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Tad visits the naturopath

It was an idea whose time had come. And Grandma told me to. 🙂

We’ve really hit a snag in Tad’s behavior lately. Not that his behavior was perfect and then something went awry, but as he’s gotten older, his lack of self-control becomes more and more apparent. Being as far along as I am, I have a harder time physically restraining him, and the same things that we used to do (like using a stroller in the mall) simply doesn’t look right or work anymore. He’s four and a half years old today. He should be able to walk with us in a mall, or in a grocery store, without having to be buckled down. He should have an awareness of safety in a parking lot. He should be able to follow rules at school and know what the consequences are when he disobeys.

And… he doesn’t. And I am so afraid that something bad will happen before he does.

With Rerun coming, it’s even more important that we find some keys to his behavior. We’ve asked the school psychologist to take a look at him, but that hasn’t happened yet.

And then we visited a naturopath who was recommended to us by Miss Bee, a friend from church.

Tad took to Dr. C. immediately, who is a big guy, but patient with kids. At least, he was with Tad. After hearing about Tad’s behavior, and taking into account his delays, Dr. C. said that he could definitely see signs of hyperactivity in Tad.

Of course, it also could have been that Tad was bouncing off the walls in there and trying to steal a stethoscope to listen to his own heartbeat.

Because of Tad’s age, he can’t be given a formal diagnosis of ADD/ADHD, and that may or may not happen in the future. And he is too young for any kind of medication for those disorders. And this is where the naturopath comes in.

Was there anything that we could give him NOW that might make a difference?

After a blood test that ruled out gluten intolerance (a possible cause of hyperactivity), Tad has been put on a vitamin regimen that took a couple of trips to Super Supplements to fill, and a written schedule to keep track of it all. None of these vitamins are particularly unusual, and the hope is that we will start to see a difference in Tad’s behavior. We were told to wait 6 to 8 weeks to see any changes in him, and it’s only been 2 weeks. So we still have a while to wait.

At least with all of these vitamins, we’re operating under a “no harm, no foul” policy. None of these can hurt him, and if they do help him, so much the better. In the meantime, the counter top looks like a mini-pharmacy, and Tad is taking some kind of supplement or vitamin with every single meal (mostly so I can space out things during the day). Thank God for gummy and chewable vitamins, because without them, I just don’t think this would be possible.

It’s an interesting experiment. I’ll keep you all posted on how it turns out. Tad’s not going to turn into a perfectly well-behaved child at the end of 8 weeks – he’s still a 4 and a half year old boy and his father’s son. (I’ve been hearing some stories from the Webmaster’s childhood recently that even has him admitting that some of Tad’s behaviors must come from him.) He still has speech delays and learning delays, and no amount of vitamins, or even medication, is going to fix that. If only.

We’re just trying to do what’s best for Tad. Because if we don’t, no one else will.

2 Responses to “Tad visits the naturopath”

  1. Nana
    February 12th, 2010 08:14
    1

    Hooray for you all! This is a good thing.

  2. Deanna's Corner » Blog Archive » Going Gluten Free
    July 22nd, 2010 01:47
    2

    […] is going gluten-free to see if it alters his behavior at all.  When last we considered this, we consulted a naturopath, who put him on all sorts of vitamins.  He did take a blood test at the time to see if he was […]