ADD without meds?

[Ravin]

A friend of mine has a five year old son who they are about to diagnose as ADD. She describes him as "high energy", and I agree. He's perfectly capable of paying attention for long periods of time if it's something he's interested in. (I've seen him at play.) He attends a montessori kindergarten, and they're apparently having probs with him so he's being evaluated.

Can anyone suggest some resources for dealing with this little boy's energy without drugging him? It'll be bad enough if they put the ADD or ADHD label on him, but if I can point my friend to resources for dealing with it without meds, I think she'll use them.

[Envision]

Hi there,
I heard of a good book and have started reading it but not gotten very far, it is called, A Mind At A Time, by Mel Levine, M.D.
It talks about finding how your child learns and so on...
He says that many kids are labeled with ADD or ADHD and it's really their style of learning, not a mental disorder.
It might give your friend some ideas on how to direct his energy and so on...

Good luck,
Envision

[Sofiamomma]

I strongly recommend checking him for allergies/sensitivities. I'm sure my dd would have been diagnosed with ADHD if I did not know not to give her artificial food colorings. Check out "Is This Your Child?" by Doris Rapp and "The Indigo Children: The New Kids Have Arrived" by Lee Carroll and Jan Tober. Mothering has had articles in the past, perhaps you could order some back copies. Do a search for the Feingold diet on the web. HTH

edited to add: Gosh, there are tons of other therapies out there as well, things like pulling heavy metals out of the system, other dietary changes, and supplements. They are in the articles in the Mothering issue on autism. I don't have mine anymore, and they are sold out, but maybe if you pm a mod, you could get your hands on some pdf files or some other online version. Good luck!

[misfit]

Some anti-ADHD-drug websites:

http://www.adhdfraud.org/
http://www.resultsproject.net/
http://www.fightforkids.com/
http://www.breggin.com/ritalin.html
http://www.wildestcolts.com/