Help! - Springfield, MO

I don't know if you are considering the Chiropracter as the last lady said but here in this area Dr Hawkins in Springfield is suppose to be great with kids.

Hi C.. I saw your request about ADHD. My own kids don't have ADHD but I subcribe to a physician's website that has helped me understand health better. Here's his basic overview of ADHD. This explains a little about ADHD and refers to some steps you can take. Hope this helps. My kids do take supplements and the main change they have had is to clear up their allergy symptoms. S.

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

It appears, at least on the surface, that ADD and ADHD has become epidemic. Attention deficit disorder is just like the name implies-the patient or child has a very short attention span. In other words, they are able to concentrate or focus on any particular subject or project for only a very short period of time. ADHD is associated with a child who is very active and can rarely sit still. Obviously, these children are not able to focus on anything very long.

When it comes to schoolwork, this disorder leads to poor performance and class disruption. This is especially true if the child has the hyperactive form, which means the child is continually in motion-literally. When these children come into my office, I leave the exam room exhausted after the child has all but disassembled it. I have certainly gained great respect for the parents and teachers who have to deal with this day in and day out.

However, I also realize that many children are being improperly diagnosed as having ADD/ADHD, since it is almost a "fad" diagnosis today. This makes it imperative that physicians and parents follow strict protocols in the making of this diagnosis by making sure there are no physical disorders and then following a battery of neruopsychiatric testing. This testing should be done with a clinician that has experience in this disorder.

Traditional therapy for ADD/ADHD involves the use of psychostimulant drugs like Ritalin, Cylert, and Adderall. Although these drugs have been shown to have a significant clinical effect in these children, they have their own set of side effects and have even been found to lose their effect over a couple of years. This is why many clinicians dealing with this disorder like to give their patients a "drug holiday," especially in the summer. I also find many parents showing up in my office sharing with me that they would like to try and get their child off the medication permanently because of the terrible side effects, saying they want their child back. Parents will often state, "My child's attention is better but his or her personality has totally changed on the medication."

I encourage parents to make the lifestyle changes I recommend below and hopefully over time their child will be able to come off the medication and still do well socially and educationally. If a child can be started on this program in the winter or early spring, I suggest giving him or her a "drug holiday" (only with doctor's approval) during the summer. Then in the fall, I advise the parents to "drag their feet" in starting the medication again. Many are pleasantly surprised to see their child doing well in school, having increased attention span, and relating better to their classmates while not taking any medication.
Minimal support for Cellular Nutrition:

My minimal recommendation for creating cellular nutrition is to simply take an Antioxidant Tablet and Mineral Tablet that contains as close to the recommended nutrients you can see by clicking on each particular nutrient or tablet. Several nutritional companies are now combining most of these nutrients into one or two different tablets, which makes it much more convenient to get the cellular nutrition that I recommend. The Antioxidant and Mineral Tablets need to offer the cell ALL of the antioxidants, B cofactors, and antioxidant minerals needed by the cell at ideal levels. In order to achieve the best results, in general I recommend taking 2 Antioxidant Tablets and 2 Mineral Tablets in the AM with breakfast and in the PM with your evening meal. Now the exact amount may vary with the particular nutritional company you choose; however, nutritionals should always be taken with food because of better absorption and better tolerance.

Optimal support for Cellular Nutrition:

For the most favorable results for basic cellular nutrition, I also recommend adding to the Antioxidant Tablet and Mineral Tablet some additional Calcium/Magnesium Tablets and essential fats. You are able to get additional essential fatty acids from high-quality Flax Seed Oil or pharmaceutical-grade, filtered Fish Oil Capsules. These recommendations provide all the nutrients at their ideal levels creating the cellular nutrition I recommend in my book, What Your Doctor Doesn’t Know About Nutritional Medicine.

