Picky picky picky!!!!
The transition to table food is such a battle ! Every once in a great while a child is born that never complains about any food stuffs, if that’s your child, rejoice and skip this article… this is for the rest of us . In many cases the picky food war is more than just personality, taste buds, or (gulp)mom’s cooking……it is often the sign of food allergies. If your child is in the process of overcoming autism, this is very likely the case.
Early in my daycare career, I had a little girl who had a sudden change in her behavior. Her sleep patterns changed; she became moody, and she had sudden outbursts of anger. Her parents took her to the doctor and the sleep disorder center but had no results. I knew that she was dealing with some form of pain because she would sit down, bend over, and hit her forehead on the floor, or beat on her own leg with hard toys… like blocks. One day as her mom carried her out to the car, she pulled out a handful of hair and handed it to her mom like a bouquet of flowers. Her mom drove straight to the doctor to check for an ear infection but could find nothing wrong; it was so frustrating.
I had a 4yr.old boy in my class at church who had similar behavior; he would get a deep frown, hit the other children randomly, and throw himself in the floor and roll back and forth kicking his legs over and over. I asked this boy why he was kicking like that..his answer was, that he just had to, because his legs hurt. Several of us prayed for answers and soon found out, thanks to a P.B.S. special that my mom just happened across, that both these children were allergic to milk. The parents who had them tested were so relieved . Had these allergies gone undetected they could have turned into asthma as well.
My youngest son was a picky eater. I could not reason with him when trying to introduce foods. My mother-in -law lived with us for a time. She gave him what he liked to see him smile, and handed him to me when the smile changed to excitable behavior. All the while telling me, that it was my imagination that this behavior existed, for behavior could not be effected by diet. This was not only hard at home, it made going out to eat anywhere almost impossible. Autistic children do not speak quietly in public when told no. Half the people look as if to say “spank that kid and shut him up” and the other half look at you like ” if you do, we’re calling the authorities!” We skipped a few things temporarily as I had to come to the realization that my son was different in how he reacted to life than his brothers, which meant I had to learn new methods in working with him.
In the popular blog, Red Monkey, authored by Ender, who is a published writer, designer, cartoonist, and professor, describes learning to understand how others process information so well..
http://www.coyotethunder.com/RedMonkey/archives/2008/03/hang_on_lemme_p.html
and concludes….
“It’s just that sometimes, we need to remember that the other guy’s way of processing may not be wrong, merely different.”
I was invited to a vitamin meeting in the home of a friend of mine which I attended reluctantly. The lady speaking began to describe children’s allergies to synthetic vitamins and food dyes and their symptoms. She was describing a great deal of what was happening in my house! I had no idea that children will crave what they are allergic to until it is completely out of their system. I also had no idea that red and yellow dye are made from coal tar. I also did not know that milk and wheat allergies caused migraine headaches and pain in the legs or joints.
My son craved the vitamins we bought him at the grocery store We had to hide them to keep him from going after them like candy. He craved American cheese slices, Star Crunches, and store-bought chocolate milk. He was allergic to all of it. We had to all agree to keep it out of the house, and not to cave in and give it to him while out. He didn’t have the will power, so we loved him enough to have it for him.
According to the Sage Laboratory in Florida, food allergies are always present in children with autism and each situation seems to be with a unique combinations of foods. This Lab has been studying this since the ’70’s. Finding the foods that are toxic to your child is well worth the effort because it will effect their behavior dramatically. If a food can affect a child’s mood, it is hard to say what else it could be doing to the over all health and well being of that same child.
This is a link to Sagelab’s list of symptoms of food allergies
http://www.foodallergytest.com/symptoms.html
When combining the vitamin therapy with this information we saw the most wonderful results. One way I found to introduce green foods to my son was with a product called Juice Plus.
http://www.childrenshealthstudy.com/
We removed the green food concentrate from the capsule, mixed it on a spoon with applesauce and a day’s nutrition from green foods was down the hatch!!
It was amazing to see that when there was nutrition in his body from green foods he did not fuss as much about eating them. Many children have an allergy to eggs but in my son’s case eggs had a very positive effect on his ability to concentrate in school. High protein, super green foods, and fresh fruit for us was the answer.
How can your child be tested? Doctors who specialize in allergies usually can test for food allergies.
The Sage Laboratory has a comprehensive test
http://www.foodallergytest.com/programTest.html
My son is now 21yrs. old and has very little trace of food allergies left. He is also very social, works hard, is planning a bright future, and I am very proud of him. One would never guess today that we had the hurtles of yesterday. That to me is worth every book and article I had to read, along with every ingredient label. It is worth all the mockery I had to endure from those who think nutrition is folly. If telling the story helps any other families, it is worth it all the more.
Do you have stories to tell about being in or overcoming the food allergy battle? If so, I would love to hear them and combine our strengths in a future post.
You can learn more about food allergies and alternative treatments with Dr.Nicole Sundene
http://www.blogcatalog.com/user/DocNicole
You can also learn some wonderful whole food nutrition information with Robin Plan
http://www.blogcatalog.com/blogs/whole-food-and-more.html
Both of these blogs are well worth following, I am sure you will agree.
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