Have you ever noticed how sugar is blamed for hyperactive behaviour? Well-meaning adults sprout lyrical about how the kids are on a sugar high. Only they’re not! While sugar is certainly not good for you, especially if not eaten in moderation, it is usually not what causes the ‘crazy’ behaviour in some kids. Otherwise, wouldn’t they all behave the same way when they were stuffed full of Christmas treats?
Food chemicals, whether natural or not, are generally the reason some kids react to certain foods while others remain on an even keel. Reactions can be delayed – making it hard to know the cause – and depend on quantity – so sometimes they can eat it, and other times they can’t. The poor kids feel irritated, out of control and unhappy, and they don’t know why! It’s up to us to work out what foods make them feel this way, and try and steer them towards food choices that will keep them feeling like themselves.
Just before this Christmas, my son Maks had been enjoying his summer fruit, even though we know he’s intolerant to salicylates. He can manage a little, so I make sure he keeps eating it – because it’s delicious and nutritious, he loves it and it’s good to keep pushing the boundaries (so his tolerance level will build).
But when he ate two nectarines in one day, he tipped over the edge and his behaviour was out of control for weeks. His pre-school teachers noticed it; his grandparents noticed it. And it had a snowball effect… for weeks he remained in a state of low tolerance, reacting to things he would normally eat without too much trouble. Our Christmas holiday with family became a constant struggle trying to manage his behaviour with others (and wondering if everyone just thinks he’s badly behaved when we know he’s actually sick). We went out for a pub dinner together, and a seemingly harmless meal of gluten free sausages and chips led to him screaming, crying and writhing around in emotional agony for hours and hours, while the rest of the house slept peacefully. Maybe it was preservatives in the sausages, but maybe something else? Maybe if he wasn’t already affected, he would have tolerated them ok?
So, even though we’ve been on this journey for four years now, we still make mistakes. It is never perfect. The good thing is, when we get off track like this, we know how to come back. We are able to feed Maks all the foods we know he can tolerate and restrict everything he can’t, until all his symptoms subside, and we get our gorgeous, helpful, calm and rational son back. I love it when he’s back, and it makes for a peaceful home, without any of the aggressive, exhausting tantrums and defiance. We can talk to him like the beautiful five-year-old he is, and know his response will be reasonable – yes, he will sometimes still argue when we ask him to help, but he won’t have a total melt-down!
Christmas is a busy, sometimes manic, time of year, when we rush our kids around to social gatherings and pump them full of party food then expect them to behave with perfect manners. For some kids, that’s impossible. We’re not even giving them a fighting chance! If we learn what foods set our kids off – as individuals – then we can help them be the best little people they can be. Isn’t that our role as parents?
I have a friend whose children are ‘allergic to sugar’. When I quizzed him on this, he said it must be sugar as the kids have ‘all natural jellies, with no artificial colours’ and that sends them crazy, so it must be the sugar. Too many parents have blinkers on and, let’s be honest, all parents are right, right?
Awesome website and every parent should look at it. Would love to read an article on the magic salicylate antidote – Enos powder!
Hi Ed, thanks for your comment! It’s so hard for parents to know what’s healthy and what’s potentially harmful with all the misleading advertising out there. Requires a lot of digging to find the truth, as I’m sure you know, so let’s hope I can demystify some of the conflicting and complicated info!