The ADD and ADHD Cure: The Natural Way to Treat Hyperactivity and Refocus Your Child

By Jay Gordon, M.D., with Jennifer Chang

Summarized with permission of Wiley (www.wiley.com).
All rights reserved.

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Introduction

This book provides a safe and effective nondrug protocol that has been used in author Jay Gordon's practice for over twenty-five years to successfully treat thousands of children and restore their quality of life.

Many children are labeled with behavioral disorders and given drugs without really understanding the causes. With simple diet and lifestyle changes, these children's behavior can be dramatically transformed.

• A diet of fresh fruits, vegetables, grains, and beans is the optimum diet for children. Avoid foods with additives, because your child is better off eating the real thing. Everything we need for good mental and physical health can be found in simple whole food meals.
• Exercise significantly improves the way the brain and the body work. On the other hand, inactivity, such as watching TV and playing computer games, has very negative effects on body and brain, and is damaging to those susceptible to ADD/ADHD.
• We're tired and lethargic when we don't get enough sleep, which increases Add/ADHD behavior.
• Structuring your child's time at home can have a positive effect on his or her behavior at school.
• Having firm boundaries on computer times and bedtime is beneficial for children.

Ensuring your children eat healthy, get exercise and have structured time will help them dramatically both at home and at school.

Medicines may lessen the symptoms of ADD/ADHD, but they don't address the underlying problems of poor diet, lack of exercise, lack of sleep, and lack of parental guidance.

The protocol in this book will help many children, and most likely they will not need to go on medication. There will be greatest success if all members of the family follow these diet and lifestyle changes as a cohesive unit.

PART I

The Quick Start

Most kids today eat a tremendous amount of sugar. They eat a lot of processed foods and foods with virtually no nutritional value but added artificial colors, artificial flavorings, and preservatives. In short, they are eating miserable, artificial, over processed junk.

Children don't get enough sleep, not enough downtime, and hardly any quiet time, and they certainly don't get enough exercise.

Some simple, harmless interventions, like telling parents to try a week or two with no sugar or dairy can bring about incredible changes. These might be viewed by some parents as extreme measures, but then surely a child spending ten or twenty years on Ritalin is even more extreme.

When put it this way, many parents are willing to give these ideas a chance. And, amazingly, they discover that when kids don't get an excess of sugar and other junky foods, they behave very differently.

Over Diagnosis

ADD and ADHD overdiagnosis by doctors has been well documented. Perhaps it is time to look harder for the nutritional and behavioral issues that might cause the symptoms of ADD and ADHD.

Many parents get angry because they think the school is suggesting that their child take medication, or that there is "something wrong" with their child, when, in fact, their child needs a little extra help and care.

Simple adjustments by the teacher may help an ADD-type student pay attention in a classroom setting. However, you can do your part to help your child's education by realizing that the brain doesn't function as well when it's not fed well.

Where to Begin

The heart of the whole issue is really nutrition. View meals and snacks as the most natural medicine. Great nutrition makes the body run better, makes the mind think more clearly, and allows children to have more fun.

Another important topic is relaxation. Children need to learn how to put themselves at ease during times of stress. They don't get enough time to relax and are constantly under enormous stress to perform well.

Allow your child to develop naturally. Given a little more time to grow and develop, many kids who have been labeled ADD/ADHD might have adjusted to academics better if they weren't in our one-size-fits-all society.

Very simply, there just aren't that many kids who need to be medicated.

When we give our kids "fuel" that is composed of sugar and artificial sweeteners, colors, and preservatives, their days won't be as much fun, and their bodies can't possibly work as well.

We all know the brain is a very sophisticated organ. If it is subjected to a bad diet, it just doesn't work as well. The standard American child's diet shortens attention spans and decreases ability to learn and have fun in school. This sugar-filled, unnatural diet makes it difficult for children to make friends and play with those friends and to stay awake and alert in class.

Don't give your child sugar. A lot of time and energy must go into explaining the new diet to children. You can relate it to performance in sports and in terms of running faster, jumping higher, and having more fun in general.

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