I Facebooked back and forth a couple of weeks ago with a mom. She told me a story that is so textbook ADHD-Inattentive, that I asked her if I could share it with you. I had planned to put it all in the newsletter, but changed my mind and have given it an entire webpage. Here's the beginning...
Tonight, I sit here feeling like I am failing as a parent of an ADHD child. My daughter is such a good kid, but her forgetfulness, impulsiveness and disorganization has become an all time high. She has just received her 3rd after school detention for the same thing-not turning in her homework. She is in middle school and they are teaching them about being more responsible to get them ready for high school next year.
They get a check every time it happens and when they reach 4 they get an hour after school. It is wiped clean every 9 weeks so the checks do not carry over. It is also per teacher as well. So now, if she receives another detention before the end of the year, she will get a Saturday detention AND lose going on their field trip to the water park.
I went through her backpack and binder tonight to find a STACK of papers that she didn't need anymore. I haven't done that in a while, thinking that she was getting better being organized. Boy, was I wrong! She has so much potential and is so smart. I don't want her to lose out on any opportunities because of something as stupid as forgetting her homework...
Read the rest of this story here!
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Showing posts with label adhd. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adhd. Show all posts
Friday, May 1, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
ADHD and Nutrition - Food For Thought
I've always tried to give my family healthy foods. I 've limited sugar intake, cooked 'from scratch', and made recipes as low calorie as possible. As the years have gone by, I've become even more careful about what foods I prepare. I thinkI've completely cut out MSG, for example, although I keep discovering it on labels (like Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup). And I rarely buy anything with nitrates - like bologna or hot dogs, with the great exception of frozen pepperoni pizza. I don't know if it's helped my kids focus any better, but it certainly hasn't hurt anyone.
We all know that there isn't a cut and dried ADHD diet that will cure distractibility. But I'm not alone in my suspicions that good nutrition has to help. Some parents swear by The Feingold diet. People swear by certain supplements, such as Attend, or Omega 3 ,which has really helped our family. The c3Kids is a popular program that emphasizes good nutrition. Here are some things that I have found work for our family.
Out of sight - out of mouth. If it's not there, they can't eat it. Don't buy so much junk. Buy fruit and vegetables, peanut butter and cheese, tuna and eggs. Pop popcorn. Get nuts you have to crack. If I don't have cookies, my boys eat mac and cheese and frozen pizza. (Yes, they're processed, but it beats an entire package of Oreos.) If we don't have soda, my boys drink water, milk, or juice. For some good, healthy and QUICK recipes for snacks, sign up for the newsletter at Health-E-Meals.com.)
You can't judge a carrot by its cover. While you're switching over, buy the snack-y looking, individually wrapped packages of carrots and tuna. I even saw Scooby Doo bottled water the other day. A recent study said that kids would eat anything in a McDonald's wrapper. It's scary, but true. Packaging can be everything.
All natural. I'm not talking about organic, necessarily. I'm talking about putting raw carrots on the table, fresh salads with oil and vinegar (or oil, garlic and lemon!) dressing, fresh fruits, grilled meats. Don't use sauces from a bottle - use garlic, fresh spices, onions and peppers. Marinate in lemon juice, orange juice, vinegar.
The whole truth. Use REAL whole grains. Brown rice. 100% whole wheat bread. Whole grain cereal and even spaghetti. I still laugh that Lucky charms advertises that it has whole grains. It does, but not much. And don't use instant. It really doesn't take that much longer to cook the real deal, but you have to put that rice on to cook at the beginning of your cooking!
Skip dessert. I rarely serve dessert. If the kids are hungry at the end of a meal, they can have seconds. Or thirds or fourths. Or we'll cut a watermelon, or they'll grab a piece of fruit. Okay, or have ice cream. We always have ice cream on hand - processed, sugary, fad laden and delicious.
We'll never be called health nuts at our house. We definitely have our days when we eat junk. But I HOPE that we've achieved some sort of balance to our eating habits, and to our diets.
PS Speaking of Lucky Charms, we LIKE them at our house. My boys never got them for breakfast, but I occasionally buy them for snacking. They're Ron's favorite. So when we dropped him off at college for the first time, I left him the biggest box of Lucky Charms I could find. How's that for balance?!
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Visit our websites at http://www.goaskmom.com.
We all know that there isn't a cut and dried ADHD diet that will cure distractibility. But I'm not alone in my suspicions that good nutrition has to help. Some parents swear by The Feingold diet. People swear by certain supplements, such as Attend, or Omega 3 ,which has really helped our family. The c3Kids is a popular program that emphasizes good nutrition. Here are some things that I have found work for our family.
Out of sight - out of mouth. If it's not there, they can't eat it. Don't buy so much junk. Buy fruit and vegetables, peanut butter and cheese, tuna and eggs. Pop popcorn. Get nuts you have to crack. If I don't have cookies, my boys eat mac and cheese and frozen pizza. (Yes, they're processed, but it beats an entire package of Oreos.) If we don't have soda, my boys drink water, milk, or juice. For some good, healthy and QUICK recipes for snacks, sign up for the newsletter at Health-E-Meals.com.)
You can't judge a carrot by its cover. While you're switching over, buy the snack-y looking, individually wrapped packages of carrots and tuna. I even saw Scooby Doo bottled water the other day. A recent study said that kids would eat anything in a McDonald's wrapper. It's scary, but true. Packaging can be everything.
All natural. I'm not talking about organic, necessarily. I'm talking about putting raw carrots on the table, fresh salads with oil and vinegar (or oil, garlic and lemon!) dressing, fresh fruits, grilled meats. Don't use sauces from a bottle - use garlic, fresh spices, onions and peppers. Marinate in lemon juice, orange juice, vinegar.
The whole truth. Use REAL whole grains. Brown rice. 100% whole wheat bread. Whole grain cereal and even spaghetti. I still laugh that Lucky charms advertises that it has whole grains. It does, but not much. And don't use instant. It really doesn't take that much longer to cook the real deal, but you have to put that rice on to cook at the beginning of your cooking!
Skip dessert. I rarely serve dessert. If the kids are hungry at the end of a meal, they can have seconds. Or thirds or fourths. Or we'll cut a watermelon, or they'll grab a piece of fruit. Okay, or have ice cream. We always have ice cream on hand - processed, sugary, fad laden and delicious.
We'll never be called health nuts at our house. We definitely have our days when we eat junk. But I HOPE that we've achieved some sort of balance to our eating habits, and to our diets.
PS Speaking of Lucky Charms, we LIKE them at our house. My boys never got them for breakfast, but I occasionally buy them for snacking. They're Ron's favorite. So when we dropped him off at college for the first time, I left him the biggest box of Lucky Charms I could find. How's that for balance?!
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Visit our websites at http://www.goaskmom.com.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Staying on Task
Staying on task is HARD. Trying to write this, I keep getting distracted, and I don't have ADHD. To help bring attention back to the task at hand, our family LOVES a little gadget called the Triple Tell Timer
. It flashes, buzzes and/or beeps at regular intervals to simply remind you - or your kids - of what you are supposed to be doing. You program it with the frequency you need, and it does the rest. Our guys used to fight over this thing. Of course, there are many variations on the theme. There are lots of cool gadgets - medication reminders, watches, alarms, you name it! Check out our new page on reminder clocks at http://www.goaskmom.com/GoAskMomProducts/reminder_clocks.html.For more great hints on how to help your child focus, visit http://www.goaskmom.com/that_works_adhd_inattentive/focus.html.
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