Forum for ADHD Support

My friends son was just diagnosed with ADHD and the dr is pushing medication but she doesnt want to go there yet. Any suggestions for good forums where she can get advice on other things she can try? Or any suggestions in this thread on what she could try to help her son would be great. He has trouble focusing in school when the topic doesnt interest him but he can also have great attention too. He also has a motor grafia (?) diagnosis. He has difficulty with spelling and getting his thoughts on paper, although it is significantly easier on a computer.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

check if you have a local
http://www.chadd.org/

Lots of people try high EPA fish oil for attention and learning issues. She would want to look for something with a high ratio of EPA to DHA, like 4:1 or even 7:1. We've used Carlson's liquid, MorEPA, and Corormega.

It sounds like he has dysgraphia? This is a handwriting disability and typing is typically much easier for those kids. My son has this. I will say from all of the research I've done that it is difficult to remediate. There is nothing to support that continued repetitive handwriting practice is the answer - but that is what most schools offer. It is good for them to practice, but accommodations are a must, like using a keyboard with word prediction software, having a scribe, using Dragon Dictation.

She might look at Dianne Craft's web site: www.diannecraft.com. She has some good ideas for visual spatial approaches to reading and spelling, and anecdotally I have seen numerous people have improvement in handwriting when using her "Writing 8" exercise.

Finally I really like the book by Jeffrey Freed "Right Brained Children in a Left Brained World - Unlocking the Potential of Your ADD Child." It has good information about how to help with specific school subjects.
http://www.amazon.com/Right-Brained-...=jeffrey+freed

I can relate to your friends not wanting to do medication.
We were anti-medication too, tried diet, fish oil, everything. One day a friend said "if your son had asthma or an infection or anything else, you'd medicate". It made us realize that we needed to let go of the stigma behind ADHD and medication and try it for our child. I have to say, while it wasn't a miracle fix, it did help tremendously and I'm glad we did it.



Valerie
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Several of us here have had good results with the Feingold diet. We also tried GFCF for a while, but that did nothing for my son. We've done various supplements. We're currently using 5-HTP, which definitely has an effect. There are certain types of therapy you can try. askdrsears.com has some good general info on that.

Some people have good results with additional zinc or B vitamins.

We homeschool, and I've found many ways to work around the inattentiveness. It can still be frustrating at times, but for us personally (obviously every kid is different), I wouldn't choose to medicate Jason for just inattentiveness. However, he has major hyperactivity issues that are truly debilitating. He cannot function well at all, so we're currently exploring medication. I can definitely understand wanting to try everything else first though.

Thank you so much for all the input. His demonstration of ADHD behavior is not very obvious, perhaps showing only in his academics, which is the reason for reluctance to medicate. Thanks for all of the input regarding alternatives to try.

Is the school working with her to provide accommodations to meet his needs? I'd definitely want to start there, if she hasn't already. Sometimes a neuropsychologist can be helpful in putting together specific recommendations.