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Newsletter #3 |
Resources for Parents and Teachers of ADD/ADHD Children Produced by the ADD ADHD Information Library at NewIdeas.Net IMPORTANT: Use this information at your own risk. This information is not to be used in place of appropriate medical advice. If there are problems, always consult your physician. Welcome to our Newsletter! Feel free to tell your friends about this service, or to forward this to them! Links to this Newsletter are sent to you via our auto-responder, so they will come to you automatically. If you have any problems with the service, please let us know right away by email. To subscribe, send an email to addnewsletter@webmailstation.com, and the link code to your first issue will arrive immediately via autoresponder, with following issues arriving about every five days. Please only subscribe once to our robot autoresponder. For more information on ADD or ADHD, visit the web's most comprehensive ADD ADHD Information Library for parents, teachers, and professionals, at NewIdeas.Net. |
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SOME TIPS FOR HEALTHY PARENTING Looking back through my files I've come across several great tips for Parents. Here are just a few that I hope will be helpful to you... 1) Know the difference between Big things and Little things. 2) Know the difference between Incompetence and Rebelliousness. Teach to Incompetence and Discipline/Punish/Chastise/Bring the hammer down upon Rebellion. 3) The word Discipline means to Teach, to Shape, to Mold, or to Perfect. 4) Be Firm, be Consistent, and build a Personal Relationship with your child. 5) Be careful not to become overly Performance Oriented with your children. They are more than just homework, reports, and chores. There is a real person there who has hopes, dreams, fears, likes and dislikes. Get to personally know your child. 6) Quality Time is no substitute for Quantity Time. 7) Be a positive person, and a positive role model for your child. The best predictor of how your child will be when he is 30-40 years old is how YOU are as a person today. Be a positive influence on your child socially, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. 8) Make the effort to catch your child doing something right every day. 9) Teach your child how to be successful. 10) Teach your child Self-Control and Respect. |
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CYLERT UPDATE, part 2 For some of you this is old news. However I am often surprised at how many parents I run across who still have not heard this news from their physicians. PLEASE KEEP THIS IN PERSPECTIVE! Don't panic. But, if your child is taking Cylert you should have a sit-down conversation with his physician and discuss Cylert as a treatment for ADD. My Opinion is that Cylert is not as good of a medication as the other choices, but when it works well for someone – it really does work well for them. My motto: If what you're doing works, don't mess with it. If it doesn't work, do something else." Here is a copy of a memo put out by a local neurology group to their patient's parents:
Ed. Comments: Again, don't panic, but please do talk with your physician if your child is taking Cylert. It's probably more likely that your child will be struck by lightning than injured by Cylert, but still, we tell our children to get inside in a lightning storm. Just do your job as the parent and talk with your doc. Other options to Cylert... Ritalin, Dexedrine, Adderall, diet, EEG Biofeedback, "Attend" by Vaxa, some antidepressants, counseling, etc. |
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SOME THOUGHTS ON THE TREATMENT OF ADD ADHD COUNSELING GOALS What Should the Goals of Counseling/Therapy Be? Every therapist will have their own opinions, but I'll give you some of my thoughts. First, to teach the child how to recognize problems and how to solve problems. I use the problems solving techniques as outlined in the last newsletter. This is a great tool for kids. Second, to teach the child how to think Before acting, how to be less impulsive, how to have greater Self-Control. How to have greater internal controls. Third, to teach the child to respect others, and their property, as well as to respect himself and his property. (I'm really into teaching self-control and respect!) Fourth, to teach the child to monitor his/her thoughts. It has been reported that the thoughts of ADD/ADHD kids are Off-Task 60% of the time compared to non-ADDers at only 20% of the time. ADD/ADHD kids also tend to have more negative thoughts. Teach the child to be aware of his/her own thoughts, and to control them to be on task more and to be more positive. Fifth, teach the child social skills as needed. Some kids have great social skills, some do not. Moral reasoning often needs to fit into here as well. It is odd to say, but there are some kids that I see who seem as if they have no conscience whatsoever. Moral reasoning is often more important than just the social skills training. Many sociopaths have great interpersonal skills, but without the morals or values to guide them. Finally, anger management training and relaxation training as needed. I'm sure there are many other goals which are equally noble, and which ought to be mentioned. But this was my list of thoughts, and I think each goal listed above is important to deal with and achieve in counseling/therapy. If I could accomplish the above list with a client, then I would consider the therapy to have been a success. |
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SOME THOUGHTS for DADs The average father in America spends less than 60 seconds per day in conversation with his children. The average father in America watches over 30 hours of television programming per week. No wonder we don't have time for our kids. FACTS ABOUT KIDS The most recent Kaiser Foundation Study (November 1999) reported that the average child spent 38 hours per week either watching TV or playing games on the computer. TV watching is the narcotic of the age. |
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FOR HUNDREDS OF CLASSROOM INTERVENTIONS AND TIPS visit ADDinSchool.com.
