Written by: Ms. Jainy John, Helikx School Social Worker
Balance your child’s nutrients-add multiple vitamins that include vitamin D, vitamin B12, zinc, cop-per, magnesium, iron, calcium, and fish oils. These are the things that help grow normal nerves and keep them working well.
Eliminate or drastically reduce “fast foods” in his or her diet. Fast foods have been shown to in-crease the risk of ADHD behaviour-related problems in both children and teens. You should add a minimum of two fresh fruits and three veggies per day. In addition, you should increase their intake of protein-meats, cheeses, and milk-and decrease foods that contain any type of sugar. While eating and drinking excess sugar doesn’t cause ADHD, it is one of those more than 54 things that can mimic ADHD, causing misdiagnosis!
Avoid what we consider “toxic foods”. Those are the ones that usually contain lots of red and yellow dyes, complex preservatives, as well as large amounts of caffeine and other stimulants. Energy drinks and what I call “small bottle hits” or caffeine loaded “high energy” power drinks and supplements fall into this group. Many over the counter (OTC) drugs are also stimulants and can cause a child to “become hyper”. So, you’ll need to study the ingredients of every OTC drug your child takes regularly.
Make sure your child gets at least 7 hours of restful sleep each night. Multiple studies over the past two years have con-firmed that anything that interferes with normal sleep can cause behaviour problems. If you suspect your child has a sleep dis-order, please see your doc-tor as soon as possible for evaluation. Some sleep disturbances can be very serious and may cause multiple medical problems.
Push your child to exercise at least one hour for five out of every seven days. Enrol him or her in some type of organised high-energy requiring sports activity, such as soccer, basketball, tennis, or football. Many behaviour experts advise physical activity to de-crease ADHD impulsivity and hyperactivity.
Limit telephone time-television time-video game time to a total of 75 minutes per 24 hours. Studies have shown that playing video games and texting messages actually increases a child’s impulsivity and fosters a need for constant and increasing stimulation. Playing video games has like-wise been implicated in ADHD hyperactivity and the need for instant gratification and what my teen patients call “the need for speed”.
Arrange for a lifestyle coach-academic tutor who will meet with your child for at least an hour three times a week. Many ADHD coaching programs exist, but the best are those in which the coaching and tutoring happen face to face, not by Internet or by phantom teaching (on DVD).
Reference: http://www.howtolearn.com/2011/03/seven-natural-things-to-help-adhd-behavior-without-drugs/
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