New article on child ADHD treatment in Bethesda magazine

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know plenty of people in the autism biomedical community who have used supplements to detoxify and recover their children from autism. Drugs are a bandaid for people who cannot think or research for themselves to find the real answers.

The funny thing is that doctors go through rigorous years of training all to take directive from pharmaceutical reps who are trained for 6 weeks. Our health is brought down to the lowest level of stupidity here. Pharama reps have absolutely NO medical training, yet our doctors are bombarded with information from them and kickbacks for perscriptions written.

This system is a sick-care system.

I knew there was a conspiracy! You've certainly enlightened me! I had no idea autism was a result of toxification! What I can't figure out is how the pharmaceutical reps get doctors to take direction from them. As you point out, the doctors have had years of training and the drug reps only 6 weeks. Is it something like the How to Win Friends and Influence People program? Toastmasters? Where do you think I could learn to bewitch people like that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know plenty of people in the autism biomedical community who have used supplements to detoxify and recover their children from autism. Drugs are a bandaid for people who cannot think or research for themselves to find the real answers.

The funny thing is that doctors go through rigorous years of training all to take directive from pharmaceutical reps who are trained for 6 weeks. Our health is brought down to the lowest level of stupidity here. Pharama reps have absolutely NO medical training, yet our doctors are bombarded with information from them and kickbacks for perscriptions written.

This system is a sick-care system.

Yes, those of us with children with special needs are stupid and don't think for ourselves and immediately want to put our children on meds and never try anything else. You are so luck to be so smart, so lucky to be so much better than the rest of us.

Go to hell.

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry, I lost my temper and I shouldn't have. But I can't tell you how disheartening it is when you have a child with special needs and you resist and resist medication, only to watch your child suffer, and then when you agree to try it and it helps your child so much, and they are happier and feel better about themselves, then to have some know-it-all (who is blinded by some kind of quackery ideology) show up and hurl insults -- you are unthinking, you are stupid -- its just really, really insulting. No, I;m not unthinking. I love my child and he's fortunate to have me as his mother and not you.

[Anonymous]

I want to recommend a book (I am not the author of this book or have any stake in it, just a parent who uses both behavioral and medical interventions for a child with ADHD, etc. and benefitted from reading it.)

WE’VE GOT ISSUES, Children and Parents in the Age of Medication. By Judith Warner.

It is a great book that looks at our attitudes toward medicating children. Author seems to have at first set out to right a book about the overmedication of children these days and then she did an about face while researching the book. Best history of child psychiatry I have ever read and I feel much more comfortable with our decision to medicate after reading it. Our kid needs it, some kids really do need this.
BTW, this book addresses the relationship between pharm and doctors very well.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if the OP regrets trying to advertise on here.

[Anonymous]

NP here.

Remember when the SN Kids forum was a bastion of kindness and understanding? People could disagree with civility and even kindness. It was something of an oasis from the otherwise snarky or downright mean fora elsewhere on DCUM.

I miss that.

[Anonymous]

And lets see....you give up supplements because they did nothing, right? Well, out of the thousands, how many have you tried? I'm so sick of people saying that they gave fish oil and a multivitamin and later say "it didn't work". That's NOT supplementation. Do any of you test for any physical conditions or does your doc have you convinced that it's all neurological?

Have you tried GABA for hyperactivity? Have you tried any yeast/fungal cleanses? Have you tried any natural antibacterials? Have you done a parasite cleanse? Have you ever tested for what probiotics exist in the gut? Have you done an agitated heavy metal test? Have you tested for PANDAS? Have you titer tested for measles, HV6, epstein barre, herpes zoster, etc, etc? Nutrition doesn't come in a can of green beans...have you tried any superfoods like bluegreen algae, wheatgrass, barleygrass, or spirulina?

Don't tell me you've "tried" if you haven't given your full attention to the condition before running to something to suppress the condition.

You all are freaking pathetic.

[Anonymous]

I know multiple families who did try at least a hefty subset of those alternative treatments/approaches. Then they tried meds, and wondered why they put their kids on such an unnecessary roller coaster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And lets see....you give up supplements because they did nothing, right? Well, out of the thousands, how many have you tried? I'm so sick of people saying that they gave fish oil and a multivitamin and later say "it didn't work". That's NOT supplementation. Do any of you test for any physical conditions or does your doc have you convinced that it's all neurological?

Have you tried GABA for hyperactivity? Have you tried any yeast/fungal cleanses? Have you tried any natural antibacterials? Have you done a parasite cleanse? Have you ever tested for what probiotics exist in the gut? Have you done an agitated heavy metal test? Have you tested for PANDAS? Have you titer tested for measles, HV6, epstein barre, herpes zoster, etc, etc? Nutrition doesn't come in a can of green beans...have you tried any superfoods like bluegreen algae, wheatgrass, barleygrass, or spirulina?

Don't tell me you've "tried" if you haven't given your full attention to the condition before running to something to suppress the condition.

You all are freaking pathetic.

This time I won't rise to the bait. Someone asked why this forum has become like the other nasty forums and its because of posts like this. Fine if this poster has gone the alt route. But insulting parents of kids with special needs? Calling us pathetic? Wow, so unsupportive and unkind toward those of us who are doing our best to raise children under difficult circumstances.

On your laundry list of possible sources -- parasites, PANDAS, a lack of blue-green algae -- you left out the one that has the most science behind it: genetics. I know my family tree, I know the number of family members with ASDs, and I know that all the blue-green algae in the world isn't going to change my DS' DNA.

