Holiday Traveling with your ADD ADHD Child

The holiday season is hectic for everyone, but holds particular challenges for the parent of a child with ADD/ADHD.

If you plan to travel with any child, things can go south in more ways than one.

Travel stuff

It seems you’ve no sooner gotten your child into the swing of things and settled into the routine of the school year than the holidays come along and send you all back to where you started. It’s quite bad enough for the vacationing family who chooses to stay at home—familiar surroundings can make a difference for the ADD/ADHD child when the schedule is shot to Hell—but the family who intends to travel to a holiday destination is facing some serious difficulties. You can head off the nightmare by thinking ahead as you plan your trip and by taking the time to prepare your child, too.

Preperation Is Key

If you are planning to travel by train, plane, or automobile, offer your child a map of the route you’ll be taking and mark out the special sites you’ll be visiting along the way. Explain the distances you’ll be traveling and give them an estimate of how long the trip is likely to take.

Easy travel tips

If the mode of travel is one that they have never before experienced, give your child some background information. Describe the airport or train station, and what they can expect to happen on-board the train or while the plane is in flight. If you will need to catch a connecting flight, explain how that works.

Prepare activities for your child to bring along. You may want to allow them to choose the books, games, and toys they will bring along. These items will keep your child entertained as you travel and by being included in choosing these familiar items, your child feels a part of things and enjoys a sense of security, too. Appropriate items to bring along include books, hand-held games, iPod or MP3 player with earphones and a Frisbee or a small ball for breaks during road trips.

Nonstop Chattering

If your child is like most other children with ADD/ADHD, expect them to chatter about the sights he sees throughout the trip. You might suggest they record their thoughts with a small recorder to keep them occupied while you drive or navigate.

If you take a road trip, allow time for frequent stops. This gives your child some time to stretch and exercise. It will help your child make the switch from play to travel time if you offer a gentle warning, “Ten more minute of play and then we’re back on the road to drive some more.”

If you travel by plane or train, allow your child to walk around the airport or train station as much as possible, so they can explore. Stay by his side for safety’s sake.

Related articles

• Processed Foods and ADHD (community.cognibeat.com)
• Ritalin and Adderall Abuse (community.cognibeat.com)
• Temperamental Temporal Lobes (community.cognibeat.com)

ADHD = Big Business

The ADHD Business Niche

The ADHD industry is booming and everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon. Parents are happy to try anything, but are they helping or hurting their children?

Katherine Ellison, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the author of a memoir entitled, “Buzz: A Year of Paying Attention” is generating a great deal of attention. In a recent article, Ellison wrote about what she calls the “ADHD-industrial complex” in the Washington Post, describing the way commercial entities have co-opted ADHD for themselves, spotting a serious business niche by way of parents who will buy just about anything in their desperation to make their children’s ADHD go away.

Katherine Ellison

At the top of this pyramid is the U.S. pharmaceutical industry which is said to sell over $5 billion worth of ADHD medications per year. The United States and New Zealand are the only countries with permission to market these products to the public.

But prescription drugs aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, and so another industry has sprung up to fill the gap: the alternative medicine route, in which there are any number of creative alternatives to the popular prescription stimulants and psychotropic medications for ADHD. These alternative treatments are for the most part unregulated and tend to be expensive as well. Within this spectrum one can find herbal supplements, magnetic mattresses, dolphin therapy, life coaches, and exercise regimes touted to stimulate certain brain regions.

ADHD is big business.

Marketing Targets

Consider the cause: being the parent of a child with ADHD means coping with impulsivity, forgetfulness, distraction, and inattentiveness. It pays to mention that ADHD has a genetic component—quite often, the parent of a child with ADHD is just as impulsive and distracted as their offspring. Good marketing targets, for sure.

Ellison was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 50, just three months after her son’s diagnosis. As a result, she decided to take a year to look into the disorder and discover the best means of coping from what is on offer. Since her son, like many other ADHD kids, didn’t like the effects of the stimulant medications, she had a huge incentive to look into the Pandora’s Box of alternative treatments.

