[beth]

I recently read that a proportion of children diagnosed with ADHD also have a hearing disability which influences their behavior. The article suggested that if you have a child diagnosed with ADHD, you should take him or her for a hearing test, just to check that that isn't exacerbating the problem. Just thought I'd pass this on to any parents of ADHD kids.

[lostchild1962]

Thanks for that tip Beth..

[RobertSRister]

There's also a condition called Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD). In groups, kids with CAPD appear to be hyperactive. One on one, however, they are attentive and focused. Sometimes the hearing problem appears to be ADHD, and sometimes ADHD appears to be a hearing problem.

[TedHutchinson]

Originally Posted by beth

I recently read that a proportion of children diagnosed with ADHD also have a hearing disability which influences their behavior. The article suggested that if you have a child diagnosed with ADHD, you should take him or her for a hearing test, just to check that that isn't exacerbating the problem. Just thought I'd pass this on to any parents of ADHD kids.

While this is good advice in that it would be unfortunate for a child with this problem to have real but undiagnosed hearing loss I should point out that the research doesn't indicate that ADHD children are more likely to be deaf or that children with inherited deafness are more likely to also have ADHD. So there is no reason for undue concern either way. Although parents of children with acquired deafness may need to double check.
See http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...=pubmed_docsum
Disorders of attention deficit and overactivity, ADHD (DSM-IV), and hyperkinetic syndrome (ICD-10) are common and disabling. However, a number of factors in deaf children's development make the assessment of these disorders in deaf children problematic. The prevalence of ADHD and hyperkinetic disorder does not appear to be higher than expected in children with inherited deafness alone but does appear to be higher in children with acquired deafness and/or additional impairments. Data from a re-analysis of an earlier epdemiological study of psychiatric disorder in deaf children and adolescents suggests that these disorders are commoner than expected in deaf children and share the features of ADHD and hyperkinetic disorder seen in hearing children.

There is however a theoretical connection possible between acquired hearing loss and ADHD. Vitamin D deficiency is one of the etiologies of bilateral sensorineural hearing loss through the calcium metabolism and microcirculation in the cochlea.
Vitamin D deficiency is responsible for the seasonal flucuation in Omega 3 levels and Omega 3 supplemention has been shown to reduce the severity of ADHD symptoms. Changing the RDA of Vitamin D would enable more omega 3 to be available to the astrocyte brain cells which allow communication between brain neurons.
Current RDA's for Vitamin D do not address vitamin D deficiency in the same way that adding £/$ 400 daily to your bank account will do nothing to correct your overdraft while you continue to spend 4000 daily.

Your body makes 12000iu cholecalciferol in 10 minutes or so given full exposure to midday sunshine in summer. It cannot do this in Northern latitudes in winter because the sun isn't strong enough. You use about 4000iu a day so during the winter (unless you use a sunbed, take a winter break in a sunny place nearer the equator or use a high strength vit d supplement to provide 4000iu) you are bound to run into problems. See http://www.cholecalciferol-council.com/ for more vitamin D information.

It follows that to maximise the uptake of omega 3 and it's transmission into the brain it is necessary for vitamin D levels to be increased to match those achieved when sunbathing in summer. Paying attention to both these points will help those with ADHD, ADD, dyslexia, dispraxia and other autistic spectrum disorders.

Edit: I should perhaps have pointed out that the research showing the educational and behavioural improvement in children given high strength Omega 3's is the DURHAM TRIAL http://www.durhamtrial.org/default.aspx?pid=239 this trial used 550mg of EPA daily, but others may argue that using a combination of both EPA and DHA will be equally effective. In the UK people who have used an Omega Juice product containing 900mg EPA + 600mg DHA= 1.5mg Omega 3 have been impressed with the results obtained in a relatively short time.

[RobertSRister]

As for the relationship between vitamin D and hearing loss, the link being a really rare condition called hypoparathyroidism, the medical literature reports exactly one case. There's also a case in the literature in which too much vitamin D led to deafness. Neither occurred in a child.
Vitamin D wouldn't be my first consideration in helping my child with ADHD. There are several studies on calcium binding in the auditory centers of the brain, requiring vitamin D, of course, in rats. If my pet rat were hyperactive, I'd be very sure to help it get some sun. At the very least I wouldn't worry about getting too much vitamin D--that's very hard to do unless you've put your child on some ill advised product they don't need.
Even if vitamin D were involved in children's hearing loss, and the theory suggests that either too little or too much may be a problem, it may be helpful to point out that the majority of people in the USA don't run a risk of vitamin D deficiency even in winter. The Northeast and even the gloomier parts of the Southeast are a different story, as is eastern Canada, the UK, and Europe. But vitamin D fortification of food products figures in to vitamin D nutrition there.
And for getting those omega-3's, wouldn't a tuna fish sandwich do the same thing as the expensive juice drink? Why do the omega-3's need to be high potency? Is the provision of "high potency" fatty acids for the benefit of the child or the benefit of the seller of the product?

