My size 10 Chuck Taylor's do the best and NO chemical residue...common' over and play buggies!!!

Whatthe. Point blank! Yes we should worry about pesticides but, more and more ADHD is from poor parenting where they do not know how to make their children mind. The parents are on prescription drugs themselves. I am from the old, old school and yes there was no chemical residue or prescription drugs. The new fad is autism. This is an insult to children who really are.

RFA,

Are you kidding, that was one of the most ignorant and disrespectful rants I have heard in a while!

Autism is a FAD!

ADHD and Autism is caused by bad parenting! What is wrong with you!

These are serious issues facing our country right now and research like this may help us start to move towards finding a path!

RFA, yeah, that's what I thought, too. Until I got hit with not one, but both of my boys! Apparently, it can run in families. My husband had it when he was a kid and was on Ritalin and so did one of his sisters. Even now as adults, I think they're both still ADD.

All these "hyperactive" kids of the 70's have reproduced as well as our population in general. I think that's why you see so much of it nowadays.

Oh, believe me, RFA, my husband and I are very conscientious of parenting and far from push-over, permissive parents. Your blanket statement is ignorant regarding ADHD; however, poor parenting does influence outcomes of all children.

I did not say autism is only a fad. Since it is getting harder to get a diagnosis of and drugs for children with ADHD, it has been reported that there is a rise in autism claims. There is just autism. There is error in and abuse of diagnosis just as there always has been with diagnosis of the mind/brain/mental illness. I have worked in the field along with friends and witness the abuse of diagnosis. I have seen those who work in the field who are not the best qualified. I remember working with a retired psychiatrist who said "when I first started, I used to talk to the patients. Now all I do is to write prescriptions for drugs." The sale of drugs is behind many diagnoses and treatment in any part of the body including the brain. I have work with professionals that have said behind doors that the parent and not the child really need the drugs/therapy.

It's impossible to wash off the pesticides from apples, strawberries, peaches, nectarines, tomatoes and other soft-skinned fruits because they absorb the chemicals as they grow. When you eat these foods you're consuming the malathion or whatever organic pesticide was used.

Recent studies seem to show a connection between the high rates of autism in America and the use of pesticides on our food crops. This is heartbreaking to me because my only child has ADD, ADHD and Asperber's Syndrome. I was very careful during my pregnancy to wash fruits and vegetables but I ate commercially grown food.

My son is autistic. One out of 100 children are born autistic in this country. If this is the case, changes must be made in food production.

Better idea: not use them at all! ever.

Babies don't grow inside the father.

Oh Really - gee thanks for that insightful comment - they do however have a small role in making a baby dont they?

Nor are sperm likely to have exposure to pesticides from the blood. Isn't sperm nonmetabolic, once produced?

Well I suppose if the father ate something with a pesticide on it and then had a make-out session with the mother, he could have exposed her to some pesticide that could end up in the baby.

If you're asking about the sperm, the article says "prenatal exposure", not "pre-conception exposure."

The way I understood it, the risk comes with continued exposure of metabolized pesticides. I don't think the woman can metabolize pesticides through her vagina.

Or it could just be a random accident of genetics. There have been (what were at the time called) unruly children for hundreds, probably thousands of years before pesticides were used. Even the fact that we're largely a nation of immigrants and the descendents of immigrants means that we're more likely to have a genetic predisposition for ADD than people in Europe; people with ADD are more likely to abandon everything they're familiar with to make a new life on a completely different continent.

ADD is never the mother's fault, unless she knows that pesticides cause ADD and deliberately eats unwashed fruit for kicks or something. It's a biological condition; the brains of ADD people have a different metabolic footprint when compared to the brains of non-ADD people. How you, as a parent, manage the results of that condtion...well, that's on you. Hopefully you're doing well.

Agree with genetic predispostion! In addition to you Omega-3 supplements, try to cut out rice, corn chips and other carbohydrates. Good luck!

That vicious, uncaring flower industry.

Busy Mom, you shouldn't feel quilty as you did nothing wrong. You had no way of knowing what was going on halfway around the world. My son also has ADHD yet no-one in either my husbands or my family has ever been diagnosed with it. ADHD can make life challenging but my son and I look at it as a positive also. He learns very quickly and can do two or three things at once where others would only be able to do one.

I was exposed to DDT as a child when someone came up with the brilliant idea to 'fog' entire neighborhoods to kill mosquitoes.

I have mild-moderated ADHD. Damn straight I think the dots connect.

Who says it WASN'T out of control? It wasn't classified till the 1970s.

Correct, there are many reports of 'hyper-active' children from that time frame but the classification wasn't made until 1973. By that time there was enough cases to tie the behavior to a diagnosis but until this study (and it is still up for debate) there has been no smoking gun as to what the cause might be. Many people of that time believed (I feel incorrectly) it had more to do with parents not disiplining children and was not given serious attention until many years later, when the drug companies began researching and manufacturing pschologicaly altering drugs that 'calmed' the subject down so that they could 'go to school' like normal kids.....

