High energy

[Orangey]

I need some advice or some suggestions.
I have a 6 year old son who has very high energy. He's high energy from the moment he wakes up to the moment he falls asleep, once he actually falls asleep. Some days it's not a big deal, but the other days are very hard and he seems out of control. It seems like there's nothing I can do to snap him out of it and I always feel like I am yelling at him for things that he knows he's not supposed to be doing or saying. Meal time is the worst. He won't sit still and not bother his siblings so they can eat. Dinner time usually ends up with a lot of yelling and crying. We don't expect a lot, we just want 10 minutes where we can have dinner and talk about our day, then he can go play. It's becoming very stressful for our family, especially our daughter who is the exact opposite and tends to get overwhelmed by him. By the end of the day I'm so exhausted. DH has taken over bedtime because I just can't take anymore.
His diet isn't the greatest, he is extremely picky, but the kids don't drink soda and we limit their sugar.
We've had him in gymnastics and a hip hop class but he gets bored, they don't move fast enough for him.
Overall he is a really good kid, I just need help on ways to calm him down and get him to focus at certain times (like when we are out in public).

[A&A]

Just trying to think outside of the box here: how about letting him stand up to eat. That will automatically take care of some of the dinnertime wiggles.

Also you may want to look into the Feingold diet for attention-deficit issues.

[Orangey]

We used to let him stand up to eat but we've recently moved and had to leave our table behind, so we are now basically using a coffee table and sitting on the floor. I will look into that diet, thanks!

[ssh]

Does he get plenty of time outside for physical play? My DD is not quite 5 but she needs to climb, jump and run around. If she doesn't have a chance to do it outside she does it in the house. Days when she's played really hard, like a few hours in the snow or a really long hike and then a swim, she can actually just sit still and eat. We don't make an issue of her getting up and down during meals. It's turned into getting napkins, more water for people, washing her hands again and things like that. Sitting on the floor to eat probably wouldn't work for our DD because you really can't move around as well as in a chair. Sugar doesn't seem to effect her. We don't have much very often, so we'd probably notice the difference. Getting enough sleep and getting enough physical activity both help a lot.

[Orangey]

He does get a lot of physical exercise. Every day after school we play at the park for half an hour, then once we get home he plays ouside for about 2 hours until dinner time. He's almost always moving, he doesn't sit still for very long. I'm not worried about exercise, I would think with the amount he gets everyday he would be exhausted by bedtime. But here it is, 2 hours after bedtime and I had to pull him out of their room because he's keeping the other kids up. This happens almost every night, very rarely does he fall asleep easily.

[ssh]

Is he getting enough sleep? I don't have too much more advice. But high energy adults usually get enough exercise and are often really productive happy people