Anyone else notice how much diet affects your child's behaviour?

I feel like a bit of a fool asking this, as we all know sugar and toddlers do not go well together. However I'm amazed, DD can go from being placid, then has a sugary food (museli bar etc) and she's a huge hand full!! Tantrums left right & center. Her grandparents came for a late arvo visit today, with a stash of chocolate and goodies as usual :wall: Getting her to sleep tonight has been nothing short of a nightmare. I'm interested to hear of everyone elses experiences with toddlers and particular foods?

My children are all limited in their intake of sugary foods, but DS2 in particular has to be kept away from them. His behaviour goes from a well behaved but boisterous child, to a crazy wild boy.

My aunt kept giving both my older boys sweets, despite me saying they were not to have them. Finally one day I was dropping them off to her house whilst I went to an appointment with my twins, and she gave them some sugary rubbish. DS2 went absolutly wild and when she asked why he was acting like that I said "it's the sugar, I did warn you" as I was heading out the door. Funnily enough she has never bought them sweets since that date:)

I notice DD(4) her behaviour changes with certain foods.
Check out the FAILSAFE diet, there are so many additives colours and flavours that effect behaviour.

I am sooo glad to hear there are other mums out there noticing this condition!!

My daughter is allergic to almost everything food wise haha. So she's only ever had fresh organic foods.. nothing processed.

all of a sudden my sister and mum (who babysat her while i was in hospital for a few weeks this year) start giving her processed foods and she's a little terror! i never had tantrums, nor did i have illness or any type of protesting from my daughter before this!! She even doesn't communicate as well when she's 'under the influence'!! haha.

My thoughts are, if its not natural, it doesn't go into your body. We have never had softdrinks or cordials etc in my home. Just filtered water or mineral water and some (a select range) organic juice. Loads of fresh veges and salads... couldn't ask for a better child!!

The only struggle for us parents, is trying to keep the naughty foods away from them!! Especially with grandparents around!!

Absolutely MM. I try to prevent it happening though. I notice the effects of some foods instantly. I do tend to find it is more the preservatives than the sugar that is an issue for DD.
I'm not sure why some people think the way to a childs heart is through bad food and their stomach. :rolleyes:
When we go somewhere, i take a treat of my choice and sneak it to the person we're visiting. And then that person gets to offer a treat to DD that i am happy with. So perhaps you could try that with the grandparents?

I've noticed my kids react to certain foods. I stopped buying anything pre packaged and saw a dramatic difference in their behaviour, especially in my son.

I have a friend whose family eat takeaway at least 5 nights a week. She always complains about how her DS won't sleep until midnight and how much of a handful he is during the day. Anyway, she went on a health kick and cooked every night instead of getting take away(probably lasted 2 weeks) and amazingly her DS started going to bed at a reasonable hour AND didn't have tantrums during the day.

I don't think it's just preservatives that are an issue either, its food that is 'empty calories' as well that don't fill them up enough. Also not with my kids, but with BIL's boy he used to go crazy after having fruit and all he would eat all day was fruit and his behaviour was uncontrollable, but when I said something about it to MIL and to cut the fruit back while she had him (she was looking after him 2 days a week) she noticed a difference. His behaviour is still uncontrollable :rolleyes: but not to the extent that it was.

Trillian mention sue dentage books to them, alot of fruits set children of, like bananas or tomatoes.. so its not just crappy preservative foods but also healthy foods that can set children off.

a friend of mine her son is limited to 1 piece of fruit a day as its an over load on him to

Oh my goodness here I was thinking you cant go wrong with fruit. My DD chows down the fruit and veg, she loves it. its nothing for her to eat a whole apple and orange (cut up) in one day. I wonder if the fruit affects her too.

So by pre packaged processed foods what do you mean? I buy snacks for DD to give when we are about and about, I usually get museli bars, snackatas, sultanas, heinz fruit bars etc. What other snacks can I try? We always have home cooked healthy dinners, loads of veges, but do have the occassional chinese takeaway.

As for the grandparents, I dont know either why they feel the need to fill DD up on junk. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one. I have asked them numerous times to lay off it a bit but my requests go over the top of their heads. :wall:

Ciara, love your if its not natural stay away idea.

Also I am planning on checking out the failsafe diet.

Two words: BURGER RINGS.

My DH loves them. But as soon as he gives them to the kids they go feral.

Won't be in our shopping trolley anytime soon.

Our kids love the yogurt coverd fruit balls. I think they are called Berry Frugos. They come in apricot too.

Toni.

Yep! DD2 is feral! I have to watch colourings, & MSG. We don't have chicken salt. Yellow is our worst colouring.
They affect the other 2 as well, but not nearly as bad.

I'm really lucky. I'm one of those select few that have kids that are not affected by food. I have no doubt it happens, I've seen it happen with my friends kids. But for whatever reason they are unaffected. Doesn't mean I let them eat junk and sugars 24/7 but when they do have it there is no difference.

So I think the thing to remember is that each child is different, and regardless we should be teaching them how to eat well through our own eating habits along with what we feed them xxx

Hi MM
As someone else mentioned, you should check out Sue Dengate's website. If you google 'fed up with food additives' you will find her website. Give yourself a bit of time to browse through it though, because there is alot of really suprising information on there.

With my girls, i try to steer clear of preservative 282 - usually found in bread - and also most colours - especially 110. On the website you will find a print out of all the nasty additives etc.

There are some children who aren't affected by these additives etc, but if you are having behavioural issues, then it's worth a look. I need to get back on track with the foods i'm giving Hannah. (i can't blame teething forever ;))

Definitely MM, although we find here it is additives rather than sugar that causes a problem. But often the things with additives are sugary! Preservatives, colours, flavours, all of them can set DS off. I am an obsessive label-reader when buying food now, I scrutinise everything. I choose a product not by it's price, but by it's contents. It's actually pretty common for kids to be affected by additives, as you are probably gathering :). Just that usually no one tells us about it, we have to figure it out for ourselves ;).

Trillian, sounds alot like your nephew could have a salicylate sensitivity. There are lots of fruits that are high in salicylates, and for people who are sensitive the symptoms can be horrible (and vary widely). It's very upsetting, because you feel that fruit is a great healthy thing for your kids to be eating, but if you know it affects them it's just not worth it :(. Not that you can't have ANY fruit, just not those that are very high in salicylates. There is actually a website that I think is called 'salicylate sensitivity', which is quite interesting.

Yes. No time to type tonight as SOMEONE gave Jazz a freddo frog at lunch time today.... let's just say NOT HAPPY JAN.

Wow Sue has so much info! Thanks girls for suggesting her to me, very interesting what she has to say.

There seems to be alot of additives to avoid, even things like vegemite are apparently not all that good. So what do you all do, do you just try to avoid a few??? By eliminating a select few do you notice a difference or do you need to go hard core and follow her rules strictly?

MM - i just started out with avoiding the nasty additives - as much as i could anyway. you can print out a wallet size table with the numbers to avoid. I used to take it shopping with me.

Oh yes! My boys don't have sugar or most preservatives very often for this reason - and when they do I know about it!!