Is the Feingold Diet an ADHD Cure?

4 Comments:

• Posted by kmms1001 - Mar 11 2009 @ 12:12 AM
  Dyes
  I firmly believe that dyes contribute to my sons ADHD. When he eats anything with red or yellow dye he becomes extremely hyper and irritable. We try very hard to keep these things out of his diet, but he is in middle school and can be quite defiant. It also does not help that teachers give out candy for every little good behavior (with all of the kids not just mine). I needed a solution, to the candy dilema, and I came up with the candy jar. Whenever he receives a piece of candy from school or anywhere else he puts it in the jar. When he fills the jar he gets a reward. So far it is working like a charm. Hope it continues!!
• Posted by Happy girl - Mar 20 2008 @ 2:14 PM
  Feingold program
  Feingold worked like a charm for my son. We began in kindergarten. The results we got within two weeks were amazing. His hyperactivity went way down, he started to sleep, he could focus and learn, he was less frustrated, his loud high pitched voice became normal. He began to increase his weight and muscle tone. He looks much healthier today. It is disappointing to see a doctor steer people away from something that can work. Especially when the worst thing that can happen is that one will learn how to eat healthier. There have been no peer reviewed studies based on the Feingold program as it is. Only bits and pieces have been studied, and they have not used the amount of artificials that the typical american child ingests.
• Posted by Marcia - Feb 12 2008 @ 6:41 PM
  Feingold Program
  American Academy of Pediatrics ADHD and Food Additives Revisited -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The American Academy of Pediatrics -- the organization that sets practice parameters for pediatricians to follow -- has finally acknowledged that dietary intervention is a valid treatment for children with ADHD in the February 2008 issue of its publication, AAP Grand Rounds [full report attached]. We encourage parents to print this page and share it with their pediatricians, in case they have not seen the AAP's article. After reviewing the British study published in the September 2007 Lancet, in which researchers found that food colorings and/or sodium benzoate increase hyperactive behavior in children, the AAP concludes with an Editors' Note and a commentary by Alison Schonwald, MD, FAAP, of the Developmental Medicine Center at Children’s Hospital in Boston. Dr. Schonwald writes: Despite increasing data supporting the efficacy of stimulants in preschoolers with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) parents and providers understandably seek safe and effective interventions that require no prescription. A recent meta-analysis of 15 trials concludes that there is "accumulating evidence that neurobehavioral toxicity may characterize a variety of widely distributed chemicals." [Schab DW, et al. J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2004;25:423–434] Some children may be more sensitive to the effects of these chemicals, and the authors suggest there is a need to better identify responders. In real life, practitioners faced with hyperactive preschoolers have a reasonable option to offer parents. For the child without a medical, emotional, or environmental etiology of ADHD behaviors, a trial of a preservative-free, food coloring–free diet is a reasonable intervention. (emphasis added) And the Editors' Note which follows states: Although quite complicated, this was a carefully conducted study in which the investigators went to great lengths to eliminate bias and to rigorously measure outcomes. The results are hard to follow and somewhat inconsistent. For many of the assessments there were small but statistically significant differences of measured behaviors in children who consumed the food additives compared with those who did not. In each case increased hyperactive behaviors were associated with consuming the additives. For those comparisons in which no statistically significant differences were found, there was a trend for more hyperactive behaviors associated with the food additive drink in virtually every assessment. Thus, the overall findings of the study are clear and require that even we skeptics, who have long doubted parental claims of the effects of various foods on the behavior of their children, admit we might have been wrong. (emphasis added) ~ The following are PDF files. If you need a PDF reader, get it here. Read AAP Grand Rounds article Read Lancet study, full text Read Behavior, Learning and Health: The Dietary Connection 2007 See more information at ADHDdiet.org
• Posted by Gail DeLuca - Sep 15 2007 @ 9:32 AM
  Feingold diet
  Hello We were mystified as we self discovered our 1st daughter, now 27 years old had ADD. Because she was so young I had concerns about medication and felt stronlgy at the time about stimulant medication. I can't remember how we stumbled onto the Feingold diet but the results were amazing. The key was to follow it absolutely. We belonged to a support group (Feingold) that helped us update brands of foods etc that were 'safe'. I would venture to say it is impossible to do this on your own because of the hidden additives in foods and this may be the reason for failure or non reproducibility of successes using this approach. It requires strict adherence from the parents and child. we were lucky. During say pizza day at school, I would make a Feingold pizza to look just like the others and deliver it to the school at lunchtime etc. It was definitely a lot of work. So, in summary, it worked fabulously for our 1st child, and miserably for our non compliant 3rd child.