Bravo Txs1638 for getting the belt out of the closet.
We had a name for a.d.d. when I was a kid. It was called hyperactivity.
If everyone on this board with a problem child will follow my advice for ONE month without fail, I can save you alot of money, alot of grief, and put your psychologist out of business.
The root problem in most cases of a.d.d. or hyperactivity is DIET. I can firmly state this because I was a child diagnosed in 1976 as hyperactive. If I had grown up in the 90's I would have been diagnosed with A.D.D. and put on Ritalin (kiddie dope) and given a death sentence. I can remember how I felt. I could not change no matter how hard I tried. I knew how much I was hurting my mother (lived with her...divorced family) I just could not stop my behaviour. She noticed that on some days, I as a good boy. I noticed those days too but we never put 2 and 2 together until she saw Doctor R. Feingold on a talk show talking about hyperactive kids. This was back in 76....and such a thing was a rare topic because most kids with hyperactivty were paddled in school, and whipped at home so it was controlled out of fear to a point.
After researching Feingold's material, I was put on a NO SUGAR, No artifical flavor, no artificial color diet. Mom read the ingriedents on every thing she bought to ensure there was nothing artifical. After she detoxed my blood of all that garbage that my body was reacting to, I began to gain control of my own behavior. As I grew into an adult, I found that I had a problem digesting sugar. So what most of you parents have on your hands are borderline diabetics in the making. That awkward behavior is his the reaction from his body's inability to break down sugar properly. At a young age, it manifests itself in bratty behavior and superhuman endurance. When they are adults that same jet fuel will backfire and do the opposite. If I eat a doughnut today, I ruin my entire day due to the resulting downer effect. I want to nap all day and I am (still) very grouchy during this side effect.
Save the money on the doctors and spend it on more expensive groceries and spend more time shopping for those groceries. The kid is worth it.
They say that you always pay for your childhood when you have a kid because your kid will pay you back for everything you did when you were a kid....and today I have a 7 year old son, who is JUST like his dad. Although it took me some time to realise I had a clone in the family. He always acted fine at home because if he didnt I spank. I don't waste time on Time-outs because they never worked for me. So he acted great at home. When he got to school, juiced up on FROSTED Flakes, or SUPER SUGAR Crisp cereal or FROSTED mini-wheats, he turned into Mr. Hyde. Talking out of turn, always wanting to be the center of attention, couldnt sit still, always bouncing around at inopportune times.
After my mother (his granny) pointed out the resemblance to my problem, I got on track and put him on my old diet. Within the first few days, he was sitting still, paying attention, and began to enjoy his time at recess instead of spending it in detention. The old Feingold Diet of '76 worked on my 21st century child.
In order for this to work, you are going to have to change yourselves before you can change your child. This business of "time-outs" and taking away stuff that the child knows will be given back does not work.
You are going to have to tan a few behinds because the child is going to naturally rebel at this new diet, and challenge you on it. Get stern, do not falter and make sure the child knows that there is no option to this. YOU are the parent, and they will eat what you give them. If they lash out....and they will, lash back, in a way they will never forget. Spanking a child is never easy. I hate it and I dont spank hard. I havent spanked my kids in 3 years because they REMEMBER what a spanking feels like and do not wish to have another.
Get control of you kids back...take control. Control their diet, and trade that time-out for an eye opening spanking. If you do the diet correctly, the spankings will not be needed. If you do the spankings correctly, you need only do it enough a few times. A good spanking paired with some cooling off time, and a hug a few hours later, will go much further as long as the child understands that the hugs will be returned and so will the spanking, if it warrants.
When they had the paddle resting on the chalkboard at school, there was no such thing as school shootings. Such a thing was absurd and nothing more than Steven King Fiction. When they had the paddle in school, the parents got to deal with the hyperactive child (no-one wanted to be paddled by the golf coach...ouch!) because the child knew that their behavior would not be tolerated in school, so they did it at home. When the behavior got home, my mother did something about it. Today, kids just lose their video games.
If their diet is fixed, they will be in more control over their actions, they will spend more time talking to you and less time playing video games because their mind will be in a better position to accept information from you, instead of the opposite, which is them always wanting YOU to take information from them.
Also, be on the look out for anything you buy from the grocer containing CANOLA oil. Children/Adults affected with the symptoms of hyperactivity or A.D.D. are also usually allergic to canola oil and its no wonder. Most people believe that Canola oil comes from a canola tree. There is no such thing. Canola oil is named after Canadian Oil, a product Canadians use to lubricate machinery, but also happens to be a cheap edible way to fry your food. A child allergic to Canola oil will be a brat, an adult allergic to it will turn beet red at the face within a few hours of ingesting it, and feel like doggie doo for the rest of the day.
I am sharing this info because I hope that someone can benefit from years of my being a total brat, and years of my mother trying to deal with it and finding a solution that is not known today because there are too many psychologists and doctors making big bucks off of writing prescriptions that do further damage to your child. I don't think all doctors are evil, I just think that their training these days, relies more on medicene than prevention.
Do not let any doctor or psychologist put your child on ANYTHING until you rid your childs diet of artificial flavors, colors, preservatives, and loads of sugar.
By now, you must be saying that all of this sounds great but you just don't think you can spank your child.
If you can present this dietary change to your child with out a major rebellion, there is no need to spank. In my case, I rebelled, and I got my bottom roasted for a major wake up call. I knew my mother ment buisness, I knew she was fed up, I knew that times were changing, and I knew there was a new general in town, and it was her. I did what she told me to do, and within 2 days, after feeling the results of her efforts, she didnt have to give me any further attitude adjustments....the diet had done it for her.
As a result, I finally got a desk that was not positioned two feet from the teacher, I stopped getting paddled in school, I could finally read from my text book and COMPREHEND what I had just read, and I could sit still long enough to realize that my mother maybe, just MAYBE, was a little smarter than I was. 10 minutes in the corner of my bedroom would have been easier for her to sentence me to.....but the hard way kept me from being diabetic today.

Goodluck...and keep your kids drug/sugar free!
D@N

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[This message has been edited by moderator2 (edited 04-22-2002).]