From: brandon@caldonia.nlm.nih.gov (Brandon Brylawski)
Newsgroups: misc.kids,misc.education,k12.chat.teacher,sci.med,chi.general
Subject: Re: Attention Deficit Disorder Resources
Date: 7 Oct 92 15:39:15 GMT
Organization: National Library of Medicine
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4


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.

: 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 .

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


: 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.


Thanks,

Brandon Brylawski