Television and ADD/ADHD

[num1baby]

Originally Posted by Book Lover 21

This may sound overly simplistic, but I never read studies raising my kids. I think every child is so completely unique, it is almost a waste of time. I study my children instead.

When my younger one started school, there were issues with his attention span. I noticed he seemed tired and distracted. I tried different things, but cutting out weekday TV viewing did wonders for him.

Now, this would not have made any difference with my older son. He could have had any type or amount of stimulation and still slept like a baby. But the younger one just couldn't handle that stimulus before sleeping. When I made that change, his school performance changed almost immediately. He went from having serious problems to being a very average student.

I guess my point is this: I worry when you spend too much time reading studies and trying to fit your child into a "category" and not enough time trying to understand their particular challenges and strengths and customizing a routine that works for them.

I really agree with the bolded. My DD has always had a lot of energy and needs very little sleep. It was also very hard fr her to fall alseep. I can understand that also because I was always the same way. We tried having a calm house with no tv and just a calm atmosphere before bed. Didn't work. She could not fall alseep. Finally, we tried something different. We kept the house calm and dark. She got ready for bed, had story time and then got to watch one show. After that show, she would go directly to bed. She got into bed and fell asleep before I could shut the door behind me. There were even times that she would fall asleep while watching the show and we would carry her to bed.

Every kid is different.

[mamayama]

I totally disagree with the study that children would develop ADHD by watching t.v. for a period of 3 hours a day.

These days, for a lot of people, television is a easy way to get a break we used to call it our built in babysitter, but I would not let my children watching t.v. more than one hour at the time.

Exercise is very important for children, a lack of exercise can affect physical and mental of the child.




I have a child with ADHD, diet is very important, we avoid anything with sugar, or red dye, I believed that ADHD and ADD is heriditary.

My son as a learning disability and had severe health issues at birth.We believed that all the surgeries that he had to go throught in infancy affected his development.

My child is able to watch only 5-10 minutes of t.v at the time, he would be fidgiting and doing 3 different things like playing with a toy, pulling his shirt or chewing his nails and running around the room.