Adhd As It Relates To A Gfcf Diet

[looking 4 answers]

my 11 year old sons dr has chosen to drastically change his diet along with prescribing medication due to testing that shows him to have adhd. the dr wants him to be on a Gluten-free Casein-free diet. this is a major change as im sure you all know. is this a diet that can be practiced 75%, 85%, 95% of the time or does the slightest exposure to gluten or casein ruin any benefit he may have been getting? is it necessary to send him off to school each day with food to guarantee he doesnt have them? ive seen sites that suggest changing shampoo. it appears that autism, celiac disease and adhd can all benefit from eliminating gluten and casein. does anyone know in relation to adhd or any of these if if needs to 100% free or its useless.

thanks in advance

[mamaw]

My thought is 100% at all times. Why eat this way 90% of the time (for instance) & not know if it is helping, when you will see results if one follows the diet 100% of the time. Plus if he is going to be 100% & see an improvement why would you want to give-in & maybe let him have gluten goodies & it sits him back. To me that is like being on a roller coaster, ups & downs , HIghs & lows.

I personally would stick to 100% at all times...

I know many children with ADHD & ADD that this lifestyle has changed the child's life. for the better of course.

I would think if after 6 months of a strict gluten-free plan & you see no difference then I would guess it is not working for that child.

blessings

[looking 4 answers]

My thought is 100% at all times. Why eat this way 90% of the time (for instance) & not know if it is helping, when you will see results if one follows the diet 100% of the time. Plus if he is going to be 100% & see an improvement why would you want to give-in & maybe let him have gluten goodies & it sits him back. To me that is like being on a roller coaster, ups & downs , HIghs & lows.

I personally would stick to 100% at all times...

I know many children with ADHD & ADD that this lifestyle has changed the child's life. for the better of course.

I would think if after 6 months of a strict gluten-free plan & you see no difference then I would guess it is not working for that child.

blessings

thank you for the reply. i am now in day two of this new diet with my son. he is a very picky eater to begin with. i would do anything to help him, including getting rid of all gluten and casein in the house yesterday. i want to make this as easy for him as possible at the same time. if he can have a slice of pizza at a birthday party once a month i want to let him. if that will set back all the positive effects then he wouldnt have that pizza. im reaching out to find as much about this as possible and how cautious and strict we need to be. thank you.

[ranger]

I agree with mamaw - keep him at 100% Gluten-free Casein-free for a lonf enough time to see results. I don't know that much about adhd but some children with autism resond well to the diet and some don't. If it were my child, I would try anything safe to help him. And, you can make almost anything gluten-free. He doesn't have to give up the pizza, but he'll probably have to bring his own! Good luck.

[CMG]

I had the same questions, and my answer, too, is 100% gluten free.

I put my daughter on the gluten-free diet for intestinal symptoms (she was already CF because of milk sensitivity). Her physical symptoms improved quickly, but I also was stunned to see a significant improvement in her behavior. We were just beginning down the road of ADHD evaluation. After a year on the diet, I did exactly what you just suggested...let her have the pizza and cupcakes at the birthday parties. I didn't want her to be different from the other kids. She seemed fine afterwards. So we did it again, and again... There was never an "AHA" moment that this is harming her. But over months I noticed a gradual decline in her behavior until it was becoming unmanageable again. We went back to 100% gluten free and back to good behavior and focus. I have reviewed the issues with her teachers, she takes her lunch to school with her every day, and she takes gluten-free pizza and a gluten-free cupcake to every birthday party. Once you get into the routine it doesn't seem like so much work - just takes organization.

Her new doctor (we moved) does believe that she is celiac - based on dietary response, increased growth rate since going gluten-free, and we now know that she has the DQ2 gene.

Did you have your son tested for celiac before going gluten-free?

Let me know if you would like me to share some information about managing the birthday parties.

[MaryJones2]

I agree with everyone. It's really an all or nothing thing with this diet. Also, someone else mentioned testing for celiac. You might considering doing that before continuing with the diet because once you start the diet you will almost certainly loose the ability to properly diagnose celiac without a painful reintroduction period (6-8 weeks of gluten ingestion).

This is a helpful site too: Open Original Shared Link

The site is a little difficult to navigate so you might also find this page useful: Open Original Shared Link

Welcome aboard. Let us know if you have any questions about the diet!

[lizajane]

we took my younger son off gluten after i was diagnosed. within 3 days, he slept all night, didn't have any more nightmares, woke up happy and remained incredible pleasant ALL day. he is no longer irritable or defiant. it hasn't been long, but i am dying to see if he gains height, as he is MUCH shorter than his brother was at the same age (but still 50th %ile) when he gets gluten, he is a BEAR the whole next day. irritable doesn't even describe it!

we took my older son off gluten and saw NO change at all. we only did it for a week, but since we saw not ONE symptom of his ADHD change, we decided we would not continue with him. he does not have any symptoms of celiac, whereas my younger son did, so he would require a diagnosis for us to try it for several months. (and he was tested-blood test- and it was negative.) he has severe ADHD and is on meds at age 6. i think because he has a true ADHD diagnosis and not just a tendency toward hyperactive behavior, a diet change would not work as well for his as it would for others. he is hyperactive every single day all day no matter what he has to eat.

[missy'smom]

From my experiences, everything I've read in the past few years and from hearing the many experiences of kids and adults with ADD ADHD that have shared on this board, I think that there are various contributing factors/triggers even sometimes in one person. You can read my signature to see what is up with my son. After the allergy testing we did a month and a half strict gluten-free diet trial and his eczema went away and skin healed and cleared up and didn't come back. I made sure we gave it sufficient time to do that. When we re-introduced gluten, the eczema came back. So it was clear to us then that gluten was part of the picture. For a long time we had him completely gluten-free at home and gluten-free lunches sent to school and only got gluten at school parties, birthdays and the very occasional meal at a restaurant, but that was enough to keep his eczema going. I finally got him tested through Enterolabs because I knew that we all needed that in order to go completely gluten-free for good. We haven't eliminated or done trials with the other foods that he reacted to-nuts and soy. His overall allergic load is certainly a contributing factor as well. I wish that I could say that we've seen a dramatic difference. We haven't but that doesn't mean that there hasn't been significant change and his symptoms. Behavior wasn't dramatic to begin with, that's not to say that he didn't have significant problems. Or maybe it's all been so gradual that we haven't really taken notice as much as we should have. I doubt many people could recognize the change that took place with me when I eliminated gluten and had my concentration and memory improve significantly. One small clue with my son is that he was thoroughly tested before I went gluten-free and again with the same test a year after I had gone gluten-free(which would be 2 years after the initial test) and switched the family diet over to mostly gluten-free(for those 2 years). The test results showed marked improvement-not where he should have been but still significant enough for the sceptical psych. to make note of it and wonder(in a wondering and not fully doubtful way) aloud if it was a true improvement. Knowing what I knew then about gluten and it's effects I thought it very well could be. We may not have uncovered or managed other pieces of the puzzle that need to be addressed. Funny thing, before the whole gluten-free trial and allergy testing the words growth hormones and no longer on the same curve cave up at his physical and his doc. just dismissed the changes in his growth after looking at his very petite mom and saying he might just be small like mom and not be on that same tall and thin growth track that he originally was. When I brought up growth hormones she said, he'll be fine. Hmmm...really? He seems to be growing like a weed now! It will be interesting to see if he jumps back onto that original curve next time he has a physical.