Feingold diet questions....

[AustinsMom]

Thanks for all the information and encouragement. Although getting ready to start the diet--purging all the old foods and buying new ones--is time consuming, I'm finding that meal preparation is really not that hard or different. I would definitely encourage those thinking about it to order the info from the organization. I then went through and highlighted items that I wanted to buy, so it was easy to prepare and list and shop. So far, snacks are the area of conflict. Austin is not sold on this idea, and tonight had a brief meltdown because his favorite mint choc. chip ice cream is no longer green. He insisted the green makes it taste better and that he couldn't eat that, but it wasn't long before he finished it and asked for seconds....Thanks again for all of the help.

[eaccae]

Just out of curiousity for those of you on this diet - I was reading the sacilyc acid list on the website along with the ones that I found and Foley's - have most of you who have been on it for awhile found that you could add certain fruits/vegetables that are on the this list back into your diet? Or have you found them to be too sensitive. For example - can you cook in olive oil or use herbs such as basil? Can you use fresh tomatoes?Can you eat grapes and apples and spinach and broccoli - or have you found these foods to cause a reaction? And - have you noticed more of a difference between the "manmade" sacilycs - like the preservatives, dyes, vanillan, etc. and the natural sacilyc acid in the fruits and vegatables?

[catatonic]

My son can't handle any salicylates. The effect is not as immediate and dramatic as with the artificials or preservatives, but it is noticeable, particularly if he consumes more than one salicylate or consumes them over a couple of days. (As in OJ for breakfast, and pizza sauce with tomatoes at dinner.) We simply avoid them as much as is possible and I guess we'll have to for ever and ever.

I think a number of people manage to successfully add back in certain salicylates, or consume them if they're spaced out at intervals of a couple days. We don't seem to be in that lucky group.

[RiahBubbaPooh]

We've been able to add some back in. They can have tomatoes once in a while, for ecample. However, some sal's have been crossed off the list permanently. Grapes, apples, oranges...no way!!!

Every one reacts differently to different foods. I'll give you an example from my own family...

"Never" lists

DH...grapes, corn syrup (not sal)
Riah...cranberries, orange juice, grapes
Bubba...oj, grapes, olives, apples, blueberries, corn syrup, malt, soy, etc, etc..
Pooh...All Sal's and Sodium Benzoates except occassional tomatoes.

I will say, as they get older, it gets easier. Dh and Riah (11) pretty much police themselves now. Riah experiments some, she's finding how far she can go before she has a reaction.

Bubba is pretty good too. He's making his own list (he's 9) of what foods are worth the reaction, and what foods aren't. For him, a couple slices of pizza is worth it. Blueberry pancakes are not. HE doesn't like how he feels/acts when he eats them.

Also, we learned important timing. Like the week before Standardized Testing, NO ONE touches sal's.

HTH!

[catatonic]

My 9-year-old challenge child apparently feels that lots of things are worth the reaction. (Believe me, the rest of the family does NOT NOT NOT agree!)

On Thursday, he took money to school and bought a red-dyed fruit punch from the machine in the hall. Brought it home, drank it, hid the bottle under his bed. If my two-year-old weren't into everything all the time, I might not have figured out what he was reacting to since he is very convincing when he lies.

I'd have to say he does something like this once a week lately (he didn't used to be so awful and sneaky). My 14-year-old is so fed up he's angry with his brother all the time and ORDERED me to go to school at lunch every day and watch what he eats. It's actually not a bad idea. He also told me to PUNISH challenge boy when he cheats on his diet, and I believe his suggestion ran along the lines of "lock him in his room for 3 days".

How do you police a child who doesn't always cooperate?

[foley]

My Ds is able to cheat on regular basis. This is only after being the program for several years, and clean.

We don't approve of this, but honestly I can't stop him--the kids at school throw out their fruit, but Mister I Have to be like Everyone Else, ends up eating their fruit when they offer it to him.

School really sucks because they're constantly feeding these kids, either through the school store, or parties or whatever.

Cat, I don't punish him for cheating, but when his reaction behavior causes him to break our rules, he get's punished for the behavior, and I make sure to tell him, "I hope that orange was worth being grounded, or losing tv priviliges etc."

And I constantly educate him, about how he inherited this problem from his Dad, and in fact he should get on his Dad for not being on the program (we're divorced) and basically that he's going to have face this some day and take responsiblity for what he puts in his mouth.

