Getting your children to actually eat their fruits and veggies

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right.

I know.

Blah, blah, blah.

But have you ever tried to get a child, who is "addicted" to the processed food already,

or who struggles with sensory disorders, or ADHD, or Autism, or......

to actually eat fruit and vegetables??

I had to start by not buying processed food....at all.

Because what happens in my house is this:

I buy all these whole food items,

and they scrounge through the pantry when they get hungry.

They don't reach for a banana or apple,

they make their own peanut butter and jelly sandwich

or pour a bowl of cereal.

So yeah.....I hide the two boxes of Rice Chex or Whole-Grain Flakes

for those days I have to have something quick I know they will put in their stomachs.

One thing that I am convinced draws children to processed foods (in addition to the sugar and fat)

is the colorful, fun packaging.

I believe that we, as moms, have to be creative when it comes to food preparation 

and how we present the food to our family.

Who says being a stay-at-home-mom is boring and suppresses our creativity or artistic ability?

I have found that taking the time to set the table pretty, with candles,

brings them all to the table more willingly than when I just hand them a bowl of food

and point them to a cluttered table to sit at.

I've found the same when it comes to serving fruits and veggies.

My children are much more willing to eat raw produce than slimy cooked produce.

So I try to make it look more fun!

Who doesn't want to try some of this:

or THIS

or this:

I'm not saying that you have to be a talented fruit sculptor to get your kids to eat right.

But I am saying that taking a few extra minutes to make the food look pretty

will spark the interest of you child and they will be more likely to try something that looks interesting to them.  Especially if they get to help.

Is that a no-fail guarantee?

No.

I have to fight the processed food addictions in my house every. single. day.

I am seeing progress though.

My children are eating much more fruit than they ever did before.

They still choose homemade cookies over apple slices; but, when I don't make the cookies

and just offer fruit, they are actually eating it.

I'm throwing much less rotten fruit away these days.

Women's Wellness Wednesday: Avoiding MSG

Several years ago, two of my children were professionally diagnosed with ADHD.

I was quickly overwhelmed.

Overwhelmed with the conflicting suggestions to help manage the disruptive behaviors

that accompany this learning difference.

The one suggestion that made the most sense for the long-term was to examine what we were eating

and how it affected their ability to focus and control themselves.

In researching this, a couple things kept coming up:

1. Food preservatives

2.  Food coloring

3.  High Fructose Corn Syrup

There were other things that came up as well, but today I want to address

the preservative MSG.

(Click on the above image to make it larger!)

For more information on processed foods and their affects on children's behavior, read......

Hyper Kids?  Cut out Preservatives

Top 10 Scariest Food Additives

MSG and ADHD

Back-to-school: SNACK TIME!!!!

Another thing that can be challenging about homeschooling is the amount of food consumed by children who are home all day.  

Children are just hungry.  

My boys seems to be hungry ALL the time!!  

The girls not as much.  

But it goes without saying that when they are home as opposed to away from home (i.e. a school) they are consuming more of your grocery budget!!  One frustrating tendency that my children have is eating hardly anything at breakfast and then finding themselves "STARVIN'" about 2 hours before lunchtime.  Then commences the constant grazing and rummaging through the kitchen,

 spoiling and plundering all my meal supplies for the week!!  

So, in addition to meal plans, I have found I need to have a "PLAN OF A-SNACK" as well!!

Additionally, for children with ADHD, when hunger kicks in it often triggers angry emotional outbursts and annoying behavior.  So keeping those hunger pangs in check is another key to a more peaceful school day!!

I like to have a morning snack and an afternoon snack planned.  You'll usually see us taking a break and refueling around 10:30 am and 3:00 pm.  Here are a few ideas that work really well for us!!  I'm still sticking to a list of things that are not a part of our diet anymore including high fructose corn syrup, MSG, artificial colors, less cow's milk and less gluten.  My official list is found here.

5 Days of Hunger-Busting Snacks

Monday:  "Power Balls"

In a blender, coarsely chop: 

1 cup raw sunflower seeds

1/4 cup raisins

Mix with:

1 T. oat bran

1 - 16 oz jar crunchy or creamy peanut butter

1 T. apple juice concentrate

Mix with hands.  This will be sticky.  I have chopped a little more of the seeds and raisins together and added it to the mix so it was easier to roll into balls.

