I Take Vitamin B.
After a few weeks on L-Tyrosine, Dylan started taking something called “Focus Factor.” I found it at Costco while browsing in the vitamin aisle, and told Dylan to take that as a supplement, too.
I never gave it a second thought.
Then summer came. I looked at the ingredients. The vast majority were in the Vitamin B category – 750% of the daily recommended dosage of B6, and 333% of the daily recommended dosage of B12 – along with 250% Vitamin C. Some other stuff is thrown in – Vitamin A, iron, manganese – but not to such an extreme level.
I’m not a fan of “extreme levels” when it comes to vitamins. In fact, I decided that Dylan didn’t need to take this vitamin at all over the summer.
So one day, he didn’t take it. He still took his L-Tyrosine, of course, because it was so important.
Within hours, Dylan was on my last nerve.
He was boisterous, rambunctious, spinny and bouncy. He was loud and seemed unable to stay quiet. When I asked him to do something, he forgot. Then he forgot again.
At one point, I looked at him and he was completely spaced out. I’d just been explaining how to pack his suitcase for a weekend trip we were taking.
“Did you hear me, Dylan?”
“What?” he stammered. “Yeah, yeah, I heard you!” And then he halfway repeated what I’d said.
Ten minutes later, I heard him yelling at Shane: “You’re not supposed to put your clothes in a suitcase!”
And yet, Shane was supposed to put his clothes in a suitcase. At precisely the time Dylan had spaced out, when he said he’d heard me, he simply hadn’t been focused at all.
It wasn’t until almost dinnertime when I remembered that he hadn’t taken the Focus Factor.
I re-studied the ingredients. Tons of Vitamin B and some Vitamin C, too.
I take Vitamin B, I thought. It’s supposed to help with irritability. So I got a Vitamin B Complex tablet and gave it to Dylan.
“What’s this?” he said, still reeling from whatever random joke he’d just screeched at his brother.
“Vitamin B,” I said. “Just take it.” And he did.
I looked up foods high in Vitamin B12: shellfish (particularly clams and crabs), liver and soy. Dylan gave up seafood awhile ago, when he got hermit crabs as pets. We limit soy to once a week because of the cancer link. And no one ever eats liver.
Bran cereal is loaded with B12, but Dylan hates cereal. There is a bit of B12 in eggs (an ADHD-kid’s best friend!) and cheese. Beef is also very high in B12 – and Dylan devours beef.
I looked up foods high in B6, too: sunflower seeds, pistachio nuts, fish, poultry – a bit in beef and pork. I made Dylan a cheeseburger for dinner.
But it didn’t do any good. Dylan was still very unfocused, unable to control his own impulses, and incapable of the responsible behavior I’d seen for nearly two months.
I’ve no idea if this was a fluke or not, but the next day, he went right back to taking both vitamins. Someday soon, when I get really brave, we’ll see what he’s like on just the Focus Factor and no L-Tyrosine.
But not today.