Food Allergies and Behavior

If your child is being a monster, won't sleep, doesn't listen, is hyperactive, doesn't seem to be able to compute what you're saying, is mean to other kids, is unreasonably emotional, or has bizarre nightmares, read on.  If not, read on anyways, because I think you'll be intrigued. 

*I am not a doctor and have no training in the medical field, but I think that we can all agree that parents actually do have some training.  

Read to the end to see a simple test for yourself and potentially your children to address a wide range of issues. 

My kids have food allergies/intolerances. This isn't an uncommon thing these days, but it's not nearly as common as it seems.  

What I mean by this is, if you don't have to live with food allergies, you look around and see "gluten-allergy" and "peanut-allergy" and you can easily think, "Everyone seems to have allergies these days." If you aren't living it, then that may be the end of the thought process.  It doesn't occur to people how difficult it is to enjoy simple things, like going out to a restaurant or how difficult the effects on a child with an allergy/intolerance is when they accidentally get one of those allergens or the stress when trying to figure out what it was that they got ahold of that made them ill or the continued disbelief that for food intolerances, there isn't a better path for parents to understand how this works for their children.

Here are the ways in which it is not common:

• Not all restaurants can provide you an ingredient list for their food
• If you don't have a specific histamine reaction at an allergy specialist, then you don't have an allergy (even though you CLEARLY have a problem with it)
• Finding information on food intolerances and children's behavior is far and few between
• Allergen labels are not always prominent or accurate
• Labels in general aren't always accurate - (beware anyone getting dairy free cheese that still has casein as the first ingredient) 

Cut to - Is your kid being a monster (aka an asshole, our favorite term of endearment for this situation) or any of the other things that I listed above?

That list above is all symptoms (that we know of) that my oldest son experiences if he gets dairy (we think dairy... we're still unsure, because allergy testing hasn't been super accurate for us.)  And yes, being an asshole is our official symptom-description for what happens to him (between us, of course). It is as if he's been replaced by an alien child, completely foreign and unrecognizable.  I have been told, "He's 5.", "It's a phase.", "He is getting to that age, you know.", "It's ok if they're a little wild."  Yeah, I know all of this.  He's not a frikkin' angel all the time. He gets wild - he gets crazy - he has fun - he's rebellious.  But all in a normal way.  When he gets a food that he has an intolerance for, his brain breaks.  That's the best way that I can describe it.  It just ... breaks.  He even says that his brain "can't remember what we're saying" and that "his brain is telling him that he HAS to do [things]." WHAT?!

THIS is what I want to share with you, because I think it's important.  We know that he has issues with food intolerances.  So when he shows up and he is some other kid and he is out of control and his brain is "broken", I KNOW that he has eaten something wrong.  What if you didn't know that your child had a food intolerance where the only reaction was a "broken brain"?  Would your child be diagnosed with ADD, ADHD, Autism? These are big claims and I'm not saying that I know for sure any of this.  What I do know is that if I had to live with my son eating the things that his body cannot tolerate on a daily basis and had to deal with the repercussions and behavioral/sleep issues, I'd be carting him off to the doctor and asking him to fix him or at least wanting to know why, because that how abnormal the behavior is.  

Many people may not agree with this and that's ok.  But if your kid is experiencing any of these issues, think about an elimination diet.  How simple is that?  

Food is the foundation of our being.  It nourishes us.  It can be medicine to us.  It can also be harmful to us. But without understanding which of those foods could cause us problems, we go on thinking that they're ok.  

How about you??  Have you thought you may have food intolerances?

Are you living in a fog?  Do you have digestive issues?  Are you chronically tired? Do you have achy joints?  Do you diet and diet and exercise without any weight loss? 

If any of that describes you, an elimination diet may be helpful to you as well. 

Knowing our bodies (and if you have kids, their bodies) is important.  This is part of holistic living - knowing all parts of our being to ensure that we're living the best life that we can live.  

It is heart-breaking to see my son go through the things that he does when he gets food that his body doesn't like.  He is one of the sweetest, most well-behaved, respectful 5 year olds that I've seen.  He's no angel but he's pretty awesome.  Definitely not an asshole.  He suffers when he's going through this.  He doesn't want to be out of control but he truly cannot control himself.  What may be more heart-breaking is that there may be other kids out there that are going through this but the parents, the care-givers, the adults just think that the child's behavior is part of their personality.  It is not a well circulated or maybe not even well known confluence of events.  I'd like to make it more well known.  Feel free to share this in hopes that other children (and adults) who may have unknown food intolerances can find relief. 

If you have never given an elimination diet a try, I encourage you to experiment with it!  You never know what you may find out about yourself or if you try it with your kids, what result you may get!  

One more thing - just to cover my bases.  I know nothing. As a parent, I'm just swinging a shoe around in the dark in front of me hoping that I don't run into a wall.  I could be a way off but I'm pretty sure on this one. 

Bee Well!