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Will avoiding food additives

help my child avoid ADHD or LD?

(ADHD = Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder; LD = Learning Disabilities)

A distraught mother brought her son to me one day.

“He’s driving himself and me crazy,” she said.

“In what ways?” I innocently asked.

“He can’t seem to stick to anything. He’s disorganized at home and he’s disorganized at school and he’s disorganized at sports. He’s disorganized everywhere.”

“What have you tried to do to help him?” I queried.

“Yelling at him doesn’t help,” says Mom.

Mom is right.

Moms are always right. (Even when they’re wrong, they’re right.)

Do food additives hurt us?

Of course. The real question is, “How much?”

The Mom said she’d heard that food additives can mess up the brain’s ability to think and organize.

“Is this true?” she asked, wringing her hands (as Moms sometimes will do when pressed to the wall).

“I don’t want to be a food policeman!” she blurted.

“Ya!” blurted her boy.

So what did I say to help Mom?

Here’s the answer:

It depends upon your individual child.

Right?

You know this.

“Why don’t you try and see what happens?” I suggested to Mom.

“Trust your gut instincts. Trust your Mom intuition,” I encouraged her.

“Ya!” blurted the boy.

She did. He did. They both began to settle down.

It isn’t a miracle.

It is just common sense to check out some things that are “getting to” your child.

Here is the first grand secret…

1. Your child is not a statistic.

Suppose an ADHD expert says that avoiding food additives is not the way to go:

“It helps only 5% of children with ADHD or LD (learning disabilities).”

A discouraging statistic, right?

What if your child is among that 5%?

See?

Your child is not a statistic.

Here is the 2nd grand secret…

2. “Science” and “the research” are not about your child

“Science” and “research” have their own agenda.

What if “science” and “the research” show that that food additives do not harm us in any significant way.

Who funded the study?

Probably the people who manufacture the food additives.

Or their advocates or friends.

Or maybe the study was “objective” and “neutral?”

It doesn’t matter.

Either way, your individual child is what counts, not “science” and “the research.”

It’s about “what works” for your child, not what some third party says.

And here’s the 3rd grand secret…

3. You have to do more than just one thing to solve ADHD or LD (learning difficulties).

Yes, cut out the food additives if you can. Many of them are poison to the mind, regardless of whether they make ADHD or LD worse.

And then go onwards to check out all kinds of things (especially the “controversial” stuff).

Controversial simply means that strongly differing opinions are strongly held, regardless of the truth.

Here are some possibilities for your individual child (see “what works”): 

(a) Baroque Music (gentle; one beat per second approximately)

(b) Not rock music (unless the goal is to motivate the body to move more, to take “action,” to dance)

(c) Vigorous exercise–see previous blog post on this website:

“Exercise miracles.” – Doc Meek

(d) Behavioral training (there are some good practical programs out there)

(e) Love ’em (even if they’re driving themselves and you crazy)

(f) “Passive” therapy (audio programs using headphones that the child wears while resting, sleeping, studying, or actively doing things)

(g) Prayer (it doesn’t matter whether you believe in a Supreme Being or not; prayer/meditation can be a humbling, calming experience)

(h) Your imagination (“Imagination trumps knowledge,” Einstein said, and he’s right)

(i) Your child’s imagination (you’d be pleasantly surprised!)

What a renowned expert ADHD MD said:

“There is only one proven way to treat ADHD: Ritalin.”

Nonsense.

Myself and others have helped thousands of ADHD and LD sufferers to improve significantly without medication, and sometimes with a medley of effective efforts including medication.

One of these success stories could be your individual child.

Right?

Doc Meek, South Jordan, Utah, USA, Wed, Aug 13, 2014

P.S. If you want to read what a really sensible expert ADHD MD says:

Read Healing ADD by Dr Daniel Amen (and of course, he’s “controversial” and he’s also effective).

Dr Amen has helped thousands and thousands of Moms and children with ADHD and LD to better lives.

He identifies 7 different types of ADHD and recommends 7 different customized approaches, with a huge array of  suggestions,  including simple “do’s” and “don’t’s” that can be done at home, natural supplements, behavioral modification, and medication.