A Child's Diet & Behavior
Children are like flowers: They need the right nutrients to grow and blossom. But even with a balanced diet, some foods might be affecting your child's behavior.
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Additives
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Allergist Benjamin Feingold in the 1970s was the first to blame changes in behavior on food allergies, specifically from food additives. Studies that followed were inconclusive, however: Some showed correlations between behavioral changes and diet; in others, there was little or no improvement when the additives were removed.
Sugar
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In another study cited on the Dr. Spock website, children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and their families were given diets with and without refined sugar and additives. There was no difference in behavior in 99 percent of the children with either diet, but the artificial diets caused profound changes in the remaining 1 percent.
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Elimination Diet
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An elimination diet can help pinpoint a food allergy. It works by removing the suspected ingredient from the diet for about two weeks, then slowly reintroducing it to see if a reaction occurs.
Other Factors
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Things beside diet can affect behavior. Bullying at school, drugs or illness, for example, can make a child depressed, irritable or listless. If your child is not herself, check it out.
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References
- Photo Credit naughty redhead image by Indigo Fish from Fotolia.com
