cut out suragar, boxes/canned/plastic wrapped food. If it comes packaged, avoid it. Especially crackers, snacks, pasta mixes, and things like that. Cut out MSG, its in freaking everything.
The preservatives, MSG, and flow agent chemicals found in all our foods (save the ones from animals and the ground, for the most part) are stimulants. They cannot be readily exceted or metabolized, especially in children. Theyre stored in the tissues and build up until the body is so over stimulated it cannot react properly. Think I am making it up? Research the side effects of the chemicals in your foods. They include everything from heart failure, obesity and sugar issues, to mental issues, to ADD/ADHD symptoms. Everything our country ails from, suddenly, since their insertion into our foods in the 50's.
Look up how to avoid MSG, you'll soon learn about the awful flaw in our food industry's laws and regulations that allow for it to be unnamed and placed in countless ingredients. Even ones labled as "natural". They can even inject these different toxins into our meat, and all of them do. Even our ground beef. We buy direct from a slaughter house/ butcher who doesnt inject. Totally worth it- the price is similar to the store, and the taste and texture is unbelievably better.
I nannied and worked with kids for 16 years, plus am raising my own. In my experience I have never come across a child labled with ADD or ADHD who wasnt easily remedied by eating healthy foods, cutting out the chemicals, and getting good exercise. I have NEVER seen a child labled with ADD/ADHD that ate healthy. Not saying it doesnt happen, there are times when children really truly just have an inability and handicap when it comes to such a condition. but after so many kids in my care, and so many years with them, and so many repeated sucesses just by changing their diet and activity I seriously have to say I dont put much faith in the diagnosis, or the medications.
most cases are confirmed in schools, in an environment that studies have proven over and over does not cater to the needs of all children. Boys especially. Some children learn at different paces, and many children, even older ones cannot process information without their bodies being in motion.
I have a cousin who works for families with learning disabled children, most are "ADD/ADHD", and even she believes the same- and she's only 22. She's often helped parents wean their kids off medication and onto a better diet, and found it had the same effect, or a similar one to the medication.
Our family suffers from a line of women who have crippling panic disorders. I am the third generation, and I promise you I stopped having panic attacks (my doctor describes them as a heart attack, without the damage to the heart muscle, the pain and experience is the same) when I cut out MSG. Our toddler started sleeping better, well, we all did, and we all felt as though some fog lifted from our minds- one we didnt even realize was there.
Beyond all that, how well the family core and structure functions plays a big role in behavioral issues like this. One reoccurring factor I've found in a lot of these cases, and heard repeated by other care givers is that there is an unstable home environment. Parents who are not home, bickering, lack of attention, lack of time spent together as a whole, and especially fathers who are minimally active in their children's lives. I doubt there's been much study done on the subject, so i cant tell you to research it, but its just what Myself and others in the industry have noticed as a trend.
I might be young, and I might not know a whole lot about the medical field, but I know what BS smells like, and to me ADD and ADHD is typically one of those things.
Maybe some of that might help your situation, or maybe it doesnt, but its at least worth looking into. The food thing is hard. We survive on the convenience of frozen meals, and ingredients that are not whole and untouched- things that cook easily and quickly. Its a rough change to make as a mom, trust me I know. Especially if you're a working mom. But if you do it a little at a time and find the balance you can make it just as easy as the current style is for you now.
