Paleo & the ADHD Child
I haven’t discussed very much of what we do for our kids, but I feel this situation needs to be shared. Our youngest is already wheat/gluten free – because we discovered first, and foremost, it caused him GI distress. Getting him off of that (and refined sugar, HFCS, food dyes, etc – the usual culprits) last year was enough to bring about changes in him that were astonishing to his teachers & other school staff, etc. We now homeschool, and because of his ADHD, and more specifically this latest decline in his self-control, I, as his learning coach, often quit several times before lunch. lol. We have noted: hunger we feel is out of proportion for even a growing 6-year old boy, sneaking food, disobeying – eating things I’ve told him “No, dinner is ready in 5 minutes, just wait”, etc.
I’m happy to say that getting my pubescent 12yo daughter off the occasional wheat we had allowed her has helped her out of control, hormone-driven hunger & appetite tremendously!
The boy’s attitude, emotionality, and defiance/stealing/sneaking food, however, is a source of distress & stress for the rest of us, and even if he doesn’t realize it yet, it’s not fun for him either.
So, after much consideration and discussion, we’ve decided to wean him off all the foods he is sneaking or eating in excess – dairy, fruit, sugar, legumes (he still gets peanut butter 1+ times a week) and allow him to detox off those items. We will then observe him carefully for 1-2 months, adjusting intake if we need, maybe even giving something like GAPS a trial run. Then, and only then will we discuss if additional intervention is needed. I want to explore ALL possible avenues of supporting him before I even consider conventional treatments. Our family history with that has been horrific, to say the least.
We are currently working through what fruit, honey, etc still remains in our home. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. He will have unlimited availability of grass-fed meats, pastured eggs, any and all vegetables he’ll eat, including healthy starches, and coconut products. From experience, I know the first few days will be .. ugly .. but he’ll soon start to feel better, and regain control over his body, behavior, and mood. I pray. In a few months, I look forward to completing this elimination experiment with him and re-introducing some items like local seasonal low-sugar fruits like berries, raw grass-fed dairy, etc.
He’s the mexican jumping bean in our little band of Paleo’s, and I’d like to remove the dietary triggers that are making him anything but a normal, energetic, curious, affectionate 6yo boy. Rest assured, he’s a full partner in this & he understands we are only interested in helping him feel better. I will report on our progress with this, maybe as a weekly update, over the next few months.
If you have children, with or without diagnosed behavioral issues, how do you support their best health? Is there anything else I should be doing??
Filed under: Paleo/Primal WOL | 10 Comments
Tags: detox, elimination diet, gluten-free, healthy, paleo
I have a kid with ADHD (my oldest) and we have been around the block and back again with meds for him. I’ll admit they seemed to”help” him in the beginning, but the side effects outweighed the benefits and finally he said “enough”. I tried to put him on a paleo diet, but his father refused so I ended up having him tested for food allergies and lo and behold he is sensitive to gluten/whey/rice. Slowly we have noticed that he is much more calm and redirectable, unless he sneaks something like a candy bar (even if its GF), then he is super irritable. Good luck, it is definitely a challenge, especiallyif they have a hard time “feeling” the difference. And I’m not going to say a miracle happened, but he came home yesterday and said “my handwriting got better”. (he’s 12 and his writing is worse than my 2nd grader’s…)
Gotta love how that sugar hits them. The kids actually react much worse to High Fructose Corn Syrup than plain old cane sugar.
Glad you’ve seen some improvement. Keep it up!
I could have written your post. My boy is 6, on all whole / homemade foods (with a rare occasional homemade treat/cheat such as maple sweetened grain free banana bread). We have tried every intervention except full paleo and GAPS. He is gluten free, but not dairy free. (we did a 6 week dairy free trial a while back and saw no noticeable change). After 2 years of only minimal improvements, we did opt for meds and the new symptoms cropping up are severely draining for the whole family. I am hoping to make it until the end of school when I will have him back under my full dietary control (so to speak) and can move ahead with a full intervention
I hope you are able to find a solution for your son. My main concern is what will you do when he returns to school? The availability of foods that triggered my son made it impossible to keep him on even dietary footing from one week to the next. Someone’s always having a birthday, or there’s a special treat at school on Friday’s, or he mooches off friends, etc. I hope it works out, long enough for your son to see his own improvement & gain his cooperation for how to eat at school. My oldest child was great about that. School lunches held no appeal, and she didn’t care what people thought of her lunch – she loved my cooking and wanted to eat that. Her ‘treats’ at school were indeed rare. Luckily, our kids are on the cusp of really getting what we are saying and seeing the difference in how they feel for themselves.
Guess what? I can comment again!!!
You are an amazing woman. You are totally my hero!
the whole kids thing is so daunting to me, I don’t know how people do it. I want kids so badly but with all the ups and downs of life, it is so hard to imagine throwing more randomness into the system.
Either way, you rock. That is all.
YAY!
Yeah, if anything is random – it’s kids. lol. The more you have your shit together, and have cooperation from friends/family/school/daycare, etc, the more you can minimize the dietary stuff adding to the stress. It strikes me that my parents never had this kind of cracked-out stress from hyper kids. I guess we were lucky. We didn’t get a lot of fast food, pre-packaged stuff. Even with the crazy hours my parents worked – one on days, one graveyard, vice versa, then one to swing, both on graveyard, eek – we managed to have real food nearly all the time. Because that’s just how it was. I love that we’re getting back to that.
Thanks! <3
Sweetie, it sounds like you are doing a fantastic job of trying to identify and remove triggers. While he’s off all the “bad” foods, I would not only observe his behavior, but also have regular discussions with him and really hear what he’s saying — it will help him to feel like he has some control over the changes and be more willing to participate through the yucky parts, like giving up favorite bad foods… I don’t envy you the next couple of weeks. Changes like that are hard for anyone, but especially for a 6yo. I’ll be sending good thoughts and vibes your way!
Thanks, Phyllis! We had a normal-mood for a little while, after moving back to CA and getting off crappy road food. It was lovely, and I hope to have that back. I do look forward to being able to hold a conversation with him – when he’s able to sit for more than a minute, control his movements, and have a rational, non-stream of consciousness type of talk. Those have their place, I suppose, but being able to decide where it’s ok, and not have a full-blown meltdown when we try to get him to focus, is something he’s not capable of at this point. I can only hope that will improve as time goes on.
Thanks again! HUGS!!
You are wize AND you can cook!
Very interesting!! Off to look for updates….