I feel like I have too much to say in on post and too much of it would require personal information that I don't want to share to make sense.
Ultramarina - diet absolutely is a factor, but it's way more complex than "just go gluten free", as you say. My DD with ADHD has LESS food issues than her sisters, but is GF/CF and additive free and it did help. Sleep is critical.
Moomin - how many of those kids you see with ADHD and put onto meds are gifted girls (possibly highly gifted girls) with primarily in-attentive type? Even when they are combined type (which my DD actually is) it doesn't look like combined type in a boy. Because honestly all of those quotes make PERFECT sense to me and they make perfect sense TOGETHER. My DD didn't get the chance to be diagnosed as having a disorder of written expression or dysgraphia, but she was on the path, she would have been.
Someone else commented about how it's almost always outgrown. It's not, increasingly it's becoming clear just how much it is NOT outgrown. The hyperactivity might be, but the inattention and impulse control, which are the more damaging are often ongoing.
Note also that I am in Australia - where ADHD can only be diagnosed and medication prescribed by a specialist, not the family Dr. Certainly misdiagnosis still happens sometimes, just like with other diseases, but statistically we are under diagnosing and under treating compared to international predicted incidence rates.
