Those who treat ADD with naturals and tea ...

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I seemed to have found a combination that works for my dd!

Nordic Naturals Fish Oil

attentive Child vitamins

Vitafusion Teen sport (extra choline?)

Body Biotics expensive probiotics

 

And, small amounts of caffeine (about 15 mg)

 

My dd really enjoys a weak cup of green tea at home, but how can I give her a little caffeine boost when she needs to focus while out? Something she can manage herSelf? She hates iced tea.

 

With tea, she can arrive at her horse barn, drink 1/4 bottle of tea and by the time she’s done grooming her horse it’s working. But she really hates iced tea.

 

I’ve heard about da ark chocolate but does that work as quickly as a liquid would (the tea works within 20 minutes)

 

Thanks!

Edited January 17, 2018 by Calming Tea

[2_girls_mommy]

Still looking here, but I will definitely be making a note of your specific brands to see if they give any improvement here. Mine is doing a generic fish oil in high doses. I think maybe trying something new might be worth a look currently. We are doing a children's vitamin, and she drinks decaf coffee with me which is enough caffeine in a day for me and right now a vitamin C drop just because we are all taking it during cold season. I know they can't decaffeinate coffee completely, so I figure that is a small amount. We are big dark chocolate eaters anyway, so I wouldn't know if it makes any difference, since it is a staple. Thanks for posting what works for you. It is worth looking into. 

 

 

[PeterPan]

Ahh caffeine, the first stop on the joyous trip to meds. That's awesome that it's working for her and confirming that stimulants help! The half life is very short for most people (only 3-4 hours unless they are slow metabolizers like moi), so as she gets older she might find she'd like a more consistent stable effect to let help her get through the day, morning to night, including driving, etc.

 

But yeah, for now, go with the tea! Rah rah! Lots of people self-medicate. Lots of my baptist friends growing up who thought meds were evil and sin were self-medicating with caffeine. :)

[mamakelly]

We use a combination of Aptinol, Evening Primrose oil and Zinc. This combo was suggested by my naturopath. I can definitely tell when he doesn’t take it. I also add in a Nordic naturals omega memory. He won’t drink coffee..

[...................]

Ahh caffeine, the first stop on the joyous trip to meds. That's awesome that it's working for her and confirming that stimulants help! The half life is very short for most people (only 3-4 hours unless they are slow metabolizers like moi), so as she gets older she might find she'd like a more consistent stable effect to let help her get through the day, morning to night, including driving, etc.

 

But yeah, for now, go with the tea! Rah rah! Lots of people self-medicate. Lots of my baptist friends growing up who thought meds were evil and sin were self-medicating with caffeine. :)

I don’t think meds are evil. But I don’t believe they are healthy or a long term solution. On the lowest dose possible of adderall I myself stopped having my period which is a sign of serious adrenal issues. When I got off of it I had panic attack’s for months as my body readjusted. I understand why people use them. Just hoping for better safer solutions if they can work.

[...................]

Thoughts on dark chocolate anyone?

[PeterPan]

That makes sense why you're so cautious! I finally got genetics run on my kids (23andme) and have been running it through promothease and sorting through it. Might be another way to try to sift through to see if any options would be obvious. It's kind of blowing my mind along the way, but apparently ds' hyperactivity, which is kind of atypical (he doesn't have the caffeine flip) is linked to dopamine levels and responds to vitamin D. Like wouldn't that be really whack? Who talks about that? LOL. I think my dd, who is on meds with good benefit, is going to have different genes involved, but it's the same gig, digging in to see if we can find better solutions.

 

As a total aside, another adult I know who had that level of reaction to stimulant meds just was symptomatically ADHD but maybe in that category like ds where it's actually something else going on. So they label ds ADHD-combined type, but his ped won't put him on meds. And when you dig in to the genes, he's a slow metabolizer of caffeine and has genes that I think would make the stimulant meds not the appropriate solution. So I think the DSM is really screwed up when it just looks superficially and calls everything ADHD. It really depends on the individual.

 

But I say all that, and my dd's body is clearly different. She has the caffeine flip, does not metabolize it like me and ds, and when I get the results back (she took longer to send them off), I think it will show in the genes. For her, the meds were actually a really good, safe choice, even though for me and ds they could be highly inappropriate.

Edited January 18, 2018 by PeterPan

[prairiewindmomma]

Caffeine tablets? They are standardized, but not teeth staining like coffee/tea/soda.  Dh uses them. Jet Alert (cheap, easily findable) does contain lactose, but the CVS version does not if you have any food allergies.  The 100 mg pills are easily splittable into 2 50mg doses.

