ADHD, Diet and Your Child
March 11th, 2009 |
By Jason Wasser, LMFT
Click here to contact Jason and/or see his GoodTherapy.org Profile
One morning I was visiting a school to do a clinical observation for a student when my mouth dropped. What I saw before me seemed like nothing out of the ordinary for the students and teacher but there it was at 8:30 a.m. as clear as can be. A child was sitting at his desk, eating a pastrami sandwhich, chips and drinking a can of soda. When I asked the teacher what the school snack policy was, I was told there was none.
So the question I asked myself is who is really to blame for this problem? Is it our school system for having unclear snack policies or is it the parent’s fault for not feeding the child a substantial breakfast and sending the child to school without a more balanced meal?
When determining a clinical diagnosis in regards to a child’s behavior, one of the very first questions I would ask is “ what do they eat?” The amount of times the response from the teacher or parents was “ what does that have to do with how he/she is misbehaving” shows how much we all need to learn about how our diet truly can have an effect on our behaviors. Did you know that good nutrition and other important health habits are best established in childhood? If not, here are some facts to look over carefully.
7% of school age children are diagnosed as ADHD.
(Center for Disease Control and Prevention)
ADHD is two or three times more common in boys than in girls.
(Center for Science in the Public Interest)
1 child in 4 is obese and nearly 50% of obese adolescents remain obese as adults.
(International Journal of Obesity)
By the age of 12, an estimated 70% of our children have developed the beginning stages of hardening of the arteries.
(Bogalusa Heart Study)
What do each of the researched facts above have in common? Each medical challenges can be diminished by becoming a well educated consumer of the foods you are buying and preparing for you and your family.
ADHD, also called Hyperactivity or Attention-Deficit Disorder is mainly exhibited with symptoms in children such as reduced attentiveness and concentration, excessive levels of activity, distractibility, and impulsiveness. ADHD takes an enormous toll on children and their families. The child falls behind in school, loses self-esteem, and needs extra help. A family may need to cope with the need to focus the child’s attention on essential activities or restrain his or her impulsive behavior, while dealing with the unsettling fact that the child is not always welcome in other people’s homes, in play groups, or on teams. (cspinet.org)
Children these days eat and drink too much sugar, consume too many empty calories, and don’t eat enough of the good things they need – especially fresh fruits and vegetables. Some children can have severe reactions to food additives and exhibit signs of ADHD and even autism when they eat additives. These days parents also need to rule out the possibility of food allergies when it comes to atypical behaviors of their children.
Imagine sitting in class after a breakfast, snack or lunch that contains some food that you may be allergic to. Perhaps some of the behaviors that we are now witnessing in children are due to the increased sensitivity that they have to some ingredient or preservative. Even if that isn’t the case, it still begs of us to increase the overall nutrition for ourselves and our families.
So what can you do if you are concerned your child may have ADHD and want to explore options you can change yourself?
- Become informed consumers about the basics of food and it’s preparation.
- Stick to homemade, whole, fresh produce, dairy, meat or fish as much as possble and avoid take out or prepared foods where you aren’t aware of the ingredients.
- Stay away from caffeine containing products as one study reported a 252% increase in ADHD scores (Connor’s Scale) when children drank less than one can of caffeinated colas.
- Limit sugar containing products which also have a profound effect on your child’s behavior. When a teacher is walking the halls with foot long pixie sticks as a reward for his students, although his intentions are well meaning, he is contributing to his classroom’s behavioral problems.
- Eliminate food coloring, additives and preservatives as much as possible as these have also been linked to behaviors connected to ADHD. A September 2007 study released in Time Magazine shows that “a variety of common food dyes and the preservative sodium benzoate — an ingredient in many soft drinks, fruit juices, salad dressings and other foods — causes some children to become more hyperactive and distractible than usual” (time.com). When the report was released in the British medical journal The Lancet, Britain’s Food Standards Agency issued an advisory to parents to limit their children’s intake of preservatives and food additives. This study was the first to show a concrete connection between food additives and hyperactivity.
- Get involved with your child’s school and PTA to help makes change to their food and snack policies so that your child can get the most out of his educational experience. Encourage them to increase the education for their students about healthy diet and nutrition and only serve well balanced meals, that are low in saturated fat, if there is a hot lunch program.
- Try whole food based supplements for you and your child that only have extensive and reputable research backing up the product. Visit The Children’s Study at www.childrenshealthstudy.com and www.naturegrownjuiceplus.com to learn more how your child’s diet can affect their health and what other simple steps you can take to improve your families health.
Hopefully, with continued education and discussions, we can find ways to increase our overall knowledge about the connections between diet and ADHD that will hopefully contribute to the improvement of your child’s behaviors and lead to long standing changes in your families overall health and wellbeing.
©Copyright 2009 by Jason Wasser, LMFT. All Rights Reserved. Permission to publish granted to GoodTherapy.org. The following article was solely written and edited by the author named above. The views and opinions expressed are not necessarily shared by GoodTherapy.org. Questions or concerns about the following article can be directed to the author or posted as a comment to this blog entry. Click here to contact Jason and/or see his GoodTherapy.org Profile
20 comments so far
Diagnosed with ADHD as a child my parents made every effort to change my diet and hope that this would make a huge improvement in my behavior. It did, as they cut out many processed foods and switched the whole family to more organic food choices and foods that were not just processed junk. I have learned to control my ADHD symptoms due in large part to nutritional balance and very little medication at all. I hope that more pediatricians make recommendations like this rather than being the first to jump on the medication bandwagon.
