Snacks

[Guest Guest_efgh]

ALL

 

Due to the diet restrictions, I find it hard to decide on "snacks" for my son. What do you all give?? Do you all give chocolates once in a while atleast or is it a total ban? Similarly what about cookies, biscuits and wafers - do you give them to your kids - I know it contains a bit of artificial flavours, vanillin etc but still ...

some good suggestions please!

 

Jennifer, you mentioned aloe vera juice? Do you give plain aloe vera juice or with some fruit flavour??

 

thanks.

[Guest Guest_efgh]

Chemar and Jennifer

 

Thanks for your info on detox. Will probably start that. Once you start the detox, will it cause initial diahorrea for the kids due to the cleansing formula?? should it be given on a daily basis?

 

Jennifer,

did you keep your son's school authorities posted on your son's tics?? Or is he able to manage at school and you decided not to tell them??

And since you are regular reg. Dr mercola's newsletters, I read last week wherein dr mercola emphasises that FISH OIL is any day better than flax oil for hyperactivity, adhd and tics. what is your view on that?

 

thanks!

[Guest Guest_efgh]

Chemar and Jennifer

Heard a lot of success stories with 5 htp and tryptophan for ocd.

have you both ever tried tryptophan for ocd? If so, what dosage?

I also heard tryptophan is a lot useful for OCD cum sleep problems (Claire, you may probably want to look into this??)

tks.

[Guest Jeff]

We eat home-made cookies, sometimes with Ghirardelli all-natural chocolate chips. You can also buy some Ghirardelli all-natural chocolate candies. Some of the flavors have artificials, but there is one (I don't remember which) that uses real vanilla and no artificials.

We also eat Carr's Whole Wheat crackers - they taste like graham crackers.

Herr's or Lay's potato chips, Smart Puffs cheese puffs, Frito's, Pirate's Booty cheese puffs, Haagen Dasz ice cream bars, Breyer's all natural vanilla ice cream, Pringles (only the Original flavor).

Hope that helps....

Jeff

[Chemar]

efgh

tryptophan is banned in the USA because of a contamination problem some time ago.

 

that is why people here now use 5HTP, and it actually seems to be the better choice.

[Guest Jean]

Hi efgh,

 

Here are the snacks that I give to my son: rice cracker, salty (plain) cracker bought from oriental food store, organic original potato chips bought from Whole Foods Market, bananas, pears, baby carrots, celery (he has constipation), and organic soy bean milk bought from Whole Foods Market. Whole Foods Market carries different kinds of organic soy bean milk, and some of them have good calcium resource (vs. milk). You may search from the internet to locate a nearest Whole Foods Market in your area.

[Guest Guest_efgh]

Jean and Jeff

 

Thanks for your inputs.

 

Jeff.

 

Since I try to avoid dairy for my son, its more difficult. (like the icecreams and cheese puffs from your list). Any suggestion in that case? Is pringles original safe??

 

Have you been following this kind of a diet for long? Has it helped your kids' tics?

 

Also in latitudes website, I saw one of the options for triggers for tics as "cane sugar" but refined white sugar was not mentioned. Most of the whole foods items contain cane/brown sugar. In general, which is more of a trigger for tics - brown or white sugar??

 

 

thanks!

[Guest Jeff]

efgh,

 

Yes, Pringles Originals are something that we eat.

We have been following the Feingold program for about four years. It has made a huge difference in our tics. As long as we stay on the diet, the tics are not an issue. When we deviate from the diet, we begin to tic. We can tolerate a little bit of "cheating" with no great reactions.

We do not avoid regular cane sugar, and we use only light brown sugar, as the darker ones sometimes have added coloring. Sugar in itself is not a trigger for tics for us. A sweetener that we try to avoid is Corn Syrup (a.k.a. maltodextrin, dextrose, high fructose corn syrup, molasses, malt, etc.) Many children react behaviorally to cs, but it is very difficult to eliminate, as it appears in SO many foods. Basically, it is cheaper to manufacture than real sugar, but the refining process does something to it that can cause reactions in children.

If you are interested in investigating the Feingold Program, you can visit the website at Feingold.org. Many people have seen fantastic results after they have been on the program for only a few weeks. It can be a difficult program to follow, but it can also be an alternative to medicines for children with ADD, ADHD, tics, OCD, etc.