[TedHutchinson]

This forum is of course read by many people who do not live in the USA but who do live north of Boston USA so for them the potential of being Vitamin D deficient is real and mostly under recognised. If you want to check how likely it is that you will get the amount of vitamin D you will use today by direct exposure of your skin to sunshine tomorrow then use the calculator at http://zardoz.nilu.no/%7Eolaeng/fastrt/VitD-ez.html
You may find Google Earth or Multimap will help you find you latitude and longitude.
http://www.cholecalciferol-council.com/ The vitamin D council will provide more detailed information on the effect on health of vitamin d deficiency.
Although of course the limited fortification of milk in USA and Canada will be helpful to some extent, the wise reader will attempt to work out the sum total of their dietary vitamin D and take steps to supplement this should the total not match the 4000iu their body used during each day. In the UK and Europe milk is not routinely fortified so those above latitude 49N must realise they will become vitamin d deficient and as a result omega 3 deficient in winter if they don't use sunlamps or supplements. The amount of vitamin D your body uses daily is between 3 and 5000iu. so fortification of milk at less than 100iu a serving will only address the overdraft situation if you consume more than 30 servings and this isn't tenable.
Perhaps Robert isn't aware that many of the UK providers of Omega 3 supplements provide products of a strength that aren't effective so drawing the readers attention to the EPA+DHA content is useful in making them realise they will achieve more value for money if the product they are purchasing is likely to achieve the purpose they intend. Robert may also be interested in the Omega 3 content of a portion of tuna http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?t...spice&dbid=112 and perhaps come to realise that this will not achieve his Omega RDA let alone address his vitamin D daily deficit if he lives above latitude 49N and is unable to obtain at this time of year any free vitamin d from direct exposure to the sun at any time of day at this particular time of the year.

[WordsAplenty]

My youngest daughter is profoundly deaf and my oldest has moderate-to-moderately severe hearing loss. This is the first I've heard of any nutritional link or ADHD link. As the mother of hearing impaired kids, what does this mean to me?

[TedHutchinson]

[quote=WordsAplenty]My youngest daughter is profoundly deaf and my oldest has moderate-to-moderately severe hearing loss. This is the first I've heard of any nutritional link or ADHD link. As the mother of hearing impaired kids, what does this mean to me?[/quote]As Robert has pointed out the nutritional link to hearing loss is in practice extremely rare and quite honestly not worth worrying about AT ALL. I mentioned it as a theorectical possibility not as proven fact. Robert has pointed out that in practice it doesn't happen so please forget I ever mentioned it.

If your children are not currently displaying signs of ADHD, then again this is nothing to worry about. The most critical time for brain development is before the baby is born, by the age of six most brains are more or less fully developed. Ensuring adequate supplies of Omega 3's (most readily accessible to the body from oily fish) while pregnant and lactating and subsequently, will ensure the maximum potential for intelligence and reduce the chances of such conditions as MS, DIABETES, ADHD, ASTHMA, BIPOLAR DISORDER, Cancer, Cardiovascular disease, Crohn's disease Depression,Eczema, Hypertension Lupus, Migrains, Obesity Osteoarthritis Osteoporosis Psoriasis and Rheumatoid Arthritis so it is well worth doing anyway.
This site http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?t...ialneed&dbid=4 has good advice on healthy eating for children.

But you can be sure of one thing and that is that it is unlikely I would go as far as saying it's impossible, apart for it's impact on the general health of your child, for you to do anything to improve hearing through changes to their diet. So please don't think you are in any way responsible for your childrens hearing loss through neglect of their dietary needs.

If your children are showing signs of ADHD (these are listed here http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/symptom.htm) then it's possible that increasing exposure to sunlight (see links above) may allow more Vitamin D to be created but this depends on where you live and going outside for at least 10 minutes exposing as much skin as is decent, (without clothes or sunblock) or using supplements if the duration of synthesis calculator tells you none is available because of latitude or cloud cover.

Having lots of vitamin d enables DHA (an omega 3 essential fatty acid) to pass into the brain cells structure so explaining the seasonal variation in omega levels which, in northern latitudes tend to decline midwinter.

The Durham Trial took place in Northern England and used schools that served a somewhat deprived area. The average consumption of oily fish in the UK is about one portion every 4 weeks. It may be different in USA, certainly the latitude is different. The Durham trial found that giving a high strength omega supplement reduced the symptoms of ADHD but if your children aren't displaying these symptoms then as Robert suggests simply ensuring they get plenty of oily fish in their diet will be sufficient. A recent recommendation was that people consume at least 2% of their total daily calories as omega-3 fats. To meet this recommendation, a person consuming 2000 calories per day should eat sufficient omega-3-rich foods to provide at least 4 grams of omega-3 fatty acids. This goal can be easily met by adding just two foods to your diet: flaxseeds and wild-caught salmon. Two tablespoons of flaxseeds contain 3.5 grams of omega 3 fats, while a 4 ounce piece of salmon contains 1.5 grams of omega 3 fats.

[RobertSRister]

There is something worth mentioning here:
In the US, most cases of vitamin D deficiency are found in the Southeast, not the Northeast. Staying indoors by the air conditioner in summer leads to more D deficiency than staying indoors by the fire, in the USA. Virtually all the cases of (and I shudder just to mention the word, but it's real) rickets occur in the greater Atlanta area. The second problem area for vitamin D deficiency in the USA is greater Detroit, among the Muslim population. What makes a difference in the USA is the widespread supplementation in foods. I'm not a fan of this, but it happens.
As for nutrition and ADHD, that sounds like a great topic for a blog. Posting will be made here when the blog is posted. And thanks, Ted, for sharing your insights about supplements in the UK/EU. Have the supplement formulas been changed since Codex, or has this always been the case?

[WordsAplenty]

Originally Posted by TedHutchinson

So please don't think you are in any way responsible for your childrens hearing loss through neglect of their dietary needs.

Thanks. As a mom, I'm always looking for new things to feel guilty about!
Thanks for taking the time to give me a personal answer. I'll be sure to check out that link. It sounds quite interesting.