Good to know with a proper diet ADHD can be treated. Great post.
Thanks for the article Jason.. I believe nutrition has to start at home with the parents… it’s the parent’s responsibility to make sure they child has breakfast, not only to prevent them from eating junk, but to give them that jump start they need in the morning to perform their best.
I have to agree with Linnie.. It’s nobody’s else’s responsibility but the parents. I was taught that chips and sodas were bad for you and I think we need more education for the parents and children on how to eat right.
I volunteer at my child’s school quite a bit and you would not believe the ridiculous excuses for lunches that I have seen parents pack and send with their kids. I try to be understanding but where I live a bag of Cheetos costs exactly the same as fresh baby carrots, probably more. Yet these are the food choices that so many of us are allowing our kids to live with and be nourished by. Has anyone ever stopped to think that the numbers for ADHD probably are on the rise from we were younger as a direct result of the foods that so many of our kids are raised on today? I know it can sometimes cost more money to get fresh produce and vegetables but there are other far healthier choices to give to our kids and I think that is all just part of being a very responsible parent.
I do agree about the caffeinated foods. A neighbour’s child has ADHD and last year my husband gave him a coke when he came over for my kid’s birthday party. He was unstoppable after that and we needed his parents over as the party and the other kids were in shambles.
I wonder how many schools let this happen and if they realize how it affects children with ADHD
I never realized that nutrition had anything to do with ADHD.. I figured maybe a lot of sugar did, but not the other stuff, which I know is bad for anyone anyway.
Has it ever been proven that red food dyes really do need to be avoided by kids with ADD and ADHD? When I was a camp counselor one summer that seemed to be all the rage and we had several kids that we tried to get to avoid the dye at all costs although you have to know that if you have ever tried that this can be hard! i am just curious if any new evidence has come along in the years since I encountered this that says specifically whether or not there is a real link between these two things.
I try not ot be judgemental but I really am appalled sometimes by the stuff that many families allow their kids to eat on a regular basis. Don’t get me wrong- my family and I occassionally eat at McDonald’s too but not on a daily basis and this certainly does not make up the crux of our diets. You have to expect that when all kids take in are unhealthy foods devoid of any nutrients or nutritional value then what they output will not be quality either. I know that some families feel that this is cheaper than eating healthy and shopping for healthier foods but that is just not true when you do price comparisons and break everything down. My dad has commented many times that there used to be no one who had even heard of ADHD and now it is everywhere and he has been convinced for years that it has to do with the foods we feed our kids these days. Here’s to you Dad- I think you have hit the nail on the head on this one!
It’s no wonder why some kids are overweight and have ADHD! If we let our kids to continue eating bad foods (on a regular basis) and do nothing about it, we are harming our kids health.
Sometimes taking the easy path ends up leading us down a much tougher road in the end. Think about that the next time you find yourself giving your kid junk to eat for the 5th time in a week.
What about a gluten free diet? Seems it is helping with autistic kids. . . why not ADHD?
Hi,
Thanks so much for all of your comments. Yes, there is a tremendous amount of research specifically showing direct connection between food and our reactions. In regards to the wheat free/gluten free diet, I personally think it can be helpful as I know one person who spirals into serious depression after eating wheat products as well as autistic clients who have shown improvement by the diet as well.
I also was strictly WF/GF for over 6 months and saw an increase in energy, attentiveness as well as other physical improvements.
I am challenged that very few therapists look into the connections between food allergies and behavioral deficits when assessing their clients.
Great point Helen. I wonder if teachers and doctors have thought about this. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to provide more gluten free foods to ADHD kids and a little more info on this.
I think it’s a great idea for therapist to take the time and look into the eating habits when they diagnosis to help children with ADHD… Maybe some do, but that may help a lot when it comes to issues as these.
You are what you eat is what a proverb says. So, in a larger sense I am sure diets need to be considered especially when treating children.
I’m sure it’s hard for children to sit down and eat a healthy lunch, but if we teach them and introduce healthy foods at an earlier age, I think children would be more prone to eating right. They use adults as role models and we need to teach them as well as adults who deal the children with ADHD how to eat right to help them.
Thanks for the wonderful help!
a nice and in-depth analysis of your suggestions are practical. what i feel is one should start it with from
i respectfully thank you for tons of meningful message you sent in
This post rocks. I’m going to practice it so I can be much more eloquent.
Let us not conflate information from one source with that from another, and incorrectly extrapolate to the group of children diagnosed with AD/HD.
There is no evidence that foods or even additives cause AD/HD. Those substances are not good for anyone, and they are not food. It is an example of singling out an already beleaguered group and applying to them a set of standards others do not wish to meet (a covert form of blaming the victim). Of course no one should eat that stuff, and the highly sensitive (many with AD/HD) may be more susceptible.
Since AD/HD is strongly heritable, the chances of a child with it coming from a home where at least one parent has it are very high. Therefore, the child with the poorly lunch is coming from a home where there may be no predictable grocery routine, frequent oversleeping, good intentions, forgotten plans, intermittent attention to basics.
Grains provide almost no nutritional value so anyone can eliminate them from their diet without negative health effects, and often experience gains in many areas from mood to digestion, nutrient absorption and cognitive capacity.