Some parents are lucky because their kids really notice reactions, mine doesn't. I try to point out how awesome he is to be around when he sticks to the program, and how awful things go for him with his friends and family when he cheats.

I know that I sound like a broken record, but I also know that my constant reinforcement, as well as, keeping the household clean of this cr*p, will sink in *eventually*.

It's always like that with my DS, you have to repeat, repeat, repeat yourself, and eventually it sinks in. He'll be 13 in March, and I know getting him to comply through the teen years is going to be tough, and ultimately it's up to him.

That's the hardest part about this whole thing for me, I finally understand that old adage "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." At some point, their behavior, and decisions, are truly up to them as individuals, despite all our hard work of trying to find the cause of this awful behavior.

OK, this is loooooong.

So I'll go! but 1st

The original poster asked a question and the answer is the salicylates listed in the FG program, are the ones most ADHD kids have trouble tolerating (it's confusing).

We can occasionally have tomato sauce, but never ever ever ever ORANGES (they're evil!) We've also been able to add back Golden Delicious Apples. We try to limit the amount we buy though, because it's truly a build up reaction in our case.

After six weeks of eliminating them, you're encouraged to try them back slowly, since some people can tolerate oranges for example, and some can't. That's when you go to stage two of the program which adds the natural salicylates back. Sometimes people get scared off by reactions, and stop testing, but you should try every now and then. After the six week 'detox' period of course.

Hope this book post helps! *LOL

Foley

[RiahBubbaPooh]

When my dd was 9 and started wanting to cheat, we made a deal.

1. No matter what, she's responsible for her actions. No using "I ate off diet" as an excuse for ANYTHING.

2. She must ask me first to make sure there are no major tests coming up.

3. No more than one off diet item a week, so she can see how she reacts.

4. She had to keep a journal. It was only for her use, but we helped fill it in, as she's unaware when she's reacting. Everytime she ate off diet, she had to keep track for 10 day afterwards of stuff like:

*What did I eat?
*Am I being punished more than usual?
*How are my friends/family acting towards me?
*How is my handwriting/schoolwork?
*Physical symptoms (headache, stomache cramps, diarhea, rash, mouth running constantly, etc.)
*Emotional symptoms (Depression, hyper, can't sleep, super-creative)
*What do mommy and daddy have to say about changes in me after eating this food?
*Was it worth it?

This has really helped her to feel like she's in control. It also helps when she can't remember what was so bad about that Twix bar?

She was feeling very trapped by the diet, and this gave her a measure of control and ownership of the diet.

[catatonic]

Thanks for the suggestions. It's very difficult to deal with the reactions because they are so disruptive to the rest of the family. I am constantly repeating the "your body, your responsibility" theme, but it doesn't seem to sink in. Maybe because the rest of us suffer more from his reactions than he does. I try to make the diet more fun and "normal" by keeping things that are treats, like homemade cocoa mix or crispix mix, but he wants to be cool with his friends and cool seems to mean eatings lousy food.

We have terrible luck with oranges, also. Apple juice is pretty bad, too. Tomatoes don't seem to be that big a deal. I haven't tried a whole lot else because I don't want him to turn into The Monster. Guess I'll have to give it a go sometime, though. Gee, sounds like fun.

[DenverSarah]

For those who have a really good handle on what exactly their family members react to, may I suggest trying enzymes? Like everything else they don't work for everyone (and sorry bad news like everything else they can make things worse!) but if you are looking for a way to be add some more variety it may be an option. We have been giving my son enzymes with all meals containing anything med or high salicylate, and while they certainly aren't so effective as to be able to replace the diet, they do help. The brand I use is no-fenol from Houston Enzymes. I've heard over the grapevine that many companies sell enzymes and that they are not all the same, so if you do want to try them I would go with Houston (yes they are FG approved). Cat, if you try this product and it is an effective way of averting reactions for your target, maybe you could implement a rule that he can occasionally cheat but he has to purchase a no-fenol from Mom first? Just a thought:)

[RiahBubbaPooh]

We've been using No Fenol for about a year now, and dh is able to tolerate more. Some things are, as you said, still off limits.

[catatonic]

I like the idea of having my son purchase enzymes to eat something off-diet. At least, I like the idea of trying it to see what happens. Any suggestions where to find the No-Fenol? Is it generally available in health food stores, drug stores, on-line???

I really appreciate the suggestions. This has been a difficult week and I've been really depressed over my son's cheating.

[RiahBubbaPooh]

You can find them at www.houstonni.com