As They Grow Up

Monkey has been having trouble socially at school from the beginning. Last February we considered taking him to team with his teacher, the principle, the learning support teacher, and the school psychologist to see what we could do to help him. This fall we started a communication book where he gets check marks if he's good, and x-es if he's bad. He only has to work toward two: listen, and play. He's been getting the listen check marks quite consistently, but the play are fairly spaced out.

Long story short, I've been thinkin of having him assessed for ADHD for a while. I've always sort of suspected that he may have ADHD as I see a lot of my own behaviours in him. That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with him, or that he is going to have a hard time in school. His teacher has said that he is very bright and that she has no concerns at all with his academics. He just has to touch. He needs to learn how to control his impulses to touch his friends. He's starting to get a reputation at school, and this makes me so sad!

Last year he hated school, but so far this year he likes it. I think it makes a huge difference that he's getting to spend more time with me too though. Last year we were out the door by 6:45am and I didn't see him until 12:30 at which point I drove him home, took him to the washroom and walked him to school. Then it was 6:00pm or later before I saw him again. While it was a great part-time job, it took me away from my child. By 7:00pm we were getting ready for bed, and the poor kid never got to see me. This year, I can walk him to school, hang out with him after lunch, and just get to know my kid again!

The assessment did show that Monkey has ADHD, so we're going to be eating the Feingold Diet. Dr. Feingold designed the diet in the 1970s to help kids with Autism, Asburgers, ADD, ADHD, bedwetting, and a variety of other issues. Basically we go back to eating like we would have 100 years ago when these disorders were unheard of. Stage one is no artificial flavours, no artificial colours, no BHA/BHT/TBHQ (preservtives), artificial sweeteners, salicylates. Stage two is
Calcium Propionate (CP), Corn Syrup (CS), Sulfite (SF), Sodium Benzoate (SB), Monosodium Glutamate (MSG/HVP), Nitrites/Nitrates (N), and Natural Smoke Flavor (SM).

Now I just have to figure out how to implement the program and we're off to the races!