Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Should I get DS tested for ADHD?

And: stimulant meds have been around for ages (since the 50s, maybe?) so there are longitudinal studies. All the computer-based treatments are quite new, most still in development or recently released, so it's hard to get a longitudinal perspective on them.

And: I believe there ARE studies on medication vs. "talk therapy" type treatments. My understanding (note: I have not read the literature on this) is that the behavioral therapies really start working around middle school age and up, but not before.

DeeDee

Further to DeeDee's post I believe that best practice shows that "talk therapy" treatments, or any treatments really, work best when the child is on medication and able to actually pay attention to and make use of what you are teaching.

We note with our DD that the skills she was only able to learn while on medication are retained off medication - but are much more difficult for her to execute.

So, quick update: I have started trying to give him natural foods as much as possible, and at least low sugar, high protein foods when totally natural is not available. I also let him start running with me. (with severe allergies and moderate athsma, I'm certainly not Olympic material, but I try). Obviously, it's too early to tell if it's working. But it certainly seems that way. He did a diagnostic test today without getting up and wandering around, and only made one careless mistake out of 25 problems. I only had to ask him to do his homework once. I didn't have to ask him to do his chores at all. And this morning he brushed his teeth and hair, put his stuff in his backpack, and got his shoes and socks without me even having to ask! Obviously, it could just be that he is having an unusually good day. But so far, it's looking promising. Maybe he doesn't have ADHD, and is just fidgety. Or maybe he does, and this is working. Or maybe it's a coincidence. In any case, if this continues to work, I'm far more comfortable with this than I am with drugging him!
Thanks for the input!

Please if you are going to do a diet do a proper elimination diet with a dietician. Food chemicals are so much more complex than I ever understood previously and it's nearly impossible to get consistently right without a good guide. We use the RPA hospital's elimination diet handbook but there must surely be something available in the states. Sue Dengate's books are Australian too, but might be more easily available?

Have you considered neurofeedback? I ask because my DS7 was given a misdiagnosis of ADHD and the diagnosis has been ruled out by two neurofeedback providers. My DS has been doing neurofeedback on and off since Aug and we've seen big improvements.

Neurofeedback is being seen as a non-invasive, drug-free alternative method to treating ADHD or ADHD symptoms. It can give you a more definitive answer on whether ADHD is present or not based on actual brain wave activity. Either a child has high theta brain waves or they don't. High theta brain waves are characteristic of children with ADHD. So neurofeedback is less subjective.

Neurofeedback providers often work with dieticians or nutritionists for help. Some may even recommend a particular elimination diet. There is the Healing Young Brains: The Neurofeedback Solution (http://www.amazon.com/Healing-Young...012&sr=8-1&keywords=healing+young+brains) as well as ones by Dr. Amend and others.

DS has been on a gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, processed-free, etc. diet since August. There's tons of recipes online to make things like black bean brownies or avocado chocolate pudding which are healthy alternatives for kids (and things that they might actually like to eat).

Mumofthree - I hardly think it is necessary to consult a dietician before giving my child a healthier diet with less sugar and more protein. This is simply closer to what is recommended anyway. However, before I do anything drastic, I can assure you that I will talk to a professional.
Cdfox - this has been suggested before, and is one if the options I am considering if the change in diet does not work. The plan is to see if it is something easily fixed, like too much sugar. If that works, there is no need to even get him tested. If not, we will see if the diagnosis is even there - then look at all the options and start with the least invasive. I didn't realize there were so many ways to diagnose, and so many different treatment options! Thanks to everyone!

Seaturtle - Yes, you could definitely try changing the diet before pursuing other treatments or interventions. I really hope that works for you (and others).

It's not easy changing a child's diet. We had to do it overnight. It was tough and seemed completely overwhelming, but we were committed and determined to do it. I'd say it took a good couple of months to get the hang of it and have enough alternative recipes/ingredients to fall back on.

DS's first neurofeedback gave us a list of foods to avoid/include. She advised us to bump up the good fats for healthy brain development such as avocado and extra virgin oil and to bump up the healthy proteins and vegetables. She said anything that converted to alcohol and that could negatively affect the brain was out. She said that we could slowly introduce something like oats after x number of months, but to initially eliminate it. This sounded logical to me, though I realize some may disagree and find this controversial.

It's not rocket science though and there's a lot more coming out on the topic (GMO-free, soy-free, corn-free, etc.) with various diets (Paleo, Fuhrman, raw, superfoods, etc.). The first neurofeedback provider (a brain injury specialist) suggested we take a look at Radiant Recovery concept of sugar (http://www.radiantrecovery.com/). She squabbled with some of foods here and there which Radiant Recovery included, but overall they agreed on the concept of eliminating sugar from the diet.

When the neurofeedback gave us this list, we went through our cupboards, read every label, and got rid of more than half of the food since it had contained soy, corn, or some form of sugar. We're now making sure the fruit is limited to one serving per meal and is low in sugar content (i.e. berries). We're using coconut or date sugar as alternatives. We're also trying to include more superfoods like spirulina in our diet and being more creative.

Seaturtle I was recommending a proper elimination diet, which does require dietician advice. Given that there is published scientific evidence on elimination diet and ADHD this is the path I think is the best approach to take. There are a gazillion diets around, many with great benefits for various issues, many with overlaps. But if you are looking at ADHD and there is an option with published research that seems like a good start to me. But it's hard to get right at the start and you have to be sure to do it safely....

And one of the things about an elimination diet approach is that it won't elimnate sugar - it will eliminate the other stuff that goes hand in hand with sugar in almost all purchased products. While we try to sensibly limit how much sugar our kids eat, as you would at any time, sugar is not one of our strictly controlled foods at all (colours, flavours, preservatives, salicylates, amines are very strictly controlled). Probably compared to a more typical diet they do have a low sugar intake, and certainly they have protien at every single meal.

MumOfThree - Yes, that's very true about an elimination diet and the sugar. Fruit juices are often high in sugar and more than a serving size of fruit for 8 oz or more; and a lot of people don't blink or think twice about it either. After all, it's fruit and fruit is supposed to be healthy for you, which it is.

I think that's why the neurofeedback provider gave me a yes/no list on foods when we started. It's very deceiving today with the foods; and you can hear so much conflicting advice. It was no to rice and white potatoes, for instance, but yes to yams and sweet potatoes (which have more nutritional content in them). Of course, she also said no to all those ingredients (colours, dyes, artificial sugars or honey, grains, etc.) you mentioned. That's why we probably tossed 3/4ths of our food out at the time.

Breakfast and snacks were initially tricky. We had to change some our habits and preferences. Breakfast was a bit of a carb-fest in our house. Neurofeedback provider suggested we have salmon for breakfast. Well, I might, but DS7 won't touch the stuff. So I had to find recipes and ingredients that would work and I could fall back on. I'm now thinking about making homemade hemp milk which might help too.