
Ask HN: Handling a child diagnosed with ADHD? - moks
My 5 y.o was diagnosed with ADHD, any suggestions on how to care for him
without resorting to medications?
More specifically, in terms of :
1. Diet
2. Physical activities that than can help
3. Education - how to encourage him to focus on school work
4. Should i home educate him or should he attend school with other kids?
5. Any other appropriate advice will be appreciated.
kind regards,
======
brudgers
My free parenting advice from the internet.

0\. Don't pathologize. Even a correct diagnosis for ADHD doesn't mean
something is broken.

1\. Don't freak out. A person is not a diagnosis. The diagnosis isn't life
threatening.

2\. All sorts of marginally qualified people diagnose ADHD when children don't
conform to some expectation...that's not to say that ADHD doesn't exist or
that their aren't competent and compassionate experts. My gut, though is that
these are more rare than pop-psychology or professional psychiatric ADHD
diagnoses.

Here's the CDC page:
[http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/diagnosis.html](http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/diagnosis.html)

It requires at least six behaviors in each category plus all the mandatory
behaviors. I would suggest that the interpretation of behaviors should be done
by someone with a strong enough professional background in developmental
psychology to determine what lies outside several standard deviations of
normal behavior for a five year old child...i.e. the diagnosis should probably
be biased toward false negatives rather than false positives.

The person making the diagnosis should be an independent health care
professional, i.e. highly credentialed and not an employee or contractor to a
school district.

3\. Decide what behaviors might be problematic. Decide if any are actually
serious enough to require immediate medical treatment. Those that aren't can
be addressed gradually over time...children tend to grow out of behaviors all
on their own. It's within the range of normal for five year olds to squirm,
climb, and jump. Deal with problematic behaviors gently and compassionately in
age appropriate ways.

4\. A five year old should not be focused on school work unless it is
interesting and fun. Neither should ten year olds. Our employers often pay us
to work because it can be dull and unpleasant. We don't have ADHD.

5\. Every child is different. Do you think the greater social isolation and
focus on parent as the primary form of social engagement that comes with home
schooling will benefit or deficit your child's long term well being?

Good luck.

------
kseistrup
While I don't have a child diagnosed with ADHD myself, I would definitely
start by reading Thom Hartmann's books about the subject:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thom_Hartmann#Attention_defici...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thom_Hartmann#Attention_deficit_hyperactivity_disorder)

Next I would probably seek to address any vitamin and mineral deficiencies,
notably vitamin D, vitamin B and magnesium.

As for upbringing, I firmly believe you should seek to minimize anything that
explicitly or implicitly can inflict guilt in your child. A good friend of
mine has a wonderful son who is diagnosed with ADHD, and often the son would
sit down and say to himself “Why can't I ever do anything right?” — and in his
case I'd say that the guilt and self-loathing were a bigger problem [for the
boy] than the ADHD.

I'm afraid that's all I can contribute with, but I wish you all the best.

