Nutritional solutions that work?

These children are all so different. What works for one doesn’t necessarily work for another. This is what we have done for our 11-year-old son who is LD/CAPD.

We take our son to a bionutritionalist. She gave him a prescription for vitamins based on some blood test results that measured the level of vitamin and mineral levels in his body. At her suggestion, we eliminated foods with artificial flavors and colorings from his diet to improve his attention span and behavior. She also suggested that we try eliminating milk products and gluten from his diet, but we didn’t go that far. As he has gotten older (he’s now 11), we’re finding that he is less sensitive to the artificial flavorings and colors.

Last year, we had him evaluated for a central auditory processing disorder and found that he had a mild to moderate CAPD. We had been previously told by psychologists that our son was ADD and he had been a ritalin for about 6 months. We saw no change with the ritalin so we took him off. I understand that a lot of children who have CAPD are misdiagnosed as having ADD. So another avenue to explore in addition to diet is CAPD.

LJ

Sounds really interesting.

Mary

How is your son progressing with PACE? My daughter has similar difficulties and she is doing PACE as well.

So do you think the bionutritionist really helped your son? Where the vitamins just a regular children’s type vitamin or something special?

My son has a very mixed diagnosis. The pediatric neurologist says he fits about 25% of the characteristics of several conditions/disorders (motor coordination, ADD, language disorder, CAPD, sensory integration). They all overlap a lot too. At any given stage, different challenges seems to dominant his life. Up until the age of 6, language development was the biggest problem. In the early grades (1st and 2nd), attention seemed to cause him the most grief. Now, it is processing speed, memory, and fine motor coordination for writing.

I wondering if there is a book that can give me a “healthy brain diet” for kids.

I’ve got another post on the board to share ideas and experiences with PACE. You might want to read some of the messages there. We are in Week 2. I like to see my son really concentrating. He is not reaching levels yet that are new plateaus for him yet, but it is early.

Greetings Rosie,

I would encourage you to check out the website by Dr. Amen, nationally recognized expert in ADD. Through SPECT imaging, he has indentified SIX different types of ADD of which only TWO respond well to Ritalin alone! Scroll down the menu on the left-hand side of the screen and click on “Interactive Amen Brain System Checklist”. This checklist is an invaluable tool to determine if ADD exists and, if so, which type, and it provides the basis for specific effective treatment planning. It’s not unheard-of to score as displaying several different types of ADD. However, it’s important to note that this questionnaire is not meant to provide a diagnosis but it serves as a guide to help people begin to identify problems.

http://www.brainplace.com

My now 14yo dd was on a trial of Ritalin when she was in 5th grade. At first the Ritalin seemed to help a little but the adverse side effects outweighed any benefits. Since reading about the six types of ADD in Dr. Amen’s book entitled “Healing ADD: The Breakthrough Program That Allows You to See and Heal the 6 Types of ADD” and completing the checklist on my dd, I’ve come to understand that the type of ADD she probably has indicates she should have never been placed on ritalin alone. I know you think the doctor is just experimenting with your ds and that truly may be the cause. However, it is important to note that even using Dr. Amen’s model which better identifies the appropriate class of drug, the actual drug used within that class varies from patient to patient so a certain amount of trial and error is to be expected. By the way, I checked with our local ADD expert and he agrees with Dr. Amen’s ADD models. Much but not all of the information that is in his book is also on the website. I’m glad I have the book too. Someone else has also posted that his videos are excellent.

At the website, there is also a section “Supplements to Enhance Brain Function” which provides info on supplemental alternatives that Dr. Amen uses. Depending on the severity, certain types of ADD respond well to supplements, others not at all.

Like your ds, my dd’s predominate problems are with processing, memory/word retrieval. She has been diagnosed with APD, dysnomia (word retrieval disorder), VPD and according to Dr. Amen’s checklist, probably has ADD. Like you, I’ve always thought the attention was a side issue but after recently completing both PACE and Master the Code, I’ve come to realize that it may be a more serious issue than previously thought. PattiM has a wonderful post about this issue on another board and I’ll try to track it down for you.

I don’t have time now, but I’ll try to post tomorrow about our results with PACE and MTC.

Blessings, momo

Great info. Thanks. I’m headed to the website right now. I would like to hear more about your experience with PACE and Master the Code too. Thanks so much for taking the time to write. I really appreciate it.

Rosie

I have four children, one is autistic and one is ADD. I have found that both of these children have difficulty processing foods high in phenol content. When I reduced the phenols, with additional food eliminations for my autistic son, both children improved.

This is also the basis for the Feingold diet, which you may or may not believe in. However, I have found that reduction of these foods helped my children enormously. I do not follow strict Feingold, but I do modify it based on the specific reactions of my children. And just because it helped my children, does not necessarily mean it will help yours, but I personally would prefer to try this type of remedy before considering medications, so I am glad I did find what was affecting my own children.

If you would like more information about foods with high phenol content, here is my information on that. This is directed specifically for autistic children, but you can figure out which parts of it would be applicable for your own child. The link for Feingold information is also here.

http://home.pacbell.net/cscomp/phenol.htm

As a teacher I am coming to believe that a hallmark of ADHD may more be impulse control rather than a child who is merely highly active or inattentive. Extreme inattentiveness may be another issue altogether. I have had students who almost never pay attention unless you are right next to them, 1:1, in their face, blah, blah. Now this will effect learning.

For a fascinating perspective on ADHD visit:

www.amenclinic.com

I think that is the URL, the site is Dr. Daniel Amen who has collected over 10 years of brainimaging data on ADHD and related syndromes. I find his ideas to be very plausible.

Rosie,

One of the best things you can do to reduce weight is drink lots of water. It flushes out your system and really can help reduce hunger. It may not be a kid’s beverage of choice but you can put a slice of lemon, lime, orange whatever in the water if it helps.