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Forum -> Parenting our children -> Our Challenging Children (gifted, ADHD, sensitive, defiant)
Real results from changing diet for ADHD kids?



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amother
Navy


 

Post Mon, Sep 25 2017, 4:43 pm
I keep being told and somewhat believe that changing your child's diet can significantly help their ADHD. Yet there are so many things that I'm told to change it's a bit overwhelming, and I'm wondering 2 questions:
1) have any of you actually seen any results or a huge change in your child from changing their diet and
2) what do you feed your kids? I have a typical teenage DS with ADHD and he rarely likes any healthy food to begin with. I am told to take him off food coloring, GMOs, sugar, carbohydrates, Dairy, soy isolate the list goes on and on and it's very overwhelming can anybody guide me please? I'd love to hear personal stories of the effect of changing the diet too, thanks
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mha3484




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 25 2017, 4:47 pm
I did not take my son off of any foods but I did add nutritional supplements and found them to be very helpful. He takes zinc, magnesium and fish oil on a daily basis. It definitely makes a difference
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imasinger




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 25 2017, 4:49 pm
Never found diet changes to do much good. Never could get kid to try for very long, either.
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mha3484




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 25 2017, 4:50 pm
My personal concern with a very restricted diet is that with a kid who already struggles socially, giving him yet another thing to make him different from everyone else just adds insult to injury.
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amother
Navy


 

Post Mon, Sep 25 2017, 4:53 pm
Agreed it would be too much to keep up with and would make him stand out more, but does Anyone have experience with just changing a few of those things and seeing a difference?
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seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Sep 26 2017, 12:25 am
With a teen, you would really need him fully on board to try something like this - are his problems significant enough *to him* to make these changes? If not, I'd suggest like mha above that you work on the supplementation angle rather than elimination.

Try getting in touch with kidsbeyondmeds.com. I know the person behind it and she is very knowledgeable and helpful with these things.
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Iymnok




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Sep 26 2017, 2:59 am
I know a kid who gets hyperactive on artificial coloring.
Another who is very sensitive to sugar.

For some, the elimination of specific things can dilute the need for mess.

Talk to your teen about eliminating just one thing for a trial period. He will be able to tell if it made any difference.
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amother
Seagreen


 

Post Tue, Sep 26 2017, 6:00 pm
I think the problem with diet to treat adhd is that it's simply not enough for most people. To fully treat or manage adhd naturally ideally one would need diet plus supplements to address metablolic imbalances/neurologic deficiencies/toxicity/pathogens. Many people half-heartedly attempt diet and see no results and assume it made no difference when in reality it just didn't make enough of a difference on it's own.

How to go about implementing all this with a child is a whole nother kettle of fish and I don't have much advice. I'm in a similar boat.
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amother
Navy


 

Post Wed, Sep 27 2017, 1:51 am
Yes, I agree supplementation is needed too but like you said seagreen amother it's a whole added overwhelming piece. so many suggested ones to try I don't know which ones to start with other than omega3, the list could go on and on
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amother
Ginger


 

Post Wed, Sep 27 2017, 11:46 am
My son has ADHD, combined and we have had success with modifying his diet.

We cut out all added, refined sugars, artificial colorings, preservatives, etc. Basically him (and our whole family) is on a whole-food diet.

We don't eliminate any categories of foods - so dairy, soy, nuts, all that is allowed. As long as it's fresh, unprocessed, real food.

For us, we have seen a HUGE change. He's calmer, more focused, and we have less meltdowns and freakouts. In the last six months we have also added some behavior modification type things and the change is even larger. He is not currently on meds. We have a meeting with his teaching team next month to see where we are on that front.

However, I need to add: we are very strict about this in our home. We send food for school as well. But - meals and snacks at shul and snacks on Fridays at school are allowed because they are Shabbos related. Additionally, our mothers try very hard to respect these wishes, but to do it to a T proved too difficult for either one. Our standards are significantly relaxed when they are at Grandma's.

