adhd-related stories
Succeeding in school with ADHD
Fitness, Nutrition & Supplements
Last Monday I had a meeting with my son's teachers to set up a plan to help him succeed at school this year. My son has some residual emotional issues left over from his years in foster care; his anxieties can generate some behavior issues in school. In addition, he has ADHD which creates many classroom challenges.Though I know he's a difficult student to have in class, I always hope his teachers see how bright and creative he is. My son has enormous potential and possesses one of the most brilliantly free-thinking minds I've ever encountered. Luckily, his teachers this year have already noticed that about him and they're ready and willing to work with him and help him succeed.
Since meeting with them, I've been searching for other tips and tricks to help my son succeed in class. This article has some great points. However, it's missing an important component -- exercise.
St. John's Wort ineffective for ADHD
Healthy Kids, Nutrition & Supplements
My son has ADHD and we're constantly working on better ways to manage his symptoms. We do what we can nutritionally -- limiting sugar and caffeine, increasing natural sources of omega 3 and 6, and so forth. Also, my son stays really physically active (which is probably the most effective tool in managing ADHD symptoms). Also, my son is making big efforts to control his symptoms by doing things like taking deep breaths to help him focus. Any control we can gain over his symptoms brings us one step closer to reducing or eliminating the medications he's currently on. When you're a parent of a child with ADHD, everyone has an opinion. Some people feel it's all a myth. Others think that he just eats too much sugar (which he doesn't). I've had people recommend giving him coffee, others tout eliminating red dye, and others think he needs stricter discipline. Unless the recommendations are coming from a doctor, I usually just smile politely and continue doing what I know is best for my son. But when people recommend natural supplements, I sometimes sit up and take notice. By nature, I'm wary of supplements. After all, "natural" doesn't always equate to "healthy." But if something is proven safe, effective, and is milder than a prescription med, then I think it's worth a try. But, as I stated, it must be safe and it must be effective.
A recent study proves that, despite hopes, St. John's Wort isn't effective in managing ADHD symptoms. In the study, a group of children with ADHD started with a placebo pill for a week. Then half the group took St. John's Wort for eight weeks, while the other half continued taking the placebo. No statistical difference was noted between the placebo and the herb.
Drug tests for scholars?
Many competitive athletes have to undergo drug tests. Is drug testing for scholars in our future, too? According to the UK's Academy of Medical Sciences, certain drugs have been used by healthy people to boost alertness and mental awareness. Aricept (an Alzheimer's treatment), Ritalin (for ADHD), and modafinil (for day-time sleepiness) have been used by some people to get an edge up on tests and exams. Like steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs used by some athletes, this gives the student an unfair advantage. Also like steroids, using drugs in ways other than they are prescribed for can be seriously detrimental to health.
Can cell phones be dangerous to unborn children?
Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements
There's something about cell phones that make medical alarm bells ring. Do you remember the reports of cell phones causing cancer? How about the dangers of exploding cell phone batteries? Now there's a new risk factor -- researchers are saying that cell phone usage during pregnancy can cause hyperactivity and emotional or behavioral issues in children. Over 13,000 mothers in Denmark were surveyed -- some didn't use a cell phone at all, others used one sporadically, and a third group used their cells often during pregnancy. Their results indicate that using a cell phone as little as two to three times a day during pregnancy can cause health issues -- hyperactivity, conduct issues, emotional issues, or difficult with relationships -- for the children. What's more, if the children used cell phones themselves before age 7 they were 80% more likely to have behavioral issues.
ADHD and sleep
Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements
Sleep is important for kids. Disturbed sleep can lead to poor school performance and behavior problems. My son is just about to turn 11. He's at his best when he gets about 10 hours of sleep though, more often than not, he wakes up after nine hours. When he gets less than that he is grumpy, unfocused, and defiant for the rest of the day. What makes matters worse is that my son has ADHD, which disrupts his sleep. It's a vicious circle, really. The ADHD makes it harder for him to sleep and a lack of sleep exacerbates his ADHD symptoms.It turns out that my son is not alone. A recent survey found that more than 73% of kids with ADHD have sleep problems including difficult falling asleep, resistance to sleeping, and still feeling tired after waking up. There are many ways to help your child get proper sleep.
- First and foremost, speak to your doctor if your child has ADHD and is having trouble sleeping. If your child is on ADHD medication it may be worsening his/her ability to get to sleep. Your doctor may have advice for adjusting the medication or even simply modifying the time of day your child takes meds.