Roll in unsweetened shredded coconut.

Store in refrigerator.

Makes 3 dozen

** You can add in carob chips or whole raisins too!!

Tuesday:  Apple "Cupcakes"

These are so simple to make:
Half an apple crosswise and scoop or cut out the middle with the core.
"Frost" it with peanut butter or cream cheese (that has been mixed with a little sugar).
Sprinkle on any fun topping you like:
Raisins
Cereal
Nuts

Wednesday:  Fresh veggies and hummus dip

Hummus Dip

Drain a 15 oz. can of chickpeas reserving 1/4 cup of the liquid.
Toss the chickpeas into the blender.
Add 1 clove of garlic (I sometimes use two as we love garlic!!),
1 tsp. cumin,
splash of lemon juice,
dash of salt,
and the reserved 1/4 cup of liquid.
Blend together until very smooth.
DELISH!!!
Also, lovely when served with Tortilla Strips

**I do have to be honest and say that not all my children are crazy about this one.
If they like the hummus, they prefer it with the tortilla strips that I buy from Costco (gluten free).
But we're working on eating more veggies, and I firmly believe that the more a child is exposed to certain veggies, they will eventually learn to enjoy them.  You could even slather some peanut butter on that celery too.  The pretty the presentation, the more excited they are also!!!

Thursday:  Mini Clementine Oranges

"Very-Berry Smoothies"

(I hope you can tell this is a picture I copied from somewhere on the web.
But this is exactly what mine would look like!!)


In a blender,
pour 3-4 cups of milk (I use skim, cow but you could use soy or almond or goat, etc.)
1 cup frozen strawberries
Handful of frozen blueberries (you could also substitute frozen bananas too!!)
Couple tablespoons of honey or "splenda" if you prefer
Scoop of ground flaxseed

Blend it all on high until smoothie like consistency.  I like ours really thick, so I may add more frozen berries if too thin.

Friday:  Popcorn  (Fresh popped or microwave)

Making popcorn on the stove is so much fun!!

It's a great fall/winter treat too!!

And.....gluten free!!

Here is a simple way to do that!

It's hard to fly like an eagle, when you're surrounded by a bunch of turkeys!

In all my reading about foods most beneficial for the ADHD brain, I consistently found that starting the day with a high protein breakfast was essential.

Okay, so having that information is terrific. How to implement it is another story.

Neither of my ADHD children would I classify as "morning people," and neither do either of them wake up

and immediately want to eat.  If I tell them "they eat now or wait until lunch," then they just pick and are starving by 11 am which only triggers behavioral issues.  So, in the past we would resort to a bowl of cheerios with milk.

Not horrible, but too much carbohydrate, and not a ton of protein.

As you've seen in my post from yesterday, we do have pancakes once a week or so, and even some muffins now and then.  But I'm trying to think of ways to add more protein to the menu without scrambling eggs everyday and shooting their cholesterol levels through the roof.

So I stumble upon this recipe while reading through this website.  

PERFECT!!

My children enjoy sausage now and then, but I've been hesitant to purchase it because of it's high fat content and  all the chemicals in it.  Plus, it's rather expensive.

But this recipe for turkey sausage hits the SPOT.  It's super easy to put together and tastes dynamite!!

My children like it (expect for a couple, but they all are slowly warming up to it) and my husband LOVES it!!

Homemade Turkey Sausage

1 lb. ground turkey

1/2 tsp. onion powder

1/4 tsp. cumin

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1/4 tsp. oregano

1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp. ginger

1/4 tsp. basil

1/2 tsp. thyme

1/2 tsp. sage

1/2 tsp. salt

1 egg

Mix all the ingredients and chill for an hour or so.  (I mixed mine up the night before.)

Chilling the mix enhances and blends the flavors as well as helps when forming the patties.

Make into patties and fry in a skillet or on the griddle.

Cool and then freeze or enjoy right away.

If you don't have all the spices you can make it without using them all, except the sage.

The sage gives it that great sausage flavor!!

** I double the recipe for our family and use garlic powder instead of onion powder,

and onion salt instead of regular salt.

I also skipped the cayenne pepper so my children would actually eat it!!

Oh, do you know the muffin man?

Besides reading labels more fanatically, 

putting things back on the store shelves that contain items from our "no-no" list, 

and experimenting with homemade alternatives, 

I'm also modifying some favorite homebaked delights to reflect this "cleaner" eating

 that I'm pursuing for my family.

We LOVE pancakes.

Here is my recipe for our version.

I was inspired by this recipe,

and have since ceased using all-purpose white flour

and instead use whole wheat pasty flour instead.

I use organic cane sugar crystals or honey for sweetening, and

I also add about 1/2 cup of cold-milled ground flax to my pancake batter to increase the

Omega-3's, which are said to be very beneficial to those with ADHD.

You can try adding in fresh blueberries or bananas, but my children turn and run from my kitchen

when they see ANYTHING in their pancakes.  Big chickens!!

Another favorite on our breakfast menu is MUFFINS!!

I love them any flavor.....blueberry, apple, cinnamon struesal (my spell-checker is not helping me here!).

But our all-time favorite is chocolate chip!!!

Here is my quickie, mix-up in-a-snap recipe before tweaking:

Chocolate Chip Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 T. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 egg

3/4 cup milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3/4 cup mini-chocolate chips

In a large bowl, combine the first four ingredients.  In a small bowl, beat egg, milk and oil.

Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

Fold in chocolate chips.

Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full.

Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Yield:  1 dozen

Here's my tweaked version:

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup honey or organic sugar cane crystals

Several scoops of cold-milled ground flax

1 T. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/3 cup canola (or olive) oil

3/4 cup mini-chocolate chips 

1 egg

**Sometimes I mash up some old bananas and mix them in too.

But my children notice that.  They are DETECTIVES when it comes to mom slipping in fruit on them.

I double my recipe and bake them in mini- muffin pans.  

Yield:  5 dozen delicious mini-muffins!!!

Since I use mini-chocolate chips, they aren't as chocolatey sweet as you would think.

I do not make cookies or dessert anymore on a daily basis in an effort to serve less sugar laden foods,

so these are a nice sweet treat on Sunday mornings that my children will gobble up on our way out the door to church!! 

Enjoy!!!

Homemade cream soup

When I began really reading ALL the labels on EVERY food in my pantry, I was mortified to find MSG in the ingredients of cream of chicken and cream of mushroom soup. I thought that was the ONE ingredient that I had done a good job of keeping out of my house.   That is on the "no-no" list of foods for ADHD children.  Something about it being a preservative and sensitivity to it, and contributing to hyperactivity in ADHD children.  Anyway, I'm avoiding it now.

So I needed to find a recipe for making my own cream soups since I wasn't about to trash this recipe OR this one.

I am not including pictures of this recipe for several reasons:

1.  I am cream soup/gravy challenged.  I've never been able to get it thick enough

before it scorches on the bottom and ends up tasting burned.

2.  I'm still experimenting with the recipe and instructions to get it just right.

But I'm excited to announce that the batch I made this morning was delightful and I'm sure there will be pictures coming at another time.

But for now, here is the recipe:

Cream Soup (Substitute for Campbell's Soups)

6 T. butter (This morning I used 3 T. margarine and 3 T. canola oil and it was much better!)

1 T.  instant chicken seasoning

1/4 t. pepper

6 T. whole grain flour (I use whole wheat pastry flour)

1/2 t. salt

4 cups milk (I use skim)

In skillet, melt butter.  Combine powder ingredients and blend with melted butter.  Heat until bubbly.  Remove from heat and slowly blend in part of the milk. 

(Here is where I start having problems.  This morning I only added one cup at this point.)

Return to medium heat and continue stirring in the rest of the milk as it thickens.

(Another problem point for me:  here I added a cup at a time and ended up only using 3 1/2 cups of milk total)

Boil 1 minute, stirring constantly.

(Final problem area for me:  It never gets to a full hard boil for me without scorching on the bottom.  So when it was just starting to bubble around the edges, I set the timer for 1 minute).

Store in refrigerator up to 1 week, or freeze in 2-cup containers up to 1 month.

Makes 4 cups.

2 cups of this is about equal to 1 can cream of mushroom soup.

