So...to be honest the ADHD doesn't come as a surprise. to me. I have it. Her father has it. My father has it and I have several cousins with ADHD. I bought a book called "fire child, water child" several months ago but I didn't put it into practice because I got busy and sometimes life just be's that way.
In reading this book I have figured out that my daughter is a fire child. She is a TOTAL fire child.
Fire: The True Leader
Strengths:
Attracted to NoveltySensory-Aware
Enthusiastic
Dramatic
Lives in moment
Learns by intuition
“High Engagement”
Weaknesses:
"The Class Clown"Distracted by boredom
Impulsive
Over-stimulated
Melt-downs
Panic attacks
Hypoglycemia
Sensory integration difficulties
Sensory craving
Diarrhea
(For more info or to identify your child's type please click here for Dr. Cowan's site)
Life as we know it:
My girl is living in a household with 2 adults who suffer from ADHD also (I am an earth child and my dad is a metal child...her biological father who she seldom sees is most likely a Wood child.) My boy shows NO Signs of ADHD (THANK GOODNESS!) My dad and I have both learned coping strategies over the years that have allowed us some success in life. (My dad is very successful. I can fake it pretty well. )Our solution according to Dr. Cowan is:
Wood nature feeds the puppy heart
*I am going to provide my daughter with more opportunities to feed her puppy heart with wood. Exercise is key in this I think so I included 2 blocks of exercise time for her in her daily map. The first thing she does when she wakes up is exercise. That's a lot for a 5 year old I guess but she REALLY loves this Cosmic Yoga I found on youtube and if she enjoys getting 15 minutes of exercise first thing during the day and it teaches her to center herself then I'm not complaining. We will probably take a 2 mile walk when she gets off of the bus on my days off.
*Diet Change: I am also reducing her carbohydrate load, increasing her proteins and i'm going to increase her number of meals a bit each day to help her stabilize her blood sugar. Personally I HAVE to have small meals throughout the day and absolutely MUST have lots of protein. I know she's not really all that physical yet so i'm shooting for her getting about 35 grams of protein a day. A serving of greek yogurt is about 2/3 of that. She started her day with 2 eggs and some greek yogurt and some dried fruit. she'll have a snack at school and her lunch is chicken bites (non-breaded chicken breast nugget sized), green beans, fruit, sunflower kernals, greek yogurt, milk. When she comes home we may have some popcorn then go for a walk.
*I know I need to find some more things to help feed her puppy heart but this is a lot of planning for a single mom and i've already done a ton! i'll have to think for a week.
Water nature helps train her puppy heart
"Training the puppy heart means offering a secure path for her nature through repetition and reward." - (Dr. Cowan, fire child, water child p.112)Water cools fire.
*I am scheduling 2 bath times for her each day on her day map. She takes a shower in the morning and i'm going to give her time to play in the bathtub each night.*I am also having her drink about 70 oz of water a day. (She weighs 72 lbs so that's not excessive and even if she only hits half of that - i'm happy)
*We are going to add a fish oil supplement for her to take 2-3 times a week. it's a very low dose DHA EPA pill. it contains more EPA than DHA. *We are reducing the amount of sugar in her diet (it's already minimal anyway but i'm adding foods from the "Salty" list provided in the book)
*Massage - I have started giving her massages each night to help her settle down for bedtime and it worked last night! I massaged her back and legs a little bit while she did her homework and she actually settled down and focused on the work then she fell almost immediately to sleep when she went to bed. That is the first time that has happened in a long time!! I used spearmint oil for her massage. I need to get some lavender oil to use for that time of night. I put Spearmint on her this morning to help her focus.
*Reading more - we already read a lot but we are going to read a lot more. I also need to practice being quiet and still. I have a very hard time with that.
Earth nature expands her big heart
*We've started practicing analogies to help her get better at that skill.*We are already the flashcard queens. We have flashcards for EVERYTHING but i foresee flashcards in our future. I'm a huge fan.
*helping cook - My little queen helped me cook dinner last night. I need to look for MORE earth activities for her.
Metal nature (Rules) help her to master her big heart
*We created a map of her day to help her see the order and sequence of activities. I am going to laminate it for her and let her take it with her in her backpack to help her out. She can read SOME things so I may glue some pictures to the map for her before laminating it.*We are going to start learning to meditate. We did SOME meditation last night when she simply WOULD NOT FOCUS on her homework. After that I told her to get her work done and she sat up and finished coloring her work without any problems. This was after 2 hours of her refusal to work!!! She said that the breathing helped her to want to color.
*The book lists a Fire Qigong exercise called "Standing like the sun" which we will definitely try doing with her. it's like a yoga move. We are incorporating a lot of yoga.
We'll see how all of this works. At the very least, I do NOT WANT my child exposed to chemicals this young in her life. She is only 5 years old!!! Here's hoping!!
Aromatherapy stuff
Geranium
ginger
Lavender
Mandarin
Neroli
Rose Otto
Spearmint
Sandalwood
vetiver
yang yang
Flower essences:
Indian Pink - sensory overload
Madia - inattention to detail
White Chestnut - Overactive mind
Saint John's Wort - Hyperstimulation & panic
