From: aidler@sanjuan.UVic.CA (E Alan Idler)
Subject: Re: Attention Deficit Disorder Resources
Organization: University of Victoria
Date:  8 Oct 92 22:27:33 GMT

brandon@caldonia.nlm.nih.gov (Brandon Brylawski) writes:


>aidler@sanjuan.UVic.CA (E Alan Idler) writes:

>: Both my wife and 8YO son exhibit ADD behavior.
>: Their attention can be very erratic.  For instance,
>: at times my son will be *very* distractable, unable
>: to focus, etc.; later that day he will be so involved
>: in something that he will wet himself.
>: 

>I sympathize greatly with your situation and with the stress it must occasion.

>: My son had great difficulty with kindergarten and grade 
>: one because the "open classrooms" our schools operate 
>: are too unstructured for him.  There was so much 
>: distraction and so little direction that he rarely 
>: completed any objectives.
>: I suspect they were more concerned because my son would 
>: become disruptive and aggressive when not supervised.
>: 
>: The school adminstration and the mental health 
>: personnel suggested Ritalin to "manage his condition."
>: My wife rejected this solution because of her
>: preference for "non-traditional medicine."
>: 

>Has your wife had bad experiences with mainstream medicine, or has she formed 
>this preference based on other factors? I am always interested in peoples'
>reasons for disliking current medical thereapy.

Mrs. Idler feels there may be natural methods
that may achieve comparable results to the
technologically intensive methods advocated by
the medical establishment.
At the very least, she feels that all medical
practitioners should be working together for
the benefit of patients.

>: A local naturopath diagnosed my son with allergies
>: to 49 different foods, everything from chicken to 
>: broccoli.  We chose to innoculate him against the
>: basic items, eg., alcohol (in fruit and vegetables) 
>: and wheat, etc., and eliminate some of the more exotic
>: foods, like almonds, from his diet.
>: Because he could not be de-sensitised against food 
>: additives, we never eat at restaurants and read labels
>: *very thoroughly*.


>How was your son diagnosed as allergic? In my experience and reading, which is 
>considerable, the diagnosis of allergy is fraught with potential error unless
>very careful methods are employed; this seems especially true in the case of
>food allergy. Further, pseudoscientific methods abound in allergy diagnosis and
>treatment. Could you detail the sort of tests your son underwent?
>  Secondly, what did 'innoculation' entail? I presume that you mean some injection
>or ingestion of small amounts of the material thought to cause allergy. Is this
>correct? What amounts? In one dose, or several? Current immunological science
>considers that simple alcohols provoke no measurable immunologic response, 
>including allergy. Did your naturopath give you a different explanation for this?
>Did he expound on his theories of allergy at all? Please tell us what you were
>given to understand by him/her .

My son had other allergic reactions besides hyperactivity:
diarrhea, bed-wetting, and foul body odour.
It was obvious to us that his hyperactive and other ADD
behaviors rose sharply after he ingested certain foods.

Mrs. Idler manages our home so I wasn't present during
the allergy testing or innoculations.  (I handle the net.)
I recall her saying that a substance was placed on my son's skin 
and a meter of some sort was used to check for a reaction.
I can't say how the allergies were treated.
(I'll ask her if you are really interested.)

As I mentioned, we chose to neutralize certain of his
more basic allergies while eliminating the more exotic
items from his diet.
The naturopath told my wife that he couldn't neutralize
the effect of food additives and that we would have
to eliminate them.

The treatments and diet have eliminated most of his
allergic reactions and reduced his hyperactivity and
other ADD symptoms to manageable levels.

>It sounds all in all like a very difficult regimen to follow. Is it?

Mrs. Idler is a full time homemaker.
(She would be regardless of our children's special needs.)
The increased availability of natural food products at 
competitive prices (at least here in Victoria, B.C.) 
has meant that we can usually choose from a wide enough selection.
We eat bread without added sugar without having to bake 
it ourselves.

People generally are much more concerned about the
quality fo their food.
We haven't eaten at McDonald's in almost 12 years of
marriage. (Is this a bad thing?)

For ADD children you must be much more consistent when
parenting than you would otherwise.
While anticipating what an ADD child is likely to do,
you must hold him responsible for what he does
(as a result of ADD or not).

There was some adjustment in our lifestyle, but now we
all accept this as being as common as bath night.

>: Since we refused to administer Ritalin to our son (and
>: because he was making his kindergarten and then grade
>: one classes unbearable), our school district has placed 
>: him in a "behavior management" class for the second
>: and third grades.
>: 
>: There are two teachers and a maximum of 8 boys.  
>: He receives much more consistent reinforcement and 
>: discipline that he would in a regular classroom.  
>: We receive a daily report of his academic and behavioral 
>: progress.
>: 
>: The allergy treatments, modified diet, forbidding him to
>: watch violence on T.V., and more rigid routine at school 
>: and home has allowed my son to make some progress in 
>: controlling his own behavior without the possible
>: side-effects of Ritalin.
>: I don't know whether he will ever reach the point where 
>: he will be able to participate in a regular classroom.
>: 

>I am glad that your son has made progress. How do you separate out the effects
>of the behavioral therapy from those attributed to the diet and allergy treatment?
>Is it possible that you are ascribing the effects of one to the other? Please
>tell me your experience.

We were told by the public health people that our son
would require behavior management regardless of whether
we pursued Ritalin or allergy and diet treatments.
In either case, it would all be part of his treatment.

>Thanks,

>Brandon Brylawski
Xref: sparky misc.kids:25382 misc.education:3615 k12.chat.teacher:4128 sci.med:18676