Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional ADHD - anyone tried natural medicine alternatives?

My DD is awaiting test results but I can already tell the diagnostician believes she is ADHD inattentive (not hyper).

In preparation for the discussion on the virtues of medication that I am sure is in my near future, I tried to do a little research on medications online and there seems to be a lot of positive (anecdotal) feedback to some of the natural remedies. Does anyone have first hand experience with any of these? Opinions? Are they all pricey scams?
Thanks!
Nik

We're not sure yet in that I am still working with my dd10 on swallowing pills. She gags and nearly vomits whenever we try to get pills down her and it takes 10-15 tries over the course of a few hours to manage to get one down.

We just started with a regime of DHA (o-3 fatty acid), daily scheduled exercise (she and I are doing yoga, sit-ups, etc.), and green tea (I've read that some caffeine can be helpful and other components of green tea may impact focus).

It's only been three days, so we'll see if this helps at all. I don't have feedback yet, but will be interested to see if others have any for you.

I've read some of the research from these folks and it seem reasonable:
http://www.heartmath.com/

I can recommend first-hand http://difficultchild.com/
but as an addition to medication, not as a replacement.

Love and More Love,
Grinity

I've been giving DS10 DHA as gummies (chewable and taste good, but based on fish oils so not vegetarian). He gets 270 mg per day (9 gummies, which is what the bottle recommends) but I'm thinking this might be too low a dosage -- I recall reading on an LD site that 480 mg or so was a threshold amount. Its hard to tell what is making a difference, but he does seem more calm, focussed and in control of himself lately. Also, his really bad days have always been on weekends recently (and I often forget to give him the DHA on the weekend). They are super expensive though, and his little brother wants them too . . .

I like the green tea idea. I offered DS some coffee the other morning before school, thinking the caffeine might help, but he looked at me like I was crazy.

Omega-3's have helped - not cured - a lot of ADD kids that I have known over the years, including my 2E niece, who lived with us from age 13 to 18. She preferred to get her daily dose through salmon, sardines, and anchovies, not through supplements, though, so I can't give specific dosing schedules or brands. Anchovies and sardines are also sources of DMAE, which may be an acetylcholine precursor, so that may also have contributed.

Specific supplements aside, I can tell you that from what I have seen over time, with a sample size of about 75 kids that I have had the opportunity to observe, a low-glycemic index diet, high in deep-water fish and seafood, and free of sodium benzoate and food dyes often makes a huge difference.

Edit: Caffeine absolutely helps improve the ability to focus. If you want to try caffeine for ADD, I suggest using either coffee or tea, as sodas are almost certain to have sodium benzoate and dyes, which aggravate ADD issues in many children. Caffeine has some of the same side effects as other stimulant drugs, though, including withdrawals even after fairly short-term use, possible rapid heartbeat, insomnia, and appetite suppression, although obviously not to the same degree that you would see with prescription meds.

Cricket, please update us in a couple weeks on your progress and observations! I wish I could get DD up early to do yoga, she said its a nice idea in theory but it will never happen, she just isn't a morning person and its all she can do to make it to her 9:30am class already. I think I will step up Karate to 2 or 3 times a week but that is in the evening which may just exacerbate the "up all night" problems! What pills are you using? Can you just cut up the pills and mix them with applesauce or yogurt?

Thanks Grinity, I just ordered the nurtured heart book on Amazon...I really wish the title were different, I am not sure how DD will react to me reading something with that title, I would rather go with "we are working together to help you be the best you" rather than "I am going to transform you/fix you because you are difficult". Maybe I'll just rip the cover off

Verona, all I could find online was strawberry fruit chews...is that what you are using? My DD hates strawberries/strawberry flavor. I didn't see any other flavors for DHA gummys (maybe little brother could have placebo gummy bears/fruit chews? much cheaper!). If I can find another flavor, I think I would like to add those as a snack in addition to the salmon and soymilk for Omega 3s so she doesn't burn out on one thing.

