"Of all the animals, the BOY is the most unmanageable!" ~ Plato

9.14.2008

Feingold

As you all know by now, my boys are a bit on the rambunctious side. Well, I may be getting some relief very soon. Dawn and Julie both emailed me separately about the Feingold Diet Dawn was sharing her new found "cure" for her son and Julie was giving me some "been there, done that" advice. Both found this program to be nothing short of miraculous when it came to the behavior in their children. I did a bit more research online, bought the book at half.com (for just $.75!) and found that some people get results by simply cutting out all foods with Dyes in them. That seemed like a far less daunting task than changing our entire way of eating. I figured I would try that first. I read that sometimes you can get results from that. I also remembered my mom had to deny my brother his beloved bologna and hot dogs as a kid because it had red dye #5 in it and Rob would be zinging off the walls if he ate anything with that. I half heartedly started this change yesterday, late morning-ish. I must say, Tanner has been noticeably different today. He's listening more, talking quieter, playing nicer and smiling tons. We had a small issue this morning when we got to soccer pictures and someone on the team was giving all the kids mini bags of skittles (yeah, at 10AM!) I told Tanner that he wouldn't actually be able to eat them and he did have a bit of a fit but it was over practically before it started. I told him that when we went to Target I would find a treat that he could have....since he was so good about not eating the skittles.


I must say, there are artificial colorings in EVERYTHING! Reading labels is monotonous and boring too! BUT, I'm noticing a difference in my kid and it's only been 1 day. This is FAR sooner than I thought I'd see a change, IF I saw one at all.

SO, as a result, Tanner's ADHD packet that I picked up on Friday will just sit, gathering dust, for the time being. I'm going to continue with this change and hope and pray that this is the answer I've been looking for all along.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

How EXCITING!!! Isn't it amazing? I am so excited that you decided to try to eliminate artificial colors. You are right . . . they are in EVERYTHING!

There are some M&Ms that are safe . . . well, they aren't actually M&Ms, they are called SUN DROPS - my kids love them. There are also graham cracker cookies, hershey milk chocolate bars, I have even found lollipops without artifical color. When you are ready and would like internet addresses, let me know.

Blessings

tracey.becker1@gmail.com said...

Wow! Good luck, hon. Hope it's the method that works for him.

4funboys said...

best wishes...

let us know how it goes.

andria said...

We are also looking into doing the Feingold diet. We went to a class about it and weren't quite ready to pay the 85 bucks for the start up book,but a lady we know from the ADD group does it and she's going to let me borrow her book if we ever get home and start having meetings again.

I do know the natural white cheddar cheetos and caprisuns are good lunch snacks with nothing artificial as are most of the Pepperidge Farm cookie line.

I know you are amazed as I am of the things you wouldnt' even think of having dyes, like flour etc. you have to check EVERYTHING!

I find it does help Jacob too and would love to take the plunge to full Fiengold, but it's expensive and kinda hard. Small steps.

Marcia said...

There is SO MUCH free information at www.feingold.org, and you can read all of part one of Why Can't My Child Behave? right online.
Also, check out www.School-Lunch.org for a brief introductory slide show that will explain how simple changes in your shopping can make a huge difference in your kids.