Holistic ways to treat ADHD?

[heatherdeg]

I had very high hopes for Feingold because my son responded so profoundly to dietary intervention when he was very young. I thought for sure Feingold was our answer. We got the materials and were rigid with it for 4 weeks. Well, about 2-1/2 weeks in, the bedwetting at night died down but otherwise, my son had absolutely no recognizable response to it and I'm totally heartbroken because his attention span is INCREDIBLY. DIFFICULT. TO. COPE. WITH.

My husband, who takes meds for ADD, actually DID respond to it. And so did I: my insanely constant urination that nobody could find the source of was magically gone (and it's now back 2 weeks into being off Feingold and hitting heavy on some of the irritant foods--mainly berries and tomatoes).

My son had a full-blown audiogram (they don't usually do them until they're 7yo but he's 6-1/2yo and the neuro thought that because he is flagged as gifted that he'd endure it. My son was flagged early on for auditory processing problems, but this test showed that he didn't have any. Lovely.

He had a full-blown vision test specifically looking for convergence insufficiency (and any other vision issues--complete with full dilation). I had high hopes there, too, because he still has HORRIBLE eye contact... but again--nothing.

I have no idea what to try next. He had been on a higher-than-normal dose of pharmaceutical grade fish oil up through the neuro exam that flagged him with ADHD. In the last 3-4 months we've dropped off with it (chaos and multiple moves due to relocation got us off of our routines) but I honestly see no difference in the ADHD one way or the other. His sleep is back to being not great (wakes once at night and relatively light sleep), but we started up the fish oil again and his sleep is back to normal.

I found a dropper bottle of "Melissa Supreme" by Gaia Herbs and I didn't know why I'd bought it, but it notes that it's for concentration. I haven't tried it yet.

I don't know what else to try. His behavior along with an EXTREMELY spirited 22mo dd are becoming very overwhelming for everyone in the house.

So talk to me... where do I go from here?

[LauraLoo]

I don't have a lot of time to post, but I did want to share something with you that I've found very interesting:

http://www.wellsphere.com/add-adhd-a...kground/950749

I'm not sure where it is in this 8 part article, but there is a chart with all sorts of vitamins & minerals and amino acids that are very important to optimal functioning.

Also, if you haven't read "The Mood Cure," by Julia Ross you might want to pick that up. Tyrosine is covered in there, too.

My ds needs extra magnesium to wind down at night and he has also responded very well to 5-HTP which is an amino acid that assists in the production of serotonin. We've done fish oil for a long time, but added the magnesium in a couple of years ago. Just adding this in case sleep becomes an issue again.

If you are interested in finding out if your ds has food intollerances or allegies and are interested in doing an elimination diet, the allergy forum would be a great help for that. I know that a lot of mamas would suggest that you take out dairy and/or gluten/wheat right off the bat and see if that makes a difference.

Hang in there! There are things to try.

[heatherdeg]

If you check my sig you will see we are gluten, dairy, soy and corn-free. Even without Feingold, we are dye, preservative, nitrate and nitrite-free. We HAVE added back in the natural foods Feingold removed.

We did elimination diets earlier in his little life which is how we wound up at our current eating regimen.

And before the fish oil, we had done a calcium-magnesium-boron-vit. D supplement in the hopes it would cure the sleep. It didn't and it bothered his stomach... so we just dealt with it. We only change one thing at a time, so when we stopped trying that, we added fish oil for overall cognitive help (he was still seriously delayed) and were STUNNED that it affected his sleep so significantly. Like 6 fitful hours per 24 to 9-10 solid hours/night plus a 1-3 hour nap. Crazy. And unexpected. We're back on it for 3 days and sure enough, he's sleeping awesome again.

I will check the links. Thanks so much!

[RiverTam]

Exercise. Lots of exercise.

http://add.about.com/od/treatmentoptions/a/ratey.htm

http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/3142.html

http://www.everydayhealth.com/health...treatment.aspx

A martial arts class might be helpful because it encourages focus and listening.

