5 year old with ADHD

Here is my experience with little ones. I am a retired teacher and have 10 children - one of whom has ADHD. As a teacher I struggled with unmedicated ADHD children - until I had one of my own. He’s 51 and a sped teacher now. One of his own (a girl) has ADHD. He has not medicated Rosie and she is in 3rd grade. Every year I pray for an understanding teacher. My son was born in 75 and ADHD wasn’t out there like it is now. I put James on the Feingold diet and the results were amazing. It is a diet with no artificial colors - the red and yellow dyes. The problem came when he wasn’t with me - people fed him!! He wasn’t medicated till he was 16 and really struggling in school. He wasn’t medicated and was paying attention to everything except his work. Working at the pizza place he couldn’t do multiple directions. And then driving a car - paying attention to everything except the road is a problem!! He started on methylphenidate which he is on till this day. He needed a mood stabilizer or anti depressant like Intuniv ( sp). . It is hard with little ones ( I know from teaching) and many parents only keep their kids on meds during school days - not on weekends or in the summer. So my suggestion would be your grandson needs small doses to start and also a mood stabilizer. My best suggestion would be a specialist in ADHD NOT his PCP. They would know best. Also ADHD can be similar to other things so a specialist would know. I also suggest the Feingold diet because it cuts out those darn dyes which are a real
problem. I’m not saying that Kennedy guy is any good or not but getting that red dye out of foods is a step in the right direction. And remember ADHD kids are impulsive- they don’t necessarily do things on purpose to be bad. And they need consistency. A classroom without a lot of stuff on the walls is a good choice and a teacher who is consistent and understands ADHD kids . Good luck. Irene 5

Thank you for sharing your experience with us!