 

We tried the caffeine/fish oil/probiotic/l-theanine route, which worked for a time for ds, but we eventually switched to vyvanse. It was a HUGE improvement--enough that I can tell by 8am whether my ds has remembered to take his meds or not.  I simply don't even attempt school with him until he's taken them.

[PeterPan]

If you google, there are some charts floating around. My dd, who at the time was a full adult weight (160 pounds? I forget, she's very tall, like 5'10 ish) only needed I forget, maybe half a tablet or one. And when I wanted to try my ds, the dose I needed was *so small* I couldn't even get it in tablet form.

 

If you go *over* the amount (it's like .15mg per kg or some calculuation like that, not that but that idea), then you're stimulating the body overall. So keeping it down only to what they need is good. 

 

And yes, like Prairie, we found that Vyvanse was WAY, WAY, WAY better than caffeine. It stimulates more centers in the brain, is a real even effect with no ups and downs. 

 

And doing a med at some point doesn't *preclude* doing your other stuff! Omega 3, probiotics, you can still do all this! But it's just nice once you say ok for this child, with this child's biochemistry this is turning out to be a good fit. Pro-drug, totally stable, even levels, not up and down. Let's their driving be safer. And way more effective, even at low doses, than caffeine. 

[PeterPan]

Caffeine for ADHD - Does It REALLY Work in Kids? Pharmacists Talk

 

That's the chart I used with my kids. 

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It’s funny- completely unrelated to this we just did 23ansme and are waiting on the results (just fun for my hubby)

 

So how do I use those to see which vitamins can help my dd with her focus issues?

[PeterPan]

Get the genetics run on her. Just the regular, cheapest version will do. It won't do to use your husband's, unless you're making decisions for him. ;)  Then you run the exported results from 23andme through promethease or knowyourgenetics.com I ran them through promethease and later found the KYG. KYG is actually Yasko's site and free analysis engine. It's more limited to methylation issues, so you may or may not find anything there. Promethease has a pulldown in their report page where you can limit it to the Yasko list.

 

After that, you take the ones that are abnormal and start googling, googling, googling... There must be a smarter way, but googling is what I've been doing. So like for my ds, we found that he has a defective vitamin D receptor gene (VDR) which is driving the overmethylation which is causing the serious behaviors. There are genes that create imbalances that affect dopamine levels, and the ADHD meds are bumping, drum roll, DOPAMINE levels. 

 

And get this! You're saying she's better with caffeine? Caffeine is a methyl donor. Look at the Yasko list. So it gets really interesting, because then you go hmm, if I got the dopamine levels up naturally by supporting the methylation cycle, would we even NEED the meds? Dunno. I'm still waiting for my dd's results to run them through. But there's pretty significant stuff there that might give you some pieces you'd like. For me, I was like dude if you're saying all I have to do is put ds on vitamin D and he's gonna act better, well I'm all for that! Vitamin D we can do, kwim? 

[PeterPan]

I'm not using Yasko's list of recommended supplements. Everything she recommends is, apparently, sold by her company, and I don't have money to be somebody's fanboy, kwim? But between her lists and google it's not terribly rocket science to piece together things and come to some sensible conclusions. Ok, it's rocket science and blowing my mind. But anyways, that's what I'm doing.

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Wow ok yes we did her genetics too, my hubby thought it would be so fun to see how both kids can be from The same parents but have slightly different results as far as ethnicity. :)

 

I will keep what you said in mind. Maybe it would be helpful

[MerryAtHope]

Get the genetics run on her. Just the regular, cheapest version will do. It won't do to use your husband's, unless you're making decisions for him. ;)  Then you run the exported results from 23andme through promethease or knowyourgenetics.com I ran them through promethease and later found the KYG. KYG is actually Yasko's site and free analysis engine. It's more limited to methylation issues, so you may or may not find anything there. Promethease has a pulldown in their report page where you can limit it to the Yasko list.

 

This is interesting. So, I see that Yasko has a test (gulp $495!), but are you saying you can get the same info doing a cheaper test like 23andme, and running it through one of these other sites (promethease or kyg?) Do you have links to the other two sites where you do this?

[PeterPan]

KYG is yasko's site. It generates the SAME REPORT that you get if you do her $495 testing. Same report. For free. Just import your raw 23andme data, boom done. I ran the report for ds, easy peasy. 

 

If you do it, start a thread and we can gab. Apparently I've fallen into the rabbit hole on this.  :lol: