Just curious? Has anyone had any sucess with children with ADHD and raw foods...

Yes, we have. Actually, our son eats a vegan diet (not raw) but consumes no refined sugar, sodas, candy, cakes, etc. When we made that switch, it was like a night/day difference.

Living and Raw Foods
Some years ago, I was married to a woman who had two kids from her first marriage. WHen I met them, they both had severe allergies and the oldest was on Ritalin for, presumably, ADHD. Since I was a massage therapist at the time and had studied nutrition fairly extensively, I begged her to change their diet. The oldest had horrible mood swings and the Ritalin ruined his appetite. So he would take his meds before school, which made him a zombie, and killed his appetite, so he didn't eat lunch. Then he'd come home and was allowed to wind down off the Ritalin, so he was then eating everything he could, mostly candy, cookies, anything sweet that he could yell and scream loud enough to manipulate his mom into giving him. Then of course, he had no appetite for dinner. But amazingly (note the sarcasm) he was hungry again at bedtime, which messed up his sleep. So the genius doctor decided that he needed sleeping pills. So here was a six year old who was on uppers during the day, ate nothing but junk and absolutely controlled his mom and dad, and then was put on sleeping pills at night. And they couldn't see that something was wrong.

Meanwhile, his little brother was upset because he wasn't getting the attention so he would run through the house throwing temper tantrums until often times he would slam doors until the frame broke. He would scream at the top of his lumgs until he got the attention, usually a spanking from his mom. After a few years of this, she was clueless as to what was causing any of it and just blamed it on her first husband cheating on her and the divorce.

When I came into the picture as the step dad, the kids lived with us, and would cry themselves into oblivion every night asking "why did my daddy leave me?" "Why doesn't mommy love me?" It was Nightmare on Elm Street part 47.

After much discussion and urging her to read many of the various books I had on fasting and nutrition, she agreed that something was wrong, duh. So, she decided to find a doctor, mind you that is all she had the capability to understand, who specialized in allergies and took both kids to him. Lo and behold, both had a list as long as your arm of things they were allergic to, nutritionally and environmentally. The doctor prescribed heavy doses of vitamins and a change of diet. We spent around $11,000 for that diagnosis, that they needed nutrients.

Within a month, we had gotten rid of all the sodas they were allowed to drink, all the juice boxes, all the desserts (because they'd been good, ya know), and just started substituting fruits instead of other snacks and actually feeding them food, cooked mind you, but food, rather than the Oscar Mayer Lunchables that their mom and biological dad were feeding them. They began to respond positively and it wasn't long that teachers were writing notes to send home about the change in behavior.

At the same time, I got them away from the idiot tube and made them find things to do outside, exercise. We rode bikes, played tennis, etc. And we spent alot of time together. It was exhausting to me being the step parent, not because of the kids, but because the real dad was 100% against giving the kids vitamins. He called it witchcraft and continued to feed them garbage, even when we sent baggies of vitamins for them. And of course, he hated me because the kids were in the house with me, so there was incredible tension all the time, despite trying desperately to avoid it. By the time my wife decided she'd rather not be married any more, both kids had reverted back to nightmares and both on medication again. In addition, both were in counseling for emotional issues and the youngest had put on over 50 lbs. He was only 6 when she divorced me.

I say all this to begin to answer your question about ADHD and foods. I want to submit to you that ADHD is often misdiagnosed and generally is so multifaceted that "treating" it with only one method probably won't completely erase it. I personally believe that ADHD is just a label put on various symptoms and medicated because nothing else, according to standards of the general population, seems to control the kids, or adults for that matter. The symptoms of ADHD are like a multilayered onion that you have to peel back a little at a time and get to the bottom of. Does food help? Absolutely. Would raw food help more? I personally believe it would. But the symptoms of ADHD are similar to that of a cold, if you are experiencing them, it's because things you've done in the past have led you up to this point and your body can no longer function "normally" and overloads. Garbage in/garbage out. But food is not the only answer. Kids need love, and love has with it discipline. I am not talking about beating children. I am talking about regular patterns of behavior, consistent displays of love and affection, and correction all the while taking into account their own personality and learning style.

