Brain Balance

[Jordie1]

Has anyone done Brain Balance? I am considering it for my 12 year old son (who does not want to do it). It is quite expensive and a bit of a time commitment. Want to make sure it is worth it and we will see results in his executive functioning skills if we decide to do it. Any feedback from others who have done it would be appreciated.

[ConfrontingChallenge]

I did a thorough examination of the program 3-4 years ago with help from a PhD research nurse from the University of San Francisco. At the time she found the “doctor” is not a medical doctor, pediatrician nor psychiatrist, but rather a chiropractor! Also there was no evidence of vetting in the way of peer reviews in any medical journals. I chose not to enroll my son

[gyourse]

I tried it about 3 years ago when my son was 5. I found it to be a total waste of money. It was very expensive and we saw no results.

[Llamallama9]

We are scheduled for an evaluation next month. I too am very skeptical and wary of the time commitment and cost. It was recommended to us by a chiropractor, no surprise there, who did see a great improvement in his own son's ADHD symptoms and executive function skills after using the program. I am looking for others' feedback as well...

[AberdeenArms]

our son has ADHD. When he was younger we considered it but never even went to the first appointment.

Now our son is 18 and he’s fine. Medication, therapy and a calm home life helped him way more than Brain Balance could have.

moreover, our son’s girlfriend’s brother has ADHD and enrolled at Brain Balance. Our son says it’s not helping and is a total waste of time and money. Too bad.

[snowball55]

I have been doing something I understand is similar with my 11-year old who also has dysgraphia and significant bilateral coordination delays. It is available online through Dianne Craft. Much cheaper, though still time intensive. I have definitely seen coordination improvements since starting about 10 weeks ago. It’s hard to tell on executive function because there’s so much at play. I basically bribe my kiddo with screen time for staying on task and not complaining when we do it and that has been very effective

[Uptowngirl12121]

Yes we did a 4 month program on Brain Balance. There was research published in the journal of Humanities & Social Sciences Communications which showed a decline in ADHD symptoms as reported by parents after completion of a three-month Brain Balance Program. I can honestly say that we did also see a decline in symptoms.

We leaned into the entire program including the nutrition consultation and other things they suggest for success. I still do aromatherapy and make the effort to cook from scratch staying away from sugars and processed foods. I know it sounds hippy dippy but I don't regret doing BB. The staff was excellent and we even had them come to our child's IEP meeting when we wanted to incorporate the program into his school schedule.

Improvements we have seen are less cognitive rigidity, no more emotional disregulation and less impulsive behavior. These were huge steps forward for all of us. And yes, it is an expensive time commitment. We did this becauase during the pandemic we weaned off of methylphenidate and we wanted to continue to be drug free. Today we have achieved that result. He has had many many succesful school days this year.

Let me just add that our journey to BB included a stint in play therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy first. We also continue to use skills we learned in those settings as well and taken altogether I feel our child has made remarkable progress and changes. We continue to do post BB exercises which they designed for us. If I had the money I would let him do another re-assessment and do the program again. If you're still on the fence there are a couple of books out there as well: I think they are Disconnected Kids and the Disconnected Kids Nutrition Plan. Maybe at least check those out. Good Luck.

[Knitting20projects]

It’s meant to be very expensive & there’s no high quality evidence to show it works. I would save my $ for either an excellent ADHD coach or an out of network psychiatrist 😀 (that’s what we’re paying $$$ for right now). She has definitely been a great use of $$$.