[teacher2mommy]

Has anyone here tried changing your child's diet instead of medicating them for ADD. I have checked out the National ADD website that recommend you change the diet before medication and would like to check that out before I start to check for medication.
Has anyone had good luck with this?

[redfred]

I don’t know what the “official” diet is, but we did make MANY dietary changes for L to help with his ADHD. We had noticed that he is very, very sensitive to processed sugars and bleached flour, so those were the first to go. All we eat, with very few exceptions, is 100% whole grain. No crackers (except Triscuts as they are the only 100% whole grain crackers) or snack foods with processed flour or sugar are allowed in the house. Pasta is 100% whole grain too. Lots of fresh fruits and veggies. We also added a high protein sugar free supplement to his diet each day as well. We did notice a change with his activity level, and the entire family became much healthier as well!
This change, however, was simply not enough for L. It was only a small difference and did not last very long. We finally did have to try medication.

[Again!]

I had great results from putting two little boys on a gluten free diet...until they started stealing the bread from the sandwiches of the other kids in school. They were also very sensitive to sugar and did much better when kept on a sugar free diet, which is much easier than the gluten free.

[mama2-8]

Medication has done the trick for my son. You shouldn't feel bad about using medicine. I always related it to a diabetic using insiline. If you were a diabetic you wouldn't hesitate, but for some reason people are scared of using meds to treat things such as ADD or ADHD. My son is actually learning and is learning to cope with the world arround him, he couldn't do that before meds. We have seen great progress, it is not a cure, but it helps a lot. There are meds that are non-narcatic you can try first.

The Journey

[NJNative]

ADHD is not caused by sugar or anything else you eat. It is caused by misfiring neurological connections in the brain, which can be seen and documented on a PET scan. It can also be detected by the results of certain educational testing as well.

Many people were scammed into putting their children on special diets -- most notably the Feingold Diet -- none of which has ever been proven effective on ADHD. This was especially popular in the '70s and '80s and has been mostly abandoned. Because if they worked, no one would even HAVE ADHD by now! They'd all be on a special diet instead.

If you have had your child adequately tested -- by a pediatric neurologist and a child psychiatrist -- and they have been diagnosed with ADHD, I can't even imagine why anyone would withhold medication.

Untreated ADHD is more likely to cause social problems, educational problems and a tendancy to "self-medicate" with drugs and alcohol. My son is 17 and has ADHD/Inattentive subtype. He takes medication for it, and will freely tell anyone what it is like to be UNmedicated. He can't even concentrate on something he WANTS to do (like a video game) without it.

My aunt wouldn't medicate one of my cousins, who then dropped out of school, was into drugs and alcohol throughout his 20s. (Thank goodness, he finally got himself together, and at 40, takes meds.)

Please do a LOT of reading and research if you have a child with ADHD. And good luck.

Robin