Have 8 year old girl with ADD, has anyone out there conquered this without medication?

Question

My daughter has very obvious ADD and I know if I go to the Doctor she will get put on meds. If I don't resolve this very quickly (a few weeks) I'll go ahead and do it so I don't need any preaching about putting her on medication.

My problem is that there are millions of kids on this medication and I KNOW there has to be a reason for it. All of these kids are not 'abnormal.'

If anyone has successfully done any home-treatment plan. Please tell me all about it. My little girl has enough of a tough time with her fructose intolerance, peanut & nut allergies and cat, dog & horse allergies too. This is SO the last thing she needs.

Answer 1

Other than going organic and avoiding food additives: artifical food colourings, MSG, and aspartame in particular, and anything your daughter might be allergic to, you should really give your daughter fish oil and add epsom salts to her bath water.



Read these....



"Fish oil 'calms children better than Ritalin'":

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-391503/Fish-oil-calms-children-better-Ritalin.html



Epsom salts for ADD/ADHD:

http://www.thepeacefamily.force9.co.uk/epsom.html

http://www.natural-holistic-health.com/effective-natural-adhd-treatment/



Plus get her a good quality multivitamin supplement for her age group.



Forget the meds. They will solve nothing, on the contrary as they are known to have horrendous side effects, including depression, mood swings, insomnia and tics. These meds.....they are a cop out!!Your child would certainly not be easier to live with, with those and any other horrible side effects. And you would feel guilt and helplessness regarding the med situation if your daughter were to get any of these side effects...and especially many doctors don't really get involved beyond prescribing. And why meds... when there is fish oil and epsom salts baths. Please do take the time to read those and do some of your own research.



Other than these home remedies, make sure she gets enough exercise day time to spend energy and boost her natural endorphins. And sunlight helps also.



Hope that helps..

Good luck.

Answer 2

I don't claim to be an expert in any way on ADD, ADHD or autism, but I was a special school teacher until I retired and I have noticed a massive increase in these complaints since the 1980s. Autism used to be a rare disease whilst now it is becoming almost epidemic in proportion with little acknowledgement on the part of givernments as to the major problem it is becoming.



Several years ago I read Harris Coulter's landmark study, Vaccination, Social Violence and Criminality- The Medical Assault on the American Brain. He argued very persuasively that between one in ten and one in five of all Americans are minimally brain damaged owing to the pertussis vaccine. There is no doubt that pertussis does cause brain damage. There was a mass falloff in the UK of pertussis vaccine use from the 70s onward owing to fear amongst the public of the very real chance of brain damage ensuing following the vaccination. Coulter also explains that when scientists experiment on allergy, they inject laboratory animals with pertussis in order to create allergies.



When I was at school fifty years ago there were no 'nut free' zones in schools. Children did not go into anaphylactic shock from eating a peanut. Something is clearly very wrong and many conventional physicians of a more independent frame of mind are becoming restive. It is not merely the 'cranks' who wish to see changes.



As I recall, Coulter claimed that the cause of disorders such as ADD, ADHD and autism spectrum disorder was the shedding of the myelin sheaths that surround the nerves in the brain, attendant upon the seizures that often follow pertussis vaccination. Different susceptibilities effect different regions of the brain and so the disorders variy, but essentially parts of the brain do not function correctly because is effect they are short circuiting.



I do recall that some therapists claim success with vitamins and Omega 3 fatty acids although I cannot be more specific. A website called ritalinfreekids.com is about the successful homoeopathic treatment of these disorders and Amazon does a book, Ritalin Free Kids. I note that in the UK of the two reviews, one is positive and the other is negative, the latter seemingly because the reviewer didn't want a book on homoeopathic treatment . It has to be said that many homoeopaths claim some success in dealing with these spectrum disorders as they do with allergies.

Answer 3

If she is diagnosed with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder which is roughly an inability to stay focused on common tasks) or ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, which is like ADD but with an addition of hyperactive behaviors consisting of running, jumping, and climbing a lot, excessive talking, etc,...), the doctor will probably prescribe a medication. Not all of the medications are the same, most of are of the same ingredients, but some in different "cocktails". So if you do end up putting her on meds, keep this in mind. You cannot eliminate ADD or ADHD, not to mention in a few weeks! (If that were so, sign me up for my magic wand!). Do research. Read up peer reviewed studies, don't look at one side of the coin here. Medication is not the sole answer to these disabilities. In conjunction with meds there needs to be support through counseling, coping methods, strategies for having a successful day, etc,... The answer isn't just a one way street, you have to tackle and cope from many angles. Me and my partner tried on a couple of occasions to take my son off of his meds. Even with trying new diets, vitamins, recreation plans, scheduled days (almost 1/2 hour to 1/2), it was a disaster at school. We've learned that his meds help him, not hinder him.

Answer 4

I have to agree with everything that freethinker has posted on here.



I was going to say about the same, but he/she has gone well beyond what I was even thinking.



Here's the deal. I started my elementary school education in the 1960s. From the first grade onward, there were kids in school that were "a little slow" and some others that were "difficult", but over time they seemed to mellow out and learned how to fit in. From the 7th grade onward, everyone was pretty much treated equal and some made great grades while others didn't do so well (myself included in the not doing so well category), but we all seemed to make it.



From the mid 1960s through the late 1970s, kids were NOT taking prescription drugs. The whole idea of ADD or whatever you want to call it...was not in vogue back then. And, as the other poster pointed-out, there was no such thing as "peanut allergies", or if there were, they only happened to a very very small fraction of the school population.