So we don't do it perfectly and we could have better success if we did. But we needed a balance between the best diet for him and an enjoyable childhood experience.

If you're curious about the whole food diet, check out 100 days of Real Food. She has a blog which is nice, but I would suggest buying her book. It really helped us and the recipes are all delicious.
https://www.100daysofrealfood......ooks/
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amother
Navy


 

Post Wed, Sep 27 2017, 12:22 pm
Thank you Ginger amother! That is exactly what I was looking for, real food ideas instead of just what not to eat. I will look into it. Can you please give me any other further information about what the teaching team does differently for your child? I keep meeting with teachers here to discuss options of how to help my son but none of us seem to have any concrete ideas that can be implemented other than taking him out of class. Any suggestions in that area would be much appreciated!
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amother
Yellow


 

Post Wed, Sep 27 2017, 4:39 pm
I have seen huge changes in sensory processing by cutting out processed foods. We changed the while family eating habits and lifestyle.
Good supplements would be probiotics, omega 3, magnesium and Epsom baths.
Other forms of detoxing can also help, but take it slow.
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amother
Mauve


 

Post Wed, Sep 27 2017, 5:42 pm
I have ADHD and allergies. Anythign and everything artificial was completely out of my diet for my childhood. I only ate real food, not processed, made from scratch. It did not make even one tiny bit of a difference once we cut those things out and overhauled my diet.

While there are always people who say that these things help them, there are others who did the same thing with no difference. ADHD is complex because it's neurological, and changing your diet can't always change the way your neurological system is deficient.
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amother
Seagreen


 

Post Wed, Sep 27 2017, 5:45 pm
amother wrote:
I have ADHD and allergies. Anythign and everything artificial was completely out of my diet for my childhood. I only ate real food, not processed, made from scratch. It did not make even one tiny bit of a difference once we cut those things out and overhauled my diet.

While there are always people who say that these things help them, there are others who did the same thing with no difference. ADHD is complex because it's neurological, and changing your diet can't always change the way your neurological system is deficient.
Yes but changing your diet *and* supplementing to correct neurological deficiencies absolutely can.
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amother
Seagreen


 

Post Wed, Sep 27 2017, 5:50 pm
amother wrote:
Yes, I agree supplementation is needed too but like you said seagreen amother it's a whole added overwhelming piece. so many suggested ones to try I don't know which ones to start with other than omega3, the list could go on and on
I know, it's overwhelming. Like I said I'm in the same boat of not knowing where to start. Diet is a good place to start, because at least you can get those confounding factors out of the way for when you are ready to start supplementing... I think the key is not to give up at diet though.
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amother
Mauve


 

Post Wed, Sep 27 2017, 6:15 pm
amother wrote:
Yes but changing your diet *and* supplementing to correct neurological deficiencies absolutely can.


I took vitamins and such to during my 'better diet' time. Didn't help at all.

I'm not saying nobody is helped. But I am saying that these things don't help everyone. That's ok - we're all different and all our bodies work differently, and not everyone with ADHD has the same underlying factors. I tried, and it didn't help, and I found other things which did help my ADHD - learning how to fidget productively to help my hyperactivity, skills therapy to learn how to overcome my executive function deficits, relaxation techniques and mindfulness to help hyperactivity/impulsivity/exectuive functioning, and other similar types of things to help out in areas of school, relationships, and life. It's hard work, and harder than a diet change, but less restrictive as well. And oh so rewarding when you see that improvement.

Medication can also really help, though I only took it for a short time ,because I prefered to deal with ADHD other ways. Not sure whether this was a good decision or not, and it's not the right decision for everyone. But the things I learned above can really help.

OP, if you want to try, that's up to you, I didn't advise one way or the other, just stated my experience so you'd be aware. The fact that it didn't work for me doesn't undermine whether or not it works for others, and vice versa. Just because it works for some people, that doesn't mean it has to work for me. Just know that sometimes it helps and sometimes it doesn't, and it's not a cure-all, the same way that ritalin works for some kids and not others, diet changes and nutritional supplements work for some kids but not others.
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