Help with supplements

[3boys1girl]

Hello! I am a mom of 4. My oldest son is 9 and has ADHD. He currently takes focalin XR and focalin for homework days after school. When he isn’t medicated he very loud and pretty sure he also had ODD. I am very interested in supplements to help his mood. Not sure how much of what and when to take it. Last night was rough with him and when he is angry there is no reasoning with him. He has tunnel vision and doesn’t understand what we are actually saying. He just keeps blaming us for his behavior.

[softwaremom00]

l-theanine might be worth a try.. It is very mild. I try to get the suntheanine brand. Also physical labor.. .like moving heavy items might be helpful. We keep a rebounder in the house and it is allowed to be used by anyone at anytime.(Ours has a handlebar so they can hold on) Make sure he is getting plenty of sleep.. And Try giving him extra cuddles and spend extra time with him. I notice that these help my situation.

There are some studies that suggest saffron might help moods. I am not sure about using it with children.

One more thing that I discovered that helps is mindfulness meditation. I use an app called Headspace and it has 3, 5, 10 minute(and more) meditations. I will do the shorter ones with my kids and it seems to help calm them. I really do them for me and they like to join in. If you download headspace the first 10 meditations are free and they do not pester you to join. I used them for about 3 months before I joined.

Also yoga can help... we have the Yogarilla cards and the kids like them.

Here is a link to pubmed article where they used St. John's Wort herb, valerian root, and passionflower herb to help children with attention problems, it is worth reading if nothing else:

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

Here is a pubmed article that uses ginseng and Omega 3

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/319...

( I use ginseng myself and have found it to be a very mild stimulant.. much less than a cup of coffee and it does not make you jittery). I use the Ginseng from Wisconsin.. not the one they use in the study. Ginseng and Herb Co-Op is the brand. It has a nice herbal smell so I know it is real. When I took the Amazon Great Courses class on Integrative Medicine they recommended using the product that is tested in the study or article.. so you might want to use the one mentioned in the article.

I will edit this post of I think of more things.

Sending you lots of hugs and prayers.

Softwaremom

[3boys1girl in reply to softwaremom00]

Thank you

[Cjkchamp]

Broad spectrum micronutrients! Two companies are Hardy Nutritionals and True Hope.

[3GinCO in reply to Cjkchamp]

Which products have you used from them that are appropriate for kids vs adults?

[Cjkchamp in reply to 3GinCO]

They are used with kids over 6. We use Hardy NutritionalsDEN. The other company is True Hope. Our psychiatrist didn’t recommend one brand over the other.

[3GinCO in reply to Cjkchamp]

Thanks for the help!

[Gutgelaunt]

My son is 12 and not on any ADHD meds because they didn’t work for him. He is now taking PS 100, 5- HTP, Magnesium, Iron and a good multivitamin and after being tested sensitive to dairy and gluten is off those. He is a different child compared to last year!

[3boys1girl in reply to Gutgelaunt]

Thank you how much magnesium?

[Gutgelaunt in reply to 3boys1girl]

He is taking the Calm gummies, and now he takes one in the morning and one in the afternoon. In the beginning he reacted hyper to any kind of magnesium and after much research I found that that can be the case when they are really low on magnesium. So then I cut each gummy in half and gave him that every three hours. Now he is ok and can take a whole which is 80 mg I believe.

[Hidden]

I would agree with the L-Theanine.Also a broad spectrum micronutrient would be a great choice. Magnesium w/gaba and Omega 3 fish oil would both be worth trying.Our psychiatrist specializes in functional medicine, so she prefers natural supplements, but doesn't hesitate to also prescribe prescription meds.

[3boys1girl in reply to Hidden]

Thank you. How much L-theanine?

[Hidden in reply to 3boys1girl]

200mg 2-3 times a day. We do breakfast, lunch and bedtime. Since it is not a stimulant it helps with calming at nights. And at school, our 10 yr old described it as," till lunchtime my brain was jumping around in my head and I couldn't think then I took my L-Theanine and my brain calmed down again

[Mmagusin]

I didn’t observe any improvement on supplements. We’ve used 5-HTP, Smarty Pants vitamins, L-Theanine, Magnesium. I am considering Micronutrients from Hardy to see if that’s of better quality. So far though, only prescription meds have helped AND special parenting tactics to manage ODD

[Gutgelaunt in reply to Mmagusin]

I can really recommend PS 100, lots of research that supports it and when I ran out of it over Christmas I noticed his behavior going downhill quickly. But then, every kid is different, of course, and we have to find what works for our kid (-:

[Hidden in reply to Gutgelaunt]

I found your comment on PS100 interesting...I didn't recognize the product so googled it. We know it as phosphatidyl serine, and we just got started on it, but already are seeing improvement.

[Mmagusin in reply to Gutgelaunt]

Thanks I’ll check it out. Do you also use prescription medications?