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Does anyone have a child who has been diagnosed or is suspected to have some kind of hyperactivity issue?
DS2 is pretty day-dreamy and squirmy and we look like we're heading down the road to a diagnoses of AD/HD.
What non-medicinal options have you tried? How effective are they?
I don't have a child with any attention disorders myself, but have worked with a lot through work. Dietary changes can make huge differences in children's behaviors. Making sure they get exercise to get out extra energy, in particular being in the outdoors. Working with an occupational therapist can be really helpful too, they help with things like sensory problems, teach children methods of coping with the things which set them off, and/or make them upset/jittery/nervous/misbehave.
Will get back to you when kids are in bed :)
We suspect our oldest DD has ADHD. We've noticed her concentration & attention is generally better when she's taking fish oil.
My dd has ADD. We have just recently started her on Ritalin (10mg a day). It has really helped her concentration. She also takes fish oil and I am thinking of starting her on melatonin (to help sleep).
As you know/can see in my sig, DD2 is ADHD. Diagnosed abour 2 years ago. She also has sensory issues, so I wanted to try sort that first & go from there.
So her sensory issues were tactile (touch) & vestibular (movement) mainly. And she's a seeker. So she craves touch & movement mostly. But also craves to have the other senses stimulated.
We tried pencil grips for touch. A weighted vest & lap thingy (just used a door snake to see what happened).
It all helped. To a point. It all calmed her & helped her sit still a little longer, but none of it helped her focus at school. The last term of last year I finally decided to start her on her Ritalin. I'd had it sitting in my pantry for 12 months hoping I wouldn't get to that point. But she was slowly slipping further & further behind & there was nothing else I could do.
I haven't looked back. I also have her on a 'green lipped mussel' trial through a Melbourne university. But she's not as regular with taking them & isn't too keen on the occasional taste of them (she sometimes notices an after taste). So I can't really say weather or not that's made a huge difference. She takes them along with the Ritalin.
They may be starting another trial if you want the info? I wanted to do this before I started the Ritalin, but the chance came too late (they only did Melbourne residents in the first trial) & the Ritalin is working so well, I'm too scared to take her off & watch her go backwards again ITMS.
There are things you can do naturally. Its just finding the thing that works & preparing yourself for the fact that it might come down to one option. Medication. That is a scary decision & I don't think anyone should jump in & go for it without ruling out all other options. But I do think it should be kept in mind, just in case.
We all know diet has an effect, but sometimes diet only goes so far.
Have you tried the leaky gut diet? (Along those lines) I'd love to give it a go, but I honestly think my kids would starve. I keep things as natural & colour free as possible, but kids still need to eat, so I don't feel comfortable going through with it the whole way.
I've read about melatonin & am really interested in it. Not one of my 4 kids just goes off to sleep & stays asleep all night. DD2 is possibly the best sleeper. I think because her brain is so active through the day, it just completely shuts off at night... but that means she wets the bed... Most nights though, she does find it hard to just switch off. Once she's out, she's out, but that can take a while.
N2L do I go to the gp about melatonin, or can you buy it without a script?
Just subbing so i can reply better tomorrow. I have a ADHD child and another in testing stage. We use slow release ritilan and have used melatonin(sp)
We do GAPS for autism, but I have a few friends doing GAPS for ADHD with the same great success. I highly recommend it.
Thanks for everyone's responses :)
Has anyone tried caffeine? I've read a couple of article which suggest that it has a similar effect to the stimulants in prescribed medication but obviously it isn't so strong. I'm wondering if experimenting by giving him a double shot of espresso before school would be really irresponsible parenting :think:
I guess the thing I'm struggling with is the fact that there is no 'cure' or 'fix'. That it's almost as much a personality type as it is a learning disorder. I'm a bit masculine in that I hate it when things can't be fixed with actions.
I have a pile of books about 2 foot tall that I got out of the library today but I suspect I won't find the answers I seek in them.
I'm also struggling a bit with his current teacher in that I suspect that she wants him fixed up so that he is quiet and compliant and she wants me to do that. The paediatrician we are seeing is wonderful and he gave me a sheet of classroom strategies for her but I suspect that she won't use any of them.
No direct experience, but have taught heaps of AD(H)D children. I've seen parents at their wits end who swore they'd never try meds cry with relief after the difference it made, and other tear their hair out even more on the medical merry-go-round trying different meds and doses. I've seen many medicated children turn into 'zombies', and many become more quiet and compliant at school but cause a whole range of issues at home (most notably sleep disturbance). I've seen great improvements from diet and supplements too. And working on behavioural strategies has been successful.
One Mum I developed a close relationship with did a lot of research and had tremendous success working with a naturopath/dietician. We all thought her child had been medicated. When he reached adolescence (last year of primary), he ended up being medicated though, which again, helped enormously.
I personally think combining many strategies - behavioural, diet, supplements, medications - is the best approach. Trial and error and see what works for our LO.