Every person is different. Thus every person and child responds to life and life's situations differently. The studies on learning styles are extensive. But it still comes down to basic common sense, IMHO. Who is the parent and who is the child? I have seen so many children on meds who absolutely control the household. Many parents become frustrated because they don't know what to do and soon they'll do anything to gain the approval of the child or to simply stop the behavior. Backward thinking. A parent has to be a parent, and that means that feeding the kids food that is good for them is a must, as well as regular bedtimes, regular discipline and exercise and getting away from video games and TV and playing games that kill people and harm each other and gravitate to positive thoughts and behaviors. And it all has to be done in a constant and consistent environment of love and encouragement.

But as far as raw foods and ADHD, just ask yourself this ... would my child benefit more from an apple or a green salad? Or a happy meal? I think we all can answer that question without knowing anything about raw foods. The question for us all is, are we willing to model that behavior ourselves amd teach the next generation those principles? Or are we simply going to allow the world to tell us what to eat, drink, do, think, etc.?

dns - what a great post - and what a sad story. I wonder what has happened to those poor kids.
I watched a program recently called 'America's medicated kids' - I was shocked beyond belief. Tiny children diagnosed with bi-polar, depression, anxiety etc etc and medicated for the whole lot. Most of those drugs have never been tested for children and certainly not in a cocktail format. It's so depressing - why are people so stupid and blind and ignorant.

On a slightly different tack - I was on a runners forum (not remotely connected to diet issues) but someone posted up a video about a fruitarian athlete. There were 9 pages slagging this poor person off!!! One woman said her doctor had told her not to eat so much fruit as too much fibre is bad for you - omg. I tried to gently put up a different opinion but have retreated now as I am not in the business of just defending and justifying my existence - know what I mean?

What a shame those kids don't have you in their life - you sounded like their only chance but it must be a bit of a relief for you to be out of that situation.

Hi flipperjan,

"What a shame those kids don't have you in their life - you sounded like their only chance but it must be a bit of a relief for you to be out of that situation."

Well I wouldn't go so far as to say I was the kid's only chance, but at least I was objective. The kids' mother couldn't see beyond her own selfish emotions, and their biological dad couldn't see beyond hjmself in any way. For a man who has made millions of dollars, lives in a huge home, has everything that money can buy, and worse, has given the kids every toy and gadget money can buy, but doesn't have the common sense to see that the kids need real sustenance, well, they all are paying for it.

Nevertheless, it is sad that so many parents do this to their own flesh and blood. But to me, it comes down to a little basic observation ... namely, our culture has allowed the government to control us, and our schools to tell us how our kids are doing, and our TV's and Nintendos to raise them, and cell phones and games to consume them, and total garbage to be fed to them, and meanwhile are losing them so rapidly that understanding that the word "NO" needs to be said more often, and meant is almost nonexistant. Until we adults start acting like responsible adults, then our kids will continue down this path. And the whole world will suffer because of it. The consequences are inevitable.

Wow, dns, overwhelming story. And your perspective on child culture and the general culture, well, it's like someone read my mind and posted it as your words!
Bless you for your efforts.

*sad*

sigh.

These are the kinds of things that really freak me out about this country. I can't even think about it because I personally can't reach these people, not like my opinion would matter. So many people living in darkness... maybe I'll just start a punk band and sing about all the conspiracies to make myself feel better.

cylopsicle,

If you wan to reach the Sleepers, it has to be a pop band. One whose frontman/woman would win on American Idol. Pardon me, must go gag . . .

Hi DNS!
I applaud your effort with your stepchildren. I believe that eveything you did was 100% correct. I have a friend with a son who has just been diagnosed as having "symptoms consistent with ADHD" and I have told her to follow that exact regimine you described. I believe that it takes a whole lifestyle change and a lot of parents are not willing to fall out of their comfort zone, or laziness as I call it, and take the multifaceted steps that it takes to peel away the layers of so called ADHD. EVERYDAY outdoor time, NO TV, NO VIDEO GAMES EVER, healthy organic food, raw food at every opportunity, no sodas or sugar or chemical drinks. When these steps are taken, miracles occur. Good job!
Love, Melissa Halsted

Hi Melissa,

Thank you for your kind words. I hesitate to speak on the subject of children because I have no biological children of my own. But I do maintain that having children is not necessarily a prerequisit to caring for them in positive ways. I truly believe most of us have gone so far off that we don't even realize what we're doing to ourselves, our children and our environment. I see signs of blatant willful disregard of simple common sense on practically every turn and it boggles the mind.