I went to elementary school in the 50's, yes we had hyper kids but the teachers handled it, the kids learned to sit still and pay attention. I had a hyper child and the school wanted me to get him help, he was in the second grade. When I questioned the teacher, she said he was always in motion but not disruptive. My answer: He's a straight A student and he will learn to sit still. By 4th grade he was fine. I honestly believe the problem is lack of patience in adults. Everyone has ADHD, it's just human nature. We all get distracted and hyper at times.

Finally, a "down our throats" statement that's actually referencing something that would go down the throat.

I just hope I never hear a statement like that in reference to the porn industry. And especially not the penis enlargement scams.

I grew up in South America I don't remember knowing anybody with a peanut allegy at all. We grew up buying roasted peanuts from a cart :) http://www.flickr.com/photos/coccinella169/2497116377/

Gluten/lactose free diets were unheard of. I've been wondering the same thing since I moved to the US.

The study doesn't try to "PROVE" anything. It's highlighting a link between women with high amounts of pesticides in their body during pregnancy and whether or not their children develop ADHD.

Here's a possible link for you.... consider all the unwashed food you've eaten in your life, and then re-examine your post... serously.

Linda, I have a friend with celiac disease. I you saw the suffering she went through and have a shred of compassion, You wouldn't be so flippant.

Yes, wheat and other glutens can be very bad. Besides, who the hell needs wheat starch in tomato soup?

the starch thickens the soup.... otherwise it would be think and drippy.

I have not noticed that it is primarily boys. However, I have noticed that the girls with ADHD are often overlooked. Maybe that's because it is relegated to "ditsy" females. I come from a family that has it in spades. And interestingly, it is almost always the females that have been saddled with it.

I would be surprised if pesticides did not play a factor in this. It is poison. Stress, illness, and many other factors tip the scales to cause one who has a predispositiom to acquire it. Why not this?

I am one of the women that I know that was/is diagnosed with ADHD so I know that females HAVE been diagnosed with ADHD. I will admit that there aren't many of us but we are out there. Now that it's been made obvious these days that ADHD does not necessarily mean acting out agressively more female are being diagnosed and treated.

You forgot the last sentence.... "As cheaply and efficiently as possible."

I'm not saying that farmers are out to get us, but more crop = more money, right, and in this country money is king. So while I'm hopeful that you're not really trying to poison me, I'm not so naive to beleive that there aren't farmers out there that will skirt every rule in the book to grow a bigger better crop as cheaply as possible, even if that means using methods or chemicals that might not necessarily be healthy.

Organic foods cost more becuase the yeilds are much lower, but personally I'd pay $1 for a tomato that I know isn't coated with checmicals that human beings were never intended to ingest.

Beans, go ahead and pay $1.00 for a tomatoe- probrably why you have to eat beans. Lets subscribe to all the hype and pay more for everything, why not? If you want to eat insect and rat infested , and yummy e-coli bacteria riden tomatoes and spinach- and pay more for them, go ahead.

I will read the article you suggested, but next time you are at an organic farm, walk through the wheat fields and barns and see how clean and "organic" their grain and vegetables really are.

Wait until you become ill and have to switch to all fresh, organic whole foods; it makes a believer out of you real fast. And it's all yummy, too!

I am very glad that your children have not had a predisposition to this. I wish them, and you, the best.

A child (or adult) with ADHD is not of lower intelligence. In fact, they typically have higher IQ's. Additionally, hyperactivity and academic problems are not the only symptoms of ADHD. The typical symptom is usually a lack of self-awareness which can be improved so long as they are approached with information in a way that they can process. I believe that ADHD can be exacerbated with chemicals and/or injury, but typically it is genetic and just means that they are picture thinkers, not word thinkers (phonics won't work). ADHD and Dyslexic individuals are some of the most intelligent and dynamic people in the world, so long as they have been influenced in positive ways.

I would eat only organic if I could, but with 1 income, 5 mouths to feed, nearly 6-figure debt, I couldn't afford it. And if you look how we live, it's not that I was irresponsible buying big-ticket items that I couldn't afford. It sort of p1sses me off that organics-only eaters can be so self-righteous and snobbish in attitude, it seems elitist to me.

The question of what causes ADHD is complicated certainly. I believe predisposition has something to do with it. I'm sue everyone here can recognise people in their lives that have more predisposition toward something than other people, be it being affected by alcohol or other drugs/medications, smell, taste, emotion. It wouldn't even make sense to me if people did not have different predisposition to ADHD. And maybe the combination with organophosphates, or whatever, is what triggers certain people and not others. And parents certainly can affect their children's behavior, as well. (That's a real "duh" statement)

Did it ever occur to you to think that you may be very fortunate?

