Can Movement Help Your Baby or Child? YES!

The NASPE (National Association for Sport and Physical Education) Guidelines for movement for children are designed to support the health and well-being of children throughout the United States. The guidelines state that “All children from birth to age 5 should engage in daily physical activity that promotes movement skillfulness and foundations of health-related fitness.” Here’s what that really means.

Infants – “Caregivers should place infants in settings that encourage and stimulate movement experiences and active play for short periods of time several times each day.” “You can encourage your infant to be active from the time he or she is born.” For example, offer your infant small challenges like placing a toy just outside their reach, so that the infant crosses the midline of the body to reach and grasp.

Toddlers – “Toddlers should engage in a total of at least 30 minutes of structured physical activity each day.” PLUS at least 60 minutes – and up to several hours – per day of unstructured physical activity and “should NOT be sedentary for more than 60 minutes at a time, except when sleeping.” Encourage moving by modeling and example. Try out simple, safe movements together from baby yoga programs.

Preschoolers – “Preschoolers should accumulate at least 60 minutes of structured physical activity each day.” PLUS at least 60 minutes – and up to several hours – of unstructured activity each day and “should NOT be sedentary for more than 60 minutes at a time, except when sleeping.” Preschoolers love to move. Doing simple, cross-lateral movements like cross crawls before any learning activity helps switch on the brain, encourage focus, and just makes kids feel happy!

When you encourage movement, along with great nutrition and lots of love, you give your baby an important opportunity to avoid ADHD-like behaviors and other challenges later on. We can’t control the ups and downs of life, but movement promotes brain cell development and enhancement, and has been shown to even help children better handle life’s difficulties.

Sadly, most of our schools and day care centers are not meeting the NASPE movement guidelines. And our children’s brains, intelligence, and well-being suffer.

I started the Children’s Brain Body Balancing program to bring simple movements right into the classroom and day care center and give parents tools to help their children focus, feel calm and learn to self-regulate. For more information, check my website – solutionswithoutdrugs.com.

Part 2 – Anderson Cooper Show on ADHD – ADHD Medications’ Adverse Effects

Dear Mr. Cooper,
Parents need to know the following crucial scientific facts on ADHD and ADHD medications that were not addressed on your recent show.
ADHD medications have:
– Wide range of serious adverse effects such as suicide, aggression, sudden death, as well as lifelong reactions such as tardive dyskinesia
– Brain disabling effects, including brain shrinkage and reduced blood flow to the brain
– Negative impact on hormones that affect all organs in the body and weaken the immune system
– Long-term research on the effects of ADHD medication on children does NOT exist. We do not know what potential damage will occur as our children age after taking ADHD medication.
– ADHD is NOT like diabetes. There is no chemical test or blood test for ADHD. There is no scientific proof that ADHD exists. All assessments of ADHD are subjective, not scientific.
– ADHD medications create OCD in children, forcing the brain to focus whether it is biologically safe to do so or not.
– ADHD medications are gateway drugs, with the potential for even more serious drug addiction.
– Scientific studies show that medication-free options with no side effects are three times MORE effective than ADHD medications in helping children change their behavior and self-regulate.
– Brain scans show normal developmental differences in children with behavior labeled ADHD. The normal wiring of a child’s brain that produces self-regulation requires time to develop.
– Majority of research on ADHD medications is performed directly by the pharmaceutical companies, even when it is contracted by the FDA.
– ADHD drugs were part of the medication cocktails used by high school shooters in the U.S.
– ADHD medications can delay the normal maturational cycle of behavior.
– ADHD medications may convince a child that he or she is incapable of self-control without a pill, turning them into lifelong patients.

Sincerely,
Marcia Lee, Solutions Without Drugs, Children’s Brain/Body Balancing

Part 1 – Anderson Cooper Show on ADHD – Not a Fair Fight

Dear Mr. Cooper,
Parents deserve to hear important facts about ADHD medications that were not addressed recently on your show about ADHD. The lives and health of millions of American children are at stake. We do not want our children to have to pay the terrible price of our ignorance.

ADHD medications are neurotoxic and brain-disabling. This is the real science that Dr. Jensen intentionally did not address. Nor did Dr. Jensen address the fact that psychiatry is trying to make us believe that age-appropriate childhood behavior is an illness. Dr. Jensen’s calm, soothing tones were an act designed to hide bad medicine. His description of children losing their “sparkle” is a far cry from the reality of children drugged into submission like zombies.

Since the 1980s the FDA has warned repeatedly about the seriousness and overuse of psycho-stimulants (ADHD medication) on children. These are the same drugs that were banned from the American market years ago as diet pills and the chemical cousins to the street drugs we DON’T want our children to use. These drugs have been repackaged as ADHD medication, but a nice ad campaign cannot hide the deadly facts.

