Ever wonder why your ADHD child gets more lethargic and fidgety after lunch? That’s because popular lunch time options put the brain to sleep rather than wake them up. Here are great lunch ideas that will help your child stay alert, calm, and attentive all afternoon.
One of the most difficult parts about natural ADHD treatments – besides figuring out which ones work best for your child – is the support or lack thereof of the people around you. An ADHD treatment program is only as successful as the people who reinforce it, and there are many times when people allow your child to break the rules you’ve set for him or her. One such problem is the issue of relatives and grandparents who slip the occasional cookie or forbidden food to a child on an ADHD diet. Here’s what you can do when this happens.
Lack of focus, forgetfulness, and hyperactive behavior – children with ADHD put up with a lot of symptoms and discomfort. But these aren’t the only problems they have to deal with. Research shows that kids with ADHD are also more likely to experience allergies than kids without. There is no easy explanation for why this happens but we do know that certain allergies, such as an intolerance to artificial food additives, can make the disorder worse for some kids. Although many allergens cannot be controlled (e.g. high pollen count), it is possible to avoid triggers that aggravate ADHD symptoms.
In the morning rush before school, it’s perfectly natural for kids to skip out on breakfast. However, try to make sure your child gets a bite of a high-protein meal in the morning. A new study published in the Environmental Health Journal discovered that a healthy breakfast is good for children with ADHD, not only for the energy it provides, but because it reduces the body’s absorption of lead. As you may already know, lead is one of the leading ADHD causes in children today.
Exciting news for parents who want their kids to try an ADHD diet! A new study confirms once more that ADHD symptoms can be reduced by eliminating foods that trigger them. The study on the restricted elimination diet (RED) was recently published in The Lancet, with very promising results.
Getting your child to give up favorite foods for an ADHD diet is tricky, and the holiday season might make it more difficult. The last few weeks of the year will be filled with dinner parties, family reunions, and other types of gatherings centered on food. Your child might feel left out when cousins enjoy forbidden holiday treats, and relatives won’t understand why he or she can’t have just one tiny cookie. It may not be a good idea to take a break from your child’s diet and start from scratch after a few weeks, but here are some tips that will make eating a fun occasion for your child during the holidays.
Last week, I talked about how the number of children diagnosed with ADHD has skyrocketed over the last few years, and posited some possible explanations for this phenomenon. While some might argue that ADHD awareness and overeager doctors contributed to this increase, a new study published in the journal Pediatrics finds that diet and lifestyle parallels the high rate of childhood ADHD cases today.
If you are aware that sugar can cause ADHD, then you may no longer buy sweets, pastries, commercial fruit drinks, and other sugary foods when you do the groceries. Instead, you purchase sugar-free alternatives and artificial sweeteners. After all, it would be cruel to deprive your child of these sweet treats. But did you know that sugar-free foods won’t necessarily help your child overcome ADHD? Sugar-free products contain substitutes that children with ADHD can be intolerant to. Below are two sugar-free ingredients that your child needs to avoid, and the surprising truth behind them.
ADHD cannot be diagnosed by checking off a laundry list of symptoms because many disorders often cause similar problems. Celiac disease is one such overlooked disorder. You might have been aware that food intolerances and intestinal problems have a hand in causing ADHD symptoms. Celiac disease is a condition where a person is intolerant to the plant protein gluten, which is found in wheat and wheat products. When a child with celiac disease eats pizza, pasta, or any food with wheat in it, the immune system reacts by damaging the upper region of the small intestine. The initial damage only amounts to minor inflammation but if the child continues to eat foods with gluten, painful symptoms and impaired nutrient absorption can occur.
In the UnRitalin Solution, we place a lot of importance on diet and proper nutrition as a key to overcoming ADHD. Research shows that artificial additives and certain other food substances can aggravate the trademark symptoms of ADHD, including inattention and hyperactive behavior. These foods cause adverse reactions that impact the brain wave patterns in specific areas of the brain, which in turn triggers the ADHD-like symptoms.
Although very few researchers have looked into the actual mechanisms by which food allergies affect ADHD symptoms, a small study done in 1997 was able to document the phenomenon well. Researchers from Australia’s Institute for Child Health Research investigated the changes in brainwave patterns when participants with ADHD ate foods they were allergic too. The results are very telling and support the theory that an intolerance to certain foods are responsible for ADHD-like behaviors.