Hi, folks.

(I don't remember who mentioned about so many being "diagnosed" as LD,
suggesting that it might be just a different breed of kid--sorry for the
lousy paraphrase but it is 7AM here in Tennessee)

This discussion reminds me of a parent meeting I attended last year at my
daughter's school (she's 8). The topic of the meeting was supposed to be
"Learning Behaviors" but when I got there it seemed that everybody but me
understood that to be a discussion of ADD/ADHD kids. A psychologist was the
guest speaker--not a clinical expert on this topic, but his daughter is ADHD
and he has decided that he is, too.

It was an interesting talk, though strange. Many of the parents there were
discussing how much ritalin their children were taking and the principal
spoke of how many kids they dose every day. They went through a list of the
criteria for this classification, and as I looked at the list, I realized
that many of the criteria fit my daughter at various times. At the same time,
I knew that Merrilee is NOT ADD. It also occurred to me that many of the
symptoms of this disorder can be triggered by putting a kid in an environment
where he  has no control over anything, or where he is being asked to learn
in ways that don't work for him. I am sure that there are kids who truly are
ADD or ADHD, but to listen to this meeting, it seemed as if many were hoping
that ritalin would be the key to making their kids behave. (As a side note,
one thing that bothers me about this school system is that the kids are SO
controlled all day long--bribed into doing things with candy, and punished
when they get out of [a narrow] line. It is no wonder the kids have trouble
concentrating or act out. If we were subjected to the rigidness they are, WE
would rebel!)

There is an excellent book called "How Your Child Is Smart" by Dawn Markova
(I think) that talks about the different ways kids learn best, and speaks of
visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning. According to the book, there are
6 "types" of learners based on what order those three learning paths happen.
My daughter is a classic VKA--visual first, then kinesthetic, then auditory,
which means that she learns best first visually, that she "zones" out if hit
with too much auditory input, be it talking to her or background noise, and
that moving helps her make the connecting between the visual and auditory.
Like her mom(!), she is in motion a lot of the time--and this helps her
learn. For those kids who learn best kinesthically, they may move around a
lot! This does not mean that they need ritalin, though! Most schools teach
based on the visual--auditory--kinesthic pathway. If you fit that pathway,
then school is a breeze.

Now what does this have to do with breastfeeding, you might ask? In one
sense, not much. In another, though, perhaps there is a similarity in degree
of control that we put on our babies when we decide to feed based on a strict
schedule or in some other way don't respond to their needs vs breastfeeding
on demand, holding them, picking them up when they cry (if not before).

Actually, I'm afraid this whole topic just pushed one of my "buttons" and I
couldn't NOT write this one.... Sorry..... ;-)

Melissa Vickers, IBCLC
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