[columbusmomma]

Have you looked into neurofeedback?

[NightOwlwithowlet]

We've had great success with a chiropractor. We've used other strategies like diet change, but you are way ahead of me on that. Fish oil and Tyrosine with mag and calcium have helped somewhat. For my son, it's more of a combination of stuff then specific alternative treatment.
Here is the list
1. Chiropractor x 1 a week
2. Piano with daily practice
3. Martial arts x 3 a week
4. Lots of activity for an hour or so every day (running, swimming, trampoline, hiking). Limited screen time, lots of outside time
5. Fish oil and Tyrosine with mag and calcium
6. 8+ hours of sleep, getting his tonsils and adenoids removed cured his sleep apnea. I know other people who have good luck with melatonin, but I haven't used it myself.
7. A good play therapist for DS and she gives us advice on how to help him
8. Home schooling
9. In a pinch, caffeine has a paradoxical effect on my son as it does with a lot of kids with ADHD since it is a stimulant. Letting him sip ice tea through out a class makes all the difference
10. Maturity, for DS and me, 6 to 7.5 were very tough years. He's 8.5 now and he's a lot more grown up.

For me, having realistic expectations has helped. We tried more traditional treatments; stimulant medication, behavior charts, cognitive behavioral therapy, a very strict therapist, and school. He was learning, he could sit still, and we were all miserable. It all felt weird to me, I'm not charts person, the meds gave DS anxiety, insomnia, and tics.

What hasn't worked; homeopathy, GABA, primrose oil, St. John's Wort and ginko.

[mamabohl]

this book is about the possible link between a child not crawling correctly as a baby (or not crawling at all) being connected to ADHD, and a specific kind of crawling therapy that's supposed to help. I haven't tried it, because it's so time consuming....http://books.google.com/books?id=OfZ...page&q&f=false

[heatherdeg]

Originally Posted by RiverTam

Exercise. Lots of exercise.

http://add.about.com/od/treatmentoptions/a/ratey.htm

http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/3142.html

http://www.everydayhealth.com/health...treatment.aspx

A martial arts class might be helpful because it encourages focus and listening.

He's been bounced from 2 martial arts classes for being way more interested in the mirror or something else in the room than the class. Both let him go about 6 weeks before saying "This isn't for him".

We homeschool and he has a dance class (hip hop--not slow stuff), swim class, a gym & swim class plus 1-1/2 hour T-ball instructional league. In addition, he and the 5yo across the street spend every day from 1-3pm riding bikes and scooters; and then all day on saturday they are all playing in the neighborhood--usually some form of "scouting" on bikes and scooters and big wheels. I'm not really sure how much more he can get, although we are trying to implement morning dog walks with daddy because I saw a study showing that something about morning walks with the FATHER made a difference with ADHD.

Originally Posted by columbusmomma

Have you looked into neurofeedback?

No. I didn't realize it could be done at this age, but admittedly I may just be misunderstanding what it is. I'll go off to look it up--thanks!

Originally Posted by NightOwlwithowlet

We've had great success with a chiropractor. We've used other strategies like diet change, but you are way ahead of me on that. Fish oil and Tyrosine with mag and calcium have helped somewhat. For my son, it's more of a combination of stuff then specific alternative treatment.
Here is the list
1. Chiropractor x 1 a week
2. Piano with daily practice
3. Martial arts x 3 a week
4. Lots of activity for an hour or so every day (running, swimming, trampoline, hiking). Limited screen time, lots of outside time
5. Fish oil and Tyrosine with mag and calcium
6. 8+ hours of sleep, getting his tonsils and adenoids removed cured his sleep apnea. I know other people who have good luck with melatonin, but I haven't used it myself.
7. A good play therapist for DS and she gives us advice on how to help him
8. Home schooling

Oh--the chiro. Mine actually had this thing posted about some chiro-related thing that when adjusted, would either minimize or eliminate ADHD (I can't remember which) but he said that ds didn't have that. He adjusted ds, but ds wasn't out of alignment in a way that affected his ADHD.

