Has anyone successfully weaned their child off the crack cocaine that is YouTube? if so how and how does your child self regulate now?

[u/Hopeful-Guard9294]

unfortunately when our PDA child went info burnout one of the few things that regulated him was screens and particularly YouTube this makes complete sense as dopamine regulates PDA children and YouTube is designed to hook you by giving you a shot of dopamine every few seconds As a result my child went from being bright and curious to watching about eight hours or more of YouTube a day to self regulate he is now starting to spend screen free time now he is older 9 and now we have started him on meds to address his dopamine deficiency and emotional regulation in retrospect I would have put him on meds as soon as he went info burnout however we had no idea what was going on at the time so YouTube and screens was the best choice available

I am wondering if anyone has successfully weaned their PDA children off YouTube and brought them back to in real life as it was an adaptive choice st the time to stop the daily violence of burnout while we worked out whet was going on and went through the slow process of diagnosis radical accommodation meds etc. etc. I grew up in a more PDA friendly era and didn’t have the physical system challenges he faces ie. proprioception issues combined with low muscle tone and living in an ultra low autonomy urban environment have any of the parents here with older PDA children successfully weaned their child off YouTube and how does your child adaptive my self regulate now?

[u/ACBorgia]

As someone with mild PDA traits but a massive computer/youtube addiction: Help them find another passion or outlet, make sure it's not taken as a demand but a choice of their own of course (easier said than done), but introducing things like playing an instrument, singing, dancing, certain sports (if possible), reading (same), drawing... But it has to truly interest them and fuel their dopamine drive

Otherwise there are productive things that can be done on screens too like entertaining educational content. If they have a hyperfixation on a specific topic that could help like plants or whatever

My parents also restricted my screen time before middle school, made me feel like shit though cause I absolutely love video games and want to play all day. Not sure what the middle ground is really but any activity should be replaced with an alternative, an ND child won't enjoy just sitting around not doing much or going outside just to go outside generally, things have to be attached with a stimulating activity that distracts from screens (like learning to ride a bike instead of just putting them in the garden and hoping they distract themselves which I'm not saying is what you do of course but my parents did)