Going along with the theme of change here...
We've recently decided that as parents we needed to be more proactive in how we handle/deal with the fact that Isabella may have ADHD. If you have ever met her you know that she is a very funny, smart, silly, sweet little girl. There is no doubt about that. More & more as she gets older it is becoming apparent that she has some, lets say, quirks. John is familiar with these quirks. As someone with ADHD himself it's something that he is used to dealing with. Me? Not so much. So we made an appt to meet with Isabella's doctor to go over our concerns and to discuss how we should handle them. He was very good with her and gave us a lot of information. Once of the things we have learned is that kids with ADHD do a lot better on a special kind of diet. Well, I say special but really it's just a very basic, healthy way of eating. This means no processed foods, no food dyes, nothing in a wrapper, nothing with ingrediants you can't pronounce, restrict sugar, restrict fried foods, avoid fish ( mercury), no dairy.
YIKES.
Now, I will not claim to be the healthiest eater out there and if you know John you know how much he loves his chicken wings and burgers etc...but when it comes to my kids I've always tried to make sure they eat healthy well rounded meals. That being said, I never saw anything wrong with goldfish crackers as snacks, watered down apple juice to drink, and a little bit of something sweet for dessert provided everyone was eating their fruits & veggies. This new diet however does not allow room for such things. So we're easing our way into it. We've cut out a lot of the fake stuff. No more crackers, tasty desserts. Snacks are things like plain or multi grain cheerios and raisins or carrots. Desserts? Yogurt. Are some of these things still on the naughty list? Yes. Are they better then some of our older options? Yes. We are getting there. Isabella is nothing if not a stubborn picky eater and she hates any sort of change. So to just suddenly change everything about the way she has been eating would probably cause her to dig her heels in deep and refuse to try anything new. Doing it this way seems to actually be working, the other day I actually got her to try a new vegatable. Slow & steady wins the race right?
To be clear here, no Isabella has not actually been diagnosed as ADHD. The doctor seems to think she is sitting right on the line. She is either a very ( very very) high strung "normal" kid or has a very mild case of ADHD. Because of her age he feels it's probably a little too early to get into a formal evaluation without first trying somethings on our end to try and help her. So that is what we're doing. Hopefully this change of diet works. From what I've read a lot of parents that have used it have seen a noticable difference. Wish us luck!
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