Medical Care Assistance Program

Did you know that the medication solutions for ADHD are in the high risk category? I say that because these medications carry the black box warning and that is only used for about 10% of all the allopathic medicines out there. That is pretty alarming by any standards.

The latest solutions for ADHD as recommended by the AAP do nothing to reassure us either. They are not exactly recommending that all children be put on these meds but they have lengthened the age range. Now that is a contradiction, if ever there was one! They now say that the age range should be from four years of age to eighteen.

We know the shortcomings of these meds and we also know that they do not really resolve the ADHD issues. Let us look at some more valid solutions for ADHD. The ADHD child is actually doing a pretty impressive balancing act when you think about it. Consider the following:

• he or she has to deal with an imbalance in the brain neurotransmitters
• the imbalance means he has difficulties in performing certain tasks
• his diet may exacerbate certain symptoms
• he cannot cope with several things at once due to the faulty brain filters
• his medication will mask some of his symptoms
• he needs life and social skills together with coping strategies
• his distraction levels are high and his focus and attention capacities are scarce.
• impulsivity means that he cannot think of consequences before acting.
• allergies to certain foods may be the cause of his problems and it may not be ADHD at all.

The latter point about allergies and other childhood illnesses is a very valid one, given that it is now estimated that about 20% of all ADHD cases are misdiagnosed.

So what are the solutions for ADHD? We have seen that medication is extremely limited and also carries some risks as evidenced by the black box warnings that I have mentioned above.

Most experts now say that some form of behavior modification should really be at the top of the list. Very often it is not because parents can neither afford the cost nor the time. But behavior modification is really another name for smarter parenting skills. But again, parents do not know where to turn.

However, there are many support groups offline and lots of online groups to help out. This may be a much cheaper option and there are also economical handbooks available which are written by qualified child psychologists. This is good news for many parents because the idea of expensive therapy could be really off putting.

Many of these parenting guides which are offering solutions for ADHD are excellent in providing great advice about how to organise family life, the home itself, chores, school and the dreaded homework battle.

There are many ways we can assist the child and by taking a sensible multi pronged approach we can really help them. None of the meds can even come near to a loving, supportive environment where the emphasis is very much on giving the child the essential life skills. Now isn’t that better than all this doubtful medication?