We discovered when my daughter was 2 and a half that she was extremely sensitive to sugar. When we adopted her, I was able to spend a month at home with her 24/7, and having had experience myself with being hypoglycemic, I had an awareness about how sugar can affect a person's behavior and mood. I was fortunate to discover a book called Little Sugar Addicts, and we were able to curb a lot of melt downs by eliminating sugar from our beautiful girl's diet.
That was over 2 years ago, before we even heard of Sensory Processing Disorder. Since that time, we've discovered that there are other foods that make her behave terribly, although after several Rast Food Allergy tests, she is not technically allergic to them. They are apples, chocolate, milk, blueberries, and, recently we discovered, zylitol.
When I say she behaves terribly, I'm saying she bangs her head on the floor or wall, screams and snarles, punches, throws things, smashes things on the table or floor, breaks things, sometimes weeps uncontrollably and the next minute is laughing histerically, and is overwhelmed by irritability.
Today was a great day. Our beautiful E was loving, well-behaved and happy. She totally enjoyed her day. I made sure she ate all the right things. I was watching her sleep a short time ago and thought to myself, "will she believe me as she gets older and I tell her not to each something because it will make her feel yucky."
Only time will tell. Everything we put in our body affects us in some way: physically, emotionally, intellectually.
I'm wondering what other parents have discovered about how theirs or their child's diet impacts their life, their behavior, their personality. I hope to hear from many of you.

My DS age 3 (sensory seeking) is affected by food dye. It seems to trigger a lot of the behaviors and change something in his brain. I saw this when he was a baby and I was nursing and eating things like yogurt, gum, granola bars, etc that had dye and he would take hours to go to sleep and just scream and kick for hours. I refuse to let him have any of the regular kid type treats with dye, even at Halloween and parties. If you've identified it, way to go. There can be so many ups and downs, if you notice one thing that you can control to prevent those challenging things, then it certainly makes it a lot easier.

Thanks for the reminder about dyes. My son had a terrible reaction to anything with purple dye when he was young (now 25). I hadn't really given that much thought with my daughter.

CHeetos here, sends him to the moon!

Has anyone had experience with the Feingold diet for Salicylate sensitivity?

My son reacts to any of the artificial colours and flavours, and the flavour enhancers. When he has been given 110 or 102 (tartrazine and sunset yellow) he is completely uncontrollable. Will be hyperactive, babble incoherently, be incredibly defiant, take all his clothes off etcetc. He also does this with tomatoes and strawberries and raspberries. We have to limit how many of these he can have at one time. chocolate isnt as bad but he still goes crazy. Thank goodness easter is once a year and he thinks one egg is a fantastic treat.

Obviously we dont allow any of the artificial crap in his diet and operate on a strict "you broke it you bought it" policy if other people give him that stuff. It happened once at childcare and they wondered why he was telling all the staff to "eff" off!

Is this food sensitivity part of SPD? I always just thought it was him, knowing that many kids react like this.

sharon

(12-14-2012, 08:40 AM)sparklepanda Wrote: My son reacts to any of the artificial colours and flavours, and the flavour enhancers. When he has been given 110 or 102 (tartrazine and sunset yellow) he is completely uncontrollable. Will be hyperactive, babble incoherently, be incredibly defiant, take all his clothes off etcetc. He also does this with tomatoes and strawberries and raspberries. We have to limit how many of these he can have at one time. chocolate isnt as bad but he still goes crazy. Thank goodness easter is once a year and he thinks one egg is a fantastic treat.

Obviously we dont allow any of the artificial crap in his diet and operate on a strict "you broke it you bought it" policy if other people give him that stuff. It happened once at childcare and they wondered why he was telling all the staff to "eff" off!

Is this food sensitivity part of SPD? I always just thought it was him, knowing that many kids react like this.

sharon

I've discovered after reading lots of info on the Feingold.org site that food sensitivities can contribute to SPD, but are not "part" of it. From what I've read they seem to contribute to meltdowns, lack of focus, sleep issues and toileting problems. Chemicals can affect the nervous system, and since SPD is a disorder of the central nervous system, there is some connection.

(12-16-2012, 02:30 AM)LAC1961 Wrote: I've discovered after reading lots of info on the Feingold.org site that food sensitivities can contribute to SPD, butare not "part" of it. From what I've read they seem to contribute to meltdowns, lack of focus, sleep issues and toileting problems. Chemicals can affect the nervous system, and since SPD is a disorder of the central nervous system, there is some connection.

Thanks, I will have to check out Feingold. My son definitely has a thing with salicylates.