CONCERNED PARENT

[kppy3]

hi tom,

my 8 yr. old son was "diagnosed" last april with adhd. we tried a brief run on adderrall with not so great results. mostly the side effects were horrible and the response from his teacher and dr. was, "more meds" this did not sit well with us and we decided to look into other ways to manage his difficulties.

i must say that your question about when parents first noticed their child's problems, caught my eye. we first noticed problems in the form of hyperactiviity, anxiety and clothing sensitivities at about mid way thru first grade or about 6 1/2 years old, in our son.

i can honestly say that up until that time, he was a contented, easy going kid with no attention difficulties or fidgetyness. i often wonder about vacinations and whether they had anything to do with the changes in him... another topic i think!

anyway, we use homeopathy, and supplements. the homeopathy has done amazing things for my son.

bottom line is, you have to find what works best for your son and something you're comfortable using as well. sounds like you're on your way.

good luck!
kppy

[thogan]

An early Happy and Safe New Year to everyone in the group!

I have a couple of questions regarding supplemental vitamins that I hope someone can answer. Speciifically the amount of Omega-3 and Magnesium needed (and what other vitamin doses are recommended. I would really like to try this avenue to help my son. We had our son's pediatrician schedule an appointment to see a specialist at the Hasbro Childrens Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. Coincidentally my blood clot doctors neighbor is now President of the APA and he had recommended the same doctor. I'm curious to see what an actually specialist has to say vice our current pediatrician who is a naval doctor at the naval base.

On another note. I had read on one of the alternative medicine websites that if the child has dark circles under their eyes it was a sign of possible food allergies. My son has had dark circles under his eyes which we always attributed to my wife's side of the family having the same trait. What I've noticed is this dark patches are not always there and they have coincided with this hyperactivity. May be coincidental but worth looking into. Anyways and inputs regarding the amounts of vitamins would be appreciated. My son is six years old and weights 78 lbs (he's in his 99 percentile range for hight and weight ).

Regards,
Tom

[catatonic]

Clinical research on use of Omega-3 for hyperactive children appears to indicate that in order to be effective, you need to use 480mg DHA and 720mg EPA daily. This isn't the same kind of hard and fast dosing rule you'd find pharmaceuticals, so if you find a product you like that's in the ballpark, go for it. We use the Natural Factors Rx-Omega-3, which contains 200mg DHA and 400mg EPA per capsule, so I alternate giving 2 one day and 3 the next. It takes aproximately 12 weeks to correct an essential fatty acid deficiency, so don't expect immediate results. For us, noticeable improvement in my son's behavior began at about 6 weeks.

On magnesium, the therapeutic dose is calculated at 6mg per pound of body weight. For your son that would mean approximately 480mg per day. Split this into 2 doses, since it's water soluble and any excess will be passed in the urine. Magnesium can be hard on the stomach at first, causing loose bowels or stomach ache...not always, but frequently enough that you probably want to start with half your target dose (or less) and build up gradually, so the body has time to get used to it. If you don't believe you're dealing with magnesium deficiency but simply want to provide adequate supplementation, maintenance dose is 3mg per pound of body weight, or about 240mg daily for a child your son's size.

Try the Cvostek test at home to see if magnesium deficiency is likely. (You can follow up with blood serum test to confirm, if you'd like.) Have your son sit comfortably in an upright chair. Tap the hollow of his cheek, halfway between the earlobe and corner of the mouth. If his upper lip below the nose twitches or jumps then magnesium deficiency is probable.

On the eye circles, my son gets pink circles under his eyes when he's eaten something he's unable to tolerate. Generally these are fairly light, but if he eats corn sweeteners, they are a very deep color, and it always coincides with hyper/oppositional/over-emotional behaviors. Do you keep a food diary? It's been very helpful to me in figuring out what foods trigger my son's reactions. It takes only a few minutes a day and even a space cadet like me can generally mangage to be fairly consistent about it.

[Renee]

Definately, the dark circles under his eyes can be indicating an allergic reaction; the same could be true of your wife's family. Dr. Doris Rapp is probably the leading authority on environmental medicine (as she pioneered the field) and she is a pediatric allergist. In her book, "Is this Your Child?" (which catatonic mentioned) and "Is This Your Child's World?" she talks in great detail about the different ways your child can manifest an allergy. These can be your typical runny nose, itchy eyes, but also behavioral things, like hyperactivity, anger, violence, ect. The dark circles under the eyes are a visual indicator that the immune system has been attacked and is responding.

