Eastern Medicine for ADHD
Has anyone been successful with using Eastern Medicine to help with ADHD? My daughter is only five, and is finally at the need for medication. However in reading about the different options, none of them actually go after her underlying anxiety or stress that she constantly carries. I don't want to give medication to someone so young, just so she can focus for a few hours at school, but not relive any of her other issues. Are there any resources in the East Bay that you may be familiar with, that I could go to and talk with someone?
May 1, 2018
Parent Replies
Hi there! I recommend Jill Stevens L.Ac. (licensed acupuncturist) at Whole Family Wellness Center in Emeryville. She specializes in pediatrics and is truly wonderful! In addition to acupuncture and herbs, she utilizes other modalities -- flower essences, nutrition, homeopathy, etc. -- to treat those underlying conditions that you mention. I've seen her for years, as well as friends and their children, and will definitely establish my child later on this year after it is born :)
Not in the East Bay but across the bay in San Francisco is the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine -- There is a doctor there, Dr. Newmark, who takes an integrative medicine approach to children with ADHD. Good luck!
https://www.osher.ucsf.edu/patient-care/treatments-services/pediatrics-…
Mom of an ADD teen here. Do you have a diagnosis for ADHD from a neuropsych or pediatrician? It's pretty unusual to get an ADHD diagnosis before 2nd or 3rd grade, since it doesn't really become apparent before academic pressures start appearing (reading, math, etc.) Hopefully your kindergartener isn't being pressured like that. Also, anxiety and stress are not necessarily a "feature" of ADHD. My ADD kid is very low-stress and he is rarely anxious -- he just isn't focused enough to follow what's happening in the classroom, which is a real impediment in 10th grade but not really that big of an issue in kindergarten. So I would say that if your kindergartener is constantly stressed and anxious as you say, then that is something you should be talking to your pediatrician about. Maybe her school is not the right fit. I don't think a kindergartener should feel like she is under stress to perform.