Desperate For Help

[Raelene]

Hi, I am new to this forum. I am a 35 year old single parent with one difficult child who is 5.9 yrs. Went to public school for 3 months this past school year and received 1 day in school detention and 2 days out of school suspension. The principal mentioned alternative school(I am homeschooling him now) And plan to continue for as long as I need to. My difficult child is ADHD(heavy on the HD side) and ODD. His psycologist has recommended I put him on Concerta. I want to try everything possible, before I medicate my difficult child. Can anyone here offer me advice on natural treatments I can try before I do this. I tried coffee he will not drink it (gags him.) And he is so hyper!! He has an appointment. with psycologist June 7, but if anyone can give me some advice to try that are natural first, I will postpone. Thanks so much.
Raelene

 

[Sgwindsor]

Hi Raelene,

I can sympathize with you. As for advice or help..my son is 5 and we have tried a number of things. One that really seemed to help is B'calmd which is an amino acid supplement with b vitamin and riboflavin. I know I spelled the b'calmd wrong because it is a weird spelling, I can get the correct spelling if you are interested.
Anyway, Dr Phil had a show about it that a coworker saw and we really did see vast improvement and then we introduced a fish oil supplement along with homeopathic remedies. The remedies have seemed to make things worse and our naturalpath has taken Evan off of the b'calmd. His preschool actually said he was much better when on the becalm'd.

I am surprised that your psychologist is recommending a certain drug, I was under the impression that only a psychiatrist or doctor could medicate. My difficult child's pediatrician wants to medicate since last year and the psychologist who we saw for three visits for help with behvior mod was pushing us towards a pschiatric evaluation with medications.

Good luck!
Suzanne

 

[Raelene]

My difficult child psycologist did say the psychiatrist would have to write the prescription for me and he was in the same facility, but I have not met him yet. I will try B'Calmd. Where do I get it? Fish Oil? I really don't know anything about that. What is it for,how do you use it?

 

[pixie-chick]

Hi Raelene,

I know the feeling of dread when it comes to medication. It is difficult to place your child on it. We ultimately did but went the natural route when they recommended MORE medication.

Try a book called the Nutrition Solution. It is quite informative. Though, I have to admit if you followed it completely it would be a very difficult task. We picked what we thought most important (including fish oil...for the omegas). Go get a lot of books on natural/behavioral treaments.

We also did several months worth of Japanese Medicine therapy. That included acupuncture and herbs. My 11 year old tolerated the VERY tiny needles well, but I am not sure how well your little one would. We and his teachers felt it made a big difference in his behavior (he is also heavy on the HD part).

Is his psycologist doing behavior modification? As far as the ODD.... Our difficult child developed that last fall for a brief stint. No fun is it? His therpaist suggested to us that it is possibly a compensatory mechanism in response to years of us being on his case ALL of the time. We backed way off and it was amazing. I know you can't back off on everything, but we were in the habit of pouncing on him for just about every movement out of frustration. The more ODD he got the more we got on him. Just a thought. I know every case is different.

Good Luck. Let us know how it is going.

 

[Sgwindsor]

Good morning Raelene,

The website for be'calmd is http://www.neurecovery.com/becalm/

This you can have your child take without intervention from a doctor, however I always recommend you run things by a doctor, Our naturalpath checked out the ingredients and thought it was okay. FYI, things got worse before they got better.

I use Pharmax fish oil 1 teaspoon a day, We get this from our naturalpath.

If you want to attempt the natural approach, seek out a homeopath doctor in your area. We are currently frustrated with that approach but for some it works.

Suzanne

 

[Wildflower]

We have used a natural approach with my difficult child that includes:

[*]dietary restrictions (no processed foods, no food colorings, organic when available, fruit juices, milk, and water only - no sodas);
[*]fish oil supplements (the brand we use isn't available in the US, but it is a capsule that is chewable and has orange juice in it to disguise the fish oil);
[*]careful monitoring of sleep to ensure he gets at least 10 hours per night, every night
[*]use of lavender in as many forms as we can get it! (bath bubbles, sachets for pillows, room spray)
[*]ensuring that exercise and outdoor play are a part of everyday activity
[*]behavior modification
[*]decluttering of the household of ALL nonessential items and regular purges of toys to keep things to a minimum (keeps distractions down)
[/list]

These are not in any particular order, but it is the laundry list of things we do to keep difficult child on an even keel. When difficult child does go off the rails, I usually find that food and/or sleep deprevation is the culprit.

Good luck to you!

 

[wakeupcall]

Wildflower, how old is your difficult child? My ds sleeps so little it's unbelievable. He's never slept well. (Could that be because he's ALWAYS slept in my room on the floor!!!) Is ten hours recommended for a child the age of yours?

 

[vlh]

http://www.webmd.com/parenting/guide/sleep-children

This is a link that explains sleep needs of children based on age.

 

[Sara PA]

You might want to have your son tested for iron deficiency. There is some recent research that it may be a factor in some ADHD behavior and that treatment helps. Do not just add iron pills on your own because too much iron can cause problems.

 

[Raelene]

Thanks so much for all the advice. I am going to get started immediately on trying it all. Natural Treatment is definitely worth trying. I just have a bad feeling when I think about medicating my 5 yr. old difficult child. If anyone has anything else that might help please let me know. My difficult child has always has problems getting to sleep. The more tired he gets the more complicated he gets. When he does finally go to sleep he will sleep 10 hrs. before he gets up. It's just winding down enough to be able to fall asleep. Psycologist mentioned behavioral classes after I said I had to look into Concerta before giving it to him.

 

[transformtriumph]

Welcome Raelene! It is important to have a comprehensive approach to our children's difficulties. Others have given you great advice. I would definitely seek out an alternative medical professional to guide you. One website is homeopathycenter.org/

 

[Wildflower]

PamelaJ, my difficult child is 8.5 years old. It's funny, because I never really knew how much sleep he should be getting officially (until I looked at that site VLH mentioned!), but rather, that number was based on my observation of him. I did (and do, when needed) a behavior journal for him where I note the time he sleeps and 10 hours just seems to be his magic number.

 

[Wildflower]

Sorry for the double posting, just read through the site that VLH mentioned and came across this:

Sleep, among other factors, influences your child's temperament. Poor sleep (too little and/or poor quality) is associated with behavior problems like aggression, defiance, non-compliance, oppositional behavior, acting out, and hyperactivity. The inability to put herself back to sleep unassisted and irregular bedtimes are also associated with behavior problems. It is clear, then, that the proper amount and quality of sleep are very important for your child's development.

 

[wakeupcall]

My son barely gets eight hours of sleep. AND it's not very good quality since he's on the floor of my room in a sleeping bag. I've done everything imaginable to get him to stay in his room. A couple of nights ago he fell asleep upstairs in front of the TV, so I went to bed downstairs without him and he was down those stairs within thirty minutes. I refuse to make it comfortable for him, so now he's gotten used to sleeping on the hard floor. Yes, he has severe separation anxiety.....another on of those symptoms of "bipolar", but I still resist....he just does NOT have those extremes (yet).

 

[dds]

Mine is not HD but he has a friend who is that mother cut out preservitives PERIOD and I gotta tell you I have seen the difference but, would I be willing or have the energy to make everything form scratch (probably not)

 

[Mrs.S]

we have just started with the omega 3 fatty acids. He has only been taking them for a few days so I can't really tell you yet if they work for us or not. I read it can take about 4 weeks to see any improvement.

 

[Raelene]

Thanks so much for all the help I have been given by so many of you. I have ordered B'Calmd and its on the way. I am reading The Explosive Child by Ross W. Greene, Ph.D.,and now I am looking at fish oil supplements, and I am on my way to homeopathic.org.

Keep all the advice coming.

 

[cmdh]

Welcome!

Our difficult child is doing acupucture. Because she is little they are using stones. They look like little dots on bandaids that she keeps on for 3 hrs. She doesn't mind them at all.

HIGHLY recomend the fish oil - I take all her suppliments and blend them together with bannana, coconut oil (good for the tummy) and avacado (good fat). She drinks it as her "juicy juice".

 

[hearts and roses]

There is a homeopathic section at your local Health food store. You will find a homeopathic aid there having to do with caffeine...can't remember the exact name offhand. It is specifically for restlessness, hyperactivity and the like. They are little tiny pellets and come in tubes - usually dose is 5 pellets melted under the tongue. They are made in a base of sugar/lactose and taste almost yummy enough that your son won't mind them.

I like most of the other recommendations. Best of luck~

 

[transformtriumph]

OTC homeopathic remedies are not as effective for serious health problems, as a specific remedy prescribed by a physician.