still tracking it down (food diary)

[karika]

I changed our diet because of behavioral issues with my daughter (dd1). I believe she has a tendency to ADHD/ hyperactivity. There are times when I cannot get her to stop what she is doing and make eye contact with me. It is like she cannot stop. I am trying to be so patient, but I am not being patient. We went GFCFSF a few months ago. I noticed an immediate improvement in that she stopped having mood swings and crying over strange things in an inconsolable fashion. However, she is still very hyperactive and TBH her behavior has gotten worse. I can see it in her eyes and feel it in her 'vibes' that it is still a chemical thing. Her eyes are like saucers at times. I did find she was getting hidden soy via some chapstick type things she had around. My next step is a food journal I guess. Her father is frustrated and thinks I am crazy and wants to go 'back to normal' and allow her whatever organic food she wants, like we used to (we never did food colorings and chemically processed anyway). I know there have been improvements. She has had regular bowel movements for the first time in years (every day or other day and it used to be 3 or 4 days between them) so i do not want to go back. I give her very little sugar, and what she does have is organic (like an organic lollipop and Sharkies), there is sugar in my baked goods of course, and we give her small amounts of juice with food (Old Orchard brand reconstituted (my juicer broke), and smoothies (but these have spinach in them too)... I have wondered if it was the sals and cut out apples for awhile. So if I do a food diary, how will I know what caused the behavior? Does it generally take 8 hours for a food to react? Anyone else do these eliminations and still have hyperactivity, then figure out what it was? I would like some good answers. We have not done testing and likely will not as she only has medicaid (her father went ahead and got it when he went for food stamps a few months ago after being laid off, I do not wish to use it though since it does not cover ND) and I am not interested in receiving a label for her and possibly have chemical medicines pushed on us. Plus I have heard of people doing the testing, getting a negative for a certain food, and yet their child reacts to that food. Any suggestions?

[kjbrown92]

I know one kid who reacts to sugar/carbs with hyperactivity and tantrums. She's on a low carb diet now.

It depends on the food. You are looking for patterns, not necessarily a hard and fast number. For instance my DS reacts to soy within 20-30 minutes (and his tantrums from it last for 10 days). But other things are 24 hours after. It all depends on the food (and probably digestion for that particular person).

[mamafish9]

You might consider trying some oral magnesium supplements - kids with ADHD type behaviors are very often magnesium deficient. You want mag citrate or glycinate, about 250-300mg a day, given separately from calcium/dairy, and ideally split into a couple of doses. It will probably help increase poop frequency too.

You might try a GABA supplement, it is very calming for some kids. Get plain GABA (most have other ingredients that are not always helpful), and split into 2-3 doses over the day.

And you might consider salicylates sensitivity - it made my DS wild. Here is a list of foods high in salicylates... http://www.salicylatesensitivity.com/food-guide. Supplementing with magnesium, molybdenum, and B6 can increase salicylates tolerance a lot.

[DevaMajka]

Just wanted to 2nd that food reactions are different for everyone. Ds gets a rash between 24 and 48 hours after he eats a food. His reaction might start sooner, but that's when I'm sure of it.

[karika]

Originally Posted by kjbrown92

For instance my DS reacts to soy within 20-30 minutes (and his tantrums from it last for 10 days). But other things are 24 hours after. It all depends on the food (and probably digestion for that particular person).

See, this is good to know. I did not realize that the lip balm she was using had soy, but that was days ago. Sounds like that could still be it.

[karika]

I do have Natural Calm which is mag citrate. she used to ask for it in her sleepytime tea, but once it was too strong and now she is very picky about having it. I do not give any calcium supplements and we are dairy free. From the research I have done, calcium is not what we thought it was for health anyway. I recently read in another thread that some children are sensitive to FOS in their probiotics. I just looked and ours has that. I may try to search the forum for that since it is something easy to search for. Thanks for your thoughts.

[mamafish9]

I definitely wouldn't supp calcium until you sort out her mag needs. There are some gentle natural things like nettles you can use for calcium if need be, but yeah, I think it's over-rated for a lot of people.

[karika]

We have been diligent with the food diary. We decided to cut out juice (she was only having a very small amount of 100% juice in a day anyway) and strawberry jam (organic of course)during our trial. She has been much more in tune with us. For the moment I have stopped all supplements too since reading the FOS causes bad reactions in some. I have noticed about 30 min to an hour after eating fruit she becomes very wound up and when I try to get her to stop and communicate, she will not. Still not sure how much of her deal is food related, or if it is just her personality, or if it is the stress of being in the home where I am living. We are staying at her father's home while awaiting housing assistance. He and I have different ideas on parenting and the way we deal with things. All in all, since taking away the small glass of juice she has been more responsive though. I am waiting to get to a baseline then start adding things back in.