So your son could be responding to a food or a chemical that is causing both the circles and the behavior. The tricky part is that there can be as much as a 24 hour delay with a symptom so sometimes it is hard to connect it to the offending substance.

I agree that a food diary with responding behaviors is a great idea. Also, keep track of chemicals that he is exposed to. These include cleaning chemicals, laundry products, formaldehyde in carpet backing, to name a few. Also, make note of where certain behaviors take place - home, school, out shopping, ect. It is amazing how sensitive certain children have become to what is in there environment and just a minute amount can be a trigger.

In terms of the Feingold diet, I think the reason why some poeple trash it is that it didn't address their child's particular allergy. We are working with a naturopath/nutritionist who really likes to do her own testing and develop a customized plan as she can test the cells specifically for known allergens, and lesser known ones as well. But even without testing, she will first suggest removing the common problem foods - corn, wheat, dairy, and sugars, as well as all household chemicals to see what effect that has. Of course, you also follow a supplement plan, and with her some homeopathics, to heal the body. But just removing the irritants can create amazing change. Plus, your child will probably be able to tell you in a couple months which things are a problem if he is accidently exposed to one.

The problem is that this is a hard plan to follow and you have to be dedicated and disciplined. It means a big change in lifestyle for most people so it is hard to adhere to. And the body has to go through a "detox" process so you might not see results right away so the temptation is to think it is not working.

For us, we found that dairy and wheat were big problems. My son cannot even eat something that was manufactured in a plant that also processes dairy and wheat as it causes him to react. The good news is that if you are on the right supplement program, the body can be healed and eventually these allergies go away. But that can take a year or longer, depending on how long the person has been allergic.

I also want to mention candida as many nutritionists will tell you that it is at the core of allergy problems. Excessive candida in the intestinal tract causes something called "leaky guy". The candida basically punches holes in the wall of the intestine allowing food particles to escape into the bloodstream. The immune system identifies these particles as "invaders" and sets up an "imprinting" system so that every time these appear (you eat this food) the immune system revs up to kill the invader, hence the allergic reaction. This is how the whole problem begins. Through these same openings the candida itself escapes, travels thought the body and makes it's home in organs it doesn't belong in.

Okay, this is a very simple explanation of a complex problem. For better details, read Dr. William Crook's "The Yeast Connection" or any of his many books on the subject. He is probably the most recognized authority on the subject and his syptom questionaire is the one I see used by professionals all the time. It is also the one I use in working with people to see if candida is a problem. Email me if you would like me to send it to you. You can also do a quick assessment by reviewing what your son eats. Does he eat a lot of sugary foods or carbs? That is a good indicator as candida lives on glucose so anything the body can turn into glucose is craved. Also, how many times has he been on antibiotics? These kill all bacteria, even the good ones that keep candida in check.

In terms of Omega 3s, I need to locate my "Omega 3 Connection" book on what the author used in clincial practice, but I believe it was a higher ratio of 2 to 1, EPA to DHA. I also think it needed to be 1500 mg EPA to 750 DHA, but I'll double check on that.

We always take our magnesium with calcium in a combined supplement. As catatonic mentioned magnesium can be hard on the stomach, so you have to watch that. The calcium is a great calmative agent so it essential for any hyperactive, anxious or nervous children. My kids are older, but we do 1200mg calcium and 400 mg magnesium.

I also wanted to commend you on your approach with the charts. I think that is very helpful for young ADHD kids. They work particularly well with pictures and charts are great visual reminders.

And just remember that you can do both medication and supplements. I typcially recommend people start with supplements and diet changes unless the child's behavior is so severe that it is causing too great of problems for them and/or you. Then try medication, but still do the supplements and diet changes. The latter will heal the body and provide permanent changes, where medication is really a short-term "bandaid" solution.

Just for the record, we did medication for 6 years and have now been doing diet and supplements for 3.5 years. I think the results have been similar, but my son is happier with the diet and supplements. I have always let him choose, even at age 7 when he was diagnosed. And yes he was different from the beginning, but ironically his older brother also has ADHD yet their symtoms are very different.

[thogan]

First off, thank you all for your responses.

Renee, funny thing you mention Candida, my son over the past years has had many ear infections so have been on antibiotics about every month for either an ear infection or strep. I am trying to find some information about Candida, I know probiotic flora yeast helps to keep this form of yeast in check (from my understanding the antibiotics kill the good yeast causing the Candida yeast to run rampid). Any information would be appreciated.