If it were my child, I would try to put them into a private school. Perhaps your daughter needs some extra attention when it comes to learning, but I serious doubt that she needs to start taking drugs!



One of my favorite subjects is the psychology of achievement. I've read of numerous cases where underachieving students were taught by teachers in public school settings, whereby the teacher was told that the students in her class were over-achievers. The teachers then set about taking their time and making absolutely sure that these "smart kids" paid close attention to what she was saying, since she was convinced that if they somehow did poorly, it was not a reflection of the students but rather a reflection of poor teaching. The result? Within a year those kids that were actually underachievers when they started, were leading their classes in test scores.



It's all your mind! And get this! Kids are SMARTER than you think. You might think that you are having a very adult conversation with your health-care specialist and that your daughter doesn't understand the full ramifications of what is being discussed. FALSE! Your daughter will pick-up on the subtlest details of what is going on...and...she will subconsciously act in the manner in which she is expected.



There was a made for TV movie that was made about 30 years ago based on actual events. It told the story of a boy that was labeled as "retarded" as an infant, and institutionalized for his entire life. Until...as a young adult, he was found wondering the streets as a homeless man and a social worker was given his case to try to help him. The woman assigned to him started to realize that there was something more to his situation. And, over time, she realized that he was misdiagnosed as an infant and needlessly spent his years in "special schools". He subconsciously did his best to fit in with the other kids he was placed with. With the help of the social worker, the young man turned his life around and went on to earn a college degree and live a "normal life" after spending his first 25 years labeled as "retarded".

Answer 5

**** I've been there! Please take the time to read my whole answer. I believe that you will be glad you did.



This is going to be a long answer. It comes from nearly 56 years of my experiences. I have ADHD. I knew something was different about me. I just was not like other kids. It is not something I can explain well. It was just obvious to me that I was different in some strange way. Having a high I.Q. one would think that I would have done well in school. But I did poorly most of my school days. My mother was a school teacher and taught me to read at an early age. I was not popular, and had few friends. School bored me because I liked math and science, I did well in them. As I became an adult I had trouble with holding any job. I have done many different types of jobs. But, most I either quit or was fired. At the age of 13 I began doing Karate. It became an obsession. While in college in 1973, I dropped out of college just before graduating in Mechanical Engineering to open my first Karate School. For most of my life I studied and taught karate and other martial arts full time. Since that is mostly nights and weekends, I would run a painting business, or work a little at some other job. The jobs were mostly to keep me from being bored. I never felt good working for others. They simply did not understand me. In my mid 40's A doctor diagnosed me as having ADHD. It helped me to understand why I am the way I am. For several years I struggled to cope with it. After several years another doctor convinced me (Not easily) that I should try taking medications for the ADHD. What a change it made in my life. With the medications, I can think clearer, and have a better attention span. I went back to college in 1997 and finished a Bachelors degree in Computer Information Systems. Before the medications, I would never have been able to do that. If I had been diagnosed when I was young, and taken medications early on, I think that my life would have been much different. What makes me different from many with ADD or ADHD is that I found the martial arts early in my life. Because I loved it I spent most of my time training. My doctors tell me that the discipline an dedication to it may be why I did not end up in prison..... It shocked me to hear that. The doctor explained that many of the criminals in prison have ADD or ADHD. Because I had the martial arts to focus on, and to work out my frustrations, I never got into trouble with the law. The martial arts are not for everybody. In fact I believe that they are not for most people. but for those that enjoy them it can help deal with the loss of attention, self-esteem, ...etc. BUT, I know looking back that the best thing I ever did for myself was to allow the doctor to put me on medications for my ADHD. I strongly suggest that you have your child tested. Then I suggest that you get other doctors opinions as well. I too believe that many people are incorrectly diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. I also know that there is no foolproof test for those disorders. But for those that do have them it is often necessary for them to take medications. The medications themselves are complicated. By that I mean that the doctor has to find not only the right medication, but also the right dosage. With the correct medication, and the correct dosage wonderful things can happen. With no medications, or the wrong meds, or dosage things can be worse. It is a period of trial and error until the right combination is found. I sincerely hope you read this whole answer and have your child tested. It surely did improve my life.



Best of Luck!



By the way...... I was prescribed Wellbutrin SR which has worked well for me.



...

Answer 6

To be completely frank, it will be EXTREMELY difficult for your daughter to overcome her ADD with simple will, most likely kids in there college or high school years will start to drift off their medicine, but it is still likely that one may become extremley dependent on the drug. For example, it she is not severe, then stray away from Adderall, it is the most addictive ADD drug you can purchase. This drug is composed of amphetamine and dextroamphetamine, two very addictive chemicals. But my overall suggestion would be to go to a doctor, not all of them are rushing to push pills on children, especially at such a young age, I'm sure they will have an alternative without the medication.

And no, I have yet to overcome my need for medication, and just so you know. I am an adderall user aswell.

Answer 7

You must read every label.



Eliminate MSG which often is NOT listed as an ingredient. Eliminate all artificial sweeteners. Limit sugar and especially fructose. Check out your local health food store. Organics are the best way to go. Avoid pre-packaged foods. Go with fresh fruits and vegetables. Avoid WHITE. Instead buy whole wheat pasta, brown rice, whole wheat bread, etc. NO SODA! Lots of water.

Answer 8

We went to all organic foods and it helped our girl. Hope this helps. hard to find an organic store.