Enhancers

It is critical that you know the necessity of adding Enhancers, which contain additional potent antioxidants, to your foundational cellular nutrition for optimal results. Patients who are suffering from a chronic degenerative disease or illness are producing more free radicals and are under more oxidative stress than the average healthy individual. Therefore, adding potent Enhancers to the basic cellular nutrition I recommend offers you the best chance to bring this oxidative stress back under control. The synergy and increased potency created by this approach to nutritional medicine is why I’m able to get such consistent improvement in the health of my patients.

However, in order to suit each individual’s unique financial situation, I always offer both an optimal and a minimal plan for cellular nutrition and for adding Enhancers. Obviously, one’s improvement of their health will be more consistent with the optimal recommendations; however, a minimal regime can still produce significant improvement in your health.

Recommended Enhancers:

Optimal:
Grape Seed Extract - 2 tablets daily
Minimal:
Grape Seed Extract - 1 tablet daily

Hi C. if you need more info about adhd got to www.webmd.com it is a great place to find info and treatment sagestions i go there for my needs. I hope this helps.R.

It will be o.k. Often times when we hear that our children have something we are not familiar with it can get scary. There are several websites out there to get info. A place to start would be www.chadd.org. I started there to I could make informed decision about whether to medicate or not. I am very leary about giving my kids anything other than an antibiotic and then I am still skeptical.
We eventually decided to try ritalin with the combination of some diet changes and modification to her daily routine.
It has been a life changing experience for everyone in her life. The teachers are able to work with her more, the is not as eager to me mean (verbally) to her little brother, and she is able to participate in more activites outside of school.
I also got the book at the local book store "Helping your ADD Child" by John Taylor. It is something I can take with me and read while she is at gymnatics. It helped me learn about changing her behavior with or without medication.
Medication is not for everyone, and some parents chose not to medicate, but I know without medication she is person that is hard to be around, and is almost unteachable on an academic level and of course would not be in gymnatics.
Good luck with the decisions you make and I hope the resources I have given you will give you some guidence and comfort.

Please be careful with this. So many children are labelsd this because they learn differently. Get a second and third opnion from different types of professionals. Labeling a child is wrong especially when it comes from a lazy society that doesn't work with children who may not fall into the model child, those that are future artists and scientists learn differently. I learned differently and thank you Lord I had good teachers who understood this.

Good luck,
D.

Hello C.,

Probably, I have said this before because I do not believe that so many kids have ADHD or ODD or any other behavioral problem, but please find other opinions, and do more research about this; Sherry gave you a very interesting information about these disorders, read it very carefully and look for further information. Find another doctor, and take in consideration another opinion, may be more than two. Not every kid who has a poor attention span or is too talkative or is hyperactive is going to have adhd. Some of them are too smart or intelligent, and some others are really gifted, that is why you have to find out with the help of a great teacher (like my kid's)and work together. The key H. is not to find the easy way and just medicate your children with the first opinion, and the other is to work very hard and with lots of love and patience with the teacher for your child. Google also in "gifted children" and look for the characteristic of these kids, you may have a nice surprise.
Please, please just try to look for positive responses, and do more research about it. It is very hard and frustrating to have children with traits that people would call "adhd or odd", etc... It requires so much work, good diet, lots of exercise and activities but not always it means your kid has adhd..believe me.
Good Luck!

http://www.mercksource.com/pp/us/cns/cns_patient_resource...

check out this site

Hope it helps

Look up everything you can find on adhd. Ask your Dr to test your child. Schools can NOT tell you from the test they give, it needs to come from a Dr!
adhd means your child is very smart, but learns different than others!

Hi C., It can be very alarming to hear that your child has AD/HD! You don't say who told you your 9 year old has AD/HD but unless it was a professional educational psychologist or a psychiatrist who did an extensive evaluation, my advice would be to get one to do an evaluation. Look for someone who specializes in AD/HD.

I know of several boys in my son's class who might be labeled AD/HD if they were in a public school. Fortunately we are close enough to attend a Waldorf school where the learning is much more developmentally appropriate and physically active. By that I mean that 9 year olds aren't required to sit in desks for prolonged periods of time and they actually get at least two half houre recesses to run and play and exercise outside.