OLD WIVES' TALES, AND OTHER THINGS THAT JUST MIGHT HELP These aren't remedies that I'd say are reliable or valid treatment approaches to ADD/ADHD, but I wanted to pass them on to you as they do seem to help some kids, and I wouldn't want to be the judge as to whether they might help your child or not. So you might want to try these from time to time and see what happens... Some of your kids are very sensitive to certain foods, whether they be sugars, sugars paired with carbohydrates, certain food colorings, sodas, or even certain fruits. I have personally seen some children have nearly psychotic reactions to red grapes, for example. And many of my patient's parents report that their child has significant reactions to different foods or drinks. So, here are some things that some of these parents have reported working for them when their child goes "off" on foods: 1) Peanut Butter. Yes, several parents have told me that when their child gets really wound up after eating something that they shouldn't have, a spoon full of peanut butter will level their child out in about 10 minutes. Why? I have no idea. Perhaps the fat or the protein, but I really don't know. 2) Alka-Seltzer, especially Alka-Seltzer Gold. In the same situation as above, other parents report giving their child Alka-Seltzer. In fact, with the kid who went "crazy" after eating red grapes (and did so several times before red grapes were found to be the problem) the Alka-Seltzer did work every time to stop the problem within about 10-15 minutes. I have several parents who carry Alka-Seltzer around in their purses just in case their kids might need it when they go out together. NOTE: Alka-Seltzer contains aspirin. NEVER give a child aspirin if he/she has a fever, as it may cause bad things to happen. This would probably be OK for teens and certainly for adults. Consult your doctor. Why would this work? Well, I think it probably has something to do with blood sugar levels, blood pH levels, and the pancreas. Sugars, I am told, make the pH levels more acidic, which sends a message to the pancreas to make more insulin, which then quickly raises and then soon plummets. Through the roller coaster of insulin levels, the child may experience hyperactivity and then significant temper problems. Now, this is way beyond my level of expertise, since I am not an expert in blood sugar, etc. But I will say that we have had good success with a simple intervention. When I am presented with a child who is ADD/ADHD and has a terrible temper in the morning when he first wakes up I recommend two things. First, no sugars after 7 PM, and second, as soon as he wakes up, drink a small cup of orange juice. This, so far, has helped the situation every time with every kid who has had this problem. Now, I would never want you to believe that blood sugar problems cause ADD. It does not. However, a small percentage of ADD kids are very sensitive to problems like food and environmental allergies, blood sugar problems, and the like. Just because ALL ADD kids don't have these problems doesn't mean that NO ADD kids have these problems. Some do, and the above suggestions, strange as they are, might help some of you reading this newsletter. Let me know if they do help you. Oh, yes, as always consult your physician before doing something like this. This is not "medical advice" but merely old wives' tales. . . |
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Products, Books, Web Sites . . . Links to OVER 800 ADD ADHD and related web sites are available through the new ADHD Links Project. This site covers Attention Deficit Disorder, other Related Medical Conditions, and resources for Educators. Great site for research, treatment, or resource links. This site is new as of January 1, 2001. Complete Planet is a Search Engine of Databases and other Search Engines. It is a great resource for research on any subject. This link will take you to their list of sites with information on Attention Deficit Disorder. http://www.completeplanet.com/Health_Medicine/Mental_Health/index.asp MentalHealth.com is a great resource for information on medications. Non-Ritalin approach to ADD/ADHD treatments discussed at these sites . . . For data from our study on the effectiveness of the ATTEND nutraceutical medicine, and for a comparison between ATTEND, and Ritalin, and EEG Biofeedback training, visit our new site at ADD-Products.com and then visit the RESEARCH section. Attend and Extress. Amino acid based nutraceutical medicines. Good products. For an in-depth discussion and product information... EEG Biofeedback therapy is discussed at several sites, including the ADD Information Library at NewIdeas.Net. The EEG Spectrum site has a number of studies and an overwhelming amount of information on this treatment technology. The TOP 100 List of Advanced Nutritional Products, all in one place! Go to the VAXA International web site to see the greatest collection of breakthrough health products, from effective Weight Loss products, to Cardiovascular Care, pH balancing, stress reduction, and so very much more! You deserve these products!
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Published by The NewIdeas.Net Family of ADD ADHD Web Sites Copyright © 2000 NewIdeas.Net. All rights reserved. Information in this newsletter is not intended to replace medical advice from your physician. Always consult with your physician.
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