Healing Childhood Illnesses
I've mentioned a few times that my 4 year old has ADHD tendencies. We haven't had her formally diagnosed, but just yesterday we took the steps to see a local Naturopath and get her on the healing path.
The recommendation has been made to try putting Lucy back on a gluten-free/casein-free diet for at least 6 weeks. It has also been recommended to take out corn and peanuts as well due to their inflammatory properties. We've done GF/CF for 3 weeks before, but we need to do it longer this time to see if we can get better results as sometimes it takes a length of time for the body to heal itself.
I'm feeling a bit daunted by the task of switching her diet and making adjustments for the family as a whole. I also need to up her dose of fish oil, and getting a 4 year old to down 1 tsp. of cod liver oil is also no easy feat! I also will not be supplementing butter, milk etc with soy based products. It will be a very whole foods GF/CF diet. I just purchased the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day
If you're dealing with any behavioral issues with your children, I encourage you to research for yourself. These are the books that I've used to learn about healing childhood illnesses like ADHD, autism, allergies, and asthma:
- Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies: The Groundbreaking Program for the 4-A Disorders
- Is This Your Child? by Doris Rapp
- Why Your Child Is Hyperactive
(I've used the Feingold principles of removing food colorings and additives to reduce ADHD symptoms)
These are books that have shaped my nutritional outlook:
- Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats
- Real Food: What to Eat and Why
- The Omnivore's Dilemma
If you're looking for a Naturopath, check out the New Hampshire Association of Naturopathic Doctors
Information in this post is meant for educational and informational purposes only, and to motivate you to make your own health care and dietary decisions based upon your own research and in partnership with your health care provider
4 comments:
Good luck Virginia! We don't have the hyperactivity issues, but we saw a lot of good when we started on fish oil (only the purest form, in a high dosage) about 6 months ago. I attribute the word explosion that followed not only on development, but on the supplementation. The mylenization of the brain that follows can not be beat, I would rather him have fat in that form than whole milk (we don't do milk around here)
I FIRMLY believe that we would be dealing with a lot more issues if changes hadn't been made, for several reasons. But Colin showed a lot of tendencies towards struggling to filter toxins, like red cheeks, excema, cradle cap, etc....
a convo for anothe day....
Have you tried cod liver oil capsules? I have to take it because of my psoriasis and the capsules are the only way I can handle the stuff. They aren't very big.
The nordic naturals strawberry kid's DHA oil is great. My 3 year old daughter takes it no problem. Some tips on GF are using almond meal in cookies and muffins. I've made some awesome cookies and muffins with just almond meal as a flour.
Thanks for the tips and encouragement! I'll have to keep in mind the almond meal tip.
Thanks!
Virginia
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