A couple of years ago, I realized that it was not normal for Hannah to spend three hours completing one math homework worksheet. It broke my heart to see her get so stressed out and anxious about not being able to complete her work before bedtime. It was beyond frustrating for me to sit down with her and have to redirect her attention back to her math problem after every step in solving it. She would skip problems on tests. She was always the last in the class to finish, if she finished at all. She would misspell words that she clearly knew how to spell simply because she would skip over letters. When talking to her, I could see her eyes glaze over about half-way through what I was trying to say, and I knew her mind wasn't anywhere close to listening to me. She could not keep track of anything. Where are your shoes, your backpack, your hairbrush, etc., etc., etc.? She was a daydreamer and in a world of her own most of the time. It was just heartbreaking for me to see how hard she was working to keep up with the normal expectations of a third-grader. So, we had her tested for ADHD, and my calm, quiet, gentle daughter was diagnosed with the inattentive type of ADHD, anxiety, and a non-specified learning disorder. What were we supposed to do? The information available regarding ADHD is so confusing. Medicine is dangerous some say, and others say it will give her a new life. Gluten-free and sugar-free diets are supposedly accepted by only radical mothers and not at all scientifically proven to be effective. It was so tough trying to figure out what was right for our daughter and our family. After trying for a few months to make changes in our routines and also working closely with her teacher at school (I will always love Ms. Brown!), we decided that she might benefit from medicine. It was an incredibly hard decision, but it was the best we could do. And it did help. I think it taught her what it feels like to focus on a task. It got her through third and fourth grade. It was wonderful to have her symptoms lessened, but they weren't alleviated. She also had some side effects that made me wary of increasing her dosage to help more with her concentration. She became the pickiest eater in the family. She had no real desire for food some days, and that really worried me. She also didn't sleep well, which is common with these drugs. Sometimes she could be pretty moody, and I would wonder how much is just being a normal girl and how much is side-effects from the medicine. This past summer we tried an alternative kind of therapy called Interactive Metronome Therapy. It was really neat, and the woman who did it for us also recommended a regimen of vitamins that has shown some promise in helping children with ADHD. I was encouraged with the progress Hannah made. Supplements beyond a multivitamin also scare me. It seems just like a drug when you start adding extra substances to your body, so I knew I needed more education. My sister-in-law uses a lot of holistic and homeopathic healing methods for her family, and I really enjoyed talking with her this summer when I was in Utah for a few days. Then later she made a few other recommendations that I could try with Hannah and some books to read as well. Anyway, since I didn't make my long story short, in November we took Hannah off of her Concerta and were just giving her a good multivitamin, fish oil, calcium, and an amino acid for her anxiety. At first, it was pretty tough. She struggled quite a bit in math and piano practice. But she has made great progress. She immediately said she felt happier and more playful when she stopped taking the Concerta. Her moods did improve, her appetite improved, and her sleep has improved. But all of this is just to explain that I have been searching for a while. I want a good, happy, healthy life for all of my children.
I love food documentaries. King Corn, Supersize Me, Food Inc. Recently, we watched "Forks Over Knives" on Netflix. I found it fascinating.
I think my mother must be laughing so hard at me being interested in vegetables! Growing up a tossed salad to me meant iceberg lettuce and carrots. I would lick the butter off of the corn on the cob instead of eating the corn. When I moved in with the Littles I remember being so amazed that Eileen would serve so many vegetables with their meals. It was even more amazing that everyone in their family loved them! My tastes have changed over a period of time. I eat more vegetables now than I did growing up, and I'm even interested in learning to like more. I think it's possible. That's a miracle in itself!
I'm not going for a vegan diet, and I don't think that is necessary. I am interested in really learning to live the Word of Wisdom more closely. The Word of Wisdom is what makes Mormons seem so odd in not drinking coffee or tea. It also instructs us to avoid tobacco and alcohol, but I think the hardest part to live by is what it tells us we should put into our bodies. Meat is to be used sparingly, but how much is sparingly? I'm thinking it's probably a lot less than what I typically eat. I also found it interesting in rereading the Word of Wisdom recently that it doesn't mention dairy at all. It says "flesh" of the animals is for our use. Well, it does make sense that cow's milk is for cows.
