Hyperactive 3 year old, what food to avoid?

[bouncy]

hi, I have heard that certain foods can have an effect on childrens behaviour.

For the past few months it seems as if his behaviour has got a lot worse, and I was thinking about trying the food thing.

I work, but my ds does not live off junk food, he does have fruit shoots which I was told has an ingretient which could cause this behaviour.

basically what I am asking is what are the things that I have to look out for, to be honest I look at the back and its all mumbo jumbo and I need to know where to start.

Thanks

I think that if it's mumbo jumbo then it won't hurt to avoid that product. I try to exclude e-numbers, particularly artificial colours, as there's no need for those. Some colours have been particularly linked with hyperactivity. Organic products don't have artificial colours or flavours.

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I've come to the conclusion that any ingredient with a "chemical" sounding name is potentially dodgy (manufacturers now cagily seem to put down the chemical name rather than the E number in their ingredients) and try to avoid it. That said, some of these seem to be harmless e.g. sodium bicarbonate, and they also crop up in organic products sometimes. Refer to the E numbers book as per robinw.

Personally, I've found fruit juices can have a really bad effect, particularly squashes and ones made from concentrate.

Also, obvious things like Smarties and brightly coloured sweets, also most icecreams/ice lollies are full of E-numbers and crisps other than ready salted. Good luck!

I do understand the concerns anout unnecessary compounds in our food. However, just avoiding 'chemical names' is not such a good idea.

For example Cyanocobalamin would sound like a good one to avoid, but in fact it is the chemical name for vitamin B12. Missing out on the sinister sounding Calciferol would mean getting rickets because it is vitamin D. And vitamin C has the dangerous name of Ascorbic acid.

A good website that lists the chemical names of the e numbers is www.faia.org.uk/enumbers.htm

Hi bouncy. There's an article about this here and a downloadable list of all additives too. I'm sure the ingredients in Fruit Shoots aren't particularly impressive (although I haven't looked it up) but what about trying diluted apple juice or apple and mango juice? They're still sweet but at least are pure fruit juice as long as you've checked that labelling too - do check, since the word flavoured means it needn't have been anywhere near an apple!

even strawberries in large enough quantitys make my ds hyper,bright red,lots of fructose...

I try and avoid giving ds any food or drink with any of the following: Colours - Tartrazine E102, Sunset Yellow E110, Carmoisine E122, Ponceau 4R E124. Preservative - Sodium Benzoate E211 (as listed in the list posted by WWW) and Aspartame and I've certainly noticed a difference in his behaviour. Fruit Shoots had him bouncing off the walls (can't remember what was in them, a long time since I went anywhere near them!)
Agree with you WWW that 'flavour' and 'flavoured' could mean absolutely anything! I think the former is better tho'.

A good place to start would be the Parents Jury website. The Parents Jury is run by the Food Commission and they campaign for better food for children. The website address is www.parentsjury.org.uk, they have a list of additives to avoid there. The main things to look out for are colourings. I find the things that obviously send my 5 year old loopy are things like smarties and skittles. Yesterday my MIL bought him a pack of Greens Tom and Jerry fairy cake mixture from the shops. They are strawberry flavoured fairy cakes with pink icing. After pestering we made them. He ate 2 and went bananas. One look at the back of the packet showed me all I needed to know - paced with E numbers!

I was actually considering cutting out all the baddies for my son to see if his behaviour improved until a friend of mine was told her son may be hyperactive and the health visitor got involved in a special diet for him cutting out all artificial rubbish. There is sooo much he has to cut out that i didn't bother with it. The only drinks he can have other than milk and water is 7 UP and lemon and lime cordial. Apparently even apples, oranges and most fruit really can have an effect with some children, he can have melon. Crisps, chocolate and all sweets exept ice cream flavoured chewits are out even alot of vitamins and medicines. I would love to see if it works but it's a mine field!

Agree with skipping certain E numbers, but like linzoid said certain other foods have been shown to affect behaviour (salicylate-rich foods), apples, oranges and tomatoes are the key 3 as far as I know. Fish or flaxseed oil and zinc supplements can also help - a medical herbalist would be able to give better info on dosages.
HTH and good luck

Linzoid, that diet sounds mad to me. Why not just avoid artificial colours and high sugar junk for a while and see how you go. I don't have non-organic squash in the house anymore. Just buy the Rock brand from Sainsbury's which is lovely, like old fashioned lemonade. Ds just gets dilute apple juice, milk and water. I do give him biscuits sometimes and cake, but homemade or with normal ingredients (ie no colours).