Again, thanks!

Regards,
Tom

[Mishamom]

First off you sound like you're so on track with what's happening and you're doing a very good job!

It seems like my husband and I have been all over the place with regards to our own daughter and her various doctors, diagnosis and treatment suggestions.

Emily will be 7 this July. When she was 3 our pediatrician told us he felt she was autistic but high functioning. We looked into testing and when she was 5 did much more specific testing (they said it would be better to wait until she was 5 since most testing protocols are designed for that age and up) and she was diagnosed as ADHD with an emphasis on the H.

It was suggested at that point we start her on medication. Her pediatrician, as did we, didn't think that it was really the correct diagnosis but he didn't have any other suggestions other than a referall to a neurologist which we felt was not the way to go either. After several months of dragging our feet we finally started her on Strattera. Within six weeks of the school year starting it was already being suggested she would need to repeat - we surrendered and started the meds. She responded well without many of the side effects that others endure.

During this time we were also taking her for speech therapy several times a week (over a course of several years). During a summer camp an OT observed her and approached us for permission to do an evaluation - she noticed some 'problems'. She was diagnosed with Sensory Integration Dysfunction which did explain a great deal. We had asked the child psychologist who tested her previously about it but it was treated pretty dismissively. Emily started OT several times a week also and made good progress also.

She has always had strange sensory behaviors. She had panic attacks when the toilet flushed or with other loud or sudden noises. She couldn't bear to be hugged, picking her up involved a slow approach and some negotiations, she wouldn't eat foods with particular textures or wear clothes of particular materials. She had poor motor skills - esp hand skills like holding eating utensils or crayons. She could not dress herself and was bruised constantly from the knees down because of general clumsiness. She also had poor social skills and seemed to lack empathy for play mates. She was also very stiff in her upper body - most pronounced from her shoulders down. Her facial expressions were stiff and to this day she has a lot of trouble moving her upper lip even though there is no actual physical reason she cannot.

Through the rehab center and other parents I got connected with a doctor that has a bit of a different approach to diagnosing and treating our kids. He tends to see autism, adhd, add, sid, pdd and other autistic spectrum disorders as related. He was the first doctor we found that asked the question of why were the kids like this - what caused it and what could be done to stop it. I tracked down 7 other parents locally whose kids had great success, talked to the kids teachers and therapists and was pretty impressed. We started seeing this NeuroSensory specialist in Austin (Dr. Kendal Stewart) in April of last year.

We started treating her for herpes immediately with Valtrex. It's complicated but I can explain it if you'd like. Basically herpes virus lives in the myelin coating of nerves. This coating helps determine the speed, quality and quantity of sensory input to the brain - what gets into the brain determines what the brain responds to. Basically put in good solid and consistent sensory info like most of us get and we react predictably and consistently. The brain gets constant chaos and it responds accordingly - with inconsistency. If we hear the same noise 10 times we hear the same noise and respond - our kids hear 9 or 10 different noises and react accordingly. Imagine what it must be like.

The herpes was a given because of medical history. When I was pregant with her I had HPV cervical problems that progressed very quickly. I lost a lot of weight and was sicker than I knew. By the time she was born I had gone from a slighly abnormal pap to a post delivery biopsy showing cancer. This was caused by a strain of herpes virus with Emily was exposed to. Her motor and development problems seemed to really be noticeable right after she got her chickenpox vaccine - another strain of the herpes virus. We tend to think she is sensitive to it and had development delays of the myelin coating that babies develop from birth to 2 years of age.

We also did metals testing on her and found that she was off the chart on tin and aluminum and her mercury was above normal safe levels but not as high as the aluminum and tin. We began an organic chealation to leach the minerals from her system using PCA-RX (it's an organic sublingual spray we get through a health food store or on the internet). Further testing found that her body does not develop enough metathyeline (sp?) - the substance our bodies produce to naturally remove metals from our systems. She makes 25% of what she should for her weight. We support this by modifying some of her vitamin and mineral intake to maximize what her body needs to produce this better.

Within 4 months she was a new kid. She was released from speech and OT by the Fall. She learned to ride a bike in just 1 day (no joke), learned to swim in 1 day (she was terrified of baths previously), runs well, is far more coordinated and now has the best handwriting in her class. Not bad for a little girl whose OT handmade braces for her to help hold crayons effectively.

