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Date Posted: 19:55:16 06/19/02 Wed
Author: Anita
Subject: Re: Connie here is my story (and anyone else with any ideas)....
In reply to: Liann 's message, "Connie here is my story (and anyone else with any ideas)...." on 20:34:54 06/18/02 Tue

My 8 year old daughter was labeled ADHD at 4 years old. For 3 or 4 months we saw a therapist and tried different doses of Ritalin to attempt to get her to act somewhat close to normal. She was kicked out of 2 day care facilities, the 2nd one the first day before lunch! They said she was just too much, she needed to be in a specialized day care, of course no one knew where to point me. After a LOT of phone calls, even the doctor and the local help line didn't know what to tell me. The Ritalin either would make her zombie-like or not affect her at all, the dose never seemed right. Finally, I gave up on the meds all together and opened the phone book again. There in the day care section, somehow I didn't see it before, was a privately owned, family run day care that boasted "we specialize in ADD and ADHD." I called and the owner said 2 of her sons had been labeled when they young, she believed meds were not needed. Her day care was a fully staffed Montessori school, 3 of her kids worked there. What she did with my daughter was this:
1st thing to start the day, a long swimming lesson in the morning.
2nd was to go to the Kindergarten class for a short while, making sure to skip around the subjects, toughing lightly here and there.
3rd was lunch
4th was outside play with the other kids who didn't nap
5th was Spanish class
6th was Karate class
All the while taking frequent stretch/bathroom breaks, always asking questions to pique interest and giving compliments all along the way. They also watched for the 1st signs of frutration, ants in the pants, 1st signs of distraction. When they would spot the 1st signs, they would gently inform her she needed to break and clear her head and tell her she could help herself by learning to realize she was getting ready to get the wiggles or out of control. We worked alot on behavior modification, not that she was bad, just to learn to stop and breathe.
We are still working on this, it is one reason we decided to homeschool. I have seen a HUGE improvement over the last 4 years. I don't have all of those activities for her, she only went to that school for 1 1/2 years. We are now looking into a family membership at YMCA. It is too pricy for us, but since my son is disabled, we may qualify for a discounted price. Maybe that could help since you have a condition.
I know this was long winded, I just didn't want to leave out any details that may help.
Good luck and God Bless.


>I have a son who is hyperactive and has difficulty
>concentrating. He is 7 and has always been full of
>energy. It has been extremely difficult for all of us
>since December. He is so much more hyper, impulsive
>and distracted. We have not had any family changes or
>diet changes since December so I don't know why it has
>become so much worse. He is almost 8 and going into
>"third grade". He has been homeschooled since March of
>his kindergarten year. My ds is a wonderful, loving,
>funny kid. He is always keeping us in stitches. He has
>a great personality and I would not want to change
>that. But we need to find a way to help him slow down
>and think before he acts. He understands what he needs
>to do, but he has difficulty in doing it. The biggest
>challenge for him is to concentrate. We are schooling
>through the Summer for math, phonics, reading and
>handwriting. We did not get as much done as we needed
>to this year due to my health. We need to have a year
>round schedule and take more frequent breaks. But, his
>work should only take 1 hour a day. We have tried
>playing Mozart or other classical music, but it only
>helps sometimes.
>
>Today I gave him his work (Explode the Code book 4)
>and he sat down on the couch to do it. Thirty minutes
>later I checked and he had only completed a little
>bit. I did math with him and then gave him 1 math
>worksheet. I told him after he was finished with his
>work he could go outside. Two hours later he had only
>completed 1/3 of the math page. When I came downstairs
>he was very frustrated. I talked to him and tried to
>do some orally with him. He was so frustrated that he
>cried. He has never cried out of frustration from not
>being able to concentrate before. He said, "I hate it
>when I can't concentrate! What is wrong with me?" It
>broke my heart.
>
>If he had stayed in traditional school he would have
>been labled ADHD and been requested to be put on
>medication. We believe that God gave him a lot of
>energy for a reason. We think that he may need his
>abundance of energy to do the work that God has called
>him to when he is grown. We are trying to change
>things to his learning style, but some things have to
>be written down. He is a bright child and can learn;
>he just learns differently. I tried to explain this to
>him. But he still thinks that something is wrong with
>him. Help!! What can I do? Have any of you gone
>through this? What helped? What made it worse? I know
>we need to give him bite size chunks of work - that
>was evident today. But what else can we do to help?
>Unfortunately, the kicker is that I have health
>problems and am very tired all of the time. This makes
>it difficult to do everything hands on. Any help would
>be appreciated. Do any of you know of alternative to
>medication that will help him concentrate and calm
>down?
>
>Blessings, Liann
>
>Connie,
>
>This is the message that I posted on the vegsource
>board. I got quite a few responses. One thing that
>was mentioned and that I was already looking into was
>the Fiengold diet. I tried this today with my son and
>it sure is difficult to find foods for him to eat.
>Did you subscribe to the program? What in the world
>do you feed your family? Does the rest of the family
>follow the diet to make it easier on your son. Help!!
> We are trying to figure out what to do. I really
>want things to go better for us this Summer and next
>year and I do not want my son feeling like something
>is wrong with him. You could e-mail me with your
>story. There is more to my story with my son, but it
>is difficult to see what correlates and what does not.
>
>Blessings, Liann

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