Best regards. Jeff

[Claire]

Jeff,

 

Do your kids have a reaction to the Feingold salicyte foods too, or just the artificial stuff?

 

What about artificial sweeteners such as maltitol and sucralose (I know that Nutrasweet and Sacharine are no-no's). I was thinking of trying Stevia. My son just gets a bit wired with sugar. (no tics)

 

How do they deal with 'feeling different' at school. I think my son could care less about it when he is with us--we always avoided package junk anyway. At school, he just doesn't want to feel different. I offered to send him with a different treat, but it isn't the treat--it is feeling different. I realize that having tics would be feeling even more 'different', but how do you deal with the issues

 

We have never noticed tics from the artificial stuff for him, just the computer, and his EM doctor said to proceed, so I let him have it at school.

 

Also, he has never had sodas, but gets teased about this. I won't let him have caffeinated sodas, but are there any that are okay on Feingold? I have the program, but have misplaced the food list--I never checked the sodas because they didn't apply to us!

 

Claire

[Guest kpd]

Claire,

I was reading your post and noticed you were going to try stevia. My son hated it it had a gross after taste we have had better luck with xylitol which is a sweetener. It has no after taste.

kpd

[Claire]

Thanks kpd, I have heard that stevia has a strong taste. My son is sooooooooo taste sensitive. Actually, we had used sunflower seeds in a blender, then made smoothies and he could still taste the sunflower--when none of us could! And he didn't know I had used the blender that way, and he named the taste exactly. So I think he really does taste more. I have read that picky eaters often really do have more taste buds on their tongues...

 

Is xylitol an alcohol sugar like malitol? Is one more for cooking? I had never heard of it thanks.

 

Claire

[Guest angelica]

i'm just jumping in here about the tryptophan. it is available now in the states--though it was banned for a while like chemar wrote, due to a bad batch, and the FDA in true form overreacted (especially because it was benefitting people as much as chemical antidepressants!) yes it can help sleep problems and mellow things out, helps serotonin scene.

 

it can be ordered online from a few locations. from what i hear, it helps some people who are not helped by 5htp. just be sure to look for commercial grade;

bye!!

[Claire]

Thanks Angelica. I tried 5 HTP with my son twice and both times he had a bad reaction (very very wired and uncomfortable).

 

Claire.

[Guest Jeff]

Claire,

We do not use any of the artificial sweeteners, mostly because sugar is something that does not affect us.

My oldest does have senstivities to the salicylates that occur naturally in many fruites, including tomatoes. When we first discovered this, we eliminated all oranges, apples, tomatoes, grapes, and berries. That was terrible for us to have to eliminate foods that we know have so many other benefits. But we substituted with lots of bananas, canteloupe, kiwis, mangoes, and pears (those are all lower in sals). Since then, we have discovered that we can give her smaller quantities of sals without any effect, especially if we don't overdo any single item. For example, she might have some tomato on Monday, some apple on Thursday, etc. -and it's not a problem.

Some sodas that are on the FG diet are CocaCola (not the diet of de-calf), 7-Up, Sprite.... We try to avoid these because of the corn syrup, but we do let the girls have one on occasion.

About feeling different... yeah, that's a hard one. They complain sometimes, but they know the consequences if they cheat, so that helps. Their lunches are basically peanut butter and jelly/honey, some natural cookies, potato chips, milk, water, hard-boiled eggs, etc., etc. So, they don't really look that "different". Problems arise on days when there are birthday parties, or Valentine's Day, etc. When we're on top of things, we try to have some acceptable snacks on hand that our girls can eat. And sometimes they eat a little bit of what is going around. So, we do what we can and we try to be flexible too. But right now the "feeling different" thing isn't that big of a deal for us. Being different because of the tics was certainly worse than being different for eating "healthy."

Where we suffer is not going out to dinner very often, not being able to use many "convenient" foods, our meals can get a little boring sometimes, things like that. But, there are so many high-energy people following the Feingold Program, and they are always adding new recipes to the Member's recipe board. That can be very helpful. And, as Robin mentioned, the Food Guide is like our food bible. It is very helpful in choosing acceptable food products.

[Guest Mickey]

First time typing in this chat room.???

Trying to find info on OCD.

Read a lot about gluten free and caesin free diets.

Anyone experience OCD after eating pizza?

No joke, doing a food diary.

Is it possible that the cheese on pizza or the gluten in the crust causes OCD symptoms?

Mickey