[Barksum]

ADD/ADHD is very common in drug and alcohol exposed children.

If you are not wanting to medicate, or want to do other things along with medicating, you might check out diet and vitamin/supplement therapies. One diet that many parents find helpful is the Feingold Diet. Other families have found that their kids are sensitive and sometimes allergic to certain foods. The top 5 in the food allergies are dairy, soy, wheat, corn, and...uh...give me a sec...got it! Eggs! Some kids with FASD don't digest gluten and dairy very well so they do better with a gluten and casein free diet.

We're working with a health professional to try to fine tune diet and supplements with one of our kids. We do give all of our kids a daily multivitamin and fish oil supplements. Additionally we try to be careful about sleeping habits and making sure that they get outdoor exercise (vitamin D plus the fresh air), adequate sleep, and plenty of water. Sometimes kids without adequate sleep have more trouble regulating their behavior so a simple solution is making sure that bedtimes are maintained. Same with dehydration; without water our bodies can't eliminate the sludge from our system efficiently so that needs to have attention paid to it as well.

We've not found any magic formula, but we're working on it from several angles. Also my personal experience has been that for my kids the year they were 4 was pretty big, developmentally speaking. It's as though they saved up their "Terrible Two's" until they were four. I've been wondering if here is an actual biological growth or brain development spurt that happens between year four and five or something because it has been SO obvious that my kids that there was much going on inside during that time. (Not that they aren't growing and having obvious jumps in development at other times, but just that at 4 it seemed to be a Big Deal for them.)