Aculady, what is the daily dose? That's funny because I eat kipper snacks or salmon almost daily, and have done as long as I can remember because I crave them, I wonder if...hmmm

DD loves smoked and grilled salmon so I should be able to get some of that into her diet but I don't know about daily. She drinks Dr. Pepper like its going out of style (despite my forbidding sodas, I suspect she just keeps a case of it in her car trunk), I read the can and it has sodium benzoate in it . I know she likes tea too so I need to come up with a compromise to get her off the Dr Pepper, maybe the bottled tea drinks?

I too offered coffee and got the "are you insane" look - unless its a $5.00 starbucks frappachino lol. She has made a lot of comments over the years about how addicted we adults are on coffee and how she will never do that to herself...I'll have to lure her slowly to join us moo-ha-ha-ha.

I just ordered a couple cases of the 8.25oz silk soymilk choc and vanilla: she can throw those in her back pack and I am sure she'll drink them without coercion. I don't know how much 0mega 3 is in them but it can only help. Interesting note, she was sensitive to milk as a baby and only had soymilk until she was 10 years old, then we decided to try milk again since she was so physically small, we thought it would help her grow and it did but that is about when she started having problems in school, I wonder if cutting out that extra omega 3 was a contributing factor?

Okay, now I'm off to google "low-glycemic index diets" So much to learn!!!!

I've been vegan for 22 yrs and the kids are both strict vegetarians (no meat, cheese with rennet, fish, etc.) so our O-3 options are limited and gummies are out since they usually have gelatin. We're trying Minami Nutrition's Vegan DHA which has 300mg of DHA and 20 mg of other O-3s in 2 very small capsules. At this point, one capsule is the most I can get down dd. It is a non-gelatin soft gel which is supposed to be filled with algae based orange flavored stuff, but when we tried popping it into food or drink, dd said it tasted horrible. She did get one down last night without as much of a drawn out process, so I hope that she continues to get better at pill swallowing.

You're probably right about the morning exercise, but we are doing it in the evenings for right now b/c I am usually getting ready for work while she is getting ready for school. I can't go in covered with dog hair and messy, so doing sun salutations and things that require getting down on the floor probably won't work on the days I need to work ! I figure that evenings are better than nothing.

I'll let you know if any of this helps. It seems that my dh was much more impaired by ADD as a child (and still as an adult) than dd is. He would have driven me crazy as a parent! He didn't and doesn't eat nearly as whole foods of a diet as the kiddos have, though, so I don't know if nutrition might be part of it. Our diet isn't perfect, though!

We are using Ironkids Omega-3's. Here's the webite:

http://www.iron-kids.com/products.aspx

It is a Canadian product, so maybe not available in the US. Each gummie has 100 mg fish oil, which includes 20 mg DHA and 10 mg EPA. He takes 9 per day. They are all different colours/flavours in one bottle -- some do have a strawberry/banana flavour! The colours and flavours are natural. They do contain both gelatin and fish oil, so not good for a vegetarian. With both boys taking them, its about $15 per week in gummies!

We sometimes have the "up all night" problem too, and I was starting to look into Melatonin, but thought I'd ask the pediatrician first.

My DS9 who has tourettes can't take any of the ADD meds creates wild ticcing. we use Focus Factor for kids. It is chewable. we also combined with the gummy fish chewables. It did seem to make some difference. I know in some situations that the caffeine push can be a major help when immediate focus is needed.

Nik,

Daily dose for the omega-3s that you are aiming for is at least 1000 mg/day.

The milk sensitivity could be an issue not only because of the change in omega-3, but because if she still has some sensitivity to milk, it could cause a bit of "brain fog". I believe that you can get organic milk fortified with DHA, so that could be part of an experiment to see if the difference is due to the change in omega 3 levels, or to sensitivity to the milk itself. If she is better on the soy milk, but no better on the fortified cows' milk, then the milk allergy is likely contributing and she should probably stop it, at least on school days. Balancing growth demands against mild allergy/intolerance issues is a tough line to tread.