Nutritional Needs Of Difficult Children

Anyone who is a parent understands worry about kids, especially the nutritional needs of difficult children.

As a parent, I know I think about my kids all day long, their health, friends, future, and education. They pretty much are constantly on my mind. This is why I also know that when kids begin to display behavior problems, parents become overwhelmed with worry, and often also a lot of confusion. Difficult children hold a place close to my heart, I have personally had to navigate the world of the difficult child, the tantrums, the screaming, the calls from school, less than ideal sleep, reading every book ever written on behavior and parenting and the entire time feeling inadequate at best. Every time I read a news story about challenging kids, I cringe at the poor quality advice being given to many of these families, most of which is information on medications with little to nothing about their nutrition, the health of their gut, and how all of this creates the environment of their brain. For anyone who has felt the despair related to trying to help one of these kids, understanding the role of GM foods and also that of chronic food sensitivities and gut inflammation may be an avenue worth consideration.

It is poorly emphasized that the gut is the primary source of irritation to the brain, in addition to being the main place where many essential neurotransmitters are produced. Irritation in the gut causes inflammation which then creates poor balance to brain chemistry which results in all of the characteristic symptoms of difficult children (and adults). Gut irritation does not necessarily cause digestive disturbance, in fact, many people have inflammation but never present with altered digestive system symptoms. Therefore just because someone doesn’t experience constipation or diarrhea does not mean that everything is fine. Food sensitivities can and often do still exist that if left unchecked will result in the development of greater challenges further on. Some things that created behavior issues in children become chronic disease in adulthood, yet if traced back, the cause was and forever will be reactions to foods and the resultant inflammation.

There are programs for which books have been written that ascribe to a process of removing the most common irritants like dyes and synthetic food chemicals but which do not subscribe to a specific recommendation about food quality. Inherently, these programs fail to adequately address the largest and most looming danger to not only the health of children but also that of adults; which is GMO induced food inflammation. Removing the most processed foods from the diet will minimize exposure and diminish symptoms that were directly related to irritation specific to chemical compounds found in processed foods; it will not, however, mitigate the much more serious chronic disease aspects that arise out of life long consumption of GMO foods.

The current generation of children is the first to be fully raised on GM foods. Consequently, they are the grand experiment as almost every packaged food in the store has GM ingredients whether it is in the form of soy oil which comprises 66% of the fat Americans eat every year or GM corn as corn its self or as ascorbic acid, or as alfalfa which is the main substrate fed to dairy cows. GM foods studied mostly in other countries have been shown to cause dramatic inflammatory changes to the body including but not limited to cancer. The study templates have been done using rats, extrapolating the information they provide can assume that many of the detrimental effects of GM foods will display themselves after about 10 years of consistent ingestion. Considering that GM foods have been on the market since 1994, but heavily on the market since 2002, the 10-year mark has just been met. If one only considers statistics, then the ever-increasing prevalence of classified mental disorders in children must be assumed to relate to food. As rates of autism, depression, bipolar and aggressive behavior has nearly doubled in this time. 

However, none of the current major therapeutic methods employed by conventional medicine take this into consideration, and sadly, even some of the methods of non-conventional and more natural-based physicians also fail to consider the effects of GM foods in their design. Yet, removal of GM foods along with then avoidance of known inflammatory foods along with nutrient replacement and repair of the intestinal mucosa stands to accomplish not only behavior modification but also long term health and sustainable longevity. 

If you are a parent raising a difficult child, you are not alone, there are options, and there is support. The first step is to gain an understanding of what to do next, how to move forward and what foods your child’s body regards as inflammatory.

**Mention this article and receive a free 20-minute health and dietary evaluation for your child with Dr. Julie. **

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Seven Directions Center for Restorative Medicine

260 S. Union Street

Plymouth, MI 48170

734-414-7669

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