Variations:

Mushroom Soup - Add 4 oz. can finely chopped mushrooms

Celery Soup - Add 1 cup finely diced celery, cooked

Chicken Soup - Add 1/2 cup finely chopped leftover chicken

**Use rice milk if allergic to cow's milk.

Out with the old......In with the new!!!

As I was in the midst of trying to figure out how I was going to swap out these particular ingredients in the foods we normally consumed, I happened upon this cookbook:

When I say "happened,"

I mean I was trying to kill some time in the grocery store waiting for a prescription to be filled

in their pharmacy.

So I started browsing the books, and this cookbook practically JUMPED into my hands.

I immediately loved what they had to say and on impulse bought it.

Hands down.......one of the best impulse buys EVER.

I knew the recipes would be good because the authors are from my homestate of Ohio,

and they are Mennonite!!!

If you've never had Mennonite cooking, my friend, you have truly missed out on one of life's greatest pleasures!!

Anyway, on page 167 of this cookbook is a fabulous recipe for making your own taco seasoning.

I use taco seasoning in several dishes including THIS one which I have shared with you in the past.

I now use my own taco seasoning and we like it even better than that nasty 'ol store bought stuff.

Have you seen the sodium levels on a packet of that stuff??

Taco Seasoning

Place in one pint jar:

1/2 cup onion flakes

3 tsp. paprika

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (optional)

3 Tbsp. ground cumin

2 tsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Cover tightly and shake well to mix.  To season, use 2-3 tablespoons of the mix and 1/2 cup water

for each pound of meat or beans.

** I tripled the recipe and don't use the cayenne pepper.

It's really THAT easy and a snap to put together.

Better ingredients, less salt.....WIN!!!

Experimenting

Several months ago, I talked about researching 

how our diets affect the ADHD in my children.

I won't rehash all that, but you can review that information if you would like right

  here and here.

So during this summer, I have been very slowly modifying some of our "staple" meals to be more "ADHD friendly", as well as experimenting with some new recipes.

I thought this week I would share some of these recipes.

Making these dietary changes hasn't been nearly as traumatic as I was envisioning it would be,

and in fact, my family is loving some of the new things that have come to the dinner table!!

I have learned that in making diet changes it works great to just pick one or two things you want to eliminate and find alternatives.  

Don't try to knock out the entire list of things all at once.

It takes time for you and your family members to learn to like new flavors and textures,

especially if they are addicted to sugars and chemical flavor enhancers.

So one of the first things I started purging from my pantry was the

HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP.

Can I just say that I was embarrassed at how much of that one ingredient permeated our diet??

I had no idea.

And since it is largely a thing of the past.....the difference in the calmness of my children has been palpable!!

One of our favorite family recipes is Homemade Chicken Fingers.

I thought I was doing great making these at home and baking instead of frying.

PFFFTT!!  

NOT!

Store bought bread crumbs have high fructose corn syrup in them.

Bummer.

So I found a recipe to make my own chicken coating mix!

You have to make it with bread that has no HFCS in it though, so be careful.

"Nature's Own" and some "Oroweat" bread is free of HFCS,

and I can get that inexpensively at the bread store outlet near me.

The homemade coating mix is wonderful and no one in my family noticed a difference!!

Coating Mix for Oven-Fried Chicken 

2 cups dry bread crumbs

1 1/2 tsp. salt (I leave this out if I have the onion and celery salt, or it's too salty for us)

1 1/2 tsp. paprika

1 tsp. celery salt

1 tsp. onion salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 tsp. poultry seasoning 

1/4 cup vegetable oil (I actually like to use a little less or it's too oily)

To make the bread crumbs:  Save the heels of bread or rolls or toast in the freezer until you've accumulated enough for a batch of bread crumbs.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Line your cooking sheet with the stale bread and dry it thoroughly in the oven.  Put cool toasted bread in your blender and whirl until very fine.

Blend the bread crumbs and remaining ingredients with a fork until well mixed.

Keeps unrefrigerated in tightly covered container.

Makes 2 1/3 cups of mix.

Use as you would the shake and bake!!

Very tasty!

