When I worked in our local secondary school I met several students with ADHD which isn’t really surprising as there were estimated to be about ½ million children affected in UK in 2007.  I know there are probably many more than that because often it’s difficult to get a diagnosis.  

Sad isn’t it?

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a challenging, disruptive and problematic behavioural problem.  Having children with ADHD in the classroom makes teaching difficult and many children find themselves excluded from lessons.

Most teachers and parents simply don’t know how to cope with these hyperactive, seemingly irrational individuals and seek help from doctors.  Many end up on medication – too many!

Often parents demand drugs to calm their offspring down, and in some medical circles it is considered “best practice” to prescribe drugs like Ritalin.  Initially, when the child takes these drugs, their behaviour improves.  Instead of being like mini tornado’s who fidget all the time and have short attention spans and even shorter fuses, they become calm. 

With medication their impulsiveness, impatience and frustration seem to lessen, but studies have revealed it’s only beneficial and safe in the short term. Now, there is a vast amount of evidence to suggest it’s better to take a comprehensive approach and teach both parents and teachers good parenting skills so they learn how to respond to the ADHD child’s behaviour. 

However, this is not easy to achieve.  When the child has little self-control over his or her actions, seems to get angry for no reason and has great difficulty with relationships, it takes an awful lot of time, patience and perseverance to make it work.

The stress is incredible.  Carers walk on a knife edge, living from minute to minute. The children attract attention and it can be very embarrassing, but there is good evidence to suggest it’s worth persevering.

Ritalin is a powerful drug.  It can calm the child down but takes away the true personality and often turns him or her into a sort of zombie. It can disrupt sleep and appetite, decrease the rate of growth in height and weight, and has also been linked to suicide.  Is that really what we want for our kids when there are other options available?

There is a lot of evidence to suggest a change of diet can be extremely beneficial.  Unfortunately though, the medical profession is not well versed in nutrition.  Many have never been taught anything about it. Instead, they prescribe medication because that’s what they know. 

Sad isn’t it?  

Is ADD/ADHD disrupting your life or your family’s life?

Jean Shaw.com for more articles on autism and health