Anxiety, anger and Allergies? 10yr old please help!

[litlwons]

Okay I really need some direction here....I am pretty lost as to which way to go.

I have a 10yr old DS who suffers from what I would call anxiety issues and has a hard time with anger. Although he has always been intense, it seems to be getting worse and worse( major anger outbursts, panicking at night, fears, irritability). I really believe that allergies or food intolerances are to partly to blame. I believe this because I have gluten and dairy issues that have caused me digestive problems and various other issues for years, i am finally getting a grip on my whole situation. Also my son has inner ear issues that our doctor is having a hard time clearing up (his inner ears are completly filled with liquid) although he never has ear infections only a constant popping popping popping.

I need recomendations on...well on everything considering diet and figuring out what I can do to help him get through this. Although my son has a better diet than some, he has gotten used to having food that other mainstream kids have. I know that the artificial food coloring must go, sugar....but what else do I do. I want to help him...I want him to know what it feels like to feel good, I just don't know where to start, but I know diet is where I want to help him first.

My husband has been thinking that he may need therapy....and I just don't want him to haver to go there yet, not at 10. Books I should read? Websites? Anything....

I want to help him, so i can help our family and so he can live life with out all this...

Are there also food I can add to his diet to help calm him?

thank you,
Kathleen

[changingseasons]

If he is allergic/intolerant to those foods, and you remove them from his diet, I bet you will see a dramatic change in his personality. My DD is a totally different child when she has some of her food triggers (some are more behavioral than others.) Dairy and gluten and food dyes are a great place to start!!

As far as helping him cope, there are substitutes for just about everything. You can find a lot of allergy-friendly food in the gluten-free section of your grocery store, but most of that stuff is pretty expensive. But look around online (and I have some recipe links on my blog) and you'll find recipes for just about anything you need. Try searching for "gfcf" (gluten-free/casien[milk]-free) _____, and you'll get tons of results.

I would also talk to him about it and make sure he's on board. Let him know that you're going to do a short trial of removing these foods to see if it makes him feel any better. He might be averse to it at first, but keep reminding him that it could make him feel better- physically and emotionally. That it might make things easier for him, like if he has a hard time in school or social situations, or whatever. Dairy and gluten are some of the hardest foods to get off of when you have issues with them; your body doesn't fully break down the proteins and they have an opiod effect when you eat them. So withdrawal can sometimes be REALLY hard. Make sure he knows this, but that it gets easier over time. I would pick a timeline to remove dairy and gluten (maybe a few weeks or a month?) and then trial each one separately. After not having them and then reintroducing, usually symptoms are much more obvious, so hopefully he can see the change and that the food makes him feel bad.

[dannic]

Books: The Mood Cure (in case of thyroid or adrenal issues, which can both cause that as well) and Healing the New Childhood Epidemics, Bock

Sites for treats, ect recipes: I am loving Elana's Pantry these days--her chocolate chip cookies are so good! www.elanaspantry.com glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com has good stuff, too.

Pasta--trader joe's, tinkyada and ener-g are all good brands, oh and debole's.

I live in a rural area so not a lot of options, but both amazon and walmart have a bunch of gf stuff. It's really helpful.

If you can get him on board, it'll be much easier. It also wouldn't hurt to try some adrenal support for the anxiety.

Important note: try to always have some safe snacks on hand and if you are a "mixed" household, don't let the others eat his snacks--it always seems to work out that someone will eat the gf food just when I really need it for dd--if others can eat reg stuff, let them figure out a snack, it's easier for them...am I making sense? (brain dead, nb stage). GL!

[spatulagirl]

We recently put my almost 9-year-old on an elimination diet due to anger, anxiety and major behavior issues. He has had these issues since birth, but we never thought it could be due to food sensitivities until someone mentioned it to us.

We took him off:

sugar
hfcs
dyes
gluten/wheat
chocolate
corn
eggs
dairy
soy

We are vegetarian so this was more difficult than those who eat meat. Even though we talked to him and prepared for it three weeks prior to starting there was still a lot of resistance from him. The first week was awful as he detoxed. He refused to eat a lot of the time or come out of his room. But things got better. We all eat the same as him, with the exception of some dairy (I am pregnant and have craved it so I can't seem to give it up).

We started to see a change around Day 12. It is like a new kid. He is talking to people and looking strangers in the eye. He has not said "I hate you" or "I wish I never had sisters" or "I want to kill them!" since detox week. Which is HUGE because he used to say stuff like this all the time. He sleeps better, is kinder, feels better and has better focus in sports and school. It is like parenting a new kid. DH and I are finally enjoying him. He has always been such a chore to parent, he always sucked all the good out of everything and it is such a relief to understand it was HIM it was something in his diet.

So far we have tested him on eggs (no reaction), cocoa (HUGE reaction), corn (no reaction) and we tested him on soy today. We will not be adding HFCS or dyes back into his diet and I have made our house sugar free, although we will still test him so HE knows. He is amazing now; his birthday is coming up and he has decided to stuff the pinata with small toys, not candy. And he has cakes planned out depending on is he can have dairy or soy or nothing.

Is This Your Child is a good book to start with. Good luch!

[litlwons]

Thank you these are the things I was looking for. Spatulagirl, this is the kind of this we are dealing with almost to a T. Our son has gotten progressively worse as he has gotten older, but he has always been a challenge. I am so looking forward to him feeling better and in turn being easier to be around. I think the gluten will be easier than the dairy and definitely the SUGAR....I am going to have to be very very clever, but I am ready for it all to get easier (or at least calmer), my son talks of hating his brother often and is very rash at times.....hearing your success makes me have hope.

Any other success stories?

Kathleen

[babycarrier]

We have had great results from dairy removal for one and nightshades for the other.
Have learned that grapes trigger reactions in my nightshade sensitive child and these can be associated with each other.

[provocativa]

be strong- for us, any dairy or wheat or food additives trigger what you have mentioned, and more. www.feingold.org is a great resource for learning about the food colorings and additives. look up the names for hidden wheat and dairy. i give mine 5-htp to raise serotonin in the gut, and calm them down; also a b complex, and gaba (gamma amnio-buytric acid), a calming neurotransmitter (the b complex helps them make their own, but they often won't take it). gaba is available in fast-dissolving tablets. you might try homeopathics for the ears- pulsatilla is what we used to prevent ear infections and drain ears- but i like the remedy finder on www.abchomeopathy.com. you might find that the ear issue goes away after you've been off dairy and wheat for a few months. we found after removing the other stuff (salicylates bother dd2 to some degree as well) that sugar wasn't so much of an issue, though we still prefer more nutritious sweeteners.

[JaneS]

Ditto Feingold, their book is really good:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/096...SIN=0965110508

and www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info and Sue Dengate's books have a lot of behavior information related to food chemical intolerance.

Sugar was a huge issue for my DS, he got really angry from it. I'm sure that means he was getting depleted in a number of nutrients.