ADHD and the need for vigorous exercise

I read this article recently and knew immediately that it was worth sharing. It makes so much sense!! This particular part of the article just leaped off the page at me:

Dr. Block, who works extensively with children with attention challenges, explains that exercise is key to solving attention and learning challenges in two ways: Physical activity burns sugar (which contributes to hyperactivity). It also builds connections between the right and left sides of the brain, a necessary step toward building a better learner. “I [commonly] hear parents say their child’s recess is taken away if he has misbehaved in class,” says Block. “But there is a direct relationship between physical activity and a child’s ability to focus.”

The first suspect, says Block, is an elevated sugar level. But, she warns, “Many parents have their children tested and find that the child’s blood [sugar] is normal.” This, she says, can be misleading because hyperactivity occurs when sugar levels are elevated (after eating, say, a sugary bowl of cereal). “The body naturally releases adrenaline to drop the blood sugar—this is why the kid can’t sit still,” Block says. Yet, if you test the blood an hour or so after this incident, the body has probably regulated the sugar levels back to normal (so a child’s test results will appear fine).

Do you know what else this says to me? That being on the path of eating better.....less sugar....less processed ingredients that spike the blood sugar (i.e. high fructose corn syrup) is exactly the place I need to be for my children with attention challenges!!!!

This also seems to say to me that it makes sense that some of the best interventions and treatments for ADHD children are living a healthy lifestyle......i.e. lots of exercise, lots of outdoor time, and more whole foods that were designed for our nutrition by our Great Creator!! Forget the packaged stuff that really isn't food, forget about the computer games and XBox that keep us indoors and sedentary, consider forgetting about traditional schooling methods that trap your child indoors when he is misbehaving!! Another great advantage of homeschooling!!

Let's get moving, people!!!

This article is really worth your time, and you can read it by clicking on this link below:

http://www.dfwthrivemagazine.com/showarticle.asp?artid=73

Things are never as easy as you think....

So last week I raved about how some of the dietary changes we've made recently have made such HUUUUGE improvements in some issues we have been trying to eliminate in our children.

Well....

scratch that!!

No, not all together I guess.

I'm not THAT easily defeated.

I do completely recommend trying a healthier lifestyle in alleviating some ADHD issues that come along with the territory, but I'm becoming a little more guarded at how excited I get about it.

Ashlyn's blood sugar has been through the roof again this week. Last night after church there was this fellowship full of cookies and goodies of all shapes and sizes, and we hadn't brought her insulin pen with us. She had maybe one cookie and some other protein things. I hated to check her blood sugar when we got home, and sure enough.......

589!!!!

It wasn't all that much better this morning after 18 units of Lantus and the 5 units of Humalog to correct the high.

Still over 200.

Sigh.

I guess it's just life with a life-threatening disease.

Then there are my son's issues related to his ADHD.

Since this diet change, not only have we noticed that he is much, MUCH calmer, but he is much less happy too. Do you remember when Charlie Brown would walk around with the cloud above his head? That describes my son. Just not happy. Not ugly, and screaming, and ranting.....just not smiling, not wanting to go out and play unless he had a friend with him, grouchy.

So, I'm wondering if now we have him OVER medicated?

I'm wondering if we should bump him from 3 mg. of intuniv down to 2 mg.

I've put a call in to the doctor to get his opinion before I send off this 90-day supply

prescription for his next round of 3 mg.

This past Sunday, both my husband and I forgot to give him his dose of intuniv.

It happens.

Six kids.

Sunday morning.

All getting ready for Sunday morning church.

Insulin to figure out, thyroid medications, breakfast for everybody, 12 shoes, 6 heads of hair, etc.

First time we've ever missed.

We noticed no difference.

It was like he had taken his medication.

So I experimented on Monday to see if we saw a difference. I did not give him his pill on purpose this morning. I do not recommend missing for several days though because of the blood pressure issue associated with the intuniv medication.

He was OFF the CHARTS hyper.

Back to his obviously unmedicated self.

Running constantly through the house, jumping on people,

wrestling for hours, making noises all day.

But he was very happy....smiling and laughing all day.

He got his medication Tuesday morning.

On Wednesday evening he was SO sideways.....huge meltdown!!

Now it's Thursday and he's back to being calmer and easier to live with.

