FIRST AND HOPEFULLY LAST VISIT TO THE MD
A whole year went by again, and we struggled to try to figure out how to help our son. He was a very bright kid, there was no doubt about that. He knew more about anything science than I did by this time and he had just turned 8. He loved reading and nature with a passion.
So how could we get him to thrive instead of struggle? I finally made an appointment by referral to see a pediatrician. School had just started and I figured the doctor would be able to give me some sort of advice, insight, really anything that would help me help my son. It just so happened that on the day of the appointment, my son was not having a very good day. In fact, he wasn't able to sit still in his chair for even a second as I was speaking with this doctor. I explained what we had done so far with nutrition and was looking for more direction with that. Her response was that there was no proven fact that nutritional changes would benefit a child with ADHD and she would be happy to give us a prescription for ADHD medication, to see if it would help him. We could adjust the dosage as we go. Very frustrated, I said thanks but no thanks, I didn't feel that we had done everything we could do for him as far as nutrition went and didn't feel ready to medicate him. I walked out of there very confused. Was I doing more harm than good? Should he be medicated? Would he be happier...would we? I figured I'd speak to my husband and sleep on it.
She did, however, send us for some blood work. A week later, we were called to say that his Iron test came back and he was slightly anemic. Well, that in itself answered a lot. He had been spiraling down, was very lethargic and cranky. He seemed depressed, but at the same time very fidgety, and loss of appetite. Well, great news, we can finally help him feel better. Off we went to get some supplements. I started doing some research on ADHD and nutritional deficiencies and how it affects the brain. Wow, there's a lot to learn! But it's all backed up by science. Why wouldn't his doctor know this? Why wasn't she willing to explore this further with us without medicating?
Obviously, nutrition was going to have to play a far larger part of our change than it had so far. First, we knew certain foods made him lose his self-control, focus, made him regress socially etc. Second, being deficient in nutrients would play the same roll, so we needed his brain and body to have all the nutrition possible from his foods.
