Re: Anybody Have Any Experience With Attention Iss
 

[QUOTE=Cindy;686058]Basically as I understand it, she should get better as she matures.
Complicating the issue is her personality which is fun & playful, hard to do when you need to be focused on subjects like math that you don't like.

She also has a strong inner will.

Re: Anybody Have Any Experience With Attention Iss
 

Brother Ron... do some research into food coloring and their affect on children.

Food colorings found in all the brightly colored cereals etc have been found to cause attention deficit issues in children.

There have been children with severe attention deficit issues who saw drastic improvements by removing food colorings & artificial sweeteners etc from their diet.

I am pretty sure that the documentary called Sweet Poison deals with this but I am not positive. It would be worth the view.

Re: Anybody Have Any Experience With Attention Iss
 

Thanks D4T, I will check into it.

Re: Anybody Have Any Experience With Attention Iss
 

I'd recommend this book--

The A.D.D. Nutrition Solution by Marcia Zimmerman, C.N.

Re: Anybody Have Any Experience With Attention Iss
 

I have an ADHD assessment. Send me a PM with symptoms. I deal with this quite a bit:)

Blessings, Rhoni

Re: Anybody Have Any Experience With Attention Iss
 

Ron, Keith, our 15 year old has ADD (NOT ADHD. He has no hyperactivity). He's been on Adderall since he was about 5 years old for it. We've tried several times to wean him off of it. Every single time he has come back to us asking to please have it back. His comment has been that without the medication, his thoughts are all out there floating around him but he can't grab them and keep them all straight in his head. With the medicine he says he can at least keep them straighter. So medication is not always a bad thing. You are the parent tho. You know your child better than anyone. So it would be up to you to keep a close eye on her if she goes on something.

And don't be upset if the first thing you try doesn't work as well as you hoped. And if they have to try several things before they find what works for her, that's not abdormal. Most people go thru that.

A really good website for you to check out is ADDinschool.com

I think that's the right one. If it's not, let me know and I will go back and check again.

Good luck with this. I know it's a struggle. Been there. Done that. Still doing that.

Re: Anybody Have Any Experience With Attention Iss
 

First and foremost I would try everything before I went to drugs. My little brother was taking that at age 11. It was like being around a zombie, litterally.

I would also check into getting her tested academically (sp). Sometimes the kid is smarter than the grade they are in. If the work is easy to them they get bored with it and thus loose interest.

Another alternative, find a special school. We have a couple of schools here that take students like her without the use of drugs. It is formatted to hold their attention by breaking the class up into 20 min segments with 10 min breaks. The shorter learning segments is just enough time to learn something without too much time to get bored of it. Keeps their mind moving.

Here is a link to the most popular program out there. My friend put his daughter in it and it was a world of difference. They have learning centers in the US and Canada, but there are other learning programs like it.

http://tutoring.sylvanlearning.com/

Re: Anybody Have Any Experience With Attention Iss
 

My sister was having problems with her 12- year-old son. Seems he could concentrate all day long on his video games, but couldn't keep his mind on school stuff.

Quite accidentally she discovered an article about kids (boys in particular) and the effects video gaming had on some kids' brains (particularly seemed to affect attention spans). So my sister cut WAY back on the amount of time her son was allowed on the video games, and interestingly enough his attention span GREATLY improved.

Coincidence? I dunno. I also dunno the article she "happened" upon... but if there is something to this, I pray it be revealed to you as well. You may try googling "attention deficit and video games".

Good luck!

Re: Anybody Have Any Experience With Attention Iss
 

My sister. My sister's younger son.

My sister took Ritalin, and she was convinced that Ritalin stunted her growth. My mother gets very angry about the whole subject, because my sister didn't take it after school or on weekends or over breaks or summer vacation. My mom had to put up with my sister basically running crazy because that's what they did back in the late 60s. Mothers were supposed to Just Take It. My sister was so bitter about the experience (she told me she could tell when she was being drugged up) that she refused to acknowledge that her younger son had a similar issue, until it became a serious problem. He had medication too, but I think it was too late and he's still got issues that he's not confronted.

I'm going to be bluntly honest here: I know a lot of people think you can just cure diseases of the brain through prayer or eating a special diet or whatever, but no drugs. It's like telling a diabetic that they don't need medication (or in more serious cases, insulin.) I would LOVE it if the Lord came in and cured me. But I have LEARNED, the very HARD WAY, that I HAVE to take my medications. Otherwise, I become suicidal after a few weeks without them. I spent time in a very nice hospital after I threatened to open my veins with my very sharp embroidery scissors. (Thank God for my best friend, who took it seriously.) It will be ten years in October. On a couple of occasions after that, I went off my meds, with disastrous results (but not to the hospital). I don't do that now. I take my meds religiously every morning. My elderly parents depend on me, I have a good job and I have to be responsible.

Sorry for the rant, but as you can tell, I have real strong feelings about this.

Re: Anybody Have Any Experience With Attention Iss
 

I've heard the same thing. Kids do much better if removed from ALL TV and video games.