Okay, so that's enough rambling for today. I want to be healthy, and I want my family to be healthy. How crazy is it that I have eaten almost every day of my life, and I still have such little knowledge of nutrition? I'd like to change that.
8 comments:
Eat To Live is the book that changed Ginger's life, so be careful. The word of wisdom is far harder on grains than meat, and Christ was raised on milk and honey so he would know the good and refuse the bad.
Obviously I have opinions on this! LOL!
First deep question for you. Does Dr. Furhman look healthy to you?
Well, she is clearly going over the top on something, and I could never think that living for a week off of a bag of apples was healthy. I haven't finished his book, though, so thanks for your heads up on that. What I have liked so far about it was that he hasn't said that eating meat and dairy should be completely avoided.
Does he look healthy? He looks better than me. I'm sure you're saying he looks a little sickly, but Rip Esselstyn sure looks healthy!
Interesting food for thought, Susan. I would imagine that your produce co-op is very beneficial to you in trying to go this route. I hope you'll do another post on this in a month or so after you've put it into practice.
I think the food we eat has a bigger impact on our lives/health than we sometimes realize. For me, the older I get, the bigger the correlation I notice between what I eat and how I feel. When I was younger, I think my metabolism, my age, the amount of physical activity I got and other things "covered up" some of the effects of not eating the right kinds of food. I think its become more important as I've gotten older to eat better to feel better. I think there is a lot of truth to be found in improving our health through our food. I also don't think its necessarily a "one size fits all" solution. I know moms who have had lots of success with different eating plans for specific children and for their families. I think it can be a very specific or personal choice and that they can two moms taking different approaches can both the doing the right thing for their family. I'm interested in a follow-up post on what direction you take from your readings. Thanks for sharing your thoughts! :)
That was a good post Susan. I've decided it shouldn't be too hard to cut back the meat and dairy (well that's easy for us with dairy) and eat more plant foods. I'm really excited to find more filling recipes and try them out. Before we moved, we had our meat meals down from 7 times a week, to 3 times a week. That's pretty good! Of course, we were substituting a lot of pasta and that hasn't been good for Joe's weight :) We'll figure it out, but I really enjoyed Forks Over Knives and the proven science behind it and the common sense it made.
Yeah, I'll post a picture next month of my juicy double bacon cheeseburger and chocolate shake! Ha Ha! Just kidding! Kristen, I definitely agree with you that we are all different and different paths can be right for different people.
Thanks for this post!! I am trying to figure this all out myself!? I have that Disease-Proof your child book. I started the China Study, but something didn't set right with me with that. I enjoyed the Forks Over Knives movie, but I don't agree with a vegan lifestyle (for my fam anyway). I think the biggest thing I took away from that movie was how much power we have over our own health by what food we put into our bodies. It's HUGE! Have you read any of Weston Price's stuff? I really like Sally Fallon's cookbook called Nourishing Traditions. It's got some weird stuff in it, but the concept is good. I think the biggest thing I'm fed up with is all the processed junk with high fructose corn syrup, msg, hormones, etc. I've been reading about Clean Eating some...interesting. We're just working on trying to clean up our eating a bit. I'm just not sure that I'll ever be able to give up ice cream!! Anyone ever feel overwhelmed by all there is to learn???
Amen, Kim. And I'm tired of not being able to trust what's written on the front of the package. I think what I've taken away from what I've read so far is that you don't have to completely give up your ice cream, your steak, your chocolate. The problem is that there are so many of us addicted to pizza, french fries, doughnuts, TV dinners, etc., etc., etc. Our bodies can handle a treat every now and then, but too many of us are eating unhealthy foods all the time, and sometimes we do it when thinking we are eating a healthy meal. It's tricky to make those lower nutrient foods take up a significantly smaller percentage of my diet.
Well, this comment is almost another post! :) Thanks for your recommendations. I'll have to check those out.
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