Any research on AD/HD recommends that kids with this diagnosis get lots of exercise. It really seems to help.

But, please get a good evaluation if you haven't already so that some classroom accomodations can be made if needed and so any type of medication is closely monitored if you end up going that route. There are 3 main types of medication to help with AD/HD and they are specific to the child's particular flavor of AD/HD. If you get a good professional it will cut out some of the trial and error.

And advocate for what you think helps your child! Refuse to be intimidated. Ask lots of questions. You know your child better than anybody, I'll bet. Best of all to you and your child!!

L. C.

I have 2 add kids. 1 son, 11 yo- very adhd, and daughter 13, add. they wear me out! haha. but are creative and imaginiative, and smart!
read driven to distraction. and 1-2-3 magic, and keep a positive attitude. there have been LOTS of well known people who are add - or most likely were (mozart, einstien, edison, ty pennington from extreme home makeover) its not at all 'bad' its just brains that work a little differently. My kids are on meds basicly on school days only. and have LOTS of outdoor and just 'play' time to use their energy and imaginations. they read TONS, i encourage that instead of t.v. my son didn't like sitting and reading when he was younger, so I got him comic books, that helped.
and most importantly - make sure they have understanding TEACHERS! who are ok with some wiggling- wiggling isn't bad, its just annoying to some people.
Read lots! and ask lots of questions! book stores and the library have tons of books.
good luck and hang on!

Hi C.,

I used to work in a Psychiatrists office and have seen so many cases of ADHD. I know it can be scary for parents at first, your main goal should be finding support in your area. www.motherandchildreunion.com has a list of support groups (you can click on the area closest to you) you also need to be informed, visit www.chadd.org it's a website devoted to the myths, treatments, etc. related to ADD and ADHD. Good Luck!

Hi Cheene,
THis is not the end of the world. Just get your questions answered and the first thing to do is look at what your child/children are eating. Eliminate all preservatives, high frutose corn syrup, dye's (numbers in color dye's in food labels), Partially Hydrogenated and Hydrogenated Oils, and any high sugar foods.
When reading the labels for foods look for the sugar grams.
4 grams equal 1 teaspoon. If there are 44 grams of sugar that means there is 11 teaspoons of sugar in one serving.

Stay away from Spenda, Equal, Sweet & Low. ALL chemical based Articifial Sweetners. Use Stevia, Raw Honey or Organic.

Increase the intake of Raw Frutis and Vegetables in their diet. If you find that difficult to do I recommend that you get your children on Juice Plus+ - Also they have a children health study for children from 6 thru 15. For each adult that purchases Juice Plus+ they can sponsor a child into the study and the child will get their Juice Plus+ free from one to three years. Here is the Website for informaiton on Juice Plus+ Call me if you want information on the Health Study for Children/Families. I'm happy to help.
###-###-####

My Son was ADHD and When we completely changed his diet and increase his intake of Fruits and Vegetabes his attention decificit greatly improved. He never was put on medication because we made those changes and got him on Juice Plus+

The Website is http://www.health-connection.net

Take Care.

BJ

I personally have not experienced ADHD with my own children, but started selling a product called Wildtree and have learned alot from the company on the eating side of ADHD. I know there are different extremes of ADHD but like one of the other respondence said you have to start by changing his diet. Additives, MSG, DYES, perservatives all play a huge part in hyperactivity in not only kids but adults as well. I would suggest start changing over to all natural foods. If you would like more info please contact me. I know you can find a whole lot at the grocery stores as well but I know how time consuming reading labels can be. Wildtree had over 100 products and it is one stop shopping that could change the way your son acts towards you and others and he will notice a difference as well.