Silent Meditation

Ellison paid $2,000 to Daniel Amen, a Southern California specialist who can find ADHD with a brain scan, tried Ritalin, extended loans to cover many neurofeedback sessions, and took a five-day silent meditation retreat. Her son was not immune to her experimentation and she doled out fish oil capsules, forced him into two days’ worth of neuropsychological testing to the tune of $4,000, paid for top tutors, and lobbied for him to get special accommodations in his public school, for instance permission to have him chew gum during algebra class.

Katherine Ellison's book

Ellison backs up her experiment by mentioning a 2003 survey which found that 54% of Boston parents of kids with ADHD had given non-medical treatments a try. She also speaks about the despicable idea that pharmaceutical companies are capitalizing on our children. But the journalist points out that at least the prescription medications are regulated. Some of the alternative medications are unsafe for children, especially when misused.

In the end, discovered Ellison, ADHD is a journey that continues. She has discovered that regular exercise and regular jolts of glucose by way of frequent trips to the refrigerator are helpful for her son as are her constant visits to his educators to make sure they stay on the ball.

She also learned that her biggest aid in helping her son was found in keeping her cool, no matter what.

This article has been copied with the kind permission of www.cognibeat.com and can be found in it's entirety at http://community.cognibeat.com/2010/12/bigbusiness/

Dressing for Success

ADHD and Clothing Sensitivities

Is your ADHD child driven to distraction by ill-fitting socks and clothing tags? He may have a heightened sensitivity to clothing.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is among the most popular research topics in the field of learning disabilities today. Classified as a mental health complication, millions of children and teens live with the disorder in the United States alone. Pediatricians, neurologists, and other specialists search for a way to improve the quality of life for kids with ADHD while parents get to focus on the everyday minutiae of parenting children with this disorder.

Just to give you an idea of how this works, some children with ADHD are sensitive to certain types of clothing. This can be attributed to the heightened sensitivities experienced by ADHD children and adolescents. Clothing sensitivity can be seen in the need to micromanage the size and placement of a child’s socks, for example. A boy with ADHD can and will spend a quarter of an hour trying to make his socks yield the right fit. It helps to remember that it is the disorder—the ADHD—that is the driving force behind this picayune behavior.

Peer-Related Pressures

For teenagers, clothing sensitivity carries peer-related pressures. The trendiest clothing may not be wearable for a teen with clothing sensitivities. The problem may be tags, linings, or even specific dress materials. Your teen may experience a sensitivity to the stitching, or be bothered by the sensation of the cut or type of fabric in fashionable clothing.

For a parent accompanying a teenager on a shopping trip it can be very hard to pinpoint the exact nature of the difficulties experienced. That makes it a chore to steer children toward the clothing they can and will tolerate. We may also not be thrilled at the way the chosen (read comfortable) clothing looks on our children but may be forced to give in here and there to save everyone’s sanity: both parent and teen.

When your teenager with ADHD brings home new clothing items, check to make sure she’s made reasonable choices regarding fit, and then make sure to wash the clothing with laundry soap you know she can tolerate. This will remove any harsh manufacturing chemicals that might set off your child’s sensitivities.

A Biggie

The next step is to think about removing all tags related to care and branding. Clothing tags are a biggie when it comes to clothing sensitivities and the irritation can drive your ADHD teen to, well, distraction. If after you’ve done all of these things, your teen still complains about an item of clothing, it may be necessary to get rid of the offending article.

For some teens with ADHD, clothing sensitivities can worsen the symptoms of ADHD and it may be tough to spot your child’s clothing as the culprit. If you see your child having trouble with staying focused in class despite being on medication, think about removing his clothing tags or changing the way your child dresses. If you see an improvement after the fact, you’ll have proof that your child has a clothing sensitivity.

There isn’t a single facet of the ADHD teenager’s life that escapes the effects of this neurological condition. But you can make things a bit easier for your teen by choosing clothes that are not only stylish but decrease sensory irritation. If you make the effort in this area, you’ll see a benefit in your child’s schoolwork and begin to have a better experience when shopping with your child for clothes.

This post has been copied in its entirety with the kind permission of www.cognibeat.com and can be seen in it's entirety at http://community.cognibeat.com/2010/12/dressingforsuccess