vitamins

[lesdvilla]

Hi all - I have a 10 year old boy who has ADHD. He struggles with blurting, impulse control, in general making poor decisions at school, which is starting to affect his relationships. I haven't put him on meds yet as I got his diagnosis a year ago - we were trying other things first. Anyways, I have read info on the internet, but wondering if any of you have had first-hand experience with a supplement helping your child? If so, what supplement? How many mg, etc...?

[Parenthelpadhd]

Medication has helped the best, we had the same problems and they worsened during puberty. In addition to his stimulant he takes magnesium L-theonine and DHA, good luck.

[Willowbee37]

You won’t find something that helps like the right medication. Right now he’s making a label for himself unfortunately. Is it fair? No. Is there help he isn’t getting? Yes. I would highly encourage you to talk to the doc about meds at this point.

[Mamamichl]

I tried vitamins for a while to no avail. I must have spent $200. Been trying to get the doc to allow meds, but she’s old school. Meds work well for me, my partner and my syepkid. My daughter is same age and my stepkid is 16

[SunshynnSeas]

I did the same as you and tried supplements for the first year after my son’s diagnosis. Unfortunately, I didn’t find anything that really made any noticeable difference except possibly the probiotic seemed to improve his mood some. As far as the ADHD symptoms, which were similar to your son’s, nothing seemed to have any impact. I still give him a probiotic and fish oil with dinner in the evening but I’ve stopped giving him the rest because it’s quite expensive and seemed to me a waste. Once we started medication, and worked through a bit of a roller coaster finding the right dosages and combinations, it was pretty life changing for my son and our family. After my experience, I was regretful about not starting him on meds sooner.

Good luck to you and your son on this challenging journey.

[lesdvilla]

thank you everyone for your honest answers. We will get an appointment with the doctor asap. Any other advice or ideas are greatly appreciated

[Cyclone10 in reply to lesdvilla]

I think what you’re going through is really similar to the journey my husband and I have been on with our son, as well as the experiences of many (most?) others here, so you’re not alone. We want to think that there’s just some deficiency behind it that needs resolved.

Meds were what really made the difference for my son, but I do think there is a place for vitamins in addition to the meds. I had gotten a bit lazy on them (I don’t like giving him so many things) and really started noticing a few weeks ago that my son’s typical seasonal (winter) moodiness had set in so I’ve gone back to giving him omegas (Nordic Naturals Teen is great), magnesium, and Alive Kids Daily chewable (not gummy). Check out Alive- they actually have higher %s of daily needs and are pretty easy to find in stores. We’ve also added a probiotic (Garden Life Kids Daily) as I’m hearing so much lately about them related to ADHD. Anyway, we’ve already seen improvements since adding these back in so I do believe they help, just maybe not the only solution.

Best of luck to you guys. I hope you see improvement no matter what road you choose!

[PurplePizza]

Hi lesdvilla . I just wanted to share our experience for a different perspective. We have tried 5 meds for our son (9 yo w/ADHD, ODD and anxiety), and each had varying degrees of horrible side effects. I have read that medication works for something like 80% of people, but that means there are 20% for whom medication will not be helpful…not sure if our son is one of them, but after such bad experiences with medication we did start several supplements with tremendous success. I highly recommend the book Finally Focused (Dr. James Greenblatt) for more info.

The supplements will depend on the symptoms you are trying to treat. But for our son, he gets True Hope multivitamin (Empower plus sticks), Magnesium (L-threonate), nutritional Lithium (1mg), Zinc piccolinate (2x 15 mg a day), Mood Probiotics, ONE Omega by pure encapsulations (1g), vitamin D, and we recently started saffron. It is 4 pills in the morning and 4 in the afternoon, and I sometimes have to change it up so he isn’t having more than 4 pills at a time. The multivitamin is like a “sugar stick”/pixie stick, and the vitamin D/saffron is combined in a gummy worm, so he actually loves taking those. It sounds like a lot. But this combination has been a lifesaver for us and it seems like a miracle after all of our experiences with the meds. Best of luck to you, and I hope you find something that helps your son!

[tootsmom in reply to PurplePizza]

Thanks for posting this! Can I ask - was the nutritional lithium used for hyperactivity or mood stabilization? It helps?

[PurplePizza in reply to tootsmom]

Mood stabilization. We were dealing with major aggression, emotional dysregulation and anger issues. The nutritional lithium made a huge difference, and the change in our son is incredible. I’m not saying it works for everyone, but it worked for us.

[penn_adhd]

Vitamins and supplements don't help with ADHD. It's a difference in dopamine levels and other chemicals and how our body processes them, not vitamin levels, that affects us. Some folks might do better with a probiotic for anxiety, but most of our serotonin is actually produced in our gut and therefore gut health affects mental health.

ADHD kids can be up to 30% behind developmentally and need help with establishing routines and coping skills. Medication helps with focus so they can do that. Some need a stimulant, some need a non-stimulant medication. Dr. Russell Barkley has good information on ADHD. I have his book about taking charge of ADHD (there is a kid jumping on the cover) even though I have it myself because my kid and i are different types and what worked for me wasn't working for him. My son does well with Vyvanse. It lasts through the school day and doesn't stay in the system like other meds do. He doesn't always take it on the weekends, but I do have him take it when we're doing something where he needs more focus or might get overstimulated. Part of ADHD is also emotional regulation so they can get more hyper or upset and it takes longer to calm down than it would for someone else. Also, ADHD and anxiety tends to go together and there is also something called Rejection Sensitivity Disorder (RSD) with adhd. The r/adhd community on Reddit is a good resource as well as it is well moderated and they don't allow misinformation or links from sites with it.

[Agriefobserved in reply to penn_adhd]

There are multiple RCTs showing certain vitamins and supplements can help with ADHD.

None have the effect sizes of meds, true, but it’s not the case that the former have no impact.

[SecretAgentIEP]

Yes, it's very individualized but removing red dyes in food (just banned in U.S.) and adding in magnesium, hydration, protein, lots of exercise, love, joy, making space for making good choices and building confidence, and vyvanse worked for us. We got some very bad side effects on guanfacine so give grace to yourself and child as you try out different routines and approaches. Occupational therapy and learning more about our child's sensory avoidance and seeking profile also helped a lot.