Wednesday, May 25, 2005

A Few Changes a Day can Make a Huge Difference

Before you except a prescription from your child’s doctor for his or hers ADD/ADHD symptoms, there are some steps you can take as parents to help control or diminish them all together.

For starters it is noted that Americans watch on average 6 hours of television a day. That’s right -- 6 hours a day. Televisions are not babysitters nor should they be treated that way. Your child should only be watching at the most 2 hours of television a day and even that is pushing it. The same goes for computer games also.

Don’t get me wrong, there are educational games that can be beneficial. However, the time spent using these games, they are sitting and doing nothing physical. Imagine the physical activities families can plan together if they had an extra 4 hours a day.

There are also dietary changes that will help your child learn healthy eating habits. Some of the changes that you can make are:

_ Start to cut down on your child’s intake of soda, kool-aid and similar drinks. After you cut them down, then you can slowly eliminate them from the diet altogether.

_ Do not use fast food as a reward for you child. These food are super high in fat and carbohydrates.

_ Cut down the amount of white flour, sugar, preservatives and chemical additives that is in your child’s diet.

Last but not least, remember this - you are not alone. You are not a failure if the school psychologist wants to talk to you about your child’s shortcomings. More than half of the children in school today have in one way or another been labeled with some sort of behavioral problem.

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