Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Exercise, food and other supports
If you are thinking about a weighted blanket or vest for a child, let an occupational therapist set the weight. It is a specific number for a specific body, not something to guess at in a shop.
The pull to order one straight away is understandable, especially after months of bad nights. What an OT does is match the weight to the child's size and check they can get out from under it easily on their own. Blankets in particular need care with small children, and what suits one child will not be the number for their sibling.
Qur’an and Sunnah
So that you may not exceed in the balance (Quran 55:8). Getting the measure right is part of the care, not a detail underneath it.
أَلَّا تَطۡغَوۡاْ فِي ٱلۡمِيزَانِ
so that you may not exceed in the balance
Qur’an 55:8read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
Sensory and lifestyle supports for ADHD are still being worked out in formal trials. One registered protocol in this area sets out a comparison of bright light therapy against exercise for young people with ADHD, which shows a field still testing its options rather than one that has settled them. Where a support has not been pinned down, a trained assessment is safer ground than a rule of thumb.
Mayer JS, Hees K, Medda J, Grimm O, Asherson P, Bellina M, Colla M, Ibáñez P, Koch E, Martinez-Nicolas A, Muntaner-Mas A, Rommel A, Rommelse N, de Ruiter S, Ebner-Priemer UW, Kieser M, Ortega FB, Thome J, Buitelaar JK, Kuntsi J, Ramos-Quiroga JA, Reif A, Freitag CM. (2018). Bright light therapy versus physical exercise to prevent co-morbid depression and obesity in adolescents and young adults with attention-deficit / hyperactivity disorder: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.. Trials doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
A support that helps at one weight can be a hazard at another, and the person trained to judge that is not you.
When not to
Never leave a weighted item on a young child who cannot lift it off themselves.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
Ask what someone takes that is not food, rather than asking what medications they are on. People do not file their supplements under drugs, so the usual question comes back empty.
If fish oil gives you those horrible repeats all afternoon, that is a fixable problem rather than a reason to stop. Keep the capsules in the freezer, ask about an enteric coated version, or try a flavoured liquid.
Several professional bodies came together to say that vision therapy is not a treatment for ADHD. A joint statement like that is unusual, and it is worth quoting to a family word for word.