Does anyone know of any natural ways to treat hyperactivity in children?
By Debbie Dzurilla from IL
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Fish Oils and Fatty Acids. My local health food store owner led me to a few products that have caused a 180' in my son's hyper behavior. Currently he takes fish oil softgels in the morning with his vitamins, and drinks Liquid Health Attention with some juice in the morning and the evening. He responded very quickly to these products and is doing fantastic. Another product that I've heard a lot about is Attend. It is a capsule with lots of fatty acids and minerals. My son is too young to swallow them right now, but as he gets older we may try them. I've also been adding more proteins in his diet, particularly in the morning. before school. I'd go to a health food store, or even a good pharmacist at a compounding pharmacy, and ask for recommendations.
A common cause of hyperactivity in children is often times a food allergy. Some common foods that cause hyperactivity due to allergies include synthetic sugar substitutes, wheat, oranges, yeast and food additives.
Step 2 Aromatherapy can be used to help calm hyperactive children. There's lots of essential oils with calming effects, such as chamomile, lavender, valerian and lemon balm. You can often times find aromatherapy treatments made with blends of these herbs, and others, that are known for their calming effects.
Step 3 There are many natural herbal supplements that can be used for those more severe cases of hyperactivity. Lots of herbs can be used to help calm children, and sometimes they need to be digested to work fully. I suggest seeing an herbalist for suggestions, or finding premade herbal supplements that use a blend of different calming herbs.
Good luck.
Make sure they have enough vitamin D. Mainstream press is just now revealing details of information which came out about 3 years ago re Vitamin D. Low vitamin D levels were implicated in so many problems it was incredible. It was found to be as effective as most antidepressants, lowered blood sugar, and much more.
I think uneven blood sugars contribute to ADD. Vitamin Cottage and GNC both have excellent prices on vitamin D.
And as an aside, an article came out last week that many children who died from H1N1 had low Vitamin D.
You can also get it in cod liver oil capsules which contain good oils as the lady above mentioned.
Don't give any pop. High fructose corn syrup seems to be implicated in abnormal blood sugar levels. They are putting it in everything.
Keep him well fed with unrefined foods from morning until bedtime. Don't let him be up for an hour or more before he eats.Feed him within a half hour. Oatmeal [quick if you like but not instant and you add the sweetening]. Orowheat bread is spendy but adds no corn syrup, or make your own breads for toast. Add brewers yeast to anything you bake [health food store will have it] contains many vitamins and minerals and 1 Tablespoon added to any baked goods or a pot of soup will not be noticed.If you give canned soup, give a merest pinch in soups. It benefits everyone. Try not to give crackers or things with transfats.
I think its something in our diets and as well that children are not put to sleep early enough. Research in past few years says kids need to be asleep before 10 pm in a totally dark room, ie no tv, no night lights.
Apparently the body knows when the earth is dark
Kids need lots of sleep. Maybe half a banana and
bit of milk at bedtime. If he's not sleeping well, he's going to be tired during the day, but kids and us don't always experience lack of sleep as such. It can express itself many ways. For instance when I am
tired, very tired, I will often feel hungry even though I ate. The cells that line the brain also line the gut.
Lest you think this isn't valid latest research says people who work nights have higher cancer rates and just this week people who don't sleep well more likely to get Alzheimer's.
We only had a hyper kid or two in school when I was in primary school-1950 onward. And now there's a virtual epidemic. Now a lot of kids where I grew up were poor, so I know they didn't eat super well, but they just weren't as wired.
Lastly, does he get a chance to be out in fresh air and play every day.
Re milk: apparently there are two kinds of proteins in milk and the older varieties of cow produce milk less likely to be an allergy problem. If you can find Jersey milk maybe that would help, but I'd try more sleep first and and early breakfast, snacks, variety of foods, little bit of protein frequently.
So I guess, good food, vitamin D to avoid rickets and keep immune system up, Lots of sleep, and fresh air and exercise.
Thanks for these ideas. I have been giving him fish oil for a couple years. I do think it helps. I also give him some magnesium when I remember.
Wow! I'm really impressed with the info that others have posted. All new info points to diet being a huge factor. Make sure you cut out ALL preprocessed foods too. You should cook everything from scratch or eat as much as possible in a raw state.
Another big factor not to be overlooked is exercise. It is so important that children spend time outdoors in some physical activity daily. Not just 10 or 15 minutes, but at least 30-60 minutes at a time. Bike riding, playing sports, skating, swimming, street hockey, etc.
There's a catalog/magazine called ADD Warehouse and it has a lot of items to help children and adults who have ADD/ADHD and things along this order. Here's their website.
addwarehouse.com/
My son has ADHD. He cannot have anything with artificial flavours or colours. So check your ingredient lists very carefully. Sure helped him a lot. He was "the bad kid", a real bully, and now that I have eliminated all artificial colours and flavours from his diet, he is a great kid with lots of friends! It is a lot of extra work, on my part. Making food spreads like mayo, and ketchup and mustard, and milkshakes, grinding my own beef for burgers, etc., but it is worth it! His teachers are amazed at the transformation, and the best part is.no meds!
First I am interested in why you don't want to use medication. I would research throughly so you have the facts. There are many medications so if one is not working then there are alternatives. There is research that shows kids who use medications have a lower incidence of drug abuse. My son is 21 and has been taking Vyvanse and finds it works well. As a younger child he used concerta and ritalin and one other (cant think of the name) and he had side effects.
Okay, so you should also along with diet etc. make sure you have a structured day for him. ADD kids have a hard time with transitions so make sure he knows in advance what to expect next. He should be encouraged as soon as he can to set up his own schedule, have a low distraction area for his homework. (many sounds that we are able to ignore are very distracting for ADD kids), Get to know his teachers to be sure he is up front near the teacher so she can cue him to be back on task. Use a timer for 15 minute study sessions so he does not get overwhelmed and refocuses.
Best of luck to you. ADD kids are great and have many gifts.
Hi, I'm the one who posted the question and perhaps I should have asked differently. My son DOES take medication. He is 9 1/2 yrs old and has been taking it since he was 5. He also has sensory integration disorder so wanted some natural ways to help with that.
He has no food allergies and eats and sleeps well.
I should also add our son was adopted from Russia and was born very prematurely. He is in an exceptional needs class. I was looking more in the area of natural supplements to work along with the medication.
I know you are going to think I am nuts but try black coffee.I have been using this method for years on my grand kids both my own and those that have adopted me as their grammy, but it really works. So much so that my grand daughter's teacher will see her getting hyper and set a small cup of coffee down on her desk and walk off. Both my grand kids are adhd and when they feel it coming on they start asking for their coffee now. Try it
Preservatives really aggravate this, so a completely organic diet will really help. No sugars of any sort, either. I heard somewhere that it is partly caused by the diet of the gestating mother that causes these problems, so if anyone reading this is pregnant, or thinking of getting pregnant, switch to an organic diet. No smoking or drugs, legal or otherwise, either. and home make your baby food, keeping sugar, salt and preservatives out of it.
Don't feed toddlers and children under 15 years of age fast food or processed food of any sort. I have a multiplicity of problems thanks to my mother's diet, smoking, and illness. I did not create it with my own diet, all of my issues are from during my pre-birth period. So if you want healthy children, live a healthy lifestyle. I was told when I was trying to conceive that living a healthy lifestyle for a year before conceiving greatly improved the odds of a child surviving.
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