Aggression, behavior, anger, and tics

[brink]

So, we need help. We've tried eliminating dairy and refined sugar and it was helping for a while. It's been about a month. We have let our 9 year old son have chocolate soy milk, chocolate soy ice cream bars and almond milk. Basically, it's the only way he'd eat it, but he's not getting the chocolate items everyday. Anyway, it was suggested that he may be sensitive to chocolate (by a holistic person), along with the dairy and sugar. We started using raw sugar as his birthday is right now and he wanted a cake. I tweaked one of my recipes to work and he loves it. Of course, it's chocolate too.

 

Anyway, the last few days have been particularly difficult. His birthday was on Sunday, so we had the build up to that, then his dad had to have an emergency outpatient sugery on his birthday, so the party was rescheduled to this week. We understand that some of this behavior is related to the birthday excitement because we notice an increase in tics when he's excited or nervous about a 'big' event.

 

Since putting him on the dairy free, refined sugar free restrictions, his tics had been limited to just the facial grimmaces. Now, he's whistling, hooting, some throat noises when he eats, and now the anger and agression is escalating. I actually had to restrain him yesterday because a tantrum got out of control. He's angry, thinks everyone hates him, seems almost depressed, and he's eating constantly. He's always been a grazer, but I swear, even after a full meal, within 30 minutes he's begging for more food. He doesn't want to do his schoolwork and will sit in his chair and spin until we make him stop. At one point he had been spinning for at least 5-10 minutes straight.

 

I also noticed circles under his eyes yesterday and he had a chicken pox-like rash on his shoulder and neck the other day. The rash has since subsided to simple red dots.

 

We have not started on the supplements yet, and that's our next step.

 

I'm trying to note as much as possible so advice perhaps could come more easily. We have an appointment to see a psychologist next week, parents only. She is supposedly the most experienced in 'our group' with TS. My main concern is that my son is happy and healty and he doesn't seem to be either!

 

Any help or suggestions would be most appreciated.

[Jeff]

Brink, Have you tried eliminating artificial colors and flavors... like colored "fruit" drinks, cereals, candies, etc? Or, as some of the problems appear to be behavioral, perhaps he's reacting to Corn Syrup (sodas, candies, ice creams, etc...)?

Corn Syrup is one of the worst things for one of my daughters.... causes her to be irritable, lose focus, etc. Sugar has never been a problem for us... just the CS and the HFCS.

Jeff

[Chemar]

I so agree with you Jeff!

 

Brink, for my son the mood swings that follow exposure to offenfing artificial ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors and also MSG is very dramatic. He also gets "weird" after sucralose(splenda) or aspartame(nutrasweet)

[kpt]

Hi Brink-

When you say you're using raw sugar, I am assumming you mean turbinado or "Sugar in the Raw"- they are not unrefined sugars, just less so than white sugar.

Agave nectar is a good alternative to sugar- it keeps glucose levels more stable. Also, there's a product called Fruit Sweet which is basically a very concentrated fruit juice combination. It's all natural. I took my oldest son off of refined sugar for awhile, and these two products were saviors. There is a cookbook by a baker named Mani Niall that has really good baked goods, even birthday quality cakes Just might help with at least the sugar sensitivity.

Best wishes to you. We are having some tough behaviors right now, too and struggling to identify his triggers. I hope you see some improvement soon!

 

Kristin

[brink]

Wow! I never knew Sugar in the Raw was just a less refined sugar. That could explain some of this. We have eliminated the corn syrups and I think we've gotten all the dyes and artifical flavors out. I suppose there could be some that I'm missing. We've also tried eliminating all the MSG's as I'm allergic to those anyway. I've done a bunch of research on the MSGs and am very surprised where we find it! We've removed basically all corn products, at least the ones I know about.

 

Thank you for your help! I'm going to try the two sugar subs listed and see what happens. I have a feeling it's all sugar related at this point.

[kim]

brink,

 

Many kids who are intolerant to milk, also have soy sensitivities. I am not a fan of processed soy anyway.

 

Could I ask how much the rash seemed to correlate with the deterioration in behavior/increase in tics?

[kpt]

Brink-

If you choose to bake with agave, you need to reduce your baking temperature. I think it's by 25 degrees, but I'll double check for you. It's really mild and has a honey consistency- it can be used in anything you might use honey, but it can burn at higher temperatures. I hope you are able to find Fruit Sweet- I can't get it here any more, but I think you can order from Wax Orchard's website. I really liked the taste of it and my boys always ate the cookies without asking what was wrong with them!

 

Good luck to you and your son!

[QsMom]

Brink-

 

Since you are substituting new items (soy, almond, ect.), could he be reacting to one of the new foods? Just a thought.

 

My son get the dark circles too when he eats something he is sensitive too and sometimes a rash on his shoulders and neck. Usually those too are his not so great behavior days.

 

Another suggestion - maybe consider a calcium supp instead of pushing the chocolate soy milk and see what happens? My son loves the calcium chews at Whole Foods, and it takes the pressure off me to get calcium into him.

 

Good luck sorting through this.

[brink]

Thank you for the additional suggestions. I'm not sure if it would be the soy products as he's had those before without reaction. He's also had almonds in the past without incident, but then again, who knows what all is related. He's doing so much better today.

 

I don't know if the rash has anything to do with it. The rash is almost gone already.

 

We have suspected sugar for quite some time, so I'm leaning toward the raw sugar issue. Not knowing that was also considered a refined sugar, I've been using it in many things for him. None got into his system today.

 

What a journey this is turning out to be!!