PP is arrogant and nasty and her tone certainly doesn't promote her cause, nor does it contribute to this forum. And I agree that this section has always been so supportive and helpful. Honestly, I wish PP would go elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And lets see....you give up supplements because they did nothing, right? Well, out of the thousands, how many have you tried? I'm so sick of people saying that they gave fish oil and a multivitamin and later say "it didn't work". That's NOT supplementation. Do any of you test for any physical conditions or does your doc have you convinced that it's all neurological?

Have you tried GABA for hyperactivity? Have you tried any yeast/fungal cleanses? Have you tried any natural antibacterials? Have you done a parasite cleanse? Have you ever tested for what probiotics exist in the gut? Have you done an agitated heavy metal test? Have you tested for PANDAS? Have you titer tested for measles, HV6, epstein barre, herpes zoster, etc, etc? Nutrition doesn't come in a can of green beans...have you tried any superfoods like bluegreen algae, wheatgrass, barleygrass, or spirulina?

Don't tell me you've "tried" if you haven't given your full attention to the condition before running to something to suppress the condition.

You all are freaking pathetic.

This time I won't rise to the bait. Someone asked why this forum has become like the other nasty forums and its because of posts like this. Fine if this poster has gone the alt route. But insulting parents of kids with special needs? Calling us pathetic? Wow, so unsupportive and unkind toward those of us who are doing our best to raise children under difficult circumstances.

On your laundry list of possible sources -- parasites, PANDAS, a lack of blue-green algae -- you left out the one that has the most science behind it: genetics. I know my family tree, I know the number of family members with ASDs, and I know that all the blue-green algae in the world isn't going to change my DS' DNA.

PP is arrogant and nasty and her tone certainly doesn't promote her cause, nor does it contribute to this forum. And I agree that this section has always been so supportive and helpful. Honestly, I wish PP would go elsewhere.

So you believe that ASD is genetic? That is delusional. Tell that to the number of parents whose child regressed directly after a virus, a heavy-metal exposure, or vaccines.

[Anonymous]

Ah, and now you're calling me delusional. My DC with an ASD did not regress (most children with autism do not have the regressive form, and in those that do, studies have found that the children actually did have some delays before they regressed). Viruses, metals, vaccines had nothing to do with it. All the signs were there before his first vaccine. Most parents I know with kids on the spectrum would say the same thing.

Yes, I have three very close relatives who also have ASDs. So let's recap, close relatives with ASDs, no regression, no impact from viruses or vaccines, and yet you say I'm delusional to think genetics is at the root of this. What you have is the very definition of a fixed idea. You are wedding to your particular theory in all cases and no matter what the countervailing evidence -- I'm sure you have an explanation for everything that doesn't fit your idea.

So Ms. Smarter-than-the-rest-of-us, some questions:
1. Do you have a child with an ASD or any other disability?
2. Why are you so hostile toward those of us who do have such children? Why the name-calling, the nastiness? What is it that you seek here -- to establish your superiority over the rest of us?

[Anonymous]

I mean wedded to your particular theory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ah, and now you're calling me delusional. My DC with an ASD did not regress (most children with autism do not have the regressive form, and in those that do, studies have found that the children actually did have some delays before they regressed). Viruses, metals, vaccines had nothing to do with it. All the signs were there before his first vaccine. Most parents I know with kids on the spectrum would say the same thing.

Yes, I have three very close relatives who also have ASDs. So let's recap, close relatives with ASDs, no regression, no impact from viruses or vaccines, and yet you say I'm delusional to think genetics is at the root of this. What you have is the very definition of a fixed idea. You are wedding to your particular theory in all cases and no matter what the countervailing evidence -- I'm sure you have an explanation for everything that doesn't fit your idea.

So Ms. Smarter-than-the-rest-of-us, some questions:
1. Do you have a child with an ASD or any other disability?
2. Why are you so hostile toward those of us who do have such children? Why the name-calling, the nastiness? What is it that you seek here -- to establish your superiority over the rest of us?

Did you give hep B at birth? Did you give vaccines at 4 months? Has your child ever been exposed to a strep bacteria? Have your relatives ever been vaccinated? If so, you can NEVER say for sure what happened.

Yes, I have vaccine-injured children.

No, I'm not smarter than you, I just didn't give up. Why did you ever stop questioning?

I'm not insensative to special needs parents. I lack compassion for those who look for the easiest solution so as not to be bothered by their child's behaviors without looking for the cause. Autism is not a cause. ADHD is not a cause. They are just labels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:13:58 here. I think the reason we have not looked at nutrition/allergies/deficiencies first is because there seems to be little scientific/medical evidence to support the theory that these are the real culprits (others disagree, I recognize). Second, DS, although only in second grade, has suffered from ADHD for a long time before we realized it and the impact on his school performance, going all the way back to preschool, was huge. We didn't feel that we had weeks or months more to spend trying other things whose effectiveness is not clear when he's already suffered a great deal. Third, he has some learning challenges and medication has made him much more able to "attend." Fourth, I think about other conditions/diseases and I can't imagine not resorting to medicine/medication to deal with those, so why are we going to act differently with respect to DS' ADHD? Lastly, at least in his case, diet (cutting out or minimizing sugar) doesn't seem to make a difference in his behavior.

We don't think medication is a magic wand. We're trying to create more organization and schedules for DS to help him learn management skills, as does school. He does therapy. But neither of these other two things would work nearly as well (albeit still imperfectly) without medication.

Medication has not been a cure-all -- like another poster, our son did not do well on ritalin-based medications. He currently takes Dexedrine, which overall has worked well -- we're still finding our way with proper dosage and still may need to consider another medication.

Very nicely written, we did the same with our first grader... found out about SPD and ADD very early, started with OT, then diet, supplements, and am now working on finding a medication that works. There are many things that you can try, the same thing does not work for everyone. Medicine is not a cop out or familes.

[Anonymous]

You forgot to add finding a vodoo doctor to lift the curse.