Does My Dd Have Add?

[gwens29]

MY DD IS 7 AND IN THE FIRST GRADE Ok Since Kindergarten My Dd Hates School...she Doesnt Care If She Gets A Smiley Face Or A Sad Face Or Even If She Loses Her Break For Not Doing Her Work.. I Have Tried To Get Her Motivated By Buying Her Treats And Giving Them To Her When She Does Some Good But That Doesnt Even Work :( The Teacher Doesnt Exactly Know What To Do Either We Cant Find A Punishment/postive Reinforcement That Makes Her Want To Do Better For Example Today Is Her B-day I Told Her All Week That I Would Bring A Special Snack To School For Her Class If She Was Good...well She Comes Home Yesterday And Said I Couldnt Bring Them Becasue She Hadnt Been Good ..why Wouldnt She Want A Special Treat? All I Want Is For Her To Get Her Work Done Correctly(mostly Anyways) Bring Home Her Spelling List 1 Time A Week On Monday And Her Reading Book And Reading Log Everyday And She Rarely Brings Them Home All Five Days This Week We Made It To 4 :( I Asked The Dr About It And She Gave Me Some Forms To Fill Out And A Set For The Teacher...to Deterimine If She A Canidate For Add...my Son Is Adhd And Was Very Hyper And Lost Concentration Very Easily...when I Tried To Compare The 2 The Dr Said Add Is Like Adhd Except That They Arent Hyper...now My Family Hates The Thought Of Ds On Meds Even Though It Makes His Life And Everyone Around Him Better..and When I Mentioned This To My Dh And Family They Are Like The Drs Just Want To Drug All Kids Up These Days Etc...they Are Totally Against Any Meds For Her...and I Dont Want To Give Them Either...but When I See The Difference In My Son When He Is Medicated Its Such A Help That I Cant Help But Wonder If She Could Benefit From Meds Too :( Has Anyone Have 2 Kids One With Adhd And One With Add And Have Any Advice? And Do Add Kids Take The Same Stimilate Type Meds As The Adhd Kids Do? Any Comments Welcome

[chacha]

I am not sure if your school has the programs, but maybe see if she can get into the Mentor program and see if she is a candidate for Title 1 or something similiar.
My son is 7 and in the first grade (we held him back). Last year in first grade, he wsa so unorganized, forgetful and careless. He did not want to go to school, ever. We had alot of problems and we couldn't figure out what was going on, therefor couldn't fix it. Took him to the doctor. They tested him for mini seizures and did an evaluation for Add/Adhd. None of that was found to be the case with my son. The state did testing to see if he had LD...nope. So, we held him back this year and also set him up in the mentor program. He is doing AWESOME! We talked to my son and made it very clear to him that if there is something that he wants to talk about and doesn't want to talk to us, he can ALWAYS tell his mentor and she WILL NOT tell anyone else. He loves it. He has 1 on 1 with her once a week.

[LitWtch]

First off, girls and boys exhibit very different characteristics when diagnosing ADD/ADHD. Second, there are two ways it can go - either hyper to the point of distraction, or inattentive. This is just basic. My DD just turned 17 and was only diagnosed late last year (FINALLY!) Have the teacher fill out the paper work. You should also have gotten a set to fill out. Do it, and relate the questions only to your daughter with out comparison to your son. The doctor will have the test results read and then you can go from there.

[Blondiex46]

4 out of my 5 kids have it and so do I but I have ADD. The twins (10) are on medication and I am supposed to be but can't afford it. I always say to people is "is the quality of the live of the child hindered by the disability", only you can answer it.

[mjlewis23]

I really hope I'm not going to get flamed for this, but I have a suggestion. My daughter is 5 years old. She has always been a wonderful, mild mannered child for the most part, but she had some really awful days too. She just started kindergarten this year, and her teacher commented that she was having a really hard time focusing, and some days were great, but others were horrible. Luckily her Kids Plus teacher (before school daycare, basically) told me that her daughter used to act very much like my daughter, and she found out that she was "allergic" to food dyes and preservatives. (mainly the food dyes with the numbers, red#40, Yellow #5, etc, and the preservatives BHT, BHA, and TBHQ). It is not an allergy, per se, because it is not an immune system response, but it is a chemical sensitivity, (all of the dyes and preservatives I listed are made with petroleum products), and it causes chemical reactions in some children's brains. I took my daughter off of all foods that contain these ingredients, and wow, is there a difference! She is much more focused in school, her teacher was using a chart to monitor her performance day to day, and she went from scoring 1's and 2's on a scale of 1-5 to 4's and 5's, and just recently her teacher told me that she is not going to do the chart anymore because my daughter's performance is so consistantly good. We do have some setbacks, for example, a few days ago, my husband accidentally gave her neopolitan icecream with Red dye in it, and Amanda was an emotional wreck, full scale tantrums and all.

After reading your past 2 posts, with your daughter's temper tantrums, and now with your concerns about ADD, and not wanting to medicate, I just had to tell you about this. I'm not saying at all that all children with ADD symptoms can be helped with this diet, but it worked miracles for my daughter. Since starting this diet, I can count on one hand the number of times I've had to discipline her, and only mildly too. She has turned into such a joy to be around, and is really blossoming educationally too.