The jury is still out on his disposition.

We had a lot of junk food at that fellowship last night,

so I'm waiting a day or so to see how he is by the weekend.

Too be continued........

What's on the menu??

After doing all the reading that I've been doing online, and thinking through what my family enjoys eating, here is what I've decided I wanted to eliminate FIRST, in my baby steps toward a "cleaner" diet for my family:

1. High Fructose Corn Syrup

Do you have ANY idea how many products that sweetener is in??

I didn't.

So I started looking through my cabinets and refrigerator.

It was everywhere.

Here's a partial list of where I found it hiding at my house:

Certain brands of store bought bread (every brand that I had, of course)

Go-gurt yogurt

Graham crackers

Heinz and Hunts Ketchup

Almost all brands of salad dressings (italian, french, etc.)

Ice cream

Premium (brand) Saltine Crackers

Many brands of store bought cereal

Seasoned bread crumbs (such as Pepperidge Farms!!)

Hotdogs

Here is another comprehensive list of products containing this ingredient:

http://www.accidentalhedonist.com/index.php/2005/06/09/foods_and_products_containing_high_fruct

2. Artificial Colors particularly Red #40, and the Yellows

I found this hiding in several unexpected places:

Nacho Cheese Doritos

Our jelly

Hawaiian Punch (this was not a surprise, but I didn't usually have this anyway)

Almost all cake mixes

Crystal light drink mix

Candy

3. MSG

(Monosodium glutamate....a flavor enhancer most notoriously used in Chinese food)

Here's where I've found this:

Some of those mix-it-yourself salad dressing mixes (in the packets) such as

Hidden Valley Ranch and that Italian Dressing in the glass shaker

Cream soups such as Cream of Mushroom

4. Reducing milk intake

For right now, I don't think I'm going to completely eliminate all dairy products.

We all really like our cow's milk ice cold!!

But we do like that Silk Chocolate Light Soy Milk.....yummy when processed in the blender with coffee ice cubes!!!

I'm allergic to almonds.....so don't start with the almond milk.

I have reduced our cow's milk consumption down to 4 gallons a week though. That's about 1/2 gallon per person a week at my house. (Probably a little more for those little people who

sneak in the fridge and drink out of the milk leaving their gum behind to turn the rest of the milk all "Minty" tasting....EWWW!!)

5. Using organic (less processed) sugars

I've been buying the organic cane juice crystal sugar from Costco instead of regular

white granulated sugar. Nobody knows the difference.

I try to stay away from brown sugar if I can and we've been sweetening our oatmeal

with pancake syrup (sugar free for the diabetic).

I'm also trying to sneak honey in where I can since my children aren't huge fans of it.

6. Much less convenience, high saturated fat laden snacks

I used to try to make it easy on myself and get those mini donuts really cheap at the outlet

store for Sunday morning breakfast.

Not anymore.

Too much high fructose corn syrup. Too much high saturated fats.

No more goldfish, or packaged snacks. Too much processing, too many chemicals, too much salt

.

No more hotdogs.....at least not on a regular basis. We used to eat them every Wednesday because they are cheap, quick, and everyone likes them!!

Here's what we do eat.

4+ pounds of fresh strawberries a week

10 pounds of apples a week

(Around) 5 pounds of little clementine oranges a week

Torilla strips from Costco with Hummus dip

Peanut Butter and "Schmucker's" low sugar concord grape jelly

on Nature's Own 100% whole wheat bread

Homemade casseroles and pasta dishes

Salad with homemade salad dressings

Hard boiled eggs (cage-free, hormone free chicken)

Cheerios

Home-made "instant" oatmeal

Rice chex

Homemade pancakes

Ground turkey

Chicken tenders

Raw baby carrots

Protein bars

Tomorrow I'm excited to share the AMAZING, very surprising benefits my husband and I have noticed since leaving out the above ingredients from our diet. I didn't notice any big changes until about 2 weeks into this, but they have been so good, that I won't be going back.

I'll also be sharing some of the recipes we are leaving behind and new ones we are enjoying!!

Stay tuned!!!

A great video that speaks to a better diet for the ADHD brain!

