Allergies and ADD?

[~Nikki~]

It was suggested I cross-post this here.  My son does have several allergies, so maybe it's related?  He's allergic to peanuts, cats, dogs, grass, several types of trees, ragweed and dust.  No other food related allergies as far as we know so far. 

Original post:

I have a nearly 6 year old boy.  It has been suggested to me by several people in the past few weeks alone that he may have ADD or something similar.  He's hyper.  I thought this was normal for a boy his age, but after seeing him at his first karate class last week compared to the other boys his age...wow.  He can't stay still. He can't stop moving, ever, at all.  Except when he's playing videogames or watching a movie, oddly.  Media is the only thing that slows him down.....

I got a note from his teacher yesterday telling me that he's very full of energy...accompanied by a sad face on the note.  Awesome.  She had also brought it up at the beginning of the year, because she was afraid his wiggling might be due to the fact that he wasn't listening and didn't understand.  I told her no, this is just what he does.  Other teachers have brought it up as well.  His learning doesn't seem to be suffering.  He's doing very well this year.  But the wiggling and moving and constant bouncing around is getting him into trouble.

Thoughts on this?  I haven't considered going to the pediatrician yet, but did bring it up at his last appointment and was told that it was normal for boys his age (at that time, age 5).  The pediatrician isn't the type that's quick to medicate, so I'm not worried about seeing him on the matter.  I just don't know yet that there's anything wrong, I guess?  I've even had parents of other kids ask me if he's on ritalin or anything to deal with his constant movement!!!  My partner lost it on one dad for even asking, heh.

I mean, nobody wants their child to have a problem, right?  Is there anything diet-wise that I could adjust?  He hates cookies/sweets and prefers carrots or apples as snacks.  Weird kid, I know.  So I don't think it's sugar related (though I know there's some in fruit).

I just don't know where to even start with this!  Help!

[mama1803]

I'd suggest reading Dr. Bock's book "Healing the New Childhood Epidemics"--a summary is below.  I found the book really easy to understand.  He describes several case studies of actual patients he has treated. 

http://www.rhinebeckhealth.com/rhc/4-a%20disorders.php 

[tanyalynn]

My son has some focus issues, not hyperactivity (usually, some foods make him hyper), but he's got the distractable/focus type of issues. 

For us, improving his health has involved:

-removing food intolerances, gluten (subtle), dairy (hyperactivity and diarrhea, used to be vomiting), soy (mouth rash and digestive), and a couple others that just caused mouth rashes, helps ... most (maybe all?) of those foods deplete magnesium in him, and in kids, low magnesium can result in hyperactivity ... people can be intolerant of any food, but big ones are gluten, dairy, soy, eggs, corn, and then from there add in the top 8 common allergens if you need to, is a reasonable order to consider

-along those lines, consider supplemental magnesium, it's an easy-to-supplement mineral and most people don't consume enough (it's not easy with food) and then it's easy to have stresses going on that make someone need more than other people

-the Feingold diet, it limits certain food chemicals (salicylates are one, they're a natural food chemical in stuff like raisins, berries, almonds, healthy real food), but some people don't deal well with them, and Feingold also limits artificial colors/flavors -- and again, tolerance of those things is related to magnesium (plus a couple other nutrients), but trying some combination of these first 3 is a reasonable way to start investigating.

-methylation ... tweaks to help his methylation run smoothly seem to be the last piece for him, and given that your son has IgE enviro allergies, I'd say this is definitely a place to consider, though addressing any food intolerances would take stress off (we did guess-and-check for the food intolerances, I can't speak to testing)  ... IgE allergies (enviro and food) statistically correlate to low blood folate levels in the population (less folate circulating, more likelihood of allergies), but a) some people genetically need more folate than others, b) some people just have physical stresses going on that make them need more folate than others, and c) folic acid is not folate for some people (they're chemically somewhat different and some people don't change folic acid into folate well)... so a basic multivit or B complex may be a place to start, Thorne is one brand that has real folate (sold online, lots of places)...  I had to do more tweaks to help my son's focus, but the first two things helped various health/behavior aspects for my son, and it's a reasonable place to start. 

I found Bock's book helpful too, we've got health issues (in me and him and my daughter) that are related, but different manifestations of a common problem, so it was helpful to see things linked. 

[sassyaztec]

I'm right there with you.  My DS is almost 7.  His teacher is great and works with him, but I want to see if diet will help him improve his focus.  I just got "Is this your child" her website is here: http://dorisrappmd.com/online-store/e-books/a-fast-easy-allergy-diet-for-behavior-and-activity-problems/  We are going to try the elimination diet in the book and take it from there.  It's only a week and then you introduce key ingredients one day at a time.  Feingold is a bit much for me at this point as it's not a huge problem for us.  We already cut out processed foods and most food dyes (but now that I am looking at EVERYTHING it's really in EVERYTHING) :(

[subtlycrunchy]

Try an elimination diet. I just read somewhere that a new study found that most kids with ADD saw significant behavior improvement by ridding their diets of common allergens (pointing out the link between food allergy and sensitivity and food allergies). Here's how to start an elimination diet.