We are also SERIOUSLY limited on screen time because it seems to have a seriously nasty affect on him. Like it's addictive, and he gets very... not exactly aggressive but I don't have another word... when we try to end it. You can see in the schedule I posted earlier in this post that he's outside a lot (he's actually outside more than that but those are the active times).

We just had a sleep study done for apnea before we relocated in late July. We are actually going back in late October to review it. My husband sleeps with a CPAP and had his tonsils & adenoids removed. In fact, his adenoids grew back (apparently pretty uncommon) and they removed them again along with a portion of his soft palate. Dh is HEAVILY opposed to surgery as a solution for this as a result. But we are very not for melatonin and with the fish oil, he's sleeping great. Usually about 10 hours/night.

Just saw the thing about tyrosine in a post above... reading on it.

Originally Posted by NightOwlwithowlet

9. In a pinch, caffeine has a paradoxical effect on my son as it does with a lot of kids with ADHD since it is a stimulant. Letting him sip ice tea through out a class makes all the difference
10. Maturity, for DS and me, 6 to 7.5 were very tough years. He's 8.5 now and he's a lot more grown up.

For me, having realistic expectations has helped. We tried more traditional treatments; stimulant medication, behavior charts, cognitive behavioral therapy, a very strict therapist, and school. He was learning, he could sit still, and we were all miserable. It all felt weird to me, I'm not charts person, the meds gave DS anxiety, insomnia, and tics.

What hasn't worked; homeopathy, GABA, primrose oil, St. John's Wort and ginko.

Thanks for all of this. I honest-to-goodness wondered if it was possible that he might grow out of it. I kept reminding myself that on the long list of reasons we homeschool is the whole "boys are forced to be something they're not capable of instead of being allowed to be rambunctious boys"... but this is way not rambunctious.

Originally Posted by mamabohl

this book is about the possible link between a child not crawling correctly as a baby (or not crawling at all) being connected to ADHD, and a specific kind of crawling therapy that's supposed to help. I haven't tried it, because it's so time consuming....http://books.google.com/books?id=OfZ...page&q&f=false

Oddly, my son was PROFOUNDLY delayed in everything BUT gross motor, and crawled, climbed and walked with textbook progression. It was the ONLY thing typical about his infancy/toddlerhood. He spent 14 hours/week in Early Intervention for everything BUT physical therapy. But man, that's a good one.


I seriously cannot thank all of you enough for refilling my "things to try" basket. I never imagined there was so much more out there!

[HealthHomeHappy]

The GAPS (gut and psychology syndrome) diet should help for ADHD, and if you're already following a strict diet it wouldn't be that much of a change to try. I also was going to recommend amino acids- I didn't realize I had ADD or some form of it until I started the amino acid Gaba, but it made me calm down so much! I had no idea that I wasn't normal before, just thought I was undisciplined.

[NightOwlwithowlet]

DS hasn't exactly out grown ADHD, the way he deals with his extra energy is much more better. I don't think he will ever outgrow it. I think we've all learned to channel it better. He use to spend most of his martial arts class spinning in place and losing track of what was going on. Now, when he is not focused in his class, it's because he's too focused on talking to his friend about video games or telling jokes.

He is still the kid that people call "all boy" or tell me "you have my hands full", but they are smiling when they say it, instead of giving me the hairy eyeball.
Two years ago, going out to eat was a nerve wracking experience unless he had a Nintendo DS. Now, he can sit through a meal and actually talk with us and read a book when he's bored. He may need to be reminded to sit down a few times.

When I read your posts, I often find myself nodding because he sounds a lot like mine at the same age. DS was "profoundly delayed" in most areas and was at one point diagnosed with autism and an IQ of 67. Now he's gifted and has ADHD.

I hope you get some answers from the sleep study. I used to work in a sleep lab and often sleep apnea can cause ADHD like symptoms in kids. Maybe, it is the piece of the puzzle for him.

