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Samantha aged 6 years was brought to see me by her parents whom
were reaching breaking point. They described her as a total nightmare.
As a baby she had not fed well and was late attaining the usual
developmental milestones for sitting, walking and
talking. She did not crawl and was described as having been a bottom
shuffler.
From about twenty-one months on she became hyperactive
both in the home and nursery school. She was constantly noisy,
easily distracted, poor short-term memory,
a messy eater and a tendency to be destructive.
Her early years were peppered with constant ear infections,
outbreaks of eczema and asthma
attacks. She had had numerous accidents which her parents attributed
to the fact that she always seemed to move too quickly and was very
clumsy.
On questioning the mother concerning diet a very
familiar picture appeared. Because the child is a fussy eater the
mother in despair gives the child whatever they will eat on the
basis anything is better than nothing. Unfortunately, in this way
the child dictates the menu and the mother obliges often providing
endless meals of carbohydrates, snack foods and fizzy drinks.
Samantha was no exception and when the mother provided me with
a list of all food and drink consumed over a two week period I eliminated
80% of the items replacing them with food and drink free
of additives and low in sugars. For the
next three days Samantha’s behaviour deteriorated and the parents
despaired. Then remarkably on the morning of the fourth day the
parents were blessed with a totally different child.
Samantha had slowed down, ate her meal calmly without making a messy
and was a joy to be with.
Following five treatments Samantha’s parents reported that she
continued to eat without making a mess, was concentrating
better at school, was well behaved, was
speaking more slowly and making perfect sense.
When re-tested all her neurological findings showed a marked
improvement including the hearing test - tympanography
- which showed a clear change.
So how can a change in diet make such a change in behaviour?
The thinking behind this is that the children insidiously
select foods that are high in carbohydrates/sugars which
produce burst of high levels of sugars to the brain. The
brain likes this and naturally wants more. Unfortunately,
this becomes like an addiction and there is concern in some
quarters that this may be the forerunner to other addictive
states. Recent evidence would also suggest that certain
food additives e.g. aspartame may actually trigger the release
of high levels of glutamate in the brain which is an excitatory
neurotransmitter thereby causing a “glutamate storm”.
A question often asked is why do food additives cause problems
in some children but not other? The simple answer is that
the central nervous system in children up to puberty is
still growing and maturing and if this maturation process
is slowed down or halted then that brain is going to be
far more susceptible to any additives than a brain that
is healthily maturing.
Having taken away the food stuffs that are potentially harmful
and added others that are essential e.g. animal fats, the simple
treatment regime targets the areas of brain that are not
working optimally and the child improves.
So how can we help? Click here
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