Feingold Diet.....What Are Your Thoughts?

If your daughter truly has ADHD it won't effect anything.
You can start by eliminating all red dyes and sugar.
Only people with an allergy to eliminated foods will see a difference in behavior.
I know someone that had great success with it and again I know someone it didn't help at all, we tried diet changes eliminating things that are the big triggers. But nothing worked.
My ADHD child is on medication after much deliberation and trying other things. Nothing else worked.
With her medication it helps her stop and think before she reacts. it's not a cure all. But it helps the behavior modification system we use to work better.
Pick up " Taking charge of ADHD" by Barkley for you and pick up
" How to slow down and pay attention " by Nadeau and Dixon for your daughter. The first gives you techniques and tips on how to cope and manage ADHD the second does the same for her. From everything from managing anger to cleaning her room.

A good and nutritious diet (which is all Feingold is) won't help the adhd at ALL. What it will help is the same as it would help ANYONE and it will help anyone who is sensitive to particular dyes or additives. Sometimes you find someone who is both adhd and dye/additive sensitive... but usually not. More often someone is misdiagnosed with adhd who has nutritional problems. That's when the adhd "magically disappears" or is "hugely changed" by healthy food. Real adhd is completely and totally unaffected by food.

Unfortunately, diet doesn't affect ADHD. I'm glad to hear you're pursuing the best options with medication and therapy, because those do have research to back up their effectiveness. However, it's not a bad move to employ healthy eating habits. I don't think you need to go Feingold extreme to achieve that, though.

I am a huge fan of diet changes to control issues like this rather than drugs. I have known too many kids with adverse reactions to the drugs used for ADHD. I am glad that they are helping her though. Maybe a trial of the diet and see if it helps enough so you can wean her from some of the drugs. Everything with kids is trial and error which is a pain but you never know what will work or not for them with out trying.

Good Luck!

As I see it, the Feigold Diet is just good healthy nutrition. All those artificial colors and preservatives are really not very good for anyone, especially a child who may be more sensitive to synthetic ingredients in their foods. I know that my son, who also has attentional issues, does a lot better when he is given wholesome, organic food to eat. I'm not sure if the diet has to be that much more expensive. It just depends on how you go about it. If you keep your meal planning pretty simple and limit your snacks and desserts to items that you make yourself or find on sale in the organic food section of your supermarket, you probably can stay within your budget just fine.

I'm pretty sure that you can probably find a yahoo group devoted to the feingold diet if you search for it. If you join it, you probably can get some really great advice, recipes and such from a variety of parents who are also following the diet as well.

Hope this helps.

i am sure it helps some. it did not help us when we put our oldest child on that diet two years back. good luck.