Reply to an Answer

My son has ADHD as well as co-mordid conditions of Tourette's, ODD (opositional defiant disorder) and Sensory Integration disorder.  I have researched this about as much as any Mom can and in the 3 years we've been working on him, people comment that they cannot believe the difference in our child.  He's seems basically non-disordered at this point, and will be mainstreamed in school part-time next Sept.   We follow the Feingold diet, but loosely.  The biggest thing we do is avoid all forms of food dye like the plague.  If he eats anything with dye it's like he becomes another child altogether.  Before you panic, I don't mean minute amounts hidden in spaghetti sauce for instance - I'm talking obvious things like cotton candy or neon green cupcake frosting.  I have to admit when we follow the diet more closely , his behaviors improve as well.   We also medicate, and it's a one-two punch for us.  However, he's on Tenex, which is used as a blood pressure med in adults, so it doesn't have any of the concerns of other ADHD meds - it's basically side affect free.  I've found that if we only use diet or only use meds, it's not as effective as the two together.   Another thing we did is we got in touch with our state's division of family and children, their behavioral unit, and for months we had 2 family therapists come to the house twice a week to help us with his issues.  This was almost more affective than anything else, and best of us, it was free, provided by the state.  I'm in NJ and could point you in the right direction here, and I'm sure all states must have something similar.   Lastly, we recently started a biomedical approach based on a book I read by Dr. Kenneth Bock called "Healing the New Childhood Epidemics:  Autism, ADHD, Allergies and Asthma".  His findings, which were echoed in the other half dozen books about the links between food and these illnesses I read, really made sense to me for our particular situation.  We live near the Rhinebeck clinic, so we became patients of Dr. Bock's partner, Dr. Compaign, but we've just started to program so it's too soon to tell.  It makes Feingold look like a walk in the park, I can tell you that!  But it's not a life long program, just to heal certain parts of the body.  I highly recommend the book, just to learn more and see if it fits.   If I can tell you anything else, feel free to contact me.  I have unwittingly become one-stop shopping for special needs kids, a job I never signed up for.   But I can't imagine doing anything less than what my kid needs, you know?   Anne