THE SKITTLE GENERATION AND ADHD

Has your pediatrician ever asked you about your child's diet before handing you a script for Ritalin?  How many therapists use candy like the one in the photo as "reinforcers" for our children on the spectrum?

PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ― In health, Medical Reporter Stephanie Stahl has details on a new study that details how certain foods can make kids hyper.

This is the most substantial evidence to date, new research about foods and certain behavior in children and it isn't just an issue for kids with ADHD.

Read the full piece HERE.

Comments

[nhokkanen]

When my son comes home from school with candy in his backpack, or worse -- just the wrappers -- I really have to wonder about bribes as an educational tool. The poor lad doesn't get much candy at home, so he's not bouncing off the walls when he does indulge in a few clandestine sweets. And thankfully he self-polices red dye... very helpful on Valentine's Day.

So many ASD kids are phenol sensitive, have particular chemical sensitivies or food allergies, but how can this information get into the hands of school officials and staff? It sure ain't a-comin' from the CDC or state Departments of Health.

Instead we parents fund our own medical publication services, which too often are discounted because we are unaffiliated with the recognized organizations that don't have time to serve us. An exercise in frustration.

[Gatogorra]

If gastroenterology formed a subfield of "behavioral gastroenterology", they'd coin disease names based on observable external behavior, like "thow-up-itis" or "barf-emia" and might simply give drugs that suppressed the behavior without looking for cause.

With "ADHD", as with autism, someone's finally looking at the labs.

They did a GF/CF study in Norway for "ADHD" and found it successful, demonstrating that the children in that high-fish consuming country might have a subtler form of the neuroimmune issues shown in autism:

Article: http://tinyurl.com/2jn6d8

Excerpts:
"I mean, as a parent, wouldn't you want to at least try switching your child's diet before medicating him?"

The children '... were suspected of having ADHD and had been shown to have abnormal levels of peptides in their urine.
The accumulation of peptides, which are short compounds containing two or more amino acids, is an indication that the enzyme needed to fully break down certain proteins is inhibited or missing, and can have an opium-like effect on the brain, according to Reichelt.
Much international research has been done linking such protein disorders to cases of autism and schizophrenia, and a growing number of studies also hint that some cases of ADHD are connected with the digestive problem. ...'