UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine
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Parent Reviews
Parents, please Sign in to post a review on this page.I would highly recommend Dr. Sanford Newmark at UCSF osher center. My son has ADHD and there was a waiting list to see him but once you are a patient it's not a problem to get seen and make appointments. I love his integrative approach considering all things such as diet, excercise, environment etc. He also does talks on CHADD and he specializes in ADHD and Autism. I was originally worried about medication but he was great at walking us through options after doing all the hollistic things such as diet and exercise. My son is a sophomore now at Bentley and he's doing great (i would also recommend independent schools -- our son would have been lost in a large school setting but he scored in 99th percentile on standardizes test because of some really great teachers!). feel free to message me if you have more questions -- I was there too (my son wasnt diagnosed until 7th grade) and there were some really great parents that told me the search for the right help is a marathon not a sprint. Youre doing great trying to find him support and sometimes it can feel overwhelming
My son is almost 10 and we did the exact same thing as you around age 5. I was pretty hell bent on not medicating my child so I looked up dr Newmark. Really nice guy maybe 9-18 month waiting period or something significant. With dr Newmark, Did all of the things we were supposed to, elimination diet, blood work, vitamins and supplements - it all really wasn’t that helpful. I was hoping my son would be that kid who magically is helped by diet alone. No, he needed medication and I wish we had started it sooner. Adhd and later a GAD (anxiety) diagnosis, likely brought on or just concurrent with the adhd because he’s also bright but so perceptive he knows he can’t perform to his intellect. If I could do it over again at his age, I would find all the best professionals (frequently written about on this forum), I would find the best school environment I could afford, or homeschool. I would set clear limits and boundaries and hold a good visual schedule that you work through together with him, teaching those executive function skills and lowering anxiety), I would Medicate him (psychiatrist) and likely myself and have a therapist for myself and a support group/likeminded parent friends. I would make sure both him and I get lots of exercise and get outside daily. I would hire really good babysitters who my son likes who intuitively or educationally have skills to help him and me, I would have him do OT for social skills and regulation/coping skills and I would tell that mom of a 5 year old, who I used to be that it’s really hard until about 3rd or 4th grade (K-2/3 is a bitch with these kids) then maturity kicks in and there’s a decent holding pattern, I assume, until puberty and then new challenges arise. Keep your bond with your child and significant other and yourself and you’ll get through it. Be ready to advocate advocate advocate. And good luck. You got this!
We saw him a few years ago.16 yo son has a dx of ADHD at that time. Same issues - rigidity, self-regulation and impulsivity. And, big tantrums sometimes. It was a step we could have skipped, but I think we liked the idea of a "natural approach" . But mostly not helpful in the end. We didn't do the elimination diet b/c my son was only eating a few things at the time so taking those few things away was too hard to manage. He did labs and recommended iron tabs b/c low iron is connected with ADHD. We did add iron tabs, but we didn't see any appreciable difference. We did make it to UC's autism clinic to get a better idea of the diagnosis (which we later got from school), and then got ABA and OT which were the biggest help to us.