HYPERACTIVITY

Hyperactivity is a very distressing and multiple handicap which affects in various degrees thousands of babies, children and adults. It is symptomatic of a wide range of disorders affecting behaviour, learning processes and communication. A child is often affected before birth, and if adequate preventative measures are not taken, serious disabilities occur which threaten the child's future development. The effects can often be more devastating to both the child and his family than many other health problems of childhood. If left untreated the condition may continue to affect the person through adulthood in some form or other, although some remission may occur at puberty.

Symptoms

Hyperactive babies often:

• suffer from "colic"
• need very little sleep (sometimes only three or four hours out of twenty four)
• cry and scream for much of the time
• are restless and fidgety
• will not feed properly
• are cot-rockers and head-bangers.

No amount of nursing or comforting will calm such a child. They often reject mothering and affection.

As the child becomes more mobile (sometimes at a very early age) he/she is into everything, rushing from one thing to another.

The attention span is very short and the child is easily distractible, touches everything, and leaves a trail of destruction and havoc. The child may not deliberately destroy anything, but the lack of control and co-ordination and general clumsiness leads to breakage of toys and household objects. Every recess of a room is explored, and the child is driven by a seemingly endless source of energy both day and night.

The speech and thinking processes of the hyperactive child often reveal many defects. As some learning-disabled children have their greatest difficulties with visual perception, so others cannot integrate what they see and hear and therefore cannot understand, even though they may have no measurable hearing loss.

Not only do sufferers and those who care for them have to cope with very difficult physical symptoms, but also with the attendant social, emotional, and practical problems which these produce. Mothers have written to say that they feel "loners" and social outcasts as their children create such havoc wherever they go that they are not welcome at playgroup, nursery school, shops, friends' or relatives' homes. In addition, hyperactive children may suffer from a wide range of other ailments and disabilities such as eczema, asthma, catarrh, hayfever, headaches, tummy aches, etc.

Older children (in addition to the symptoms of infancy already described):

• are clumsy, impulsive, often accident prone
• exhibit erratic disruptive behaviour
• compulsively touch, and are constantly in motion
• disturb other children, and may be aggressive
• lack concentration and may be withdrawn
• may have a normal or high I.Q. but fail at school
• have a poor appetite, and poor hand and eye co-ordination
• are uncooperative, defiant and disobedient
• are self-abusive (pulling hair, picking skin, etc.)
• have continued problems with sleep

Causes

There are, of course, degrees of the problem, and not every child will have all the symptoms described here. More boys than girls are hyperactive; figures show a ratio of 3:1 (with a high percentage of blonde, blue-eyed boys).

As a result of research and the practical evidence of substantial improvements in the health and behaviour of very many hyperactive children, it has been shown that, in many cases, hyperactivity is aggravated if not caused by, an intolerance to some chemical additives in food, notably colourings, flavourings, and preservatives.

The late Dr Ben Feingold MD an eminent American allergist, spent many years researching the possibility of chemical food additives being linked to hyperactivity and behavioural disturbances. From this research he formulated a "food programme" designed to eliminate some synthetic chemical additives from the child's food and drink (some hyperactive children may also have an intolerance to some staple foods.)

Thousands of children have responded well to this programme. They have become much calmer, attentive, and less disruptive both at home and school. They have, indeed, become much happier children as a result. The diet is a very healthy one, and most mothers find it easier to keep the whole family on it. Any infraction of the diet by the hyperactive child may have serious consequences, with a reversion to behavioural disturbances.