AuthorDr. Carrie McMillin is a naturopathic physician that specializes in treating adults and children with ADHD and anxiety. Archives
February 2023
Categories
All
|
Back to Blog
 I recently gave the presentation: "Helping a Distracted Child Succeed: Understanding the Role of Executive Functions" to a group of parents and educators. If you were unable to attend, or simply want to revisit the slides, I have posted them here. 
Note: You may recognize many of these slides from my presentations on executive function deficits. This is because understanding exactly what executive functions are, and how they are related to the struggles associated with ADHD, is one of the most important steps to finding tools that work.
Back to Blog
 Eating can be a major struggle for patients taking stimulants, and picky taste buds can make it even more challenging. I’m always on the lookout for snacks that are delicious and offer a reasonable amount of protein. This can help to avoid blood sugar spikes (and eventual drops) which can lead to mood swings, outbursts, difficulty concentrating, and essentially an aggravation of a lot of ADHD symptoms. Side note: Not eating enough earlier in the day can make the 3:00-4:00 “after school breakdown” far worse for a lot of kiddos! I am will be regularly featuring snack ideas that I recommend to my patients who struggle with appetite suppression. I do not receive any financial gain or other benefit from any of the companies, but want to give more people specific options to try. Hopefully you will find a few that work for you! Nutrition bars are an obvious choice for packing a lot of nutrition into a few bites. But often the tastiest bars are mostly sugar with little protein, and many nutrition bars are really not tasty enough to eat when you aren’t hungry. One of my favorite bars offers a great mix of nutrition and taste--and it is dairy, gluten, and soy free too! One Zing dark chocolate coconut bar has 10g of protein, 8g of fiber, and contain low glycemic carbohydrates, all of which can help the body to maintain a more stable blood sugar level. And honestly, this tastes like a candy bar. They also offer other flavors which you may like better. (Note that not all are dairy-free and most contain nuts) Zing bars are available at many grocery stores, health food stores, or can be purchased online.
|
||
RSS Feed