Hi Mamas,
My 3rd grade daughter exhibits signs of ADD and, has, in the past, exhibited signs of both OCD and anxiety. It is now affecting her at school. In kindergarten and into first grade she was advanced in her school work and then somewhere toward the end of first/beginning of second it all went downhill. She knows the rules and genuinely wants to follow them but she does impulsive things such as getting out of her seat or calling out. She says that she can't explain why she does it and she wants to make good decisions but that in her words she just feels like she "has to" tell her teacher xyz "right now." By the time she realizes she's out of her seat it is too late and she is in trouble already. She also brings home drastically different grades on the same exact content (like one A, one D). When I hand her back her Ds and Fs she can almost ALWAYS fix the mistakes without any help. I found her crying in her bed the other day (not out of attention because she didn't even know I was upstairs) and she said she was upset because she doesn't want to be a bad kid and she feels like she is. I have talked to this and last year's teacher and they both said "could be"but it is hard to tell. SO… I am trying to make dietary changes before I go the medication route to see if it will help. I know about the food dyes and we already don't eat those but what other omissions have helped other people? I have read that gluten can be a trigger but it is soooo hard to cut that from a kid's diet. I am willing to do it though if I have to. I have already begun giving her a high quality fish oil supplement. Anyone have any other advice?
I was diagnosed at age 8. My sons were diagnosed at ages 5 and 6. No diet change makes ADHD/ADD go away.
If you change her diet and the behaviors go away, she never had ADD. She had a food sensitivity.
Just wanted to clear that up.
If she truly does have ADHD-inattentive type, no dietary changes will make one iota of a difference. There's been a lot of scientific studies on this and unfortunately, there's no nice, easy way to address ADHD through diet. (Omegas are showing promise, but only slightly.)
I'm not shocked the teachers said "could be." Legally, they can't diagnose medical conditions and they can get in serious trouble for suggesting a medical condition.
I don't see any harm in trying to make changes, but please be willing to talk to the medical specialists (you'll want an assessment done by a child psychiatrist, NOT a pediatricain) if diet doesn't help her soon. The longer she gets in trouble for her actions, the more damaging it is to a child. Our son was labeled the "bad kid" at school until he finally got assessed and treated for his ADHD-combined type. Medication has made the most transforming change in him, far more than therapy and the experimental neurofeedback we tried.
Best of luck! And if it does prove to be ADHD, please join CHADD and subscribe to ADDitude magazine, so you can learn about the latest in ADHD.
I just asked my pediatrician, who always winds up being right about everything else, if there were therapies that helped ADHD. She said no, and the dietary based ones were the most useless of all. We are monitoring my massively hyperactive three year old, and I wanted to know what I could be doing to avoid medication. She said if its really ADHD, there are medications that help, and that there are new ones that are good. I know they are overused, but I appreciate her perspective and plan to keep an open mind about meds.
You're not going to know if she has ADHD (or something else) until she sees a doctor, and even if she does, that doesn't necessarily mean she will need meds. It could, but you really won't know anything until she sees a doctor.
The best thing you can do for your daughter is call her ped and mention your concerns. Our doctor referred our son to a pediatric, behavioral psychologist. That's really where you want to start.
If she has ADD/HD diet isn't going to make any difference, and if it does, she never had it in the first place.
Though I don't know why you're even thinking about medication when she hasn't even been properly diagnosed. This is a process involving teachers, doctors, parents and psychiatric professionals. Parents, teachers and pediatricians alone cannot and should not put a child on meds for mental disorders just because she has signs or symptoms, she needs a full evaluation supervised by a child psychiatrist/psychologist.
If you suspect this is the case get a referral from your pediatrician, and talk to the school psychologist as well.
Sans actual food allergies diet doesn't change a thing. I am an adult with ADHD and there is no difference in how my brain works when I eat healthy or eat junk. Exercise helps though honestly I don't know how.
People with ADHD do well with structure. The funny thing is the structure with special diets will effect a positive change but it isn't the diet, it is the structure.
So if you are against meds, start with routine. Come home from school, play for an hour, half an hour of homework, dinner, homework, play, homework, before bed gather up homework put it in the same place, bed. Morning, have a routine. Most of the homework issues are forgetting, routine helps to remember.