Teachers like compliant kids, what can I say?! But, some teachers also like whatever means the least amount of work for them.... IMO, the teacher is an essential part of the process. They need to be involved in getting the behaviours they want in the classroom, along with parents, specialists and the child themselves. Not very eloquently put, but I hope I got my point across. :)
Zazou, I have a friend who is an educator and her DS 14 has been diagnosed with ADHD. My GF also suffers ADHD herself. My own DS is almost 8 and is very active and at times he seems to struggle to focus, perhaps more so than his peers. I see a lot of similarities between my DS's behaviour and my GF's DS! My own DS has had a gamut of testing done as he has had some struggles with his literacy despite being of exceptionally high intelligence. One of the things we discovered during all of the testing is that he does not suffer ADHD. He does have a visual processing disorder, but that's a separate thread...
Anyway, the point I am getting to is that my GF has researched the effects of caffeine on children with ADHD and truly believes that it has an effect. One day, her DS was particularly active and unfocussed and she said 'watch this' and gave him a glass of coke. Within 10 minutes, he was sitting down, focussed on building lego with my DS and he remained there for well over an hour. No suggestion from his mother, just a glass of coke. I haven't done any research myself, but watching my friends DS (as well as the respect I have for her professional knowledge and experience) has convinced me that there is something in the caffeine theory!
As a side note, my GF and her DH have avoided Ritalin for many years due to a desire not to medicate their DS. Mid last year, he was falling well behind academically and experiencing behavioural problems at school. He started Ritalin and by the end of the year he had caught up and his behaviour had improved hugely. He actually verbalised to his parents his thanks for agreeing to take the medication.
Good luck, it's a hard road when our kids deviate from 'the norm'!
I haven't heard of this caffeine theory... very intrigued.
I know a few mums who use melatonin for their asd kids and swear that it has made huge improvements in sleep - you can get it from a compound chemist. I realize he doesn't have asd but thought it might be helpful to know?
I have two boys with ADHD and both are on Ritalin. DS1 also has sleep initiation/maintenance disorder for which he takes catapres. After 8 years of taking hours to get to sleep and countless times up during the night he is now asleep within 15 minutes and rarely wakes during the night. Has increased his confidence tenfold too as he feels better for being able to get to sleep (and I'm sure he notices we are less frustrated now too). Just another option for you to speak to your Peadiatrician about.
I resisted Ritalin for years. The reality is though, as they age they require better concentration. My DD has always been a great student - well behaved and gets good marks - but the difference with her taking ritalin has been "remarkable" according to her teacher.
She is on the lowest dose and there has been no side effects.
Clover, melatonin is available via prescription from a compound chemist.
My DH has ADHD. back in the day when he was young he was diagnosed with a sugar intolerance. He barely passed school because although he could do the work very well, he disrupted the class and spent a lot of his schooling sitting in the corridor. Now though he is in a job with much responsibility and is very successful in what he does. He does a lot of activities that are both physical and intellectual as he can't sit still.
'Back in the day' his parents coped by putting him into every after school activity you could imagine. It helped to tire him out somewhat. He was on a modified diet, that was kept as natural as possible. He also got sent to the family dairy farm, where he milked before and after school! (Not something I would imagine you could do with your DS:))
Ds1 has ADHD. Most kids are like that, so just being squirmy and day dreamy doesn't mean hyperactivity disorder.
You can help control it by cutting out artificial dyes, flavors, extra/added sugar, sometimes dairy and gluten. We eat organic to avoid that stuff and it had helped a lot
Zazou - yes, caffeine works too. I forgot to mention how much DD1's standard of homework went up when she started having a hot tea/coffee when she got home from school. Unfortunately, she is very forgetful (cue ADHD suspicion) so she frequently forgets this & has something else. LOL. Not sure i would be going with a large dose of caffeine at first - small bodies can be quite sensitive at first. But experiment with some low-dose exposure at home - start with a weak homemade iced coffee & see what happens. If you get an observable result (like tha glass of coke example) that adds weight to the list of potential benefits of getting a diagnosis.
FWIW, I've been fluffing around for the past 6 months over whether I should seek a diagnosis for a condition I'm 95% sure that I have. Even though there are no magic bullets, it's a lifelong condition that carries considerable social stereotypes, etc, I've found over this time that the context of knowing (nearly for sure) that this has probably been the case all along has given me a framework to better manage the effects of the condition. In the end, if you have a diagnosis it opens the opportunity of accessing medication - whether now or in the future - but it doesn't mean that you have to choose to take it. It just means you have one more type of action in your list of potentially helpful strategies that you can try if or when you decide it's appropriate.
Another question.... has anyone had any luck with fidget toys?
Maybe I'm wrong but I struggle to see how DS wouldn't just make them a weapon of distraction - part of me thinks they would only work for children who are much less fidgety and disruptive than DS (ie if you gave him a fluffy ball he would play with it for 2 minutes then throw it..) but I'm open to suggestions so if they have worked for anyone with a very disruptive child I'd love to hear about it.
