John -
Believe it or not, that's a trick question. Information on Minimum Daily Requirements or Daily Reference Intakes is readily available, but these are not really what you need. MDR are just that, how much of each vitamin you need to consume each day to avoid the problems associated with vitamin deficiency. DRI's are a kinda sorta different, they are the amounts consumed by normal, healthy individuals, and are broken out by age category. You can find those at
books.nap.edu/books/0309071836/html/115.html#pagetop They aren't in the most convenient format, as you have to page through to view the complete list, but at least they are there.
Then there are the Upper Intake Limits, which are the maximum amounts you ought to consume. These are based on the lowest amount at which side effects have been noted. Often, therapeutic doses are higher than the UIL's, but still, it's good to have some guidelines.
I found one of the most useful sources of information on supplements to be Laura Stevens' book "12 Effective Ways to Help Your ADD/ADHD Child". Not specific enough, but still better than most. I've also gone through zillions of studies indexed in the National Library of Medicine. I ended up e-mailing Laura Stevens about her wonderful book and outlining the supplements I planned to use. She suggested one minor change to me (the inclusion of Vitamin E) which after doing a little more reading, I decided was excellent advice.
Websites that sell vitamins can be helpful, but their information tends to be sketchy, not specific to ADHD, and often relies on popular usage rather than research findings, particularly research findings directly connected to ADHD. Take it with a grain of salt.
Luckily, there is growing research on the use of supplements in ADHD. In many cases, it's been summarized in books that I've found to be very good resources. If you like reading more information than you really need, I'd recommend the following:
"The LCP Solution" by Jacqueline Stordy which deals with Omega-3 supplementation
"The Magnesium Factor" by Seelig and Rosanoff
"The 30-Day Nutrition Solution" by Marcia Zimmerman, which talks about elimination diets
FYI, the list of supplements we use (in addition to the wonderful Feingold Diet) is as follows:
A multi-vitamin which contains trace minerals and 100 IU of vitamin E
A B-complex vitamin called a balanced B-50
600mg of Magnesium (my son weighs 90 pounds, so his target dose is 540mg, and that's as close as I can get)
Omega-3 fish oil, 4 capsules daily, which provide a total of 480mg DHA and 720mg EPA. (There are smaller, more concentrated versions available, but my son does not do well on these. Your child might do fine on them.)
One 500mg capsule of Evening Primrose Oil which contains 50mg GLA.
1 - 2 Tbsp daily of lecithin, a rich source of phospholipids which comprise 25% of our brains, and which are required for construction of the neurotransmitter choline.
2 Tbsp daily of soy protein powder, to provide a wide spectrum of amino acids
Yes, this is a lot of stuff to give a child. My son is very cooperative about his vitamins now, but in the beginning I had to resort to paying him actual money to choke them down. It was worth it. In fact, it's worth just about anything to me to keep him off of medication, which we've managed to do so far.
Our success isn't perfect. We have to deal with occasional violations of the diet, which is not fun and causes attention problems at school. Additionally, he does poorly on the salicylates, which we discovered by the recurrence of dreaded "before" behaviors as they built up in his system. (Reactions to salicylates aren't immediate and obvious, as they are with the artificial additivies.) This has meant, on a couple of occasions, difficulties that took about a week to note and then about a week to correct, so that his teachers began complaining again about his behavior.)
If you're interested in reading research papers, I can suggest a number of them. I'd also suggest looking through the archives of the Alternative Medicine Review, which is a high-quality peer-reviewed journal that has published papers on a large number of nutritional issues, including those specifically relating to ADD. You can find these archives at
www.thorne.com/alternative/back.htmlI don't know if this really addresses your question, but maybe it will help some.
