A doctor in Georgia has been prescribing ADHD medication to children who come from low income families. The children have not been diagnosed with having ADHD. Instead, the doctor is giving them the medication in an effort to help them improve their grades. There are a lot of parents who have concerns about what their child’s ADHD medication might be doing to him or her beyond helping with the symptoms of the disorder. Some parents will go to great lengths to try alternative forms of treatment first, hoping that they will not have to put their child on a daily … Continue reading →

A new study has connected the mercury levels in women shortly after they gave birth with an increased risk that their child would develop ADHD by the time he or she turned eight years old. We know that it is best that women who are pregnant avoid fish that contains mercury. This is another reason why. You have probably heard that women who are pregnant should avoid eating certain kinds of fish in order to avoid ingesting mercury during pregnancy. In general, this means avoiding swordfish, shark, tilefish, and king mackerel, because those are known to contain high mercury levels. … Continue reading →

The Food and Drug Administration has approved of a liquid extended release medication for ADHD. It is called Quillivant XR. This could be really helpful for children (and adults) who require medication in pill form to treat their ADHD and who have difficulty swallowing pills. Typically, ADHD is treated with a combination of cognitive – behavioral therapy and prescription medication. Acupuncture has been found to also be helpful in reducing some of the symptoms of ADHD. Others feel that a specific diet can help, and there are some parents who prefer to give their child coffee instead of medication. Prescription … Continue reading →

Typically, the standard treatment for ADHD involves medication. Not all parents are comfortable with the idea of giving their child a daily dose of drugs. Another helpful option could be the use of something called an Interactive Metronome. ADHD is frequently treated with the use of medication. There are a couple of different types of medicines that doctors may prescribe for treating the symptoms of ADHD. It can take some “trial and error” to discover exactly which ADHD medication, and which dosage, works the best for a particular child. Once that is discovered, it is generally best to follow the … Continue reading →

ADHD, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, is something that many parents have at least a vague awareness of. How can a parent tell between typical preschooler behaviors and symptoms of ADHD in a child so young? There are a few tips that can help parents to tell one from the other. According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms of ADHD must appear before the child is seven years old in order for that child to be diagnosed with the disorder. That means that an attentive parent, who has reason to think that her child could have ADHD, needs to be very … Continue reading →

A study was done with mice that involved exposing pregnant mice to an active mobile phone. When the baby mice became adults, they exhibited symptoms that could indicate that these mice had ADHD. The researchers believe that this means that the same results can happen in humans. Critics point to the flaws with this assumption. A study was done that involved 33 pregnant mice. The mice were exposed to radiation from a muted, but active, mobile phone that was located a short distance from the cage that the mice were in. The phone was on an uninterrupted call for seventeen … Continue reading →

A study finds that the youngest kids in the class are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than are their older peers. Researchers say that the younger children are less mature than peers, and this is being misdiagnosed as ADHD. A study done by researchers in British Columbia was recently published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The researchers focused on 1 million children from British Columbia. In the United States, the cut off date for entering school might be late August, or early September. In British Columbia, the cut off date for any given school year is December … Continue reading →

At the end of January, the New York Times ran an opinion piece called “Ritalin Gone Wrong”. The title has since been changed to something else. In it, a professor emeritus of psychology states that the reason why a child has ADHD is because of bad parenting. Obviously, this claim has led to outrage. I first heard about this article when I noticed that The Coffee Klatch podcast had devoted an episode to a discussion about “Ritalin Gone Wrong”. That article was written by L. Alan Sroufe, who is an emeritus of psychology at the University of Minnesota’s Institute of … Continue reading →

Acupuncture has been used to relieve pain, to alleviate allergy symptoms, and to help with a variety of other health issues. Some have found that acupuncture helps children who have ADHD, by reducing some of their symptoms. It is not a “cure”, but it can be a useful, additional, treatment for ADHD. Acupuncture is a form of Chinese medicine that has been around for more than 2,000 years. The National Institutes of Health have done studies that show that acupuncture can be effective for certain types of health problems. They specifically focused on people who were receiving acupuncture for back … Continue reading →