Hi. I wouldn't necessarily buy into an ADHD diagnosis without doing a little research and/or trying to make behavioral changes first. First, try cutting back on sweets, sugar, and caffeine. Often, children are just expending the excess energy these substances give them. Second, try talking with your child about his or her behavior in school. Maybe he or she is bored, or simply disinterested in the material. Maybe he or she is past the lessons being taught. Communication is key in determining what's really going on here. My advice, though, is to refrain from medicating your child until you know it's a legitimate concern and nothing else has worked. Good luck!

You may want to research a good medical website to learn more about it and how to deal with it. There are so many kids with ADHD and the more you know about it the better it will help you understand with how to deal with their attitudes and other issues that you will deal with. Maybe your doctor has some information for you to read and learn more about it.

I have a niece with ADD and PDD and some other things. Her mom researched these and made up a packet of information for caregivers and family members to read so we could understand her needs so when she is with us we know what to do to help her with her special needs. She has her rough moments sometimes but most of the time we can encourage her in different ways to get her mind to think of something more positive than negative behaviors she may try to express. She is a wonderful child and we all love her and try different things to see what works for her. It is tough sometimes but make sure you are consistant especially with your discipline because these kids will figure out quickly how to manipulate you into feeling sorry for them to get what they want.
Good Luck and God Bless.

Please do read up on it..... I have a child that is 16 they said she was adhd and now we have found out that she is bipolar and has been sense birth .. We have been through a lot, So my prayer are with you.. My advice is to do your homework and make sure your child is geting the treatmet he needs.. good luck

HI. I do not know much about ADHD personally, though I have a son who has autism, and he really seems to have alot in common with one of my best friends sons who suffers from ADHD, ADD, & OCD- my friend is out of town right now, but she is a great advocate for her son, he is 6, and has the worst case, but she knows probably exactly what you are going through, and I know shed be totally willing to talk with you via email or phone.... I will let her know about your request, she is on Mamasource too, and I can have her get in contact with you if youd like.
Also, I go to Special School District for different workshops, they are very helpful, and comforting.For autism, as well as ADHD are both very hard to deal with. They have a HUGE resource library too. I will give you their email address and phone number, they will send you out a Parent Connection newsletter with differnt workshops. www.ssd.k12.mo.us or###-###-####.
Hope this helps. But just know that there are others out there who know how you feel...

There is an online website and support group called CHADD. Check it out. Also, consider reading books by people who have had ADD/ADHD themselves. I can tell you that people with ADD/ADHD can be brilliant, but also can suffer with depression and other disorders. My son has both ADHD/Depression. Nutrition is something to consider too. It looks like you already have some advice on that. Consider keeping a journal for a few days on foods. Meds aren't all bad. When my son began taking them, it was very difficult. Now he smiles, participates in life, and is learning how to cope with both the ADHD and depression. When he began taking them, it was like the world around him jumped into view. He started to take notice of the life around him more.

There are a couple of books recommended to us:

Driven to Distration and
Delivered from Distraction

Getting a psychologist to test him, is important. Many kids with ADD/ADHD have other underlying problems or learning disabilities. Our son has dysgraphia, eventhough he has high intelligence.

If you are in KC, Dr. Dawn Bloom is wonderful!!! I've referred several friends there who also has raved about her.

Good luck to you! Please let me know if you have any questions.
L.

Hi C.
I know this will sound crazy, but have you considered chiropractic?
Here is a quote from one of our ADHD moms:
Our sons ages 5 and 8 have been on a maintenance plan at Family First Health Center for the last year. We can tell when they need to be adjusted by their behavior. Although each displays different behavior when in need of an adjustment, both benefit in similar ways. When properly aligned, each boy is calmer, has better focus, seems to have better control over their body, and can more easily handle the ups and downs of everyday life. It has made a positive difference in their overall disposition. We kiddingly say it is like "purchasing sanity".

There is tons of research on this topic - you can find some of it here:
http://www.erinelster.com/ConditionsDetail.aspx?Condition...

We see kids all the time with this exact situation. We'd be happy to take care of yours too. Please let us know if there is anything we can do for you.

