Food and childrens behaviours

[onelasttime]

My DS is globally delayed and is showing symptoms of autism. He has a bit of temper(so does his dad)...so I thought I would like into a natural approach to healthy eating.

So what types of food should I avoid for my DS...he really loves bread, cheese (all dairy) and bananas....so is there a ranges of food to avoid for children with behaviour issues.

Im thinking of seeing a naturopath or dietician to get some information but unsure if Im wasting my time.....

Have you change your childs diet and if so have you seen a difference

[punkbaby]

DS is delayed and his temper more so stems from his brain injury so diet wise, i guess whatever we do wont help :(

I will mention though dd who is 3.5 is very full on, and has terrible tantrums and a terrible temper, her pead recommended fish oil, which i am going to look into seeing as diet wise i try limit preservatives the best that i can :)

[~Temet Nosce~]

Cutting out preservatives and additives is probably a good idea :yes: especially things like preservative 202 and 211- Im always trying to avoid these, they can even make adults more bad tempered than usual (I noticed this myself after I cut it out as much as possible in my own diet)

[melbryan]

Go to the fed up with food additives . com and it tells you the ones to avoid.
I really try hard to avaoid all the bad one ( any of them aren't good for them anyway). I do notice a difference it really is like a different child. He is more reasonable, doesn't tend to squeal and scream and yell back at me more talking than losing control.
I believe the additives make a huge difference and him having cheezels ( yellow colours) I see a difference in the behaviour straight away.
Our naturopath said he has slight autism.

The main things we stay away from is 292 found in bread, any yellow, red, blue, green colourings and preservatives.
Coles have natural jelly you can make up so we buy that.PLain chips with no flavouring.Apple juice or water.

[elissas]

Definitely look at the www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info site.

For our DS the worst are:
Yellow/orange colours
Annatto colouring (found in many dairy products like yoghurt, margarine etc)
Caramel colours (150 range found in Vegemite, many biscuits, Cheerios etc)
Antioxidants (found in many vegetable oils, check all take away places before using, we've had terrible reactions with this one. It creeps up the more they have it, so it's not an instant "hit", DS was a screaming banshee after a few doses)
Preservative 282 in breads, cakes, baked goods, commercial bread crumbs
Salicylates (natural preservative found in fruit and veg like tomatoes, watermelon, oranges, capsicum...)
Yeast Extract (Vegemite)

We put him on a Gluten free diet a few months ago and had amazing results.

For some time we used A2 milk which helped a lot.

By far one of the biggest changes was cancelling swimming lessons. Chlorine is notoriously bad for contributing to autistic behaviour. DS had been having a great morning some months back and we took him to swimming - within 20mins he was staring at the ceiling like a space cadet and totally ignoring the teacher who was holding his hand and almost screaming his name.

We have filters on all the water (drinking and bathing) at home, so it had never been a concern at home. We wondered why he was so bad on Saturday's and at swimming in particular, now we know why. It would take him 3-4 days to recover.

Definitely look at other fragrances/inhaled toxins.

We are currently seeing a kinesiologist/naturopath who uses a technique called NAET, which tests and treats allergies and intolerances. We have had great results so far, after only a few weeks of treatment.

So far DS has been treated for Calcium and B-Vitamin intolerance (his body wasn't assimilating these properly), chlorine, vaccinations, and tomorrow we're going salicylates, followed by other food additives after that.

[onelasttime]

Wow thanks for all the information, its a bit overwhelming. I went to the shops today and mostly everything I buy has 202 and all the other bad stuff that was suggested.

Where do you go to find out what intolernace he might have??

I looked at the natural food isle and the food is pretty expensive so Im looking at making biscuits etc from scratch. I even have a loaf of bread baking in the bread maker now.

[MyFourCubs]

"sigh" it's so hard. My bubba boy is 2 and a half and every few months we knock out another food group, lol. He was diagnosed with autism in Feb. last year we took him off preservatives etc- do check out the web site listed above. 202 is the pits- it's in everything. Even Bakers delight bread has it. We have to make our own. It knocks out all your spreads- vegemite is gone.:( we also took him off gluten and this has made a difference- every time we try to reintroduce he goes off the wall. (He was already allergic to dairy and soy so they were out already.) Now he is off corn and salicylates as well- BIG difference. Gobsmacking. Kind of sucks because it's just so darn hard to follow the diet but I guess it's worth it. The only thing you can do is an elimination diet to work out what the issues are. A bit of advice I read- trial a few "safe" recipes and find a few things he will eat BEFORE the diet. Otherwise it's like jumping off a cliff. You do have to make the food yourself- it's impossible to find ready made food that is free of all the nasties. Orgran is the best probably for pasta, bread mix, biscuits etc. My kids live on those outback animal biscuits. Good luck, maybe we should start a support thread for these awful diets???????:)
Sara