Bringing Children Back to Nature

How childhood trauma could be mistaken for ADHD

How childhood trauma could be mistaken for ADHD July 7, 2014By Rebecca Ruizin ACE Study,Adverse childhood experiences, Child abuse, Child trauma, TraumaTags: ACE Study,ADHD, adverse childhood experiences, toxic stress, trauma32 Comments

[Photo credit: woodleywonderworks, Flickr]

Dr. Nicole Brown’s quest to understand her misbehaving pediatric patients began with a hunch.

Brown was…

Water tank: Filtered water is kept in the tank and slowly released into the breadbaskets below

Vegetables growing in breadbasket: Breadbaskets filled with porous lava stoned are used to grow vegetables. The stones and vegetables roots trap the nutrients and filter the water which then flows into the fish tank below.

Fish droppings enrich the water with nutrients for growing vegetables

A variety of small vegetables can be grown such as swiss chard, cows peas, eggplants, sweet peppers, etc.

Pump: A solar powered or had pump recycles the water to the top tank, ready for the cycle to start again.

Chickens provide meat and eggs for consumption and/or for sale. Their droppings are captured and used to feed the fish.

Aquaponics

This unique system integrates fish, poultry and vegetable farming using recycled water. It is designed to maximise the yield of each component, whilst minimising the amount of water required. Our research has shown that Haller’s aquaponics system uses only 2% of the water conventionally needed for the same vegetable production. This is particularly important in drought-prone areas in Africa.  Haller’s aquaponics system is also affordable, it is made with low cost materials that can be found locally.

We have made several changes to this initial design – in particular to the fish tanks.  A revised illustration is currently being worked on.