.net/adddiet.htm
one of the main things my friend talked about was the no dairy thing. so try switching to a non dairy milk and try having him drink A LOT of water and see if it helps. I know i'm not totally helpful, but i figured i'd start it out since no one else responded yet