FIXING ADHD CHILDREN
Barbara Pyne, who is the webmaster for www.stepmoms.net, asked me to tell you what it is I do which seems to work so well with children. She especially wanted me to tell you what was it that worked so well with her ADHD son, Brandon, several years ago. Barbara tells me that stepmoms want to know about ADHD more than about any other problem they have as moms!

EEG BIOFEEDBACK
Barbara brought her step-son, Brandon, to me a few years ago - she was being stepmom to three and mom to a new baby girl, and Mr. Brandon was swinging from the trees. Whew!

For forty separate sessions Barbara came in with Brandon and we took a thick mousse, dabbed it into two tiny gold plated cups, and pasted the gold cups to Brandon's scalp. A clip goes on his ear and holds some mousse in two cups against his skin, this is the ground wire.

These gold cups are attached by wires to a computer, which process the signals from the child's brain. The formal name of the instrument is an electroencephalogram and quite naturally we shorten that to "EEG". The computer transforms the microscopic electrical signals to interesting pictures on the screen and we call that process "biofeedback".

We have learned that some signals go along with quiet and hard working behavior, and some signals go along with being unable to sit still and being unable to focus attention. So we train the boy to make the "sit still and learn" signals.

One computer screen showed Brandon some games - Pac Man, a skipping stone with boxes, a boat fleeing a volcano, and a road across a desert where you can get a space ship to fly over you. When Brandon's brain makes stronger "still still and pay attention" signals then Pac Man goes forward, or the other games progress toward success.

In the meantime, I can see in great detail just what is going on in his brain. I adjust the task so it is always just within his capacity. He hits the target 75-85% of the time. I stay alert and work fairly hard to be certain that his success level is high enough to encourage fast learning.

Notice that I said 'learning'. Unlike medicine we don't burn, slash or poison. We simply let the brain know "THAT'S IT! THAT'S WHAT YOU'VE GOT TO DO!" and train it to work happily. This is not treatment.

Barry Sterman, a California psychologist, is still a young man (by my standards!), and in the 1960's he was the first to show us how to do this. Dr. Sterman had been asked to study the problem of perfectly healthy pilots flying perfectly good planes into the ground. Well, he figured it was better to risk cats instead of more pilots and so he did the work with cats.

Dr. Sterman discovered that the cats he trained the way we now train kids didn't have seizures and die when they were given a poison, hydrazine, in doses that kill almost all cats. The first work with humans was done with epileptics who had had no benefit from medicine. Then D.A. Quirk trained violent felons for 25 years doing exactly what Dr. Sterman had done with cats. Quirk's work resulted in keeping 85% of the felons from repeating their crimes when they got out of prison (compared to 25 -45 % from most prisons).

Dr. Quirk introduced me to this method in 1970 and I have applied it to clients who have a wide range of problems ever since.

Joel Lubar, a professor at the University of Tennessee, began applying Dr. Sterman's method to ADHD children in 1990. As we enter the new millenium thousands of practitioners are helping tens of thousands of children doing what Dr. Sterman did for his cats, and what Dr. Quirk did for his felons.

DOES IT WORK?
Fully half of the children lose absolutely all their symptoms in 40 or so sessions of EEG training. A few need continuing training because they have Tourette's Syndrome are hyperactive or some other hard to fix problems. Every child we see, of course, will benefit from good diet, and avoidance of poisons. Allergic children will benefit from elimination of allergens. However, even when the allergy isn't fixed, the allergic client who completes EEG training has a happier, healthier life.

I, myself, have been working with ADHD kids since I graduated from college in 1956. I began working with EEG biofeedback in the 60's - in fact I had a company which made and sold EEG instruments. I began copying the work Sterman pioneered in 1970.

CAN IT HURT?
In all those years I have never heard of anyone who was harmed by EEG biofeedback - one occasionally hears about a bad session but I, myself, have never seen even one session with a bad result. There has not been one single malpractice suit against an EEG practitioner.

In my own practice I have experienced three failures. These three boys were seriously ill with more problems than ADHD. The three families did not continue for the number of sessions I had told them in the beginning the boy would need.

I have had one boy be completely restored in only 10 sessions, but I had had a good result with his brother in 20 sessions before I trained his brother. The parents were poster parents for good care.

In 30 years I have had perhaps 20 boys finish with excellent results in 20 sessions. About half are done in 40 sessions. I had one little guy who took 120 and another took 200. These were extreme cases of ADD with hyperactivity.

In both cases the boys were .... horrible! One of them turned into a little charmer, the boy who needed 200 is doing well. His Mom has bipolar affective disorder. I fixed his Dad's life long spastic bowel pain in only 10 sessions (no pain after #4).

