Lessons with Lauren

Lauren is our second child. She is three years old.
She has an older sister a year older than she is. And two younger sisters.
She is very cute, and she knows it, along with being adored and doted over by friends and family.
Her personality brightens up each day, and she is a social butterfly of the most magnificent colors.
She loves to cuddle and sit alongside adults to take in whatever it is that they are doing. She is a brave little girl, and loves to show off. She is our MONKEY.

Lauren has a hard time focusing. She gets distracted over the smallest things. She has a hard time expressing her desires and her feelings with words, so she does it with actions. She does it very well and has been known to hide her insecurities with her bright smile and her delightful personality. She is left handed and is one of the most creative little girls. She loves to draw and cut with scissors, however, she finds it very very difficult to sit down and follow directions even with her peers.
She loves to interrupt for an important Lauren message that can carry on for some time. Often, we remind her that it isn't always her turn to speak, or that our ears are tired. She continues with her little quirky antics anyway.

I discussed a few of her little nuances with our pediatrician. I mentioned my concern over her ability to express the things she knew like her numbers and colors. I noticed how she would almost shut down when someone asked her a thought provoking question, and she would hide behind her thumb. I noticed how hard it was for her to tell me something important and get her thoughts across. I was concerned with her inability to eat dinner without getting distracted even if it was a bowl of ice cream or a cup of milk, or her favorite snack.
Lauren was cute all right, but a twit of sorts. Some would say she was just the typical blond. I felt there was more to that. I wanted to find some answers.
I adjusted her diet a few times. I added more protein, better sleeping habits. I watched her as we constantly, consistently tried a few new things and tweaked a few existing things.
Lauren started to get a bit down on herself as she tried and tried to actively participate and learn new things. She wasn't being naughty, she was just being disruptive in her own way of trying to cooperated and be apart of the activities.

The pediatrician and I discussed a few things that might add to Lauren's plate of learning difficulties. First, that she was left handed in a right-handed family, or that she was the second child following after a very intelligent older sister who read at the age of three.
Maybe because her grandfather was diagnosed highly bi-polar and most of her uncles had learning disabilities and ADHD or ADD growing up. Maybe her mother's dyslexia. Maybe just that she was three.
The pediatrician didn't necessarily recommend or endorse Ritalin or it's counterparts or anything else, but wanted me to know about something she had heard about by a study performed at Texas Tech, about a study of known ADHD kids put on a sports nutritional drink called SPARK produced by a company called Advocare. She sent me the link to the study and told me their were lots of alternatives to chemicals and prescription drugs. So I looked up the product and the study via the link she emailed me, and considered buying Spark to try it out. I put the link in a file on my desk top to consider it later.

About a month later, I called Lauren's grandmother to discuss the possibilities of trying a few things to help her to concentrate, learn easier and be successful, she suggested trying the SPARK drink. I thought about it stronger this time and went to the website to check the pricing. Then I let it ride for a few days.

Saturday, June 26th 2010 I was at a neighbor's house and noticed SPARK on her counter, I got all excited and started asking her all sorts of questions about it, assuming she knew something about it. Well, she had NO clue what it was. It belonged to her niece and nephew, they were visiting for a few days for some conferences and she was watching their kids. As she said was that they were sports buffs and like to eat healthy and they drank it. I waited to meet them and ask them more about the products.
Come to find out, they sold Advocare, and were new to the organization, but really liked the drink. They had heard it was good for older kids with hyperactivity disorders, but didn't know much about the effects of the study done by Texas Tech. They too were interested to learn more.
I thought about it late that night, and thought, it was worth my effort to put my three year old on SPARK and document the results on a blog. If it worked, we would continue using it and would allow my other girls to try it and monitor them as well.
So... this blog is dedicated to the study of SPARK drink. on my active twitter bug/ monkey of a daughter.
My plan is to try it for 14 days, administering it to her in four ounce increments twice a day.
I will then have her do her coloring and counting and writing exercises she is accustomed to, but monitor her results with what we typically see, and note any changes from the norm or old norm if things progress in her learning.

This blog my become tedious and cumbersome, but I plan to do a through job, as I can always edit or remove mundane data at a later date, but will find it hard to put it in at a later date if it is not documented. I will however use the skill of hind site to note anything I may have noticed in order to try to make the most accurate account of weather SPARK works for her, and weather or not we should pursue adding it to our diet, or our kids' daily regimen.

Here goes. Honestly, I am keeping an open mind to the results, and I am not looking for some miracle cure. Really my design in doing this is to note the little changes in hopes of finding something that will make it easier for my little girl to focus and learn. I do not know what the outcome will be, and at this point it is a fifty-fifty chance at weather or not this stuff works.
Also, I would like to note that a few of my friends have stated that they would like to see if this works as to consider it for their own children, which make me want to do a good thorough job at observing and documenting any results that I find. Also, it has been suggested that after the two weeks, I should take her off for a few days and observe any changes that way to see if it works. I might just do that, really I don't know at this time if I will.
Wish me luck, or rather, wish Lauren luck as this is her trial and I am just the administrator and loving parent that would love to see her succeed, even if this isn't the solution.

Liz