ADD, ADHD, Aspergers Syndrome Dyslexia Dyspraxia, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, (OCD) Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD) Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDDNOS)

A diagnosis of ADD or ADHD plus or minus dyslexia, dyspraxia or autism, is a shock to any parent. At best, parents now have an explanation of why their child is difficult to manage. At worst, there is no clear treatment path ahead.
The next problem that parents face, is how best to manage their child’s health after diagnosis.

A definitive diagnosis for your child is important. This requires a full day assessment at a specialist clinic, following referral from your GP. Children are observed in a number of settings and other explanations for their behaviour excluded. Once you have a diagnosis, you are able to seek appropriate support and treatment for your child.

OTHER THINGS TO CONSIDER
Sleep deprivation has a greater impact on children than adults. Children who do not get enough sleep could be wrongly diagnosed with behavioural disorders like ADHD. Poor sleep quality may be due to enlarged tonsils and adenoids, so this needs to be checked as part of the diagnosis process.

Children who snore often suffer from sleep apnoea and do not get enough oxygen during sleep. Symptoms of sleep apnoea are daytime sleepiness, falling asleep in school or preschool. Children with sleep apnoea are 10-15 IQ points lower than an average group of children who don’t snore. This can result in poorer learning ability, which can in turn lead to behavioural problems, and poor self esteem.
Make sure children are going to sleep early enough, and not staying up on the computer or watching TV. A 16 year old, needs a similar amount of sleep to a ten year old.

If despite your best efforts your child won’t or can’t sleep, this indicates there is a metabolic problem and requires specific treatment.


TREATMENT

When we know that children with behavioural difficulties grow up with cripplingly low self-esteems and poor social skills, it is of paramount importance to get to the bottom of the problem. Our biomedical treatment involves a variety of approaches, including diet, detoxification and homeopathic medicines. Causative factors are sometimes found, such as vaccine reaction, heavy metal toxicity (often mercury); high viral load, etc. These causes have to be addressed in your child’s treatment plan.

Medications may offer good control of symptoms in some cases, but do not address the underlying reasons of your child’s problem.

Some children improve dramatically when dietary issues are addressed. Removing artificial food colourings and sugar from the diet and adding more protein, fruit and vegetables can make a huge difference to behaviour. Many children improve dramatically when put onto a gluten free and dairy free diet.

In order to accurately assess your child’s health and nutrition, we analyse a sample of your child’s hair, via Hair Mineral Analysis.  This will show if nutritional mineral deficiencies and heavy metal toxicities are underlying problems.

Once nutritional issues are addressed, we use homeopathic medicines to manage acute illnesses, ongoing physical health problems and to address deeper health issues.