Our nutritionist came to the profession after an incident with her daughter. The child was having major problems in school due to uncontrollable ADD. Convinced that it might be something she was eating, the mother eliminated foods in rotation from her child’s diet. Eventually they eliminated corn and the ADD vanished. Today mother and daughter both work in nutrition and specialize in counseling parents of kids with food issues.
When I was a child I was alternately diagnosed as clumsy, stressed out, moody, or something else that could be fixed if I just modified my behavior. Which I did. But I still had a nearly non-stop stomachache and felt horrible. After years of pain I remember the last gastroenterologist telling my mother “She isn’t crazy. Something IS medically wrong with her. I just don’t know what it is.”
I loved him for that.
And now we know what was wrong. I had Raisin Bran Poisoning aka Celiac Disease. The idea that perfectly good breakfast cereal could make a person clumsy, infertile, depressed, anemic, short and sick to their stomach was not even a consideration.
Now it is recognized as a real, life-threatening problem.
Just because they cannot prove that something is real, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. And this is why I think it is important to test for other food sensitivities if something is still off. Outside of gluten and dairy, they don’t have much evidence, but they haven’t exactly been looking very hard. There is some evidence that ADD kids do better on a few foods diet (my collection of studies can be found here https://humbugstew.com/in-the-news/current-research/addadhd/) And a scientific experiment which requires that I test my child by feeding him alternative cereal and snacks is one I am willing to do at home myself. Unsupervised.
If you want to get a lab test, there are labs that will test for IgA autoimmune reactions to many foods. I have information about Enterolab on this site (and no I don’t get anything for recommending them) but the Celiac Diva (who is actually this bubbly in person) has a few others that you may also want to consider.
You can find the link to her blog post here
http://www.theceliacdiva.com/additional-food-intolerances/
I know it seems that avoiding gluten, dairy, and corn would be overwhelming. But oddly, it is not that bad. Yes, there is an adjustment period, when your kid is still sick and you are trying to learn a new way of living and you may end up screaming “who puts gluten in juice!”. And there are food snobs who make it seem awful. But that is why this site is here. To show you that you can make dinner fast. It is not all salads, and you can make an allergen-free birthday cake in the same amount of time as a regular cake from a mix.
You CAN do this.
And if you are still scared, I invite you to imagine how easy your life would be if your healthy child sat calmly doing homework while you cook. Imagine no crazy tantrums. Imagine not needing to avoid fluorescent lights, or clothing with tags. Imagine no more special needs. Imagine no endless sinus and ear infections.
It frees up a lot of time. Far more than you need to cook this way.
It has been trial and error for us. We have had to work at finding the answers. It may not be easy or clear.
There is no road back to health, its just a poorly marked dirt path at this point.
But I will take it all the same.