You need to fight fair, Mr. Cooper, and ask a doctor of similar status and medical background to appear on your show, such as David Stein or Peter Breggin, who can explain the very real and frightening effects of ADHD medications and give parents healthy options for helping their children grow and mature safely. For this to be a fair debate, you also need to produce a show that invites parents of children who died or were permanently impaired because of ADHD medication. Give parents a chance to experience the other side.

Parents can check online at solutionswithoutdrugs.com, psychintegrity.org, and toxicpsychiatry.com for accurate and complete information on ADHD and ADHD medication.

Sincerely,
Marcia Lee, Solutions Without Drugs, Children’s Brain/Body Balancing

Children’s Brain/Body Balancing Workshop – Level One – January 7, 2012 (Saturday) for Teachers, Parents and Professionals

January 7, 2012 (Saturday) – 9 am – 5 pm
Children’s Brain/Body Balancing Workshop – Level One
for Teachers, Parents, Professionals

Start the new year with the best teaching and parenting tool available!
Help children focus, self-regulate, feel calm, and concentrate using simple movements in the classroom and at home!
Join Marcia Lee, Educational Trainer, Reading Specialist, ADHD Consultant, for a dynamic, information-filled workshop:
Location: High Desert Center for Spiritual Living, 5621 Paradise Blvd. NW, (west of Golf Course Rd.) Albuquerque, NM
Cost: $129 per person, Eligible for 6 CEUs, Approved on NM Trainer Registry
RESERVATIONS: Call 949-468-9841 or Email solutions4kids@yahoo.com
Note: Call for info to see if you qualify for FREE admission!
Limited Space! Call NOW to reserve a space!

Doctors Agree: Do NOT Medicate Children for Difficult Behavior

A panel of renowned medical doctors and a lawyer explain the dangers of giving ADHD and psychotic medications to children and the damage these drugs do to the developing brain, body, and psyche of children. The drugs do not provide long term changes in behavior and they expose children to the risk of drug dependency, addiction, and mild as well as severe side effects that could last a lifetime. These professionals strongly recommend positive medication-free alternatives for helping children who demonstrate difficult behavior. Positive and effective alternatives include exercise, counseling, and behavior modification.

Exciting ISEPP 2011 Conference – Alternatives to Biological Psychiatry Draws Large Enthusiastic Audience

The 2011 ISEPP Conference, “Alternatives to Biological Psychiatry – If We Don’t Medicate, What Do We Do?” held in Los Angeles recently was a huge success. This conference drew an eager crowd of clinicians, researchers, students, parents, doctors, and mental health professionals. First time attendees were overwhelmed with the wide range of alternatives to biological psychiatry.

My presentation on “Childhood ADHD Behavior: The Neuroscience Behind Using Movement to Self-Regulate Instead of Medication,” received a warm and appreciative welcome from the audience. All of the attendees jumped right in to sample the movements I teach for helping children self-regulate.

Attendees also asked for the Amazing Brain Charts I’ve created that explain what happens to each hemisphere of the brain under stress – symptoms that are currently being labeled “ADHD,” but are actually normal behavior for anyone under stress.

I attended several remarkable presentations. DuBose Ravenel, M.D., a pediatrician and author from North Carolina (“The Diseasing of America’s Children”), presented drug-free solutions for behavior problems labeled ADD, ODD and Childhood Bipolar Disorder. His approach included parenting research, nutritional guidelines, educational practices, and extensive research on the serious, detrimental side effects of medication.

Scott Shannon, M.D., a pediatrician and author (“Please Don’t Label My Child”), from Colorado, spoke about “The Ecology of the Child: A New View of Pediatric Mental Health.” His presentation offered a critique of the current diagnostic and treatment system, the lack of scientific evidence for reliability of medications, and a range of positive interventions that honor and manage the challenges of the larger web of interactions in each child’s life.

Noelene Weatherby Fell and Brian Kean from Australia spoke about the non-medical intervention piloted and taught at the University Wollongong that supports the mental health of both students and teachers using positive, non-invasive, life-affirming methods for the classroom, particularly with new teachers. Australian innovations in teacher education would be a great asset for U.S. schools.

Kudos as well go to Michael Gilbert, Psy.D., one of many hardworking conference organizers. Michael Gilbert founded a not-for-profit clinical and resource center called “It’s About Childhood and Family, Inc.” He recently launched the “Inner Wealth Initiative,” a grassroots movement to provide families an alternative to the traditional mental health system.

Here’s a brief video of Al Galves, Executive Director of ISEPP speaking with me at the ISEPP Conference about my program, Solutions Without Drugs, helping children self-regulate using simple movements.