Andrea,
You are smart to ask for advice about ADD/ADHD. Plese do not believe all of the lies that the media and random internet sources tells us about ADD. (90% of all internet sites that are negative about medication are produced by the Church of Scientology).
Unfortunately I believed all of what people told me without getting the true scientific data. I am ADD/ADHD. Thankfully someone got through to me, I started taking medication and I can't believe the difference. It is truly great to know how "real" people think.
The first thing that you will need to know is that people who don't have ADD can have no clue about how it feels to be ADD/ADDHD. They think that you can just eat better nutritionally, or discipline better, or "snap out of it", or some other home remedy.
What people don't understand and I didn't either, is that ADD is a chemical imbalance at the synaptic level in the brain and it is genetic. It is not caused by any outside sources.
An ADD person's brain cycles dopamine and norepinephrine too fast at the synapse. This causes inattention, distractibility, unexplained out-bursts or impulsivity, which has outcomes, that are below average scholastically (but not always), socially shunned, and generally viewed as having a lower intelligence than their peers. However, the vast majority of ADD people have higher IQ's than their peers. By using proper medicine, they can attain their IQ quotient. Without medicine, they are often viewed as an inconvenience.
I hope that you decide to have him "tested" for ADD/ADHD. Your pediatrician can give you the forms for you, your spouse, and his teacher to fill out. You will also want to know that not every pediatrician really understands ADD, so not all of them will give you good advice or start your child out on the right medication.
This past fall, my daughter (who has tested with a 'gifted' IQ) went through the testing with Dr. Lillian Israel (great Dr.!). Dr. Israel did the right thing in starting my daughter on Concerta (she had to learn to swallow pills and I can help you with this too :-)).
Concerta is the medication that the Harvard Researchers on ADD always reccommend as the first medicine to try. It is basically time released Ritalin. Ritalin is a drug that has been used since the 1930's so we know that it is safe to use.
The only other drug that has been proven to work on ADD has an amphetamine base, which increases side effects and can be addictive.
We found that Concerta has little to no side effects and is totally non addictive.
For my daughter, we started her on a low dose and then increased it until we found the level that helped her the best. We even learned that her dosages would increase through the first year or 2 as her body adjusts to metabolizing it.
The results have been amazing for my daughter! She is SO proud of herself! She is making 100's on tests! She can spell when she had a hard time before. She now has the patience to sound words out. She isn't a zombie, if anything; she is a better daughter because she doesn't talk incessantly about nothing in particular just to be talking.
I hope this helps,
K. B.