“Lyla is just really energetic.” This is what I though when Lyla was one year old. A year later, I just thought it was her young age. As she got older I noticed something was definitely different with her.  Her ‘energy’ had turned into ‘wild energy’ and was interfering with her being able to sit long enough to color a picture or do things typical children at her age could do. She was having a hard time keeping friends, because she was so impulsive, bouncy and twitchy. Even her own sisters were trying to avoid letting her play with them because she couldn’t play appropriately for her age. “Don’t let Lyla in”, ‘Can you keep Lyla Out?”, “Lyla breaks everything”.

My heart broke for my sweet girl. I noticed she was getting a lot of rejection not only in the family, but also with other kids her own age, and I couldn’t really blame them. Other kids her age were mature enough now to set up little castles or villages and have story lines develop with their toys. Lyla was still making her dino eat and destroy all of their village. She couldn’t sit and have lunch with kids her age. Her food was always converted into lions or something that was destructive and annoying to the other kids. She also had a super sensitive pallet. She could taste something gross in anything I served. She seemed to have Hyper-sensitivity with her sense of taste.

However, she seemed to have an underactive sense of touch. She could run across the rocky weedy ground without a problem. She would get sores on her feet from the pokey ground but didn’t bat an eye at it. She acted like she didn’t even have feeling in her body.

She also couldn’t finish anything. She couldn’t hold eye contact. She couldn’t sit long enough for a bed-time-story. She couldn’t speak well, just a line of fast gibberish, instead of composed sentences. It seemed that everyone knew Lyla was ADHD before I could admit it. I finally realized something must be done. She wasn’t growing out of it. She couldn’t live a successful life with this.

At this time, I started to study neuroplasticity (the brains ability to rewire) and the cognitive exercises that help strengthen weak connections in the brain. I was also studying Primitive Reflexes and how they can interfere with normal neurological growth. You see, I had a Dyslexic son in high school, so I was very interested in learning everything I could about it. As I studied, I learned that the exercises were super easy and could be done at home. I also learned that they applied to other developmental disorders like ADHD, ADD, Sensory Processing Disorder, Autism etc.

I jumped right on it with Lyla. Doing the exercises we have here on our website with her. I also found that she had retained the Moro Reflex that is typical for kids with ADHD and causes too much cortisol and adrenaline to be produced, which keeps them in fight-or-flight mode. So yes, there are ways to treat ADHD without medication.

I was astonished to see how fast it made a difference. Within three weeks, Lyla finished her dinner one night and said “Thank You for dinner. It was delicious” My jaw dropper. Two full well composed sentences and a finished meal. Wow!

Later that month, at bed time, Lyla got her little blanky and said “I want to snuggle”. Again, I couldn’t believe my ears. She really sat there for 20 minutes that night, just snuggling and listening to a book. She started respecting peoples space more. Summer came and Lyla hurt her foot going outside with bare feet. She felt it, cried and had me get her a band-aid. Probably the first time a parent was glad to have a child cry over a hurty and need a band-aid.

Lyla is doing awesome now. She is so fun and outgoing. She has long term friends now. They are always the more energetic fun ones, of course. She can hold eye contact. She still struggles with impulse, but much less. She can feel her own body now and is very expressive with her ideas. She speaks fast, but has no problem composing her sentences. At the time I write this post, she is 9 years old. She does great in school and never gets bad behavior reports. She still has a lot of beautiful energy, but can keep it in check when she needs to.