Here are some useful pointers for first-time mothers as well as mothers with a new addition to the family:

Handling allergic reactions
If you child has an allergic reaction to certain types of food, it is most likely to show up as read itching skin, diarrhea and vomiting. In this case, avoiding the food is usually enough. If your child ever gets signs of serious allergy, like swollen lips or shortness of breath, you should seek medical help right away.

Chickenpox woes
If your child comes down with chickenpox, it will help if he/she wears loose, comfortable clothes. It will also help if he is free of clothes from time to time to allow the spots to dry quickly.

Comb the lice out
Most children will get headlice at some point of their life. To remove them, use a fine louse comb with some natural herbal powder or lotion and check their hair at least once a day for a week.

Soothe the itch
For skin rashes and itching due to chickenpox, try calamine and aqueous cream or Eurax cream – they are easier to apply than watery lotions and work straight away to cool down skin and prevent itching.

Keep the bed clean
Vacuuming your children’s mattresses to get rid of dead skin and dust mite debris whenever you change their sheets can help reduce night-time allergens that cause itching and a runny nose.

Damage control
Children are notoriously difficult to control, and it will be tiresome telling them they can’t touch this or that. Try to invest in surfaces and objects that don’t require constant upkeep – that way, you can keep the “don’ touch” orders to a minimum.

Rubber mat for tub
Place a rubber mat in your bathtub to prevent your child from slipping and hurting himself. This is particularly important if your child has to stand up and rinse himself.

Assign a job or chore
Try to get your child involved in what you are doing. Even older children do not find chores boring like adults do, so letting them help you will make them feel wanted and important. It also helps in family bonding.

Diets for children with ADHD could be big business and maybe it will be soon. Maybe it will go the same way as the pharmaceutical industry which has ‘created’ the ADHD disorder and marketed it so well that the figures have grown from 500,000 cases in 1985 to about 7 million children to-day. Leaving aside the vexed question of these psychostimulants, we have to ask ourselves if there are any ADHD recommended diets. Are diets for children with ADHD really useful or just another sidekick for the drug and food industry ?

ADHD treatment goes hand in hand with proper parental care at home and school. That means spending time with them and reducing media exposure (TV, PC Internet and videos). When parents are absent this is called ‘TV parenting’ and it is a sobering thought.

I do not believe in ADHD recommended diets as such, but I do know that certain foods can cause allergic reactions or may hype them up so that they start bouncing off the walls. There is now sufficient evidence from the EU and UK to support the ban on certain food dyes which are known to exacerbate hyperactivity. The same goes for too much sugar, salt, fat, caffeine and chocolate.

Here is my diet for children with ADHD:

Avoid as much as possible processed junk food and that could range from a whole range of children’s snacks to hamburgers, Big Macs, chocolate ice cream, lollipops.

Water is the preferred drink in our house. So coke and fizzy pop are rarely seen.

Fruit and vegetables are top of the list and we have great fun with experimenting with smoothies. Sometimes the kids never know what is in them so you can add healthy stuff in (flax seed oil) without telling them. Also if I find they are low on protein, I can add in some protein powder.

If you cannot serve fish, try using an Omega 3 supplement. The essential fatty acids are present in fish but sometimes there is a fear of mercury poisoning. These have been shown to have a beneficial effect on mental health.

I also have made sure that coffee/caffeine drinks and ice creams are limited and never after a certain time in the afternoon. This makes sure the kids get a good night’s sleep.

Diets for children with ADHD abound on the Internet and on the blogs, not to mention the ADHD forums. If you follow the above simple rules, you will be well on your way to writing an ADHD recommended diet – there is money there! But what about an ADHD treatment? You will be scared about the side effects of the psychostimulants such as Dexedrine, Adderall and Desoxyn. You refuse to be brainwashed by the drugs industry and you want a few straight answers to some questions about an ADHD treatment which is safe, non-addictive and above all effective in alleviating ADHD symptoms. The link below will answer all your questions.

Every day when you wake up, you probably have something that needs to be done on your mind. Like, I have to get my bills done, or I need to fix that chair that’s been falling apart, or I have to disconnect my computer so I can take it in for service. It’s usually something that needs to be done and has been hanging on your mind for a while. It may not be an emergency, but it just needs to be done. So, you start unplugging the wires from the back of your computer and the phone rings, right? WHOOSH! There go your best laid plans. When you have ADD, you’re always scratching your head, wondering how to make that stop happening.

Step back and realize that you will always be distracted because you have ADD. Some of the distractions will come from the inside–you’ll create them yourself–while others will come from the outside. But realize this: nothing happens if you don’t notice them. Still, distractions are around everybody, all the time.

It’s just impossible to not have distractions because they’re around every single person, ADD or not, all of the time. Even if you have the highest degree of ADD, you can’t pay attention to all the distractions around you because there’s not enough time to keep up with all of them.

But stop looking at distractions as being completely counter-productive. I’m about to show you the benefits. You need to train your ADD brain to a system. Let me show you how that works.

Just allow yourself to be distracted, and make distractions work to your advantage. But only allow yourself to be distracted for a set period of time. It will take a while for this all to sink in and to train your brain to follow this system, but keep working at it.

First, put yourself to solving some problem. Just jump in and concentrate on solving it, until you’re distracted. What’s your attention span–15 minutes, half an hour, a whole hour? Whatever it is, work on your problem until something comes along to get in the way.

When you realize you’re distracted, immediately set a time limit of 15 minutes. Say, “OK, I’m going to do this for 15 minutes,” and maybe set a timer. Here’s the cool part… While you’re busy with the distraction, your subconscious brain is still working on the problem. At the end of the distraction period, you’ll go back to the problem and find that you can move further along, or maybe, you’ll even have a solution.

Systems like this don’t work right away. You’ll need to train your brain to stick to the 15-minute distraction period and then, right back to the problem. This will help to train your subconscious brain, too, and you won’t have to feel guilty about being distracted. Worrying about being distracted is actually just another distraction. When you stop doing this, your frustration level will go down and your success rate will soar.

There’s no getting rid of distractions, so don’t beat yourself up over them. When you have ADD, they’re just a way of life. But if you train your brain to only give them short bursts of time, intermittently while working on a bigger issue, then they may actually help more than hurt you. Keep doing this until your brain is trained and you’re on your way to ADD success!