Natural Help for Behaviour

Children’s Party Food

If you’ve ever been to a children’s birthday party, you will know first-hand how some foods affect the way kids behave. For example, here’s a great recipe for mayhem and tears: take children’s party food, pack it with sugar, E numbers and colourings. (Don’t worry if it’s pre-prepared – that’s already been done for you.) Serve it up with juice, carrot sticks, jam sandwiches (white bread, of course) and some fruit: how about grapes? Now sit back and observe… And hey presto… as if by magic… in a matter of minutes, the party’s really kicked in and the kids are bouncing off the walls!

ADHD – Maybe Not?

Not far from where I live, there is a successful private clinic that is overrun with children who have been misdiagnosed with ADHD. The eminently qualified and forward-thinking physician who owns it, spends his days taking kids off their medication, reversing diagnoses and looking at other areas of the children’s lives which may explain their behaviour. Of course, the physician doesn’t doubt that ADHD is a real condition. Far from it. It’s just that sometimes it’s the first “label” that comes to hand – and it’s not always the case.

Food and Behaviour

Good food and proper nutrition are, of course, paramount to the way kids behave. We all know the benefits of fish oils to enhance concentration. But you may not be aware that food can have a huge impact on all sorts of other behaviours too – such as stress, anger, sleeping patterns, fidgeting, tics and nervous energy.

For example, hyperactive kids may simply be lacking nutrients (such as: B vitamins, magnesium, calcium and zinc). Perhaps they have food allergies (or other allergies), sending them artificially high due to histamine release. Or perhaps they just ate grapes and carrots at a party, without eating substantial protein or fats at the same time. Rapidly digested, these healthy foods send blood sugar through the roof, just like a bag of sweets.

Sleep Issues

Parents have all sorts of anxieties about their children. One of the most common, relates to sleep issues. (So you will find help on Sleep problems ad nauseum in this site!) Not long ago, I became friendly with a mum whose son rose exceptionally early. At 4.30am, he was wide-awake and ready to take on the world (regardless of what time he’d gone to bed and regardless of whether it was winter or summer).

As a lively 7 year-old, amusing himself quietly wasn’t his natural state and he tended to wake the whole house up. And so, every morning, the family started the day with a huge row. My friend was stressed and exhausted. After years of sleep deprivation, her relationship with her husband was suffering, she was understandably short-tempered and her son was equally stressed.

I listened sympathetically but didn’t want to get involved with unsolicited advice. After all, she wasn’t coming to me as a patient. One afternoon, she told me with great excitement that, after months of waiting, she’d finally secured an appointment to see a well-known clinical psychologist who specialised in children’s issues. I was thrilled for her – finally some light at the end of the tunnel. With still a few weeks to go before the appointment, the psychologist suggested an interim solution. She told my friend to give her son Phenergan when he awoke, to try to knock him out again.

Help at Hand!

Surely there is an alternative to medicating a healthy child? (And aside from everything else, Phenergan can actually have the reverse affect and make a kid hyper.) Well fortunately there are alternatives. With a background in holistic medicine, I try to look at the bigger picture and see what else is going on. With this in mind, Natural Help for Behaviour is about nutrition, natural health, and all the different types of alternative treatments available to help your child. Some you would have heard of, some you wouldn’t and some you might consider to be hocus-pocus. But whatever floats your boat, if it’s a natural therapy or an alternative solution, it will be in here.

For example, Kinesiology is one of the techniques that can identify all sorts of allergies – whether it’s foodstuffs or cleaning products. Practiced properly it’s extremely accurate (yes, really!). Homeopathy looks at what’s going on behind the symptoms, rather than just treating the symptoms themselves. And EFT is a technique that addresses fears and anger (and nervous energy), as does Guided Imagery, as used by Human Givens practitioners.

We have lots of fantastic articles in this section, many written by leading experts, such as Ian Marber
(The Food Doctor) and foremost nutritional expert, Marilyn Glenville. Top UK homeopath, Hillery Dorrian, explains how fluoride in your seemingly innocent toothpaste can affect your kid’s behaviour and Miriam Chachamou talks us through how to use Guided Imagery for fearful kids.

For the issue of Sleep (or rather lack of!), check out Nutrition for A Good Night’s Sleep, plus relevant articles in the other sections across the site (such as Solving Common Problems). Behavioural issues are also covered at length in the How to be a Better Parent section, as well as under Homework & Learning Tips (see, for example, Eye Issues and Dyslexia/ADHD).

I hope you find this section useful. If you would like to comment or contribute, please get in touch via the Contact Us page.