Should I stop letting my son eat sugar?

Hi Lauren,

In the 70's there was a doctor named Benjamin Feingold who determined that sugar, preservatives, food colorings and additives contributed to the issues of a child with ADHD or ADD. Eileen Bailey wrote an article about this explaining that when the report was new, some folks were skeptical, but apparently there is a link that you can read about here.

There is also a good video you can watch here about the impact of diet on ADHD kids.

Take care and stay in touch. Let us know how you and your son are doing!

Vicki M

Sugar is unlikely to be a culprit in ADHD, although it contributes to obesity and tooth decay.
 

See Myth: Sugar and Food Additives Cause ADHD, where it states "Throughout the years, no major study has been able to demonstrate the correlation between the consumption of sugar or food additives and ADHD."

Hope this helps!

Lauren

This is really a common question and one that there is no good answer to. While eating less sugar and a more healthy diet is always a good thing, there is no definitive link between diet and ADHD. The links in the other answers will give you some additional information on this subject.

That being said, a small percentage of children have reactions to different foods and if you feel this may be the case, you can ask your physician for a referral to an allergist that would be able to test your son for specific food allergies.

I hope this helps.

Eileen

I have read the responses so far and want to add the following about the Feingold Diet.

While it is congenial to think there are things we might do to remove the AD/HD, the fact is that since Feingold's research, AD/HD has been shown incontrovertibly to be a real, actual difference in how the brain is structured and how it uses essential brain chemicals.

Now, this doesn't mean that for any child, too much sugar, or carbohydrates, or bacon-lettuce-and-mayonnaise sandwiches, or just about anything, isn't a good idea. And, an excellent diet is imperative for any person coping daily with what amounts to chronic stress (listen, parents).

The Feingold Diet is exceedingly rigid and emphasizes the prohibition of certain foods and food substances, and we have learned a great deal since then about what foods build health. Studies that were done in an attempt to replicate Feingold's findings were inconclusive, but one thing stood out on most of them (and I apologize for not having the citation).

There were two variables most responsible for the reduction in "symptoms" and inappropriate behaviors: the increased domestic structure required in order to follow the diet, and the increased amount of attention paid to the children.

My son has ADHD as well as co-mordid conditions of Tourette's, ODD (opositional defiant disorder) and Sensory Integration disorder.  I have researched this about as much as any Mom can and in the 3 years we've been working on him, people comment that they cannot believe the difference in our child.  He's seems basically non-disordered at this point, and will be mainstreamed in school part-time next Sept.

We follow the Feingold diet, but loosely.  The biggest thing we do is avoid all forms of food dye like the plague.  If he eats anything with dye it's like he becomes another child altogether.  Before you panic, I don't mean minute amounts hidden in spaghetti sauce for instance - I'm talking obvious things like cotton candy or neon green cupcake frosting.  I have to admit when we follow the diet more closely , his behaviors improve as well.

We also medicate, and it's a one-two punch for us.  However, he's on Tenex, which is used as a blood pressure med in adults, so it doesn't have any of the concerns of other ADHD meds - it's basically side affect free.  I've found that if we only use diet or only use meds, it's not as effective as the two together.

Another thing we did is we got in touch with our state's division of family and children, their behavioral unit, and for months we had 2 family therapists come to the house twice a week to help us with his issues.  This was almost more affective than anything else, and best of us, it was free, provided by the state.  I'm in NJ and could point you in the right direction here, and I'm sure all states must have something similar.

Lastly, we recently started a biomedical approach based on a book I read by Dr. Kenneth Bock called "Healing the New Childhood Epidemics:  Autism, ADHD, Allergies and Asthma".  His findings, which were echoed in the other half dozen books about the links between food and these illnesses I read, really made sense to me for our particular situation.  We live near the Rhinebeck clinic, so we became patients of Dr. Bock's partner, Dr. Compaign, but we've just started to program so it's too soon to tell.  It makes Feingold look like a walk in the park, I can tell you that!  But it's not a life long program, just to heal certain parts of the body.  I highly recommend the book, just to learn more and see if it fits.

If I can tell you anything else, feel free to contact me.  I have unwittingly become one-stop shopping for special needs kids, a job I never signed up for.   But I can't imagine doing anything less than what my kid needs, you know?

Anne