ADHD Road Map
My son has ADHD. He has an awesome teacher, but he is one of 32 students in his class. I know that he takes a significant amount of encouragement and redirection from his teacher. I think it's safe to say that he's the most ill-behaved kid in class. As a parent, I always hope that his teacher can remember that -- behind the behaviors -- is an incredibly bright boy with enormous potential. My son struggles to focus on work, to pay attention, and to sit still. But he is not a bad student. Early this morning I saw a commercial on TV for a free "ADHD Road Map." When you register to receive your copy, you also gain access to online information about their four steps: taking a snapshot of how your child is currently doing, setting goals, taking action, and tracking/rewarding progress.
No link between ADHD meds and future drug abuse
Many ADHD medications are stimulant based. Past studies have produced confusing results regarding use of these stimulants and risk of future drug use. Some studies indicated kids who take the stimulant-based meds were more likely to abuse drugs. Others said they were no more likely. Yet others stated they were less likely to abuse drugs. A new study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, attempted to remove the methodological limitations of the previous studies and conduct more thorough research into the concern. No correlation between the use of stimulant-based medications and future drug or alcohol abuse was found. Kids on these medications are no more or less likely to abuse drugs than any other person. I know the finding is a relief for me, as my own son is prescribed stimulant-based medications to help manage his ADHD symptoms. Long-term effects of these medications is always a concern for parents. It's good to know there's one concern I can cross off the list.
Life Fit Chat with Laura Lewis: The power of pint-sized meditation
Life Fit Chat with That's Fit Life Fit Expert Laura Lewis brings conversation provoking tidbits to your table, served up with a touch of spice! Byte-sized information that pack some punch, brought to you every Wednesday and Thursday!Today I had the incredible opportunity to attend a Barack Obama rally in Dallas, Texas. More than 15,000 people showed up and waited in line for hours to witness this historic event. The crowd was supercharged and eager to express their enthusiasm. Emmitt Smith, longtime Dallas Cowboy legend, introduced the presidential hopeful. Smith had the crowd stomping and screaming BARACK OBAMA .... BARACK OBAMA ... BARACK OBAMA. When the man of the hour walked out on stage, you would have thought Elvis had made an appearance. His talk was long, passionate, inspiring and loud. Throughout the two-hour event, the ten year old in front of me was engrossed in his hand-held video game, not looking up for one minute. I was shocked and saddened. If something as awe-inspiring, loud and stimulating as an NFL legend and presidential hopeful can insight 15,000 people to tears and cheers but cannot tear this child's attention away from a video game, what can?
More and more we are hearing about ADHD and ADD diagnosis with elementary-aged children. Children are addicted to over-the-top action-packed stimulus. From cartoons to video games, the non-stop, super fast pace presentation of information is preventing children from being able to focus on the slow "real time" presentation of how the real world functions. Many parents do not know how to confront the challenges this lifestyle creates. Children develop behavioral problems in school because they physically and mentally cannot slow down enough to focus. Sadly, more and more children are being medicated just so they can process information in real time. An alternative solution to conventional drugs, may just be meditation.
Meditation and yoga has become an emerging trend as schools seek alternative solutions to helping students manage anxiety and stress. A 2004 survey of mindfulness programs provides evidence that many schools are indeed incorporating meditation and yoga in their educational progams. Schools have found that the techniques are easy to learn and assist children in becoming "more responsive and less reactive, more focused and less distracted, [and] more calm and less stressed." The Garrison report found that practices such as meditation and yoga can produce internal benefits for children, as well as create a more positive learning environment that encourages and nurtures attention and focus.
What do you think? Give it a try, and let us know how it works for you!
Omega-3 good for kids too
Healthy Habits, Healthy Kids, Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements
My kids are split on the fish thing. One little guy gobbles down the fish we serve for dinner -- usually Salmon or Tilapia -- and the bigger guy would rather the stuff never pass through his lips. He's a good sport, though, and eats what we tell him he must eat. It helps that we promise to never serve fish more than once per week -- which we do because we think it's so good for their growing bodies, what with all the Omega-3 fatty acids.
Yep, Omega-3s are beneficial for children, reported delegates at the Joint New Zealand & Australian Nutrition Societies Conference held this month. It seems new research by an international team of nutrition scientists shows conclusive evidence of improved brain growth and development, increased attention, and improved learning. How does fish come into play? Well, of particular interest is a range of health problems among New Zealand children that are being attributed to diets lacking oily fish and other foods rich in Omega-3s.
The effects of Omega-3 are so powerful that experts recommend kids increase their consumption as much as five times their current level. They also suggest healthcare professionals consider Omega-3s as an adjunct to treatment for kids with development brain disorders like ADHD and dyslexia.
And there you have it. My kids need fish. And so I will serve them fish, even if for just one day each week.