ADHD does not always show up early on. Many very bright kids aren't diagnosed until later on. My son was just diagnosed at 14. Their high intelligence helps them compensate at younger ages but it gets harder as school school gets more difficult.

I agree that as a society, we need to become a little less dependent on pesticides, however eliminating them is simply an impossibility. As a 3rd generation golf course superintendent, I have been around my share of pesticides since I was born. I am pretty bright, as are all of my siblings, and none of us have any mental disorders. I go to great lengths to minimize the amount of pesticides I use, and I am certain the amount we use now has been reduced by more than half of what it was 10 years ago. So while we are reducing, it is still impossible for agriculture to eliminate it. The pesticides of today are much safer than those of the 70's and 80's, and they have to go through a minimum of 7 years of testing before they are ever released to the public. As skepticle as people may be, I find it hard to believe that the FDA would allow a pesticide to be used if there was sufficient data that proves they were unsafe. There are so many household items that are actually more hazardous than some commonly used pesticides . . . table salt has a lower LD50 than most pesticides.

That said, I eat organic vegetables when I can. But the use of pesticides is absolutely necessary to actually produce an affordable and edible crop. People say they are willing to pay $1 for a tomato . . . without pesticides at all, 1 tomato is likely to cost $3. Its supply and demand. As it is now, 20% of the crop won't make it at all. Of those tomatos that do, only 15% are considered good enough to sell as is . . .the remaining 85% go to the cannery for processing. Now if we were to eliminate pesticides altogether, 60% wouldn't make it, and that is a conservative estimate. Of the 40% that does, only 3-4% would be deemed pretty enough to go to market as is . . . and you would still have the possibility of dealing with mites, worms, and other soil born pathogens contaminating the crop. The same is true for most fruits and veggies. We couldn't produce enough to supply this country. But I would rather eat that than bite into a peach with a worm in it. Trace amounts of pesticide residue can always be found . . . hell, I could test a basketball for any chemical and find trace amounts of it. Sorry to get on a soapbox, I can gripe about this all day. I just wish all of you who are 100% organic actually knew both sides of the story, not just what you hear on Good Morning America.

My siblings and I have suffered moderate to severe ADHD all our lives, and as intelligent mature adults who are still afflicted with this we can tell you that there is something wrong with our brains, straight up. Each of us are completely different people but our experiences with our brains' flaw are so similar that its just seems so hard for me to believe that it can just be our "behavior".

The pharmaceutical interests like to identify ambiguous health issues that are treatable with their drugs. As part of their aggressive pharmaceutical marketing of ADHD, family doctors receive free education and drug samples. Before long, family doctors were diagnosising many more ADHD. As people start believing all the various ailments the pharmaceutical company suggest, they become patients of the drug companies. Like a bunch of dopes, too many Americans fall for the scam.

To all the persons who are denying the existence of ADD and ADHD: neural scans have confirmed the brains of those who suffer from these disorders are different from those who don't have the disorders, so your argument explodes in the hanger.

If you were informed about current ADD and ADHD research you would be aware that ADD, ADHD, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Asperger's Syndrome are all linked. They are all forms of Autism. If you have nothing constructive to add to the dialogue perhaps you should keep your comments to yourselves.

No child outgrows ADHD. They only learn how to adapt as they grow. This is not something that happens in severe cases and shouldn't be expected to happen for every child with ADHD.

I am a 25 year old female living with ADHD. I take medications and go to therapy every three months. I am affected by this disorder, but I do not let it take hold of my life. Certain days can be very hard to get through and tasks can become incomparable for those without the disorder to understand. I was a shy child and I was overlooked because I was not unruly. My parents did a very good job raising my sister and I. To suggest that poor parenting is the reason behind my disorder is an ignorant statement. In order to really understand what the disorder is you need to live with it. I can tell you that my treatment has helped me succeed and has bettered my self esteem. There are different types of ADD and ADHD. Do your research before you jump to conclusions. If medication didn't help your child, but strict parenting, I think that would suggest your parenting skills might have needed to be re-evaluated.

I am sorry there is no way that you mother got chemical on her hand and nothing happened to her but it killed a cat just by holding it, been around and know these chemicals way to good for you to pull that over my eyes.

It is not a disease, it is a disorder. Their brains are different.

I have seven children half are adhd and their father and his mother are also adhd. Half of my grandchildren are adhd. I ate very little fruit and vegatab les when i was pregant. this is a heriditary trait, there are also many kids drug exposed who had attention disorders and learning problems but is it true adhd? So maybe some kids who are exposed to toxic level of any type of chemical can cause problems with the brain development, but say pesticides are the cause of adhd I have a problem with. who ever said adhd is bad parents are just ignorant

There have been earlier studies done that show that plastic heated in the microwave can also cause ADD. So if mothers heat baby bottles, like I did, in the microwave....well, not a good idea. For about 2 years now plastic bottles are free of that chemical, but I now re-heat my leftovers in glass in the microwave