Interesting development with diet... | ADHD Information

The diet thing is so interesting.  Off topic a bit, my sister was told by her dr. to cut her refined carbohydrates and follow the South Beach diet to help regulate hormones.  She apparently, gets so bad during that time that she can't function and her family suffers.  She didn't want drugs.

I'm not advocating this diet or any other diet - just an observation.

Well, she tried it and the first month, she said she was like a new person. She said she was able to live with the swings better.

She suggested I try it during that time and I have to admit, all I did was elimate sugar and switch to complex whole wheat carbs and I did notice a difference in myself too. I don't get as bad as my sis but I have my mood swings.

So, I could never give up sugar completely but I think whole grains, limiting sugar or eliminating it, lots of fruits and veggies and good quality low fat protein sure can't hurt. My son's growth Dr. tried to tell him to eat lots of veggies and to cut out the soda.  An occassional diet soda as okay in his book.

I was watching a healthy chef on one of the cooking channels and she was cooking sugar free. She said that too much sugar can make people tired all the time.  Who knows. 

If we can get our kids to eat healthy, even if it doesn't help with the ADD or whatever they have, it certainly can't hurt their health.

Maybe if we tell them we want them to eat the junk, there rebellious nature and ODD  will choose the health food?

 

rswf39252.4852662037I am about to do the Feingold diet one week try.  I think the hardest thing for us is tomatoes.  Next comes grapes! With two catsup junkies, a salsa junkie and an Italian husband it should be interesting! 

The biggest magic I ever found with diet was to eliminate red dye.  It makes a huge difference in my son.  That was last summer and this summer we will give Feingold a go.  

Thanks everyone for your support and replys.  If you want to try Feingold go to www.feingold.org. 

It worked best for hyperactivity for us but not attentiveness so much and not at all for impusiveness.  The key is to remove all artificials and salicylic acid fruits.  It can take up to 6 weeks for the yucky stuff to get out of their system.  Some people see it in less than a week.  It can be more expensive unless you want to make everything from scratch.  I work fulltime so I go to Whole Foods alot.  There are alot of things at my Safeway that are fine.  The hardest thing is parties at school, daycare, and other people's houses.  People just don't understand that it can be a delayed reaction with some kids. 

All people are different with their reactions to artificials.  You have to write everything down for about 6 months - 1 year before you get a handle on what is "normal" and what is a reaction.  I didn't have my dh's full coorperation so that was the main reason we didn't do as well as we could have.  Some kids cannot take corn syrup and I think my ds is like that but it is very difficult to remove from your diet if you do not do everything from scratch. 

 

Anyway, we are still working on it so I will give updates and they happen.:-)

 

L.

...we have been doing the Feingold diet with some success for 2 years.  Mostly it helps my ADD inattentive dd (11 yo) with supplements also.  It helped my ds with hyperactivity but not with impulsiveness.  So after almost being kicked out of 1st grade we went ahead and got a diagnosis and started Concerta.  I should say that Feingold may have worked better if we had taken it to the extreme of cutting out glutton (bread) and milk but my dh was not willing to go that far. 

Anyway, this past weekend we went to my in laws, who have never understood the diet, and decided to see if the diet was still necessary.  Oh boy!  The diet helped more that I thought!  When he wasn't listening and was defient when we got back I wasn't surprised but he also had trouble sleeping!  We are going back on the diet - I sure hope he can control himself at daycare!  The meds seem to work with the Concerta so he doesn't need a higher dose. (I am guessing) 

Just thought I would share,

L.

 

 

That is so interesting.  I totally believe that nutrition plays a role in behavior.

I know my teen eats way too much sugar and junk.  I cook very healthy - whole wheat - veggies - low protein, etc. etc.

My kid is way to defiant and stubborn to even eat when he is hungry, let alone follow a diet.  I can monitor the junk at home but he eats it out. He buys it at school, (he takes his own money), and he now goes to the convenience stores with his friends and tanks up on junk.  We have spoken to him about this and given him lectures, but he won't listen.

When he has had a good day, and coincentally, he has eaten pretty healthy, we have tried to bring this to his attention. He relunctantly will agree but just goes back to the same old habits.

I have wanted to try the Feringold, but my dh is cheap and  insists on doing the grocery shopping to save the money. We don't eat a lot of junk, anyway.

I have, however, foound it quite interesting that my dd w/ adhhhhd age almost 8 is NOT a junk food junkie - she dfeintely prefers NOT to eat the Twinkies and Ho-ho's. the only juice box she will drink is all natural lemonade. She will occasionally have a coke or diet coke when offered, but would just as soon have water.

The only junk foods she likes are ice cream (we get the non-preservative kind or I make my own - the one thing dh is NOt cheap on....) and pretzels and potato chips - we get the anti loaded versions of these as well as dh refuses to buy so I get on the rare trips I make to get groceries. When she tries the preservative ladden stuff, she refuses to eat. I can't help but wonder if she has self-selected her own needed diet.

As far as my non-adhder, I have noticed she comes home from preschool and sunday school totally torqued, because she loads up on all the crap snacks they give her. Also, the first time she got full strength juice, she turned into a juice junkie. Since we don't give it full strength but on rare occasions, she does what she can to load up when she gets the chance. I can't help but think she gets "high" from the stuff.

She is the kind that if I refuse to let her have something, she wants it all the more, so I do let her have the stuff on occasion. I just anticipate she'll be wound up. Luckily - she is just a happy child who gets even happier, but manic, when she gets her "fix."

I don't know what the Feingold diet is but I like chocolate but don't eat it very often. I drink milk and I eat bread but never the kind made at the store with yeast, just chapatti, roti and bannock.

I am however, a fruit junkie. Don't drink juice and almost never ever pop.

I ate a fairly healthy diet as a kid as well.

I suspect that diet isn't the whole answer because I'm not that bad with it. However, eating healthy can't hurt. I also found that PROTEIN [meat and cheese] are the most helpful foods in alleviating the hyperactivity for me.