I have never had to train a child again after completing the program.

This EEG biofeedback works on many other problems as well. EEG biofeedback is particularly useful after closed head injury, in seizure disorders, but is also helpful for anxiety, depression, obsessiveness, and the whole range of psychological disorders.

You often have to do the EEG Biofeedback before you can get the child to be cooperative enough to do other interventions - which may remain important to do after the training. Often, however, once the EEG work is done the other problems normalize - this includes many problems we once managed by diet.

ADHD KIDS ARE DIFFERENT
You ought to know that many observers of children for many years have reported that ADHD children have more barely noticeable physical oddities than children who don't have ADHD. If you want to know about these minor physical anomalies (MPA) then look for ALLERGY, TOXINS AND THE LEARNING DISABLED CHILD, which is on the same website where you found this article.

MOST ADHD KIDS ARE ALLERGIC
Some of the ways in which ADHD kids differ are that they are more often fairest of the fair, and blonde blonde. This is not to say that all blonde fair folk are ADHD. In fact, I first heard this observation from Ed Binkley, M.D. talking about allergic kids. All of the the physical anomalies which are more often seen in ADHD kids, are also more often seen in allergic kids. In fact, most ADHD kids are allergic, but most allergic kids are not ADHD.

Do these physical markers mean that ADHD is inherited? No! Not at all. These markers are a function of stress before, during, and after pregnancy. The stress is usually nutritional, but good old shake-rattle- and-roll social stress will do the job as well. Mommies of ADHD children were stressed out, poorly nourished and often were not happy.

It does mean that your child's biochemical plant isn't as efficient as the biochemical plant a less stressed child gets to use.

In order to find out all the things we need to do for your child your first and best tool for working with your ADHD child is a large spiral notebook, and a good pencil.

You can't do the best job with an allergic child, or with an ADHD child unless you keep a daily journal, continually charting the child's behavior. Since 4 of 5 ADHD children are boys I'm going to start saying "he", "him" and "his" but none of these bits of advice are any different for little girls.

A child may pass formal clinical allergy tests over and over again, and still prove, by commonsense exposures and challenges to be allergic to foods and substances which the formal medical test did not detect. As we move into the new millenium no allergic test is free of the problem of false results.

Never forget, you want to help your child, not a test.

If you chart his behavior you can begin to pick up patterns of misbehavior which follow eating certain foods, occuring in patterns (like just before meals), or in certain places (school isn't always horrible just because of bad teachers, sometimes its a toxic waste dump).

The daily chart of behavior which records every place your child goes and every food that he eats, and every unusual thing which occurs, as well as his behavior is the basic tool for helping your child. Be faithful.

LOW BLOOD SUGAR
A few days ago I received a nice email from my nephew's wife. I had been presumptious and sent a letter "I know you didn't consult me but I could not but notice Jerry's (not his real name) behavior when we were all together for Father's Day."

What I had noticed was that they were having a very hard time while he was being a spectacular brat. Of course, he is a fair, sandy haired boy with big circles under his eyes. Dr. Tintera, 40 or 50 years ago remarked that people who suffer from low blood sugar are often fairest of the fair and have big dark circles under their eyes. Ed Binkley remarked these same facts in allergic children. You'll find a whole bibliography of folk who have found these and other anomalies in ADHD children.

When we started dinner Jerry was a monster, but by the time we finished he was a fairly nice kid, and he remained so until they left. I suggested that they feed Jerry food every two hours, no matter what. I also suggested that when he starts getting cranky, stick some food into his mouth.

Mamma wrote me back that I was Doctor Wonderful, regular snacks worked better than the Ritalin and he had stopped having his seizures.

Most ADHD kids are out of fuel within 4 hours of eating, and need to be fed more often. Many small meals.

I know that it is the received wisdom among psychologists that diet does not effect behavior. I think that this opinion reflects more on the ability of psychologists to do research than it does upon the firm conviction of generations of mothers and teachers. When the child has more than three minor physical anomalies the child has a very high chance of having a major metabolic anomaly. If the research is done on children who are at high risk for metabolic stress then the results are quite different from the situation when all the children in a class are given the sugary diet. There are, in fact, some lucky folk who seem to be able to eat anything and never gain an ounce - I was that way myself until I passed my 30th birthday. My metabolism changed, and my response to food changed.

ADHD children have unusual metabolisms because their biochemical plant is different from the biochemical plant of children who have no problems and no minor physical anomalies.

ADHD kids should have diets just like those which are prescribed for a diabetic child.