My 16 y/o son, Joe, was diagnosed with Asperger's (an autism-spectrum disorder)at age 5. He also has a long history of allergies & sensitivities--to foods, as well as stuff in the air. He's been on special diets for over twelve years. We started by doing the Feingold diet and eliminating artificial additives. Even though that helped, we realized that that wasn't going to be enough. So we took him to special natural doctors, and found out that he had gluten intolerance along with sensitivities to over 18 different foods (everything they tested for, except cod fish and baker's yeast!). Totally eliminating all of those foods would be impossible, so we put him on a gluten-free, milk-free rotation diet. And we were able to get Joe to cooperate with this diet. It sounds hard, but I can't imagine not doing it. These days, he functions very well, needs minimal support in school, and has a bright future ahead of him.
I'm sharing this because if there's anybody out there that is thinking of trying a special diet with their child and needs advice or support, I've been there. If I can't help you myself, I can point you in the direction where you can find help.
I have a nine year old son with ADHD and Dyslexia. How do I go about finding someone to tell me what the right diet would be for my son? I have always been interested in trying this but it truly seems so hard. I have a six year old son that would not need to follow it and don't know how I would do it for one and let the other eat regularly. Does that make any sense to you? Let me know what your feelings are on this. Thanks - Cindy
Cindy, First let me say that I'm just a mom who has read about dietary interventions, etc. to help my own children. I am not a health professional or a nutritionist.
Your son has ADHD and dyslexia. What sort of diet are you thinking of trying? Do you know of foods that you suspect are causing a problem for your son?
If you want to do some investigating on your own, you could start with the Feingold diet. (Notice I said "start." I think Feingold can help but it may not be the total answer.) The Feingold diet isn't that hard to follow and would be good for anybody, including your 6 year old. Basically, all you're eliminating is artificial dyes, flavorings, and preservatives. They also recommend a trial period in which you also eliminate certain fruits that naturally contain salicylates. You can find more information about this at http://www.feingold.org/.
If you suspect other food sensitivities, you could keep a food diary and consider rotating what he eats. That will help you to see patterns which will help you identify which foods to eliminate. You can learn more about rotation diets by going to http://pep-albny.org/gfcfrotationdiet.html.
If you really want to see a health professional, I recommend going to a doctor of "environmental medicine." Try going here to find more info: http://www.aaem.com/index.html.
Finally, given your son's diagnoses, I hope that you visited our page on sensory therapies. http://pep-albny.org/sensorytherapies.html I believe that there is a sensory connection between ADHD and dyslexia. In fact, I believe that kids who really have a sensory processing disorder are often (not always but often) misdiagnosed as having either ADHD or dyslexia.
--Joyce
