Home Remedies For ADHD Straight From Your Kitchen

ADHD or Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a common disorder among children. The disorder may be carried forward in to adolescence and even adulthood. Children with ADHD fail to stay focused or attentive. They cannot control their behavior and are usually over-active or hyper-active. ADHD may be of three types: predominantly hyper-active and impulsive with very few symptoms of inattention, predominantly inattentive with very few symptoms of hyper-activity and combined hyperactive and inattentive. Children falling in the second category (i.e. predominantly inattentive) often sit quietly and onlookers get an impression that they are paying attention while actually they are not. Therefore they may go unnoticed by parents or teachers. In other words, parents or teachers may not even know that the child has ADHD. But most of the children come under the combined type.

A child, if suffers from severe inattention, impulsiveness and hyper-activity for a period of 6 months or more, he or she is likely to have ADHD. The child may have the following symptoms of inattention: getting distracted easily, forgetting things, missing out details, struggling to follow instructions, facing difficulty in completing assignments, home works, losing articles needed to complete tasks frequently, getting bored with a particular task or activity within minutes and frequently switching from one activity to another, day-dreaming, moving slowly, getting easily confused, facing difficulty in learning something new, facing difficulty in processing information as quickly and accurately as others etc.

The child may have the following symptoms of hyper-activity: facing difficulty in sitting still and fidgeting and squirming in his or her seat continuously, dashing around, talking non-stop, playing with whatever he or she comes across, being constantly in motion, facing difficulty in getting involved in quiet tasks etc. The child may have the following symptoms of impulsivity: being impatient, showing unrestrained emotions, blurting out inappropriate comments, facing difficulty in waiting for things they want or waiting for turns in games, acting regardless of consequences, frequently interrupting conversations and activities etc.

The causes of ADHD may be listed as follows: heredity, smoking cigarette and alcohol use by the mother when the child was in her womb, history of traumatic brain injury that the child has suffered, high intake of refined sugar by the child and too much of food additives (artificial colors, preservatives etc) in the child's food.

Home Remedies

1. Instead of sugar, sweeten the child's food with jiggery or honey.

2. Do not allow the child to take aerated drinks, for the phosphates in the drink displace calcium and magnesium in body, causing hyper-activity.

3. Encourage the child to soak in sun. This lessens the severity of ADHD.

4. Avail psycho-therapy and counseling techniques for the child in order to check ADHD.

5. Make the child practice meditation. It synchronizes the right and left brain hemispheres, thereby elevating calmness of mind, concentration and mental alertness.

6. Monitor the type of food consumed by the child. The food should be free from additives and preservatives.

7. Give the child a high protein diet. Eggs, cheese, soymilk are excellent to counter ADHD problem. Protein stimulates the production of brain chemicals like dopamine and norepinephrine that help in increasing concentration and alertness.

8. Omega-3 fatty acids rich fish oil should be given to the child. It eases the symptoms of ADHD and will allow the child to stay focused.

9. Give the child concoctions prepared from herbs like ginkgo biloba, gotu kola, Siberian ginseng etc. Ginkgo Biloba improves blood circulation in brain and also accelerates the level of neurotransmitters. This helps the child to stay focused. Gotu kola calms the mind and increases memory power. Siberian ginseng helps in elevating concentration levels.