If you are considering putting your child on ADD medication please consider trying this first. My son is considered to have attention deficit or focusing issues. He is now 11 1/2 years old and going into middle school. We first noticed the problem when he was in kindergarden. He is exceptionally bright and could loose attention easily when the teacher was talking about something that he already knew. As he progressed we noticed that he was consistantly slow to do his school work in the class and was staring out the window much of the time. My doctor suggested putting him on concerta. We tried the low dose and it worked for a short while, but he experienced mood swings and became very angry when he took the medicine. He also becase sleepless at night and would be up til 1am or later some nights. The effects wore off and the dosage needed to be increased. As the dosage increased so did the side effects. In 5th grade it peaked and they increased his dose again to the highest level. He began to have heart palpatations and trouble breathing the first day. The side effects were almost unbearable, he would cry for no reason all the time and become enraged over the smallest thing. I was determined to try to help him with out medicine. After doing research I found that exercise is supposed to help concentration and focus. the only problem I had is that my son does not like sports and didn’t want to play. I finally tried the Fit Your World Kidsercise DVD. The exercise really helped him focus better and pay attention. The workouts are short, so I had him do 1 workout before school and 1 after school. He loved the equipment that came with the kit and he didn’t realize that he was exercising. It was much easier to get the homework done after exercise. We adjusted his diet and took out sugar and most processed foods. I also saw a connection with his focusing and the amount of TV and video games that he played. Cutting back on video game playing made a huge difference. I was really happy with the results. He slept better and returned to his happy self. I know that nothing helps focus like the ADD meds, but sometimes the benefits do not out way the negitive side effects. He would tell me how much he hated the meds, but he thought that he needed them to do well in school. He is realizing that he can help himself focus by exercising, eating right, and limiting his electronic stimulation. I hope this is able to help other parents considering medicaton. Try the other methods first, the medicine will be there if they don’t work.