This is a great video that speaks clearly about how certain foods affect the functionality of an ADHD brain.

http://newideas.net/adhd/adhd-diet

Going through "the CHANGE"....

Don't worry. This isn't "the change" you might think of that usually begins to torment women somewhere around 50 years of age. Hopefully, that is still way off in my future.

But I have been doing a lot of thinking lately, along with a ton of reading online, about the nutritional benefit of changing the way my children are eating. Though Grant is still doing pretty well on his 3mg. daily dose of intuniv, he still struggles in a lot of areas. We still have emotional meltdowns (though they don't last nearly as long or are as frequent as they were before intuniv), and he still can be very touchy and very disrespectful to my husband and I. I'm not looking for a magic cure here, but I know we still can see more positive changes that do not require medication. I'm beginning to see that managing the hyperactivity, the volatile anger, the impulsiveness, the ugly side of ADHD has to come from a multi-faceted approach. We have experienced the benefits of changing up several things in our family dynamic, but we still have more progress to make. Some of the things we have done include:

**Getting an official diagnosis from a trained physician who knows what he's looking at when he sees a child with multiple issues challenging him/her.

** Completely ditching the homeschooling curriculum we used for several years, and going with something totally new to all of us. We were using ACE (which is a nightmare for the ADHD child) and have loved every minute of Math-U-See, and Shurley English.

**My husband made a concerted effort to move from a night shift to a day shift. This has allowed much more interaction with Dad as well as setting aside his day off (Monday) as our "Funday" where we incorporate a lot of field trips and just plain fun without a schedule. This has done a lot (and I believe will continue in the future) to build a great rapport with our children when many days we are correcting, and correcting, and correcting.

**Modifying the way we discipline our children. We've learned that spanking our ADHD son only causes him to escalate in his emotions. It has lost much of its effectiveness and only causes him deep, deep anxiety. Not just the normal "I don't want a spanking" kind of thing, but throwing chairs, screaming, mouthy disrespect that only escalated. We've learned what his "currency" is and that calming down in his room before having something of value (i.e. Xbox time or computer time) taken away for a time speaks so much louder to him than spanking ever did. Plus, we've found that reminding him of what we expect of him BEFORE we get in a public situation really helps him behave better.....especially if we express to him that we noticed his good behavior and especially if there is an unexpected award to go along with the praise!!! WOW!!

**Being willing to try some medication for him to see if it would help him gain some inner control and take that edge off of his anxiety so that he was calm enough to LEARN when we tried working with him. We needed him to be able to listen to US and not have his brain going crazy wild. He has had no side effects except for feeling sleepy some days in the afternoon. No loss of appetite, no crazy mood swings, no head or stomach aches. He has been taking intuniv now since January.

**I've noticed that he does indeed do pretty well on a rigid schedule. He gets bored when we let things slide and relax, and then he starts bugging people. He is constantly looking for something to be moving or playing with. If I have it all laid out for him, it seems to help him know what the next thing is and how long before it is coming.

We have noticed a tremendous change in our son since implementing all these changes, but I know there is still more that we need to try. I've been hearing on the ADHD forum, that has been a tremendous support to me, that some people have found unexpected, surprising benefits of making some changes to their diets. Here are some of the things I've been reading that have gotten me to thinking:

The fact of the matter is what we put in our bodies affects our mental state. Our bodies and minds are bio-chemical machines running on the fuel given to them. Diet is not a cause of ADHD, but diet can and does affect our child's mental state, and they have enough going on up there that they don't need to try thinking through dairy and sugar clouds.

http://www.4-adhd.com/article2.html

My son starts getting distracted from lack of fuel and begins to become more emotional about 3 hours after his last meal. The longer he goes from that point, the worse it gets, and nothing is going to help him when he's at that state. There are a number of arguments about whether medication is the way to go with ADHD children. I leave that between you and your doctor. What I will say is if his meals are not regular and balanced, and if they are absent of foods that are nutritious but more difficult to prepare, medications are not going to matter.

http://www.4-adhd.com/internet-addiction.html

New scientific research proves children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) function better if they spend part of their day outdoors in nature.

