How to naturally, safely and "easily" Help Kids with ADD and ADHD
The first thing that needs to be understood is that the label of ADD and ADHD comes from a list of symptoms. And there is different causes for each symptom for each person. Said another way, every kid with the label of ADD or ADHD has different reasons why they got they label. So trying to treat "the ADD or ADHD" with one cure, whether natural or with drugs is never going to work.
The only thing you can do is add to the kids health and remove some of the common major contributing factors. (see my article on contributing factors or adding to your bucket of health)
Some of the common major contributing factors to ADD and ADHD
- Sugar
- Allergies
- Food and Toxin Sensitivities
- Dehydration
- Home Environment
- (one that many parents hate to hear and often deny) Parenting
The average American "eats" over 300 lbs of refined carbohydrates – my definition of sugar. And since I don't eat any, some people must eat 600 lbs.
Have you ever seen a kid on a "sugar high"? what happens? They act just about like every kid with the label of ADD and ADHD.
What many parents do not realize is all the disguises that sugar comes hidden in. Some examples:
Bread
Pasta
Cereal
Flour
Milk
Juice
Ketchup
Chips
Crackers
Mayonnaise
Pizza
Frozen food
Canned and Frozen vegetables
Canned and Frozen fruit
Almost anything in a jar
Almost anything in a can
Along with the obvious ones:
Ice cream
Candy
Soda
Cookies
Chocolate
Most treats
And just about everything you buy in the grocery store. If you read the labels, the actual written out ingredients, not the white and black lined label that really tells you nothing, but the fine print label you have to look for. If you read that label on everything you buy you will see how refined carbohydrates are added to almost literally EVER YTHING you buy.
Why -- because anything that rhymes with "gross" is a form of sugar. Glucose, dextrose, maltose, sucrose, fructose, and a couple others like corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, etc.
Allergies and food and toxin sensitivities are pretty much one in the same when it comes to kids with ADD and ADHD
The artificial colors, flavors and preservatives that are in most grocery store foods are the biggest culprit in this category.
In some kids these "toxins" are literally causing an "allergic reaction" of the behaviors often diagnosed as ADD and ADHD.
When you switch the child to a completely natural diet (organic) and free of man made junk, it is a huge step forward in having a "normally" behaving child again.
Dehydration is another huge contributing factor. The reason why this is so true is because the only thing that counts as water is water. Soda, kool-aide, pop, juice, sports drinks and everything that has anything added to it the body does not process and use the same as good old fashioned water.
So if your child (or you for that matter) are not drinking water as your main source of liquids, you are dehydrated.
Why does dehydration contribute to ADD or ADHD?
Let me ask you a question. What would happen if you through a toaster plugged into the wall into the bath with you? You would get a "nice" shock because electricity travels through water.
What does your brain and nerves control in your body?
EVER YTHING
And your brain and nerves are 80% water which is literally what the electrical impulses of the brain travel down.
So if there is a shortage of water, the "proper" messages are going to be jittered, scrambled and jumpy, just like the behavior of kids often diagnosed with ADD and ADHD.
Home environment and parenting.
There is this culture in central America that has very little to no contact with the outside world. And one of the most interesting things about them, I find, is how they raise their kids. They never yell, they never have to punish them, and the kids always do what they are told/asked.
Upon questioning this group they ask them, how is that possible? And the answer they give is simple. We don’t' ask them not to be a child. Have you ever seen a kid not be a kid? Have you ever seen a bird, not be a bird? If you just allow a kid to be a kid, they will always be perfect as a kid.
Said another way, it is our social conditioning that kids rebel against. It is in their nature to be kids. It has been for millions of years. When you/we ask them to not be a kid it is like asking a rabbit not to jump.
You wouldn't think of asking a bird not to fly. Or a cat not to meow. That is what they do. That is who they are. And if you do ask that, well, good luck and have fun.
The same goes or kids. Kids have more energy because they still have more health in their bucket. They have more freedom and less fears and inhibitions stopping them. They are not concerned with how the other people in the grocery store will judge them. They don't care about what their friends think. (until they get older and model the behaviour of needing to "look good") They are kids. Accept that they are kids and allow them to be kids and a lot of the ADD and ADHD behavior goes away.
Coupled with increasing their health and eliminating some of the other major contributing factors I talked about above, Ritalin can become a thing of the past. |
