I applaud you for doing your own research and for ...

2008-07-12T13:17:00.000-07:00

I applaud you for doing your own research and for being so proactive. As Shakespeare said, "there are more things in heaven and earth... than are dreamed of in your philosophy". Meaning- we don't know everything! When all you've got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Docs are great, sometimes meds are great (even ocassionally Ritalin), but not always. And certainly not in your son's case. Good for you

warmly
jb

While my son was never hyperactive, he always had ...

2008-07-09T10:46:00.000-07:00

While my son was never hyperactive, he always had trouble focusing and staying on task in school. We tried everything we could think of. Our pediatrician's only suggestion was medication. I resisted. But he guilted me into it -- told me that my son was suffering. So when he was in fourth grade, I gave in. Yes, his focus improved, but he still had a lot of trouble reading. He also suffered from insomnia and stomachaches.

Towards the end of the school year, a friend of mine (a preschool teacher) casually mentioned that Red #40 causes behavioral problems -- as though it was common knowledge. I had never heard such a thing, but I started researching and was shocked at what I found out. I finally discovered the Feingold organization and from them, purchased a book called "Why can't my child behave." This book changed everything for us. It is full of conditions that are misdiagnosed as ADD.

After reading this book, I learned that if my son truly had ADD, he'd have it all the time, not just under certain conditions (like when its time to do homework). So I worked with the doctor to take him off the medication and decided to try some of the strategies in the book.

The first strategy was to remove all the artificial color from his diet. Once he was home from school for the summer, this was pretty easy. We did it for a week and he was very even tempered. When the week was up, we experimented by letting him have a can of orange soda and a bag of Skittles. Within a half hour, he was a wreck. He was argumentative, emotional, unreasonable -- he ended up storming upstairs, slamming the door, screaming I HATE YOU and I'M GOING TO KILL MYSELF!!!

I didn't need any further convincing. After he settled down (a couple of hours later), I explained to him what had happened. We went through the entire kitchen reading labels and all foods w/ artificial colors went in the trash. And from that day to this, they have never been allowed in the house or in our diets.

But it turns out that this was only part of the problem. Another condition that the Feingold book discusses is Vision problems -- another thing that I had never heard of. As I've come to learn, there is more to good vision than a 20/20 eye test. You can have 20/20 vision and still have trouble reading if your eyes are not "teaming" correctly.

With the information from that book, I was able to locate a Behavioral Optomotrist and have my son's vision checked. This doctor rated Eye teaming on a scale from 0-20 - w/ 20 being perfect teaming. My son scored 6! He went to weekly vision therapy for about 9 months and now his eyes are fine.

The really infuriating thing about this whole experience is that my pediatrictian -- the first person that I went to for help -- had no clue about any of these options. When I told him, his reaction was "Really? Well, I'm glad that worked out for you." !!! Sorry, but he's a pediatrician and this is a very common childhood problem. He should have known better. I feel like I was doing his job.

Finally, I have to say that I don't believe that ADD is a disease. Diabetes, for example, is from a lack of insulin. Depression is (or can be) from a lack of seratonin. Etc. Is ADD from a lack of Ritalin? No. ADD is a way to describe a collection of symptoms, but, as I learned from the Feingold book, those symptoms can be any combination of dozens of issues. Ritalin is just a dangerous band-aid. We owe it to our children to take the time to find the real answers.

As a former Kindergarten/Pre-K teacher, I can tell...

2008-06-30T09:10:00.000-07:00

As a former Kindergarten/Pre-K teacher, I can tell you first hand what some of those side effects are. The scariest to me was a complete change in personality. Some of these children turn in on themselves so far you would have a hard time picking them out from children with autism. Drugs are simply too easy to get for these children. What they need most is coping skills for both children and parents alike. So many of these children could learn to handle this if only they were taught the skills instead of the "quick fix miracle drugs" that the doctors seem so eager to pass out.
Management and coping skills don't cause heart attaches and hallucinations.

Comments on Dr. Jonny Bowden's Blog: Natural Supplements Suffer Another Biased Media Re...

I applaud you for doing your own research and for ...

While my son was never hyperactive, he always had ...

As a former Kindergarten/Pre-K teacher, I can tell...