To me, most of the issues with children are simple ones, as long as a few qualifiers are understood. First, children are children, not developed and by definition not experienced enough to be at all competent at making the kinds of decisions that they are being forced to make. I mean think about it, how many times have any of us been in a restaurant when you over hear a family at the next table asking a 3 year old, "What do you want honey?" Do we really believe it is okay for a 3 year old to decided what his/her body needs for proper development? I mean come on. Left to themselves, what do we actually think they are going to choose, vegetables? Or sweets? It's really not that hard. But somehow we adults forget what it's like, and then choose not to really care how their bodies and minds develop.

Secondly, a parent must understand that from the day that child is conceived, every thought, word and emotion is recorded in the child, every angry word, every sarcastic remark, every ACDC CD that ruins their psyche (haha), every lack of relationship between mother and father, it's all there. That's been proven for some time now, yet we disregard it as if it's not real. Why is that? Why is it that you find other cultures, cultures we often think of as "third world", poor cultures that we often mock for many things, but why is it that you find many cultures where the parents carry their child with them on their back? Always with them? Etc. Why is that? Is it because they are poor? Uneducated? I mean after all, when the parent "controls" the children in these ways, don't they understand that they are hindering the self esteem and self individualism of the child? Where is the self determination and self willed child allowed to make his own decisions? Do you see the conflict? We have lost our minds, generally speaking. And we are raising a number of generations of kids who are absolutely ill equipped to handle the world as they are being thrown into it in ever alarming rates and situations. And we wonder why kids go off on shooting sprees and kill parents and join gangs? Are we really that lost? When are we as adults going to step up to our own plates and take responsibility for RAISING our children, from birth till death? We don't stop being parents when a child becomes 16 or 18 or 21 or married or whatever. It never stops, they will always need the guidance and encouragement from all of us as adults. And those of us with no kids or more time on our hands can step up to the plate and take on surrogate children under our wings from one parent homes, broken families. Older men teaching younger men, older women teaching younger women. Building character, trust, integrity.

Thirdly, the issue of eating, diet, is really simple to understand, and yet all of us struggle with it in some ways, some more than others. I grew up in a family that had some kind of sweets at every meal, and as many snacks as we could manipulate out of our parents. We lived on cokes, candy, cakes, bologna, cheese, and food cooked for so long it couldn't possibly have any nutritional value whatsoever. Food was always used as a babysitter, a tool for getting a child to do something - "If you finish cleaning your room, I'll give you some ice cream" kind of mentality. And thus, the kids control the home. But diet is simple when you think about it. And I hesitate to say it in the way I do, but the principle is this - eating what God has created is the healthy way. Anything that is made by man is suspect and probably not healthy. I know that word God irritates many and is not "politically correct". So Maybe this message will get banned, or editied. But suffice it to say that we, collectively, think we are so smart that we can speed up natural growing processes by injecting foods with "enhancers". We give all the animals steroids so that they "mature' in weeks rather than years. We chemically devise ways to imitate, poorly I might add, just about every kind of food, taste, experience out there. And we wonder why we are the sickest nation on earth? So instead of natural fruit, we stuff ourselves and our kids with Mac-whatevers and wonder why we then need to medicate them further because they are not able to pay attention. Then we pack them a box full of pure crap and expect them to be good students? Meanwhile heart attacks are happening more and more at younger ages, cancer is ever rising, every disease and thousands that weren't even invented yet are springing up at such rates that nobody but the pharmaceutical companies are benefitting.
(Well maybe insurance companies too)

Okay, I know, I'm long winded, again. sorry. I get on my soapbox so easily with this stuff. Think I need to go relax and have a nice soothing can of Red Bull right? LOL

Blessings to all.

David

Dns,
I know it has been years since you posted this. I just found the form. What you said, in all of your posts, are amazing. I hope you dont mind, i quoted some of your words on my facebook. i am in aww by your intilectual mind set, just plain common sence. Just so rare these days.

Wow, that's an amazing story, DNS! I'm not going to be able to get that out of my mind for a while. So sad for the kids, and it must have been horrible for you. How can parents be so stupid! My three kids had behavior problems, what others called 'tantrums', but I called 'reactions', and once I found out what they were 'allergic' to - one was chemicals/additives in foods (check out the Feingold Diet), one was gluten and the third was fluoride/chlorine in water - and fed them healthy whole foods, they were OK. When the whole ADHD/Ritalin children become adults, what's going to happen to them? From anecdotes I've heard, some end up as real couch potaotos, just sitting on the couch unable to function normally, with no gumption, or else they're addicted to prescription drugs. How can anybody be so stupid as to take prescription drugs - at least once they get into their 30's and get a brain.