The last question about ADD I responded to I explained that a true ADD child wants so very much to do something they like and cannot do it. Unlike a child who cannot "focus" in school but can spend hours doing something they really like. Sounds like your daughter really wants to do well and succeed but cannot. Worth an evaluation. Nothing to lose.
Here is my advise.
My son was diagnosed with ADHD and Sensory. I was told to look at meds for him when he was 4. I looked at the side effects and decided to try something differnt.
What I did.
1. Remvoed all dyes from his diet (Red Dye 40, Yellow 6 etc)
2.Removed Gluten from his diet ( Mind you he went almost daily saying his tummy hurt).
3. Accupressure- No needles, but it is magnetic.
4. No gummy candy-even the dye free ones
5. No chocolate
What school says!./ was he diagnosed with ADHD? my response Yes, well, I think they were wrong. So either they were wrong, or the Accupuntrure and Gluten free made a big enough difference that we are bordeline okay.
I agree with you to try anything before you go with the meds. I can not tell you the number of people I have run into and found out that they were diagnosed with ADHD-Given meds (whcih only made things worse) come to find out that there were food sensitivitys/ allergys.. sometimes food triggers bad behaviors. People seem to think that you are not alelrgic to something if it does not give you a rash or something like that. Food sensivitys/allergy can change behavior.
What can you do before going to meds..
1. Check for food sensitivitys
2. Other natural things like Accupunture ( agian what we do is no needles, just magnetic, no pain after 3 weeks of going, we had to skip a week, my son asked me why- he likes that place it makes him feel better).
Think outside the box- check everything
Lots of people will say the diet changes etc.. do nothing. And that was thier experience. My experience was a huge postivie change when we wnet gluten free, and then another postivie change when we started accpunture.
Good luck.
I have had several people say did you change your mind on giving him meds .. My respons no, I have not at this time.
My son was impulsive for awhile when he was young. His brain was working fast and he hadn't learned self-control. I asked the teacher if she would tape a simple index card to his desk that said "Do Not Whistle" (he was prone to breaking out in whistling out loud while doing assignments, hardly realizing that he was doing it). Seeing the visual cue made a world of difference. Maybe your daughter needs some kind of cue to help her stop and think. Make a little stop sign in Sharpie on her hand. Make a note card and tape it to her desk. Role play with her, where she starts to jump up or shout out something, and then instead does a more appropriate action. When she wants to jump up and tell her teacher "xyz right now" teach her to slowly breathe in through her nose and out through her mouth 10 times or something like that, or put a little bracelet on her wrist that she can twist to remind her to stop and think (make sure her teacher knows the plan and is in on it). Break the habit, in other words, by replacing it with a good habit. Or tell her to briefly close her eyes and picture whatever makes her feel relaxed. She doesn't sound like a bad kid, just one that needs to learn self-discipline or self-control, and that's not a bad thing. Some people learn it easily, others need help in that area, and that's ok.
We've used extensive ADDITIONS of nutrients rather than the costly, time-consuming, frustrating methods of elimination of triggers. I have a teacher friend whose son had ADD, and she did not want to medicate either if she didn't have to (she had seen so many kids with reactions to meds, including personality changes). Another friend has a son who had 60 food allergies and a diagnosed learning disability, plus significant rages. He really couldn't eat anything. Both addressed this in the same way, by adding the necessary nutrients to allow their kids process what's in the food without these abnormal reactions, and also to increase brain development and focus. My son wasn't this bad, but he got very very sick, and I followed their lead. He rebounded quickly, and he had much more focus afterwards, better grades, etc. Years later, all three kids are great, have gone to college, etc. And they're just never sick either. I work with tons of families who have seen similar results.
Yes, we should try to reduce the chemicals, dyes, etc., and cook more from whole ingredients vs. processed foods, and I do. but it's so problematic to never be able to send your child to a birthday party or a restaurant or to overnight camp. You spend your life reading labels and hoping they are accurate.
Remember also that medications do nothing to eliminate the cause of the problem, only to address (with varying degrees of success) the symptoms after they appear. So you're not getting to the root of the problem.
Completely agree with BookWormMom's response.. I'm also watching my 3 yr old who probably has it like me and dietary changes didn't help much. (well tyrosine helped make my meds work better, but never tried it alone..)
