Prevention of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Role of Parental Care in Preventing ADHD

Parental care plays an important role in preventing ADHD in their child. Parents especially mother have to fulfill their parental responsibilities to protect their coming baby from the very day of his conception. The role of parents before and after the birth of child to save him from all types of mental and physical hazards including ADHD comprises two stages.      

1- Careful Attitude during Prenatal Period

2- Proper Care after Birth

1- Careful Attitude during Prenatal Period

Being an expecting mother a female try to adopt healthy lifestyle from the time of conception of child to actual delivery time. During this period she has to follow a particular diet pattern according to the advice of her doctor along with leaving all bad habits of substance abuse if there exits any. Mothers involved in drug abuse like smoking and taking alcohol or other types of drugs are more to have mentally retarded child. Drugs and lead exposure are considered the two main contributing factors in creating mental problems in developing fetus. Therefore any expecting mother has to refrain from all these unhealthy practices if not for ever than at least for 9 months for the sake of healthy life of her own child.           

2- Proper Care after Birth

After a child is born healthy and fit it starts the period of proper child care from both of parents not only from mother. From loving and pampering to teaching and understanding, each aspect of his proper mental and physical health should be handled carefully. The ratio of developing ADHD or any other mental illness is much greater in neglecting children as compared to those brought up with proper care and affection from their parents or caregivers. Here we have discussed the ways a child should be dealt in by his parents and family.           

a- Special Love and Care

Getting special love, care and affection from parents is the first right of any child if he is lucky enough to have both or one of them. Parents must take care of him in a proper way with no negligence or over pampering involved at all. Parents’s love acts as a great moral support and constant encourage making a child set his foot on ground first in his childhood and then enter his mature stages of life successfully and confidently afterwards. Children brought up under proper care of parents are more confident and self controlled as compared to those being deprived of these rights. In this way if there exists any mental complication like ADHD in a child due to long family history of ADHD then he will be able to control its symptoms and to maintain the normal balance of life as much as possible.                

b- Healthy Eating Habits

The next thing which demands proper attention of parents is eating habit of a suffering or healthy child which is adversely affected in case of having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Parents should make a proper plan for balanced diet for their child under the guidance of child health care specialist. They have to take notice of the each and every type of food on child’s mental, physical and emotional state. If any food item is seems to be creating some kind of problems they must consult the doctor to change or replace it accordingly.     

c- Maintaining Proper Routine of Life Activities

Healthy lifestyle and great care are not enough when it comes to bring up a child properly because here involves another factor which helps in shaping his life activities and interests and this important factor is maintaining a proper schedule and routine. So it is another important job parents or caretaker has to do to make a child disciplined and organized in life activities. There must be strict timings for waking, eating, playing, TV watching, outing, learning, reading and sleeping etc. for a child suffering from ADHD there should be frequent breaks during learning periods to deal with his hyperactive state successfully and to keep him interested in learning process because it is possible that long and continuous study periods make him boring and he develops a negative thinking for learning process. This thing will act as a persistent barrier throughout his life if once fixed in childhood. Therefore there is a need for special timings and schedules for every activity according to the professional’s advice to prevent the undesired results successfully.              

d- Positive and Negative Reinforcement

Reinforcement plays a significant role in creating positive and negative behaviors in any person particularly the children. So parents have to careful in giving positive reinforcement in the form of appreciations, small gifts or a big hug and negative reinforcement in the form of minor punishments. If the intensity of positive or negative reinforcement is not managed properly it could result in more complicated state of mind and behavior particularly in ADHD suffering child. A child must be encouraged and appreciated even for doing little positive things or for achieving small assigned tasks so he will take more interest in such activity to get more appreciation and love. But in case he does a mistake or a wrongdoing again and again and does not correct his behavior even after constant advice then it would be better to give him little punishments to stop undesired behavior without getting so harsh and cruel in dealing with him.              

Remember that parent’s love and affection plays a vital role in getting back their child to normal mental, physical and emotional state. No medicine and therapy can be as powerful and effective as parental care can be. So take care of you child whether he is a school going baby, a teen or an adult because children always need parent’s support and affection in all stages of their life whether to come back towards normal healthier life from an abnormal state of mind or body or to excel in various life activities with no abnormality at all.