But, alas, we entered the museum, and the newest copy of Parent: Wise was out. The lead story? "You are What You Eat: Kids & Behavior Modification Diets."
It's like they knew I was coming. So, I set up shop and dove in to see what they had to say. A lot of times the media doesn't come down nearly as staunchly as I would like to see. There's the whole, "Gotta' please our sponsors" thing.
It's talking about The Feingold Diet, developed by Dr. Benjamin Feingold in 1973 (when I was celebrating my first birthday). Basically, he was working on this approach to help children with allergic reactions. It involved eliminating specific salicylates and food additives. The best part? They began to discover in many cases that not only were the allergic reactions improved, but the child's behaviors also improved dramatically.
There was much controversy and people poo-poo'd on Feingold.
Fast forward to 2008. The American Academy of Pediatrics reviewd an extremely thorough British study that says the diet still makes sense and produces amazing result. The AAP ducked its tail and stated, "... even we skeptics, who have long doubted parental claims of the effects of various foods on the behavior of their children, admit we might have been wrong."
THANK YOU!
There is no magic pill, but there are some very magically effective combinations on which you can build your life: sleep, diet and environment.
Now, The Feingold Diet also recommends removing gluten, which used to be extremely difficult. However, just this past week I was in the grocery store and stood in front of a massive selection of gluten free baking products - just the regular HEB down the road.
I know I bark up this tree a lot. Yet, I do so because I believe in it. I believe in it because I've seen in with my own eyes, experienced it with my own body, and parented it in each of my children. I have watched the change happen. It is sooooo worth it!
I've touched on how niacin has been a help to Marah. We decided to give it a try after reading all the work Dr. Abram Hoffer had done with schizophrenic patients. Niacin is extremely safe. It could not hurt, so why not try it, ya' know? It quickly peeled back one of Marah's layers. Most kids with neurological issues have vitamin B-3 (niacin) deficiency or dependency, depending on how it's playing out in their body. For Marah, it removed a lot of the extreme dysregulated emotional barrier, so that she had more control over her behaviors. She still has every desire to be defiant, but it's as if the emotions were keeping her from using the cause-and-effect thinking she DID have. I can also crack a joke now in the middle of a confrontation and get a smile. She may still absolutely refuse to do what she was asked to do, but she can move to a positive emotion and express her opposition. HUGE.
Now, not every kid who eats a poor diet, does not get adequate sleep and lives in a stressful house is going to end up with massive behavior problems. However, there are those of us who are prone to these things. And those who are juggling it all and still "okay," could be BETTER! Beautiful!
Diet and nutrition make a difference.
It is hard to make those kinds of changes, so I see it more as though my children have a life-threatening illness and need constant care. It is tiring to plan meals ... and cook them ... and clean up after them. So, I coordinate as much help as I can among family members. I see it as though I am changing dressings, switching out a constant IV drip, monitoring oxygen levels. I just don't have a doctor saying, "You HAVE to do this or your kid won't get better." I've had to tell myself.
Every day.
Over and over and over and over.
Anywho, it is so very refreshing to see the choice of healthy products in my local grocery stores changing - literally - week-to-week. To see the lead story of a local parenting publication focusing on nutrition and behavior. To have a doctor smile and nod when I say, "Once we're settled, Mackenzie and I both would like to start weaning off our anti-depressants and focus on nutrition and vitamin therapy." It's becoming less of an uphill battle.
Pardon me while I do a little dance in the middle of this foyer. Mac is off running around somewhere, so she won't be embarrassed.
Here are some of Andrew Saul's articles which specifically speak on issues regarding children. His stuff has been a big help to us in the past six months. He's also in the movie, "Food Matter" (you can find the ad link to that over on the right side of my blog - can go to that site and watch in online for cheap):
Baby Veggie Diet
Bipolar Kids
Child Behavior Management
Children's Doctor
Earaches
Fast Food/Junk Food
Whooping Cough
18 comments:
BEAUTIFUL and AMEN! :)
Definitely dance worthy information.
My gluten intolerance has made my family's eating habits change too (because it's easier to cook once than twice!) and even THEY have noticed they feel better.
Great post! It's amazing how much behaviors have gotten better since changing our diet. J was on 30 mg of a bili fy and now nothing. K was on 7 different psychotropic drugs and now zilch. Yeah us!
Hear, hear! We have no major behavior or psychological issues, but have switched to a mostly local and organic diet (joined a CSA, grew a big garden, etc), and I was realizing the other day that not one of my three children have missed a day of school because of illness this year. We've all had minor colds, but no flu, no big viruses - nada. I really think the diet has lots to do with it.
We are big supporters of the Feingold Diet @ our house. Our oldest is our *target* but we all were really targets. It's amazing, no I take that back it's sad how mainstream docs react when a parent mentions Feingold. Our pediatrician yelled at me. Um yeah, I fired her. We've followed the program for 5.5 years and our oldest is *literally* a different person. All b/c we eliminated the crap out of our diet.
FYI, for any newbies to the Feingold program: once you are a member there is a very supportive message board. It helped & encouraged us so much when we first started.
Happy Birthday Mac!
I've tried diet changes before and have seen zero effect. I'd like to do it. I'd like to do it a LOT for a variety of reasons, but thus far, I haven't been able to be successful in going full bore and keeping the family on board.