She is finishing up kindergarten this year and is ahead of her class. She's working on some first grade skills and socially fits in with no problems now. Her teacher said she'd have never known Emily had ever had problems if she hadn't seen her the previous 2 years. She attends a private preschool who has been more accomodating than our local ISD.

The point of all this is that Emily has been medication free since Christmas break and nobody is none the wise for it. Her reports from school are great and the teacher sees no change in skills or behavior. We just couldn't be happier.

I won't say that this doctor or his treatment ideas are the right fit for every child. I think there is enough not known that the questions are always worth asking or pursuing. It's very easy for people to observe behavior and treat behavior symptoms. It was very hard to find someone curious as to why or what or even could it be stopped or prevented.

I just checked and my doctor's website is down for repairs. If you have any questions or want to know if he has a colleague in your area you can email Dr. Stewart at [e-mail] His testing is thorough and conclusive. He specifically tests sensory function (most of it inner ear related), blood work and a darn good medical history. We left confident that we would either find out what was wrong or what definitely wasn't. That meant the world to us.

Emily has been such a great success that almost 400 children from my West Texas area travel to Austin to work with this guy. The rehab centers are convinced of the results and refer as do the schools. Just last a month a local doctor opened a practice here based on the same neurosensory conclusions. Dr. Stewart was also a speaker at the National Autist Spectrum Disorder symposium in Austin this past November and Emily was his case study. Like I said - we're VERY VERY proud of her.

Good luck and keep asking questions. I believe if you keep it up people will keep looking at your child long enough to begin answering them. All of our kids are so unique and not one solution fits all - we know that but we still seem to have to convince the rest of the world.

[catatonic]

Interesting story. Thanks for sharing it. Can you post Dr. Stewart's website so we can take a look once it's up and running again?

[Mishamom]

His webise is www.neca.us.

His basic premise is that these are all neurologically based and begin very young with an interruption of the nerve development. At birth you have no myelin coating. It develops over the first two years. The impact is much like this:

Birth - touch reaction - is all a baby has. Babies react to touch first because it is the most basic of sensory functions and requires primitive myelin development.

3 months - myelin coating is in process - with the refined sensory input vision and sound improve a great deal. Babies track faces, turn to sounds, begin to find surroundings familiar or strange.

9 months - sitting and walking require finer tuning of the inner ear sensory functions such as balance and placement in space (where you are in a 3-D world). This progresses into walking.

12 - 24 months - walking improves when inner ear and visual refine to work together (myelin coating is near complete by here). To stand you need balance, to walk you need balance and visual to run is the final because the eyes and inner ears must be in synch so that while your head and eyes move while running the brain still processes the information with the inner ear to keep you upright and balanced.

A great example he gave was to hold up your thumb in front of your face. Hold your thumb still and shake your head back and forth while trying to keep your eyes on your thumb - for most of us - no problem. Now do the same and keep your head still and move your thumb back and forth - different tracking mechanism because it is just visual and not also inner ear. This is a measurable response and helps to identify children with sensory issues.

Correcting the causes of sensory problems usually results in a reversal of behavioral symptoms. If a child can't place themselves in a room (as in 3-D) the natural response is to touch and feel and physically 'find' their surroundings. Emily had 2-D vision when we started into this. Within months her brain had corrected to seeing 3-D and her ADHD symptoms, distractibility, fidgeting, touching everything, calmed considerably.

There are many things that cause this sensory trouble - herpes, metals, thyroid disorders, nutrition problems, metabolic problems, autoimmune disorders (prevalent in famies with inflammatory diseases like arthritis, rheumatism, krohns diseas, irritable bowel syndrome, lupus, etc.). Once it is identified it can be dealt with.

While this not be everyone's answers I think it's certainly a question worth asking. If nothing else a parent is able to prove what is and isn't. That was such a good feelings. The success rate has been great. About 97% of his patients are medication free and age appropriate at school and behavior within one year.

[Linda]

mishamom....I am totally impressed with your story...Thank you for sharing.

[Kaiti]

Now I am holding my thumb up and shaking my head.

That is so interesting.....I'll definately be looking at all fo this all over again.

We did start Mikey with the vits and fish oil, hasn't been too bad from what I have noticed. :DBout time

[DenverSarah]

Wow this is the first time I've heard Herpes mentioned...and my ears pricked up because I have it and had breakouts during all 3 pregnancies. Thanks for posting!