The Controversy About The Best Treatments for ADHD

As more of the side effects of drugs are being publicized, parents are becoming much less eager to involve these powerful stimulants in treatment of ADHD in children. There have been many cases reported where children have experienced hallucinations, suicidal thoughts and nervous tics. These cases contain information that can clearly link many of these problems to some of the most commonly used ADHD drugs.

Then I read a blog this morning. It talked about where to get amphetamines (basically the same as pot) and says they are easily available as American schoolchildren are on these meds as the standard treatment for ADHD. It then went on to talk about methyhlphenidate which is the main ingredient in Ritalin which is widely prescribed for ADHD children in the USA. Apparently these drugs when used illegally are crushed by the kids so that they can snort them!

We are now told by all the ADHD experts that the best treatment for ADHD consists of medication (whether homeopathic or conventional) in combination with ADHD behaviour therapy. You can check out the link below to find out what is involved in ADHD behaviour therapy. I have outlined the four traps to avoid in the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD which I hope has been helpful.

Gota Kola: This herbal remedy for ADHD so far has no side effects, but it needs to be taken in care along with the advice of a doctor. It works by helping to increase the attention span in children with ADHD, and also by helping them to develop focus.

Some parents have gone for neurofeedback and biofeedback as their chosen treatment for ADHD. Others have tried to employ an occupational therapist for their children and some others have tried an ADHD coach. Many people believe that exercise, proper diet and parenting skills can be a real help in alleviating ADHD symptoms such as lack of focus, restlessness and over-excitability.

Nobody knows or nobody is telling. There is simply no profit at all in publicising what are the alternative treatments for ADHD.

A very interesting experiment carried out at the Children's Hospital in Melbourne, Australia shows how parents' and children's perceptions of the effects of ADHD meds can differ. Not surprising in that each party is looking at it from a different angle and children are hardly mature enough to realize what they are taking. It was a small group of about 100 children who were taking these ADHD meds.

Of course, any treatment method will be more successful if it is part of an overall approach toward improving your child's overall health. This includes getting plenty of exercise and fresh air and limiting overly stimulating activities such as watching TV or playing video games. It also means establishing a set of rules for behavior and enforcing them with punishment and rewards so that children have recognizable boundaries to work with.

The natural remedy that you give your child should be FDA-approved for safety. Next, look for a money back guarantee which shows you a company that stands behind their product because they know that their formulation works. Finally, look for proven ingredients such as arsen iod, tuberculinum, verta alb and hyocyamus which have been shown in clinical trials to increase focus, balance moods, reduce hyperactivity, agitation, tantrums and more. This formulation is an effective non medication treatment for ADHD that should start improving symptoms after about 2-3 weeks of regular use.

As you can imagine, if we have a very poor diet or drink too much alcohol, this is going to compromise the functioning of these vital enzymes. Children with ADHD who have a poor diet are even more at risk. Poorly performing enzymes means that they are more liable to suffer from food allergies, leaky gut or other gastro problems. If your child has this problem, enzyme supplements can be taken.

Another effective supplement is called SAME, and this can help with low grade depression often present in people with ADD. SAME can be somewhat stimulating as well. And it has been shown to be helpful with the chronic pain condition fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia and ADD often come together, for unknown reasons.

In 1999 a large multi- centre study in the USA showed clearly that the best treatment for ADHD , especially if complicated by oppositional behavior ( a child shows severe signs of stubbornness and tantrums over a persistent amount of months where the problem escalates into aggressive and disruptive behavior like hitting , kicking, swearing , throwing things out of spite .

There are lots of experts now who are playing down the role of medication as the only possible treatment of ADHD and advocate a combination of behavior modification combined with proper attention to nutrition and exercise. Behavior therapy basically means acquiring practical parenting techniques which can be applied to the treatment of ADHD without compromising their children's health or their own mental sanity .

Some little scale clinical trials advised the diet might be successful and millions of mums and dads exploited the diet for their hyperactive youngsters with great success.

Keeping an eye on a child's diet and helping them to avoid consuming large amounts of children's sweets and snack foods which tend to contain dangerous colourings which can cause hyperactivity is a good strategy, whatever ADHD treatment you adopt. The Hyperactive Children's Support Group have identified 21 colourings which should be avoided at all costs, yet many of these are still available in the UK! There is convincing evidence to support the fact that many of these colourings are linked to hyperactivity and ADHD.