I really urge you to give it a try, what's the worst that can happen, it doesn't work? Basically just cut out anything that has the #'d dyes in it, and the preservatives that I listed, and you will see results in just 3-4 weeks if it works. (or even sooner in some cases) The diet was developed in the 70's by a doctor at Kaiser-Permanente in California named Dr. Feingold. Many people have tried to prove the diet wrong, but it really works for some kids. You can get some more information from www.feingold.org and you can email or pm me for more information on my experiences with this diet. That goes for anyone in this group, it has helped my daughter so much that I would love to pass on any information for people to help their kids. Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, we still eat "good" foods, and stuff you can get at the regular stores it's not like we only shop at natural food stores or anything. We eat ice cream, cookies (mostly homeade, but they are better anyways), potato chips, McDonalds, it's just that we are more careful to look at the ingredients. It really didn't even require that much of a change.

Anyways, just a suggestion, and I hope it can help someone.

Michelle

[DaLilPeachy]

Michelle is right - it could be something to look in to.

Particularly red food dye has some scary affects on my daughter.

[LitWtch]

You really should look into all aspects of what it may be so that she may live a life as close to the norm as possible.

[DivineMsDi]

First of all, we are not doctors or therapists and cannot diagnose your child. If you want to do that, you can go through the school. Have her tested or you can bring her to a neurologist.

My son is considered "special ed" because of his poor writing skills. It seems like everyone has to label these kids SOMETHING these days. :rolleyes: Add to this the pressure of schools EXPECTING these children to be years ahead of where we were at their ages, and you have a lot of stress on children.

As a previous poster said, it could be diet. Kids eat so much junk now, and even the most innocent foods are full of salt, sugar and preservatives.

I don't blame you or relatives for saying not to get your child on meds. In my situation, I would not put any child of mine on anything unless that was the last resort. I would try diet, behavior modification, and therapy first.

Please note, I am not flaming anyone with children on meds for their problems. My sister's son is on some med and she says it helps him focus. This is just my opinion for me.

Good luck parents everywhere!! :)

[stresseater]

My son is considered "special ed" because of his poor writing skills. It seems like everyone has to label these kids SOMETHING these days. Add to this the pressure of schools EXPECTING these children to be years ahead of where we were at their ages, and you have a lot of stress on children.

As a previous poster said, it could be diet. Kids eat so much junk now, and even the most innocent foods are full of salt, sugar and preservatives.

I don't blame you or relatives for saying not to get your child on meds. In my situation, I would not put any child of mine on anything unless that was the last resort. I would try diet, behavior modification, and therapy first.
ITA, however the more kids with *lables* on them the more $$ the schools can get from the govt. for their schools. I wouldn't put my kids on the meds unless it was the last resort either.

[wyozozo]

Michelle is right - it could be something to look in to.

Particularly red food dye has some scary affects on my daughter.

It turns a friend of mine's son into a living nightmare! So I agree, try eliminating foods first...

[gwens29]

Ok I Will Try The Food Thing Can U Send Me A Copy Of The Diet Or Some More Info About It ? I Dont Want Her On It Either And Want To Do It As A Last Resort But Even Then I Dont Want To Do It :( My Son 9 Is In Special Ed 30 Minutes A Day For His Writting Too That Is The Only Reason He Goes To Special Ed He Is On The Honor Roll And Everything But His Writting Is Really Bad :( Her Writtingis Good I Just Need To Work Harder To Find A Solution Thank U All For Some Good Avice :)

[tough123]

There are several diet triggers that can mimic these symptoms. start with the dyes and preservatives. Also talk with the teacher and try to get a timeline. For instance, is she good in the morning, but after lunch she tends to get antsy. Or the other way around. This is a good way to identify trigger foods and additives. Also look at blood sugar levels as well. When my blood sugar is low, my energy and concentration drops dramatically. And if all else fails, by all means, put her on meds, if she needs them. Just tell everyone else to back off. This is your daughter its your decision, plain and simple.

Hope everything works out for you!!

[mjlewis23]

Ok I Will Try The Food Thing Can U Send Me A Copy Of The Diet Or Some More Info About It ? I Dont Want Her On It Either And Want To Do It As A Last Resort But Even Then I Dont Want To Do It :( My Son 9 Is In Special Ed 30 Minutes A Day For His Writting Too That Is The Only Reason He Goes To Special Ed He Is On The Honor Roll And Everything But His Writting Is Really Bad :( Her Writtingis Good I Just Need To Work Harder To Find A Solution Thank U All For Some Good Avice :)

I would be happy to send you some more information, just give me your email address, or send a PM to me and I will reply to you. I couldn't send you an email through your profile Also, the website I gave you www.feingold.org is a good start, and there is a book by Jane Hersey (I think that is the spelling of her name) that is titled "Why can't my child behave" that has ALOT of good information and I really recommend trying to get a copy of that if possible. (I got a copy from interlibrary loan) Also, there is a Yahoo Group called Feingold4Us, and the members there are really helpful. Like a previous poster said though, if you do have to medicate her, then do, I'm not slamming the people who decide to use medication, I'm just saying that for some people, there are other options. Even if medication is needed, you can't hurt a kid by giving them more natural foods:-).

Michelle