Beyond Temper Tantrums : Difficult Children.
Created | Updated Jun 28, 2002
You've got past the terrible twos and even threes, and everthing is plain sailing. But then your child turns in to a monster, and by the time they are six or seven you are having real trouble. The school is complaining that your child is disruptive in class, in trouble for fighting and a whole range of other problems. At home they challange you at every turn, temper is taking on new dimesions and every thing you've tried won't work. Being strict is a waste of breathe, bribery is a failure, reasoning is also a waste. You know the child is bright and is capable of good work and even better behaviour given the right circumstances.
Any of this familiar?
This happened to us and our son,( Matt ) now seven.
It was a friend of ours that gave us some books to read on hyper activity and ADHD, these turned out to be a revalation.
Several studies ( mostly in the US ) suggest that behaviour can be directly effected by diet. Certian vitamins and minerals found in a normal diet that directly effect behaviour can be lost for many reasons. Vitamin B6 is now well known as a behaviour regulator, indeed some children who are prescribed Ritalin reponse better with B6 supplements instead of a potentially addictive drug with dubious side effects.
Our first step was to find out if the carriage of these vitamins etc where the problem we where up against or where we barking up the wrong tree. An organic acid test revealed a massive over growth of yeast in Matt's intestines. ( Candida ). This yeast prevents the uptake of vitamins etc in to the blood stream. Remember there are some good bacteria and some bad. The results convinced us to seek expert help and so a private consultant was engaged for the investigation.
A battery of tests all pointed to the same thing and where very worrying. As well as high yeast levels, very high levels of copper were found, high levels of Citric and Hippuric and Kynurenic acids were all found and confirmed the suspicion of low B6 levels amongst other things.
So with the science out of the way, what to do about this.
Incredibly simple as it turns out. Diet, diet, diet.
We had always been very lucky in that Matt loves fruit and vegatables. This would be useful. First thing was to cut out junk. No addatives, no colours or e numbers and organic where possible. Add to this vitamin C and B6 supplements, a daily dose of fish oils to aid the absorbtion of these and we are on the right track. A course of natural herbal supplements to contract the yeast over growth so that these supplements get through.
Bingo!!!!!!
In a short time his behaviour changed dramaticly. School were pleased, work rate went up and less agression all round. Hurrah!
Then the set back. After a few weeks we slowly went back to square one.
More tests follow. Again the answer was very simple. He was reacting to certain food groups and these would trigger bouts of hyper activity. I sat and watched some of these tests and I was astounded how quick a drop of chicken essense would turn a sane rational child into a pyscho!
The answer was again diet, along with some desenstising vaccines to stop the trigger effects of certain foods.
The diet is what is known as a rotation diet, in that foods are only given once every four days. So now we have a rice day, a dairy day, a wheat day, a corn day and so on. This gives the body time to clear out on type of food before another dose in given.
Again results are amazing. Back to the intelligent and bright child I knew we had under the monster.
The most frightening moment actually came during one of our constatiuons with the doctor, in which she stated that given another go at life Matt's condition was perfect for him to be autistic.
It is possible that children who have the digestive imbalances, when given the MMR vaccin, it is this that pushes them over the edge as it were.
So, if your kids are playing up and are getting to be a real handful then I urge you to look at diet, even simple changes could make a vast difference.
You are what you eat after all.
Good luck!
Any of this familiar?
This happened to us and our son,( Matt ) now seven.
It was a friend of ours that gave us some books to read on hyper activity and ADHD, these turned out to be a revalation.
Several studies ( mostly in the US ) suggest that behaviour can be directly effected by diet. Certian vitamins and minerals found in a normal diet that directly effect behaviour can be lost for many reasons. Vitamin B6 is now well known as a behaviour regulator, indeed some children who are prescribed Ritalin reponse better with B6 supplements instead of a potentially addictive drug with dubious side effects.
Our first step was to find out if the carriage of these vitamins etc where the problem we where up against or where we barking up the wrong tree. An organic acid test revealed a massive over growth of yeast in Matt's intestines. ( Candida ). This yeast prevents the uptake of vitamins etc in to the blood stream. Remember there are some good bacteria and some bad. The results convinced us to seek expert help and so a private consultant was engaged for the investigation.
A battery of tests all pointed to the same thing and where very worrying. As well as high yeast levels, very high levels of copper were found, high levels of Citric and Hippuric and Kynurenic acids were all found and confirmed the suspicion of low B6 levels amongst other things.
So with the science out of the way, what to do about this.
Incredibly simple as it turns out. Diet, diet, diet.
We had always been very lucky in that Matt loves fruit and vegatables. This would be useful. First thing was to cut out junk. No addatives, no colours or e numbers and organic where possible. Add to this vitamin C and B6 supplements, a daily dose of fish oils to aid the absorbtion of these and we are on the right track. A course of natural herbal supplements to contract the yeast over growth so that these supplements get through.
Bingo!!!!!!
In a short time his behaviour changed dramaticly. School were pleased, work rate went up and less agression all round. Hurrah!
Then the set back. After a few weeks we slowly went back to square one.
More tests follow. Again the answer was very simple. He was reacting to certain food groups and these would trigger bouts of hyper activity. I sat and watched some of these tests and I was astounded how quick a drop of chicken essense would turn a sane rational child into a pyscho!
The answer was again diet, along with some desenstising vaccines to stop the trigger effects of certain foods.
The diet is what is known as a rotation diet, in that foods are only given once every four days. So now we have a rice day, a dairy day, a wheat day, a corn day and so on. This gives the body time to clear out on type of food before another dose in given.
Again results are amazing. Back to the intelligent and bright child I knew we had under the monster.
The most frightening moment actually came during one of our constatiuons with the doctor, in which she stated that given another go at life Matt's condition was perfect for him to be autistic.
It is possible that children who have the digestive imbalances, when given the MMR vaccin, it is this that pushes them over the edge as it were.
So, if your kids are playing up and are getting to be a real handful then I urge you to look at diet, even simple changes could make a vast difference.
You are what you eat after all.
Good luck!