Unfortunately, the one who needs the dietary changes the most simply will not eat the stuff. He throws fits at the table, ramps up the rude, controlling, and manipulative behavior - which in turn, convinces the other kids they don't need to eat the stuff either. I'm not talking rice cakes and tofu here. I'm talking just a descent, balanced meal that isn't pre-packaged.
The only thing I can get him to eat without a huge fight (which I gave up doing long ago) is junk food. Help! I need your wisdom! Please share your magic tricks for getting kids to eat real food!
Diana, shoot me an email and give me a typical week of what he eats. We can go from there. I'll be at the conference all day Friday, but will get back to you after that!
christinemoers [at] hotmail [dot] com
Christine-are you gluten free? I thought at one point you said you were doing wheat and some of those links had wheat. Is Feingold gluten free too?
Drs said the allergy wasn't that bad and I didn't need to cut wheat from my youngest's diet. We cut all wheat from her diet, her behavior is calmer, but that's not the best part. The baby I nearly had to hospitalize with pneumonia from asthma has not had more than an occasional treatment in 5 months.
We did gluten free for a good long while (cause you have to give it a good solid effort to see changes), to see how it would help Mackenzie with her Tourettes. Have shifted focus to more vegan now - and pushing more raw foods. Giving our bodies the things they do need to start to heal themselves.
Mackenzie may be outgrowing the TS. It has certainly improved. A lot of kids outgrow it by their early 20's. So, we can't definitively say it is diet. Could be age.
When we were gluten free, we weren't making the things we WERE eating healthier. Does that make sense? We were being quite counter-intuitive.
Anywho, have seen the most changes in all of us on a mostly vegan diet.
Bravo to you for "harping" at this so much. I applaud you. We aren't vegan at our house. We eat what I call a trace meat diet, with frequent vegetarian meals. We go organic as much as possible. Mainly, we just try to eat really good, non-processed, whole foods. I agree with you that it benefits our entire family on many many different levels. Our kids don't really have a choice -- this is the kind of food that's available in our home, and we eat most of our meals at home. As a result, they are wonderfully adventurous eaters who now enjoy talking recipes and flavours and seasonings. Our RADical, in particular, has become quite the little foodie, which I love. It has become very very fun!
we are GF, mostly. My kids eat oatmeal and whole wheat bread but no everyday and it is hard to be local and gf but we do our best. There is no fresh here in winter but there is organic frozen from the garden (in season)veggies and canned ( by me) or frozen fruit. There is almost no packaged food except for the occasional can of soup and the boys eat it all. It took some getting used to for them but they are good with it now. I see huge changes as a result of their eating and when we slip or are out and they get sugar and white flour I see it in their beahviour.
Thanks for this post. We are getting ready to start Niacin for my son who is diagnosed bipolar and adhd. We are also in the process of eliminating most of the sugar from our house and we use omega 3 fish oil and epsom salts/magnesium sulfate (good for anxiety and relaxation) with him. He is off all psych drugs and doing ok so far. I absolutely think diet, exercise and environment have a huge effect on hormone and neurotransmitter balance and production. Also, go super slow on the wean from the antidepressants. You can get some really nasty withdrawal symptoms if you go too fast. They are not easy to withdraw from.
have you found anything that helps with sleep? my 11 year old is up literally all night rocking and chanting, she sleeps a few minutes at a time tops. that's it. It's exhausting for me too. We have tried all the Omega's and melatonin, and she is currently taking 200 mg of lamectil, 1.5 mg once per day, 1 mg of lamectil twice per day, 80 mg of geodon at breakfast, and 160 of geodon at bedtime, and 0.2 mg of desmopressin at bedtime. and really she does NOT sleep. message me at jessi_lynn37620@yahoo.com if you have any suggestions
First time at your blog, and I love it! Your newest follower, J.
Jessi - Lamictal is activating for most people. It has a high antidepressant/activating quality to it. It put my son into complete mania within 3 days.
Thank you for posting this. I tried Feingold years ago with my oldest son who is on his own now. I did see some improvement. I haven't looked much into the gluten issue with the others but have been discussing this with my gluten free friends recently. I appreciate the info. Thanks.
ah on my drug list for my daughter, she is actually on 200 mg lamectil once per day, 1.5 mg of risperdol at bedtime, 1 mg risperdol twice per day, 80 mg geodon at breakfast, 160 of geodon with dinner, and 2 mg desmopressin with bedtime.
Totally wish I would have listened to you even sooner on the diet stuff! Not only my kiddos are doing better in behavior and attitude, so am I! I find it soooo much easier to keep my cool when my body isn't bogged down with junk! Thank you so much for always standing for what you know and believe!
Interesting stuff . . .we have definitely DEFINITELY noticed that when we keep our healing-from-RAD daughter on "Go Ruby Go", a nutritional supplement, her RAD behaviors are MUCH less. MUCH less. EVERY time she gets careless about taking it (because she's responsible to take it even though we TRY to keep tabs, we sometimes forget . . and so she can go a few days without) we KNOW IT after a few days! Her behaviors deteroriate enough I go, "Uh oh! WHO has not been taking their GRG?!" and we get her back on it.
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