I was wondering if anyone else is using the Feingold Diet for ADHD and ODD symptoms? I have had the family on it for a week and a half and have noticed a huge change in my 12 year old's behavior. Other people are noticing how social, focused and HAPPY she is. It's basically a diet where you eliminate chemicals from their food, so all food dye, flavorings, preservatives as well as some fruits and other things that are high in salicylates. I haven't purchased their plan online, but am just going by what they have published for free and it's still enough to go on for now. I wanted to share and see if anyone else is doing this plan and if they have noticed a difference in their own children. Since her defiance symptoms are so low now, I feel like I can get her to learn organizational skills and more executive functioning tasks without her refusal and meltdowns. It has brought peace to our home and I finally feel like there is hope for her to get control of her emotions and be able to learn and be happy. I'm hopeful this continues to work. I realize diets for ADHD are controversial, and that food sensitivities are different than actual ADHD, but the symptoms look the same in our case and it was the last thing we were going to try before more medication or more serious psychiatric help. I wish we had heard of this sooner!
Thanks for all of the support and suggestions! It made my day to read through and see others who are either dealing with the same issues or are offering support to me for trying something new. Yesterday, my daughter had a meltdown and I was so frustrated, thinking we were being so strict on the diet, so maybe the diet isn't working after all. So, I went through the food log I've been keeping and saw that she had Rice Chex for breakfast. BHT (a preservative) is at the end of the ingredients in Rice Chex! I missed it! So, back to our Trader Joes cereals and eggs and oatmeal instead. I couldn't believe the difference in her attitude yesterday compared to all the other days on the diet. She reported that she was sad all day too.
As far as compliance, she's been extremely good about going with the flow. I think she understands that I'm serious about trying to help her and that this is the last step before serious medication. I've been packing her lunch, since it's too hard to know what is in the school lunches. Before she goes to a friend's house, I throw a "legal" granola bar or pear in her bag in case they don't have anything she can eat. She turned down strawberries at her friend's house, so I know she is serious about trying this too! There are so many snack options to replace the yucky chemical foods, so that hasn't been an issue. I also try to make cookies once a week, so she feels like she's gaining something fun (I usually try to avoid sugar). We never ate terribly, but once I started looking at the ingredient lists more carefully, I can see what I was doing wrong. We tried gluten free for a while and saw no difference in her behavior, but I know a lot of people have had success with that.
She'll be able to add back in the foods that are healthy and see if they work for her, like some of the high salicylate fruits. We'll add them back in one at a time and see what happens and hope for the best. I know she can live without candy, since there are alternatives, but it will be hard to live without berries. :)
Side note, we all have Keratosis Pilaris, a skin condition on the backs of arms, and it's gone! My husband has had it for his whole life and it disappeared in a week. So, I think we're all chemically sensitive.
Please make sure you are working with a nutritionist if you are going to do this. It's important that you don't accidentally eliminate whole categories of essential nutrients when you restrict her diet.
That said, a friend of mine did a more conservative elimination diet (just got rid of HFCS and dyes) and saw amazing changes in her child. It's an anecdote, not science, but it is interesting.
Good luck.
Yes, changing diet does affect many things. I do think that kids can have symptoms/reactions to those additives and have ADHD like symptoms but not really have a brain disorder.
One of my dear friends found that Red Dye 40 made her son crazy. She cut it out and he was a normal kid. Thing is, it's in just about every single food. So she had to go to work so she could buy all fresh foods and cook from scratch 99% of the time. Even store bought birthday cakes have it in them so if he was going to a birthday party she knew he was going to have cake there and she planned ahead to have very little going on afterwards, for at least 4 hours. This way his reaction would be manageable. She could even just take him to the park and let him run amok for a while. She didn't ostracize him from his peers, she simply knew this chemical would be one that he ingested that day and she knew how to handle it.
If this is working for you I am very glad. For kids that actually have ADHD it won't affect them. ADHD is a brain wiring disorder that food intake doesn't have any affect on. Whether or not they are NPO or fully fed and fueled up they will be the same.
Good for you! I'm so glad to hear that you're doing this and I'm sure you'll be happy you did. Your child will not only be happier and more productive and balanced, but will some day thank you for it.
The drugs ("medication") kids are receiving are very damaging and are known for causing psychotic episodes in adulthood, not to mention drug addiction.
A whole, balanced diet free of chemicals can do wonders. I've seen it for myself. There are also herbs that can do wonders along with that, but you'll have to be careful and do your homework. Also, believe it or not, flower essence can make a huge difference too. But of course you have to find the right one for her and be consistent for at least a year. Check into the Bach remedies.
Keep up the good work and know you're not the only one working to do the right thing and lifting your child to a place of deep respect by giving her what will bring out her best and honoring her body, mind, soul and spirit. Kudos!
I haven't but I love hearing that you're seeing success on it. I strongly suspect that both my oldest and middle son, ages 18 & 12 and with ADHD, would benefit tremendously from cleaner diets but haven't been able to get them to comply. Of course I can control, to an extent, what they eat at home and their home diets are relatively clean but outside of home, all bets are off. I'm so glad you posted this because it prompted me to take another look at it and it's not nearly as restrictive as I thought it would be. We eat mostly whole foods anyway but I'm sure that if I checked the ingredients list, there are probably some things that we are eating that have the preservatives that Feingold eliminates. Honestly I think that my boys would really benefit from giving up gluten and dairy but neither one of them will even entertain the thought of trying it for a few days to see how they feel.
How did you get your daughter to go along with the changes? Does she have the opportunity to have snacks or meals outside of the home (school lunch, friends' houses) and if so, is she compliant there or just at home?
