One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned in the last year since our son’s autism diagnosis is that small diet changes can make a huge difference, for all our kids.
Is your son hyper at a certain time each day? Does your daughter have a hard time sleeping at night? Do your kids have bumps on the back of their arms? Does your little one gets lots of ear infections? All of these issues could be related to diet!
How do you know if a health issue is related to the food your child is eating? The first step is to keep a food and mood journal for a week. Write down everything your child eats and drinks. Keep records of his moods and symptoms. Once you have a food and mood journal, become a food detective.
- Start by looking for easy cause and effect relationships. If every time ______ happens, _______ follows, you may have found a food issue. You may realize that your son gets a headache every time he eats peanut butter. Find a way to fix the most obvious problems.
- Look at health issues. The most obvious are problems with digestion including stomach pain, constipation, or diarrhea. Often these issues can be elevated with diet changes. Thousands of people each year are going gluten free and finding their digestion issues are solved. We found our son had trouble digesting dairy products when we realized in his food and mood journal that his favorite foods were high in dairy. Once we decreased the amount of dairy he had, the little bumps on the back of his arms cleared up. When we talked to a nutritionist, she said his constipation, arm bumps, and even his thick ear wax were all ways his body was trying to defend itself against the effects of too much diary. Eliminating dairy can also help decrease the frequency of ear infections for some children.
- Look at mood changes and sleep patterns. If there are issues in this area, the first step to take is to read food labels. Most children are sensitive to artificial food dyes, processed sugar, and caffeine. Then, decrease (or eliminate!) these stimulants. For example, when my six year old son gets home from Awana on Sunday nights he is bouncing off the walls. So one week I asked what they had for a snack. “Cookies and fruit punch,” he said. The red dye in the “fruit” punch he was drinking was making him hyper and unable to go to sleep on time. We convinced him to ask for water with his snack and he has been calmer and able to get to sleep on time.
One of the benefits of homeschooling our kids is being able to make sure they are as healthy as possible. We can choose what is best for them so they are as healthy and comfortable as possible.
Have you noticed a connection in the foods your children eat and their moods or health?
Learn more from these resources:
- What’s Eating Your Child? The Hidden Connection between Food and Childhood Ailments: Anxiety, Recurrent Ear Infections, Stomachaches, Picky Eating, Rashes, ADHD, and More, by Kelly Dorfman
- The Unhealthy Truth: One Mother’s Shocking Investigation into the Dangers of America’s Food Supply–and What Every Family Can Do to Protect Itself, by Robyn O’Brien
- The Kid-Friendly ADHD & Autism Cookbook, by Pamela J. Compart and Dana Laake.
Sandra is a pastor’s wife and mom to two boys, in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. She is the author of the e-book, Speechless: Finding God’s Grace in My Son’s Autism.
A little over a week ago, in an effort to improve my weight and health, I started replacing stuff in our home with more “real food”. Then I read a few more articles and decided that we’d switch to organic milk, and that I would move the kids over to a more “real” food diet.
On Monday there was a NOTICEABLE difference in their attitude, school work, handwriting, comprehension, and temper. There was less drama, more patience, more focus.
I’ve been looking for something else that changed, thinking there is just no way it was all food related but I am at a loss.
Our oldest, 10, is waiting for a full eval. The doctor suspects Asperger’s (mild). Our next oldest, 7, has been medicated briefly for ADD with little benefit. While DD10’s Aspie-like behaviors/symptoms (not sure the proper wording for this) are still apparent they have improved, as well as the sudden mood changes. DD7 has been the calmest, sweetest little thing ever…. like a different kid.
Wow! That’s amazing! I really think if we eat real food we feel much better.
Diet is so important. You might add “Enzymes for Autism” to your resource list. I have seen wonderful positive changes in my aspie husband and daughter.
Absolutely! We noticed early on that the more sugar the kids ate, the worst they behaved. After the sugar crash, they were back to themselves. My son especially is so much better on whole foods.
Based upon what you shared, I think we need to investigate cutting back or eliminating dairy. That is really hard for a dairy farmer’s daughter and grand-daughter to say!
Red dye wreaked havoc with my oldest son and he still steers clear of the red colored “fruit” punch.
Thank you so much for sharing everything you have learned with us. It is so helpful.