The research results were very specific. In order to improve ADHD symptoms, the children in the study had to be outdoors in a natural setting.

http://www.4-adhd.com/greentimeadhd.html

Finding Out if it is ADD ADHD or Food Allergies

What NOT to eat for TWO WEEKS: the first step in this ADHD Diet

First, let's find out if there are food allergies causing the ADHD symptoms or behaviors. Eliminate these foods for two weeks, then get ready to add them back in to the ADHD diet...

• NO DAIRY PRODUCTS, especially cow's milk.

  This is the single most important restriction. The American Pediatric Association estimates that a significant percentage of all children are allergic to milk. Instead try Almond milk, Rice milk, or Better Than Milk. And drink lots of water instead of milk for two weeks.

• NO YELLOW FOODS. Especially Corn or Squash. Bananas are white, but don't eat the peel. About 1/1000 people have problems with the stuff that makes these foods yellow in color.
• NO JUNK FOODS. If it comes in a cellophane wrapper, don't eat it. Stop eating junk food and your brain will work better. Junk foods tend to be very high in sugars and carbohydrates, and our brains get fuzzy and our kids get more hyperactive when sugars and carbohydrates are eaten together.
• NO FRUIT JUICES. They have too much sugar. One small glass of apple juice has the sugar content of eight apples. Later on you can have juice, but for now if you have to have any juice just dilute it with water 50/50.
• CUT SUGAR INTAKE BY 90%. If you can, cut it down to zero. Sugar is in just about everything, but give it a try. Do your best to reduce your sugar intake without going crazy.
• CUT CHOCOLATE BY 90%. No more than a single piece, once a week.
• NO NUTRASWEET. None. Period. Never. It's bad for you. It is bad for your brain.
• NO PROCESSED MEATS and NO MSG. Only get meats with labels that say, “Turkey and Water,” etc. If the meat has chemicals listed that you can't pronounce, don't buy it and don't eat it.
• CUT FRIED FOODS BY 90%.
• AVOID FOOD COLORINGS WHENEVER POSSIBLE. See if your child is sensitive to any particular colors, such as Reds, Yellows, etc. For now, though, avoid all if possible.
• AVOID FISH. We hate to say this, as there used to be so many benefits to eating fish, especially the Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) or Omega Oils. But the problem these days is that the mercury levels in most fish is simply too high to be either safe or healthy. Mercury is the second most toxic metal on earth, and is a terrible neuro-toxin. Until we clean up the oceans and the rivers of mercury, just don't eat it. Sorry.

SUMMARY: Just eat foods that God made for a while. Eat like people did in the 1940's, or the 1840's. Go to a used book store and get some good old cook books for recipe ideas. There really are about 10,000 meals that you CAN eat. Just not much in the way of “fast foods” or “convenience” foods.

http://newideas.net/adhd/adhd-diet

Here are some more links also:

http://www.add-adhd-help-center.com/adhd_diet.htm

http://www.add-adhd-help-center.com/adhd_recipes.htm

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1659835,00.html

http://blog.naturalremedies4add.com/2009/02/02/high-fructose-corn-syrup-horrible-for-addadhd/

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/9-ingredients-to-avoid-in-processed-foods-1268429/

http://www.nativeremedies.com/articles/adhd-feingold-diet.html

So, I've begun to wonder how in the world I should go about experimenting with a different approach to the foods we eat. Where do I start? I certainly agree that our bodies are very chemically based. Our bodies were designed by the amazing Creator God to chemically transform the food we eat into energy that keeps every system in our bodies functioning. So it makes sense that the better and more nutritionally sound the food, the better our bodies can work the way it was designed to.

I also am learning that the ADHD brain operates and responds to stimulus differently than what is usually considered "normal". Sometimes I wish Americans would really think through what "normal" is and if that's really how we want to box everyone in, but that's another soapbox discussion for another time. The Lord God created all species of every living thing as well as non-living with great complexity and variety. What would this world be like if we all looked the same or thought the same or reacted the same or behaved the same? Anyway, because we are looking for a more focused, clear, sharp, fully functioning brain in our children which facilitates better interpretation of their environment as well as the ability to control impulsive behaviors, I'm researching what others have found to be the most helpful in achieving these goals in the areas of smarter nutrition.

This week I'll be talking name brand food items that we have eliminated as well as things we have added in their place. Come on back tomorrow!!!