[SAR99]

My son and I are starting the diet tomorrow. He is ADHD and so am I. He has one of the worst attitudes of anyone I've ever met. He's always the victim in everything. He hates me. I'm the cause of all of his problems. He doesn't and can't concentrate in school without medicine. He can't walk through the room and be told to do three things - he can only focus on one and halfway does that one thing.

Help!!!!!!

I'm starting the diet tomorrow. He'll go to school Thursday and Friday and will be out until the next Wednesday. What should I expect when we start the diet? How long will we see side effects? I believe the diet will help him, I hope that I'm not wishing for miracles.

SAR

[CarlaB]

I don't know, but I can relate. My 16 year old son drives me nuts; he's exactly as you describe. He's a great person and can be fun to be around, but only if you don't live with him or ask him to do anything!!! I think we'll have a much better relationship when he moves out.

I hope the gluten-free diet affects your son's attitude. It might be bad of me, but I didn't even bother to have my son checked, what would the point be? He wouldn't stay on the diet! (I know, I know, if I read that from someone, I'd jump down their throat ... you'd have to know my son to understand -- I'm sure SAR99 knows what I mean!).

[mommida]

Good luck starting the diet!!
Are you going casein free too?
You should look at some of the articles on the withdrawal affect. The time it takes to notice a difference varies from person to person. Some say they noticed a difference in two days and some articles say two years.
L.

[celiacgirls]

We had a miracle in our house. I noticed a change in my very difficult daughter (10 year old) within a few days when she went gluten-free. She was defiant and irritable before starting the diet. We eventually had to remove casein from her diet, too. Now, it seems that when she has any milk (even trace amounts) that behaviour comes back instantly. We are now weaning her off her antidepressant so far successfully.

For me, I could tell within 2 or 3 days, too. I was taking an a/d and could tell I needed to be off from it. I tapered off pretty quickly and haven't needed it since. I also thought I had ADD and an auditory processing disorder and those went away the first week.

I suspected my younger daughter of having ADHD but the testing showed she did not although she was "easily distracted, impulsive, and hyperactive." Now that she is gluten-free/CF, I notice this comes back when she has eaten something she shouldn't have. I'm not sure how quickly that happened, though.

None of us had any withdrawal issues. We all felt better pretty quickly. I know that isn't the case for everyone.

I think my defiant daughter feels enough better that she believes in the diet now. At the beginning, she was sure it wasn't going to help her. A few days into the diet she said in her most defiant tone, "I'm only staying on the diet until I'm 18!". Now, she says she isn't sure if she'll go off when she is out of the house.

Carla, I know exactly what you mean, too, but with my daughter being 10, it is much easier to control what she eats.

[CarlaB]

celiacgirls, on Oct 4 2006, 10:05 AM, said:

Carla, I know exactly what you mean, too, but with my daughter being 10, it is much easier to control what she eats.

Yea, I have no trouble with my 13 year old daughter either, even my 18 year old daughter is gluten-free! ... my son on the other hand ... I can buy something and say, "These snacks are for school snacks only, we have 8 people in this house, this prepackaged stuff is expensive, and these are ONLY for when you need something to take with you somewhere." He'll STILL eat them, and takes them down to his room -- it's in the basement and there's a huge ant problem there that has been explained to him! I always catch him and I make him PAY for the snacks! I figure gluten-free for him would be impossible ... unfortunately, as I think it would help ...

[SAR99]

Thank you! I bought some snack foods today at the store. He's going to take his lunch tomorrow and I'll have a gluten-free meal tomorrow night. Today when I was at the healthfood store, a young man that works there told me that he took himself off casein and could immediately tell a difference - he could finally focus.

I know that if something doesn't change soon - one of us is going to get hurt and right now, he's the smaller one.

I'm going gluten-free/cf but still have a lot to learn about the diet.

I didn't do the Enterolab testing but did do some bloodwork at my doctor's office. The first Celiac test came back positive but the 2nd one came back negative. I hurt on my right side almost immediately when I eat and then down the middle of my abdomen. As for my son, bloodwork from Sunnyside Health Center shows that he is gluten, casein and gliadin intolerant. I also need to stay away from citrus.

I live in Madison, MS and the cookbooks I've found don't cook very "southern". I'm working on finding recipes that are similar to what we're used to eating.

I hear there's a support group here in my area that I need to go visit.

Thank you all for you help and comments -- wish me luck!

[Mayflowers]

I've also read that putting kids on a natural diet, remove all junk, cake, candy, soda, diet anything, ice cream, and processed foods, including any with artificial colors or flavors, makes a huge turn around in their attitude. My 16 year old is going through his brooding phase. Not talking much or being very affectionate. He hides in his tornado struck room talking to his girlfriend..much of the time.