Yep, Omega-3s are beneficial for children, reported delegates at the Joint New Zealand & Australian Nutrition Societies Conference held this month. It seems new research by an international team of nutrition scientists shows conclusive evidence of improved brain growth and development, increased attention, and improved learning. How does fish come into play? Well, of particular interest is a range of health problems among New Zealand children that are being attributed to diets lacking oily fish and other foods rich in Omega-3s.
The effects of Omega-3 are so powerful that experts recommend kids increase their consumption as much as five times their current level. They also suggest healthcare professionals consider Omega-3s as an adjunct to treatment for kids with development brain disorders like ADHD and dyslexia.
And there you have it. My kids need fish. And so I will serve them fish, even if for just one day each week.
Kids on ADHD drugs rarely see heart problems, says study
The debate about ADHD rages on (due to concerns about psychiatric treatment drugs), but new research from the University of Florida is now saying that stimulants used to treat the condition don't end up causing long-term heart damage.Even though drugs like Ritalin raise blood pressure and heart rate when taken, the researchers concluded that heart complications were rare in the case of drug-taking ADHD patients.
Does this quench my curiosity in the field of whether prescription drugs are needed for ADHD patients? Not in the slightest. More long-term research is needed. After all, these ADHD drugs didn't exist 20 years ago in a way like they are marketed today.
Brain maturity slows in ADHD kids
Celebs & Entertainment, Nutrition & Supplements
A new study revealed this week that kids with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder may see a slowing of growth when it comes to crucial parts of brain development.Compared to kids not diagnosed with ADHD, the study flew in the face of earlier research that used brain imaging to draw a smaller line between brain development of kids with and without ADHD.
In this study, the lag with ADHD kids insofar as brain development was as much as three years. Meaning, the ability to suppress inappropriate actions and thoughts, focus attention, remember things from moment to moment, work for reward and control movement was oft delayed in ADHD kids.
To me, this study says that slower brain development is actually the cause of ADHD, not an effect. What do you believe?
New ADHD guide helps parents make medication decision
Are you a believer in medication for that ADHD-diagnosed child? To many parents, this is the single-largest decision that requires attention when ADHD presents itself in the household.Some parents take away processed and chemical-laden foods (and drinks), while others use other methods to determine if environmental variables can affect their child's hyperactivity.
In order to help parents make the decision about which course of action to take, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry guide was released this week to guide parents in the right direction. With more parents becoming frightened about prescription medication, the timing of this new guide is perfect, as each case needs to be scrutinized individually instead of 'treated' like a statistic. It's now available at ParentsMedGuide.org.
ADHD kids taking drugs fare better in school over the long term, says study
In what is being billed as the longest, most intensive study on the school performance of kids with ADHD, the conclusion was that kids on ADHD drugs achieve academic success more than untreated kids.The data seems solid: the researchers apparently had access to medical and school records in complete fashion for an entire school district in Minnesota, an were able to track all these information from birth until age 18 for this student population. How access to sensitive material like this happened is unknown, and for me, it raises a question mark. Maybe parents from an entire school district gave consent?
The researchers found that kids with ADHD had poorer long-term academic outcomes, lower reading scores and more absenteeism compared to kids that had not been diagnosed with ADHD. Common drugs like Ritalin were found to lower the risk of all three conclusions -- even long after treatments ceased.
Excessive television viewing creates attention problems in adolescents
If your young son or daughter watches quite a bit of television in those younger years, a new study concludes that possible attention problems may develop when he or she reaches adolescence.Ever since television was invented, the argument of kids watching too much of it has been thrown around. The new study does not completely agree with earlier studies that attempted to make a direct connection between TV watching and attention disorders in kids (i.e., contributing to ADHD, for example).
Specifically, this latest study makes the case for watching more than two hours of television per day -- between the ages of 5 and 11 -- and the possibility for increased attention problems in adolescence. According to one of the study's authors, "We found the amount of television did predict the amount of problems at age 13 and 15."
Is it time to turn off that TV after school?
ADHD preschoolers -- no drugs needed
It's comforting to hear medical experts explain that ADHD symptoms can be relieved by things such as consistency and structure in the home (imagine that) in addition to or in replacement of prescription drugs. We'll now add preschoolers with ADHD to that list as well.Although it's very hard to believe any child under the age of five has the "disease" ADHD (they are kids, right?), there are some parents who swear that their three year-old is out of control, hence ADHD. I'm of the mind most kids that age are out of control as they explore the new world around them constantly without any concern to anything.
But, some some sort of predictability, timing, consistency and very rigid structure when it comes to activities has solved ADHD problems for the parents of young kids, according to new research. Maybe those kids needed structure all along to keep their young and explorative minds focused, and it's hard to see how ADHD comes into the picture at all without valid scientific data.