I'm thinking of getting him some of the chew jewelry just to save his clothes...
Do you think it could work with rules? So for example, give him the fluffy ball, but tell him he can't throw it, that if he no longer wants to play with it, he can just put it down.
Not sure exactly the purpose of the fidget ball/toy but my dd struggles with any distraction.
The idea with the fidget toy is that because the neurotransmitters aren't firing at full strength some ad/hd kids need extra sensory stimulation and a fiddle toy on their lap or even a chew toy or in some cases sound can provide sensory input so they can concentrate better on their work because the need is satisfied.
Clear as mud?
I think I need to try all if this stuff at home before challenging the teacher. I'm not sure she copes well with the unusual.
Every time I see the term chew toy I think of my dog lol.
He does chew a lot. Lots of his clothes have holes gnawed in them and missing buttons.
I used to eat my books.....
My DS2 is very much a sensory seeker. He concentrates better when he is fidgeting with squishy toys, etc. We do have to be careful though as he can easily become over stimulated. He loves the big gym balls but more then 5 mins using them and he gets very over excited. He's the same with certain fluffy textures too. We have been told heavy work is great for kids like this. So getting them to do handstands, carry heavy things from one end of the yard to the other, etc. Also pressure works for calming. We wrap him in a big blanket sometimes for a few minutes really tightly. After doing this a few times he is significantly calmer - for a short while at least to complete homework :) Perhaps that is something you could try to see what effect it has?
Zazou, tell me more about the clothes chewing? My DS has destroyed most of his tops by chewing the collar and chews his tie at school! Drives me nuts, but I just thought it was one of those habits like chewing finger nails etc.
Not sure about fidget toys, but in Prep and G1 the school provided my DS with a special cushion to sit on when on the floor as he seemed unable to sit still. It was made from rubber and had hundreds of little poking finger things (clear on that?!) and the idea was to provide the sensory stimulation that he would otherwise get by rolling around the floor. It worked a treat and he no longer needs it (he's in G2 now).
My DS1 chews his clothes.
Oh my gosh. Ds is always chewing his clothing and ive never connected it to this before....makes scence now
I've only just started reading up on all this in the last week (I think I have every book in my local library lol) but as from what I've read the clothes chewers are often oral sensory seekers - they like an oral fix to stimulate the neurotransmitters in the frontal lobe. For some of them it can help them concentrate, for others it helps them stay calmer.
Some OT's have developed chew 'toys' and jewelry (chewelry) for them so they can satisfy the need to chew without destroying clothes etc. They can come on lanyards that they wear around their necks (with safety clips) or clips with extendable thingies so they can carry them in their pocket. There are a few different brands in the OT/sensory toy shops. There are also tubes they can chew and textured shapes that are more like traditional teethers and there are some that can go on the end of pencils for the pencil killers.
How interesting! I've learned lots of new stuff in the last 24 hours... Makes me miss teaching though - I'd love to have implemented some of these strategies with children I've taught.
The oral fixation is familiar, not just with ADD/ADHD kids though. I've used fidget toys with some kids, with moderate success. One issue is that there is always some other kid in the class who wants one as well, or thinks its 'not fair' that someone else is 'playing' when they get in trouble for having things in their hands. Pencil grips worked well and i seem to remember someone suggesting some 'finger fidgets' where they fidget with their own fingers rather than something actually in their hands. At the very least, it saves so many destroyed pencils and rubbers, and the parents from having to buy new stationery constantly... took me quite a while to 'get' that these kids weren't wanton destroyers and vandals, they just needed to be doing something with their hands or mouths!
The caffeine also intrigues me as its always been such a no no.
I have a sensory shop near me if anyone wants the details, I'm in outer eastern melbourne!
Yeah, DD2 had/has a weak pencil grip, so we used something fluffy or silky wrapped around the pencil. We just use normal pencil grips now, but they still help.
I'll be doing way more research on the caffeine theory when I have time. I suspect DD3 will be somewhere on the ADD lines & today let her have some of my coke from yesterday... Probably more likely coincidence, :dunno: but she was so placid at work this morning. She usually plays up coz she's bored & doesn't have my attention, but this morning she was pretty chilled. Come lunch & she started playing up, so I gave her some of my iced coffee. And she was calmer again...
I was a coke (a-cola) addict. But I've cut right back recently. I still need a coffee in the mornings & will usually have one before bed as well, but the before bed one never affects my sleep. I've always thought I should've been dx ADD. I have all the symptoms as an adult & had them as a kid. I was the classic 'day dreamer'. I wish now that was more understood (still isn't).
I'll be reading more, & if caffeine helps out with DD at work, I might keep trialling it. Might even try it with DD2 for her homework. I've considered giving her that 3rd dose some days, but it just doesn't seem worth it. But she needs something to get her to settle & concentrate on what she's doing for more than 30 seconds at a time.
Just bought some spiky balls and tangly stuff at the $2 shop. We'll try them with homework over the weekend and if it helps I'll pass them on to his teacher.