Hyper active child and diet

[Wendy HS]

I am needing some suggestions. I have a 4 year old son, who has a tendency to be hyper active. This is my first child and so I am not sure how much is just normal and how much is possibly caused by diet or other factors. He is such a special boy, the joy of our lives, we try hard as parents to have a balance of love, discipline, fun, etc... I feel like he is a happy kid and pretty well rounded, he is smart and fun to be with. I am very happy that I am able to be a SAHM and can devote my time homeschooling and playing with my kids. We do pretty well and don't have any major dicipline problems, but I've always said that I am so glad that he doesn't go to public school because he is active enough and gets distracted enough that I feel like they would push putting him on a drug to calm him down. I am able to work with him one on one and that seems to help keep him focused, but a teacher with a room full would proubably have a hard time. Do any of you mom's have any suggestion on some books that use a natural approach to diet, detox, etc.... I will not use anything that is not 100% good for him, no drugs. I know kids get so much junk in their diet through the GMO foods, pesticides, chemicals, etc... that I am wondering if maybe we can't eliminate certain things to help. He does not get candy very often, no soft drinks or juice. Drinks mostly water and sometimes rice milk. We do eat some dairy (cheese) and a variety of other things, but I know we can improve our diets. None of us are overweight, but we could eat healthier. I am also wondering if he may have allergies. He has circles under his eyes, but that seems to be hereditary and comes from my husband (who has never had much trouble with allergies). I've seen pictures of my husband when he was younger and he has the same dark circles. I've not noticed my son being stuffy or having runny noses much, he's never had an ear infection, and he was BF for the first 1 1/2 years of his life, never formula fed. He did recieve his vaccines until 18 mo. and we noticed some neurological issues that seemed to always coiencide with the shots so we had to stop them. He's not had any neurological syptoms since. He seems on level with his age as far as learning, but there are times where he just seems to have such a hard time concentrating or settling down. Not in a bad way, just attention span all over the place, he really seems to not be able to help it. I keep calling him back to task patiently and gently and he comes around and does fine, but I just want to make sure there isn't something else I could be doing for him to help him. This may all be totally normal for certain boys and as he matures he will get better, but if we are causing it by a poor diet or an allergy to something I would really like to help him if I can.

[Magelet]

My first response of course would be to look at his sugar intake, but it sounds like you are really on top of it. (It wouldn't hurt to double check everything he eats for sugar content.) I might try cutting down on fruit if you eat a ton of fruit, and doing more veggies. They'll get you many of the same nutrients without the sugar.

If you eat white flour and refined grains, that also could contribute, he could be very sensitive to that as well.

I know some people use the feingold diet for really hyperactive kids, and find it works. I don't know much about it, other than that it involves eliminating food dyes and a few other things.

I know kids get so much junk in their diet through the GMO foods, pesticides, chemicals, etc... that I am wondering if maybe we can't eliminate certain things to help

I can't tell if you are saying you are trying to help him by reducing GMO, pesticides and chemicals in your son's diet or you already are really careful about those and other people might need to worry about them.

[tanyalynn]

For my kids, those dark circles were food intolerances. Since food intolerances run in the family, and took me til age 30 to identify in myself, it took me a long time to realize they weren't just genetic for us. They've also, mostly in my DD, been a sign of her gut being out of balance, I've seen improvements due to both reasons.

In terms of straight food intolerances, gluten, dairy and soy are pretty high up on the problematic list. Is there a reason you consume so little dairy? Sometimes families do that when they notice problems with some types of dairy--that was our situation--and eliminating it may be worth a shot.

Supplementing magnesium may help, it sometimes helps with hyperactivity (it helps relaxation happen, I mean).

Some people find Feingold helps, early on it also limits salicylates, they're natural food chemicals in foods like grapes, berries, almonds, a range of healthy foods. If you want to read more about Feingold and nutrients to supplement to help increase salicylate tolerance, Search in the Allergies forum, several moms have supplemented a few nutrients and found, over the course of a few months, that their kids' sals tolerance increased and they could add back in some of the real foods they had to limit early on. It also eliminates artificial colors/flavors, and the like.

I'd say if you noticed neurological changes when he was vaccinated, he's on the border of something being really off. Even though he's not autistic, and my kids aren't either, reading in the ASD world -- autism spectrum disorders -- about nutrients and dietary changes and such may benefit you. There's a lot more discussed in that world than mercury, a constellation of long-term stresses and nutrient deficiencies and how to identify personal health needs come together.

Another way to approach it is gut health, I've seen subtle behavioral stuff in both my kids when their digestion is off. Probiotic foods or supps or both, removing food intolerances, and for us eventually adding in digestive enzymes, have all played a role in good digestion and getting a good bacterial balance in their guts. There are lots of non-dairy fermented foods, we love homemade kimchee.

[Wendy HS]

It is good to know about the dark circles being food intolerances, I've known something was wrong, but just not sure where to go. I will try the mag supplement and digestive enzymes. I am taking those and they do help me. My kids are already on probiotics and vitamins. We do eat fruit and grains, so I may need to study up on that and see what maybe he could be having problems with. He never complains or has any bowel issues, but it is sometimes rather difficult to get him to take a nap, he is figety. He tries to be obedient, it is not a lack of discipline, he actually says he has a hard time going to sleep. He sleeps fine at night. I really do think checking into his diet may be the answer. Thank you for all your help, I will look into each suggestion. How do get information on how to make homemade Kimchee, I don't even know what that is?

[tanyalynn]

There's a long thread in the Traditional Foods forum on fermented vegetables (which really are tastier than that phrase sounds)....

http://mothering.com/discussions/sho...d.php?t=426207

And if it's not in that thread, I know I typed it up somewhere, maybe the Allergies forum (search my username and daikon because it contains daikon radish). I'm basically using the recipe from Nourishing Traditions, a cookbook, but with a few adaptations (like no whey).

Kimchi (or kimchee) is fermented cabbage, similar to sauerkraut, but I like it more because the kind of cabbage used is more tender and I like the flavor additions--grated carrot, green onion, daikon radish, and some garlic and ginger. I make my own so it's not too spicy--traditional kimchi can be very spicy and half my family, including me, are spice wimps. Fermenting veggies allows good bacteria to settle in and multiply, similar idea to yogurt but w/o dairy (and I think yummier).

DS has had days when he couldn't nap, it sounded exactly the same as what you wrote. For him, he had stresses going on that depleted his magnesium--he's been hyperactive at times, but usually I know what's causing it, it's not an everyday thing for him.

[spatulagirl]

I was so in your boat not that long ago. My oldest is almost 9 and his behavior and aggression was so out of control it was causing a lot of stress in our family. Someone suggested food allergies and when I started reading more it was like this whole new world opened up.

I thought our diet was fine until I had to examine it more.

Almost a month ago, we took our son off of soy, dairy, gluten, wheat, sugar, dye, hfcs, eggs, chocolate and corn. After a week of detox (which wasn't fun), he was like this entirely new kid. Parenting him is actually a joy again. Our house is peaceful.

We re-introduced eggs last week with no reaction. We introduced chocolate yesterday with a horrible reaction. Just cocoa, no sugar or dairy or anything in it. It was a rough day again yesterday. I have to admit chocolate wasn't even a suspicion.

We are vegetarian so this diet has been harder on our family. If you ate meat, it would be quite easy.

Once we discover all his triggers, we are going to start looking into vitamin and mineral deficiencies in hopes to make his life even better.