add/and brain function

[jgoodwin]

My son 4 years old has been diagnosed with ADD and also the right brain hemisphere is not functioning properly.  There is a 20 point difference in his left and right brain test functions.  Does anyone know what that means ?  The doctor said his right side is functioning at a mental retardation level... Pleas help    Thanks Jana

[mumofR]

Hi there.
My boy was diagnosed when he was 5 with ADHD. This followed a detailed interview with us, his parents, observing our son and detailed information from the school. In the years since diagnosis I have made it my mission to learn all I can about ADHD and what this means for my son as well as others.

There is a theory that ADHD is a problem with one side of the brain being under active and the other side being over active but without all the neccesary info to do so properly. This could explain what is happening with your boy.

I have seen the pictures of functional MRI scans of brains with and without ADHD. The ADHD brain uses so many different little pieces of the brain to do tasks that non ADHD brains use one large piece to do. So, to a non expert it may appear that the brain funtion is abnormal but it is perfectly normal for an ADHD brain.

Sugar plays NO role in hyperactivity unless a child, or adult, has a sensitivity to it. Ther eis absolutely no research evidence to support that theory.

[Jarhead0811]

Ma'am, I'm not going to comment on anything but the ADD part. I wouldn't agree.At 4 years old, it's VERY hard to tell if a child has ADD or something else entirely, especially if the child also has the right brain hemisphere thing. A kid that age on sugar will be diagnosed with add/adhd 99.9% of the time. For an adult to be diagnosed, they should at least take that 700someodd question psych test. I spent 2 weeks in hospitals just to find out I had adhd, but I paid 10k out-of-pocket just to find out because I knew I had some kind of "anxiety" problem. I put that in quotes because they call my high sense of urgency, energy, constant checking things out, interupting, and constant asking off the wall questions "anxiety".They should at least wait until a child is 12-13 to determine if they should give them amphetamine pills..