The best advice I ever got on determining if DS had ADHD was if he could focus on the stuff he loves. DS could always hyper focus on video games and tv, but had no attention span for activities he didn't chose. Apperently, this is a good indicator of ADHD.

[Evan&Anna's_Mom]

You might also want to try a measured amount of caffeine. When DD was first diagnosed, her psychiatrist recommended trying non-medication treatments first -- mostly already mentioned here, but with an added 1/2 cup of coffee (which DD liked) in the morning alone with the fish oil/omega 3 pills. Many of the ADHD meds are stimulents and caffeine is a more natural form of that.

I will say that we tried almost all of what has been suggested above, to very little result and a misable child, family and teachers. In the end, the only thing that has really worked is a more traditional ADHD medication. But then, she isn't home-schooled so part of the issue was the classroom, though her gymnastics coach was glad to see her able to concentrate and stay with the class as well.

[tanyalynn]

http://mothering.com/discussions/sho...&postcount=487

This post in another thread was in response to my question about subtle ADD-ish behaviors in my son. He's occasionally been hyperactive, mostly I know the causes for that, but the ADD part was harder for me to recognize.

I already had the methylation support in place, been working on that for quite a while, and the addition of DMG has been really amazing. I tried it about 2 years ago w/o enough methyl support in place and saw nothing (did it for different reasons back then), so the other stuff really does seem foundational.

For DS, reading about dopamine and norepinephrine has been really interesting, I've seen signs of things being subtly off in myself and even a bit in DH for a long time, it's just amplified in the kids.

[Rose-Roget]

I've been reading Healing the New Childhood Epdemics, which has a lot of diet and supplementation information in it. You probably wouldn't have any trouble with the diet modifications. The supplementation information could be useful to you. Talks about detoxification of heavy metals, eliminating yeast and leaky gut, and methylation.

[Doula Dani]

I was told about melatonin for my son. I give him small doses. I generally give it to him just in the evening, but if he's being extreme I sometimes give it to him in the daytime too. I'm giving him about half a milligram at a time right now, but from the research I've done, there's been no negative side effects whatsoever in even hugely large amounts.

I hope you guys find a good routine. Unfortunately for me, I work from home and so I can't take my kids out for constant classes and running around during the day, so we have to make something work. I did try for awhile putting him in some evening tumbling and climbing type classes, and it was so stressful for me that I couldn't handle it. The much smaller children listened and cooperated far better than I could even help him to. I will mention though, that at one point I put him in swimming classes and we had some better experiences there... I think being in the water sort of disallows much getting away and not listening

[tanyalynn]

Originally Posted by heatherdeg

My husband, who takes meds for ADD, actually DID respond to it. And so did I: my insanely constant urination that nobody could find the source of was magically gone (and it's now back 2 weeks into being off Feingold and hitting heavy on some of the irritant foods--mainly berries and tomatoes).

So talk to me... where do I go from here?

I missed this. A few people in the Allergies forum have increased their kids' salicylate tolerance by supplementing a few nutrients, molybdenum is one, I think, but one or a few vitamins go along with it. Search mamafish9's posts, or just search for threads with molybdenum in them.

Substances limited by Feingold are excreted via sulfation, and supplementing nutrients to allow sulfation to work faster helps, though it seems to take a few months in kids. This page talks about it more (if you're at all interested)...

http://livingnetwork.co.za/chelation...tion_feingold/

And this page talks about sulfation nutrients and general liver phase 1 and phase 2 nutrients in more depth....

http://tuberose.com/Liver_Detoxification.html

[nicky85]

I researched chiropractic care for ADHD for my aunt. I recommend chiropractic care as a part of a treatment plan for just about anything since I've seen all the great things it has done for my son with spina bifida, my husband with rheumatoid arthritis and me. If your son seems to have a kind of "sensory integration disorder" chiropractic might be especially helpful. This is an article I recommended to my aunt because her son really seems to have a sensory integration problem. His attention span is like 2 seconds long. His sisters describe him as being like the dog in "Up"- "SQUIRREL!"

http://icpa4kids.org/Wellness-Articl...treatment.html