Dr. J
____@____.com

My first question is, "Who told you this?" If it was a teacher or counselor at school, I would get a medical opinion. It takes testing and other methods to determine ADHD. If you have had medical advice, did it include nutritional counseling? Many children are misdiagnosed because of improper nutrition or allergies to food. (I am not saying that you don't feed your kids properly, just that it helps to have nutritional counseling.) There are web sites that you can go on to see if your son actually meets several (not just one) of the criterion for this issue. After all of that, if he does meet these, then and only then is medication viable. Too many children are medicated for this problem incorrectly. However, with many, it does work allowing them to concentrate and accomplish what they need to do. Just be fully educated on the side-effects and realize that medication is not a fix for every behavior. You know your child better than anyone.

I agree with the others, in that you need to make sure it's not something else that's causing the behavior before you go to meds. The Standard American Diet (SAD) is full of processed, pre-packaged, chemical-laden foods that our children (and ourselves) eat. It was not until my husband (age 27) was diagnosed with cancer that I started researching the effects of the foods we eat. What I discovered is that there are so many preservatives, additives, pesticieds, and chemicals in our food that are not supposed to be ingested by the human body. These, over time, have a devestating effect-especially in children. America's children are obese, and diagnoses of add and adhd have never been so high, not to mention diabetes. A great book for you to read is: "If It's Not Food, Don't Eat It" by Kelly Hayford, C.N.C. It talks about how by selecting organic, whole, fresh foods, it can change your life. Many children react negatively to food colorings and certain preservatives. There is usually an improvement when these things are eliminated. The best thing you can do immediately, is read the food package labels and discard anything that has added coloring or preservatives (including Kraft Mac and Cheese--a favorite of most kids). I didn't want to go without eating most of my favorite foods, so what I've learned to do is make myself what I would normally buy in a package. For instance, make home-made mac and cheese with whole-grain noodles, milk, cheese, butter. Anything you would buy in a package, can be made by you if you find a recipe. I know you're probably thinking you don't have the time for this, but educate your kids on healthy eating habits and get them involved in the kitchen. If the behavior improves because of his diet, then you will probably have to spend less time supervising his behavior. And, you will have more energy by eating healthier foods. And most people think it's more expensive, but you are acutually saving money if you spend it on food rather than on meds. I'm not saying what he's eating is the only cause, but I know it has helped many children with adhd. It's definitely worth a try. And, if nothing else, you will be serving your children healthy food that will have a lasting effect on them. Good luck!

A change in diet is the first place to start! No sugars or perservatives and it teaches them to eat healthy! There are lots of resourses to help you on line and books! The best thing I can say is take it one day at a time and imagine you were them for a day. Get inside their head it is like a tv only someone else has the remote and is constantly changing the channels. Please read up on this before you go striaght to medication and you should know that sometimes adhd will get better through puberty!! Good Luck and all the patients in the World to you!!!!!

hello C.,
I have known many people with ADHD if you do not want to put them on medicine, then adjust there foods, My sister did that and it was amazing how it worked on her child. Check for products with red 40 those usually cause behavior issues with most children, such as hyperactivity, more increased fits.....
I would suggest seeing a health specialist that isn't going to prescribe medicine just to prescribe it. Someone that will talk
to you about other suggestions. Hope this helps.

C.,
My youngest, now 16, was just diagnosed with ADHD a few months ago. Our main concern was the fact that his grades in school were horrible. Failing almost every class. The doctor put him on Adderal XR and he takes just one pill each morning. His grades have improved dramatically to all A's and B's. I wish we had started this treatment when he was a lot younger. No telling where he might be today.
Let me know if I can give more info.
K

I have a 14 year old that has had ADHD for a while. Ihave read alot of books and followed the advise. I mkes things alot eaiser if you can get your child on a routine schedule and if there is going to be a change let your child know in advance. I can try to answer any question you would have.