Hello New Here - **LONG**

[Guest guest]

Hi, I am new here and greatly interested in your group. Let me fill you in on

us. My husband and I have a beautiful 7 year old boy, Donovan, who has severe

ADHD. I had been following , with a bit of resentment, conventional medicine.

I am a nurse practitioner (adult acute care) and in my soul I knew this was not

the answer on its own. I took a leap of faith after doing much reading and went

to see a Holistic MD Pediatrician, and switched his medication dosing/management

to a wonderful neurologist who specializes in ADHD and who HAS ADHD himself

(there's someone you dont find every day - he can EMPATHIZE with my son easily).

I had bad experiences when trying to allow a psychiatrist do his meds - he

wanted to put him on things like Risperdal and such....uhhh NO WAY !

Anyway the holistic pediatrician tested him for food allergies, (igG) and did

stool, urine testing, a myriad of blood tests. Findings show gluten

intolerance(high Gliadan antibody) and casein intolerance (casein peptide in the

urine) stool showed much bowel inflammation but not signif yeast and no

parasites. His thyroid was stressed, his Vit D level very low. He showed

positive for a genetic problem with folate metabolism.

She put him on a new diet. He is on a gluten and casein free diet. We

elimated ALL processed foods. All preservatives and dyes. We eat organic only

and mostly fresh. We get grass fed beef and organic poulty from a local farm

now. His behavior and allergy symptoms improved 100%. She placed him on high

dose fish oil, and a dopamine uptake supplement called Lumina by Metagenics. He

has a genetic deficiency in Folate metabolism and she put him on Fola-Pro by

Metagenics to help methylation. He is on HMF Neuro probiotics twice daily. He

takes 6, 000 units of Vit D daily. He was on Ritalin XR 40 mg daily at this

time, he developed a severe eye motor tic. I held my ground with neurologist

and weaned that Ritalin down to about 15 mg daily...The tic RESOLVED ...and

Donovan did fine in school, still talked a bit too much but generally his

behavior was acceptable and actually showed improvement. Fast forward to now.

Since return to school after Christmas break, he has done a 360 on behavior. He

is easily irritated, talks incessantly, doesnt follow direction without repeated

coaching, gets up in class, interrupts class, argues with adults, etc AND has

actually hit people once last week and once this week. Interestingly, his

allergy symptoms (sneezing, congestion, bed wetting are all reappearing) We are

certain he is not getting gluten anywhere.

Thank GOD his teacher and principal are amazingly patient, working with him but

they are getting a bit frustrated. I communicate constantly with them so they

do know we are trying to get him back to where he was. At first we all thought

it was the break that caused a lack of routine or structure but its been a month

and he is well into the school routine.

I took him back to neurologist. He says it shows the Ritalin just isnt working

for him anymore at 15 mg. I said well we cannot crank up the Ritalin dose

again, the eye tic will come back (Donovans tic was his eyes ROLLED up leftward

about 2 times a min) We decided lets try a longer acting but slower to peak and

slower to disappate rx like Concerta. First week on Concerta 18 mg and not so

good...he hit at a teacher and a girl this week. If he continues to hit people

they will suspend him or expell him. We moved to this town in July 2010 JUST to

get him into this excellent school district. Neurologist increased Concerta to

27 mg daily yesterday.

Ok I am at my wits end. Going to get a hold of holistic pediatrician today but

any suggestions ?? What is diet ? donovan was on a modified GAPS diet for

a while but is now just as I mentioned above.

I think my son needs the Concerta right now so be it. I dont like him on

stimulants but getting expelled is NOT an option. I work full time and make the

money, my husband makes less than $20,000/year so I cannot stay home. I work

for a wonderful MD who lets me take off when I need to get him to appointments

and my hubs does the rest. My husband is usually home when Donovan gets off

school. Donovan goes to a daycare latchkey. The school latchkey kicked him out

2 weeks ago for this horrid behavior.

My goal is to get to the bottom of this big change in him. I appreciate every

one who has read this far and all your suggestions !!

Donna Gilliam, mom to Donovan age 7