One of the most common questions I get here at My Child Will Thrive is why do I need to keep a food journal for my child? Having a child with a neurodevelopmental disorder usually comes with a lot of frustrating nights searching the web to find something that may help your child and the idea of keeping a detailed journal can seem daunting. I remember spending countless hours researching ways to help my child and keeping a food journal was one of the best things I did not only for our family, but for our practitioners to get an inside look at what was happening in my child’s day-to-day food intake and digestion.
In today’s podcast, I share with you why keeping a journal is so important, why food, mood, digestion and hydration are so important to track and an upcoming implementation workshop I have where you can ask in-depth questions using my Food Mood Sleep and Poop Journal that is part of the My Child Will Thrive Tool Kit. I created this tool kit for parents just like you who want to gain confidence and clarity that they are making the best choices for their child based on their unique circumstances so that they can make forward progress faster.
I hope you enjoy today’s podcast episode about why you should be keeping a food journal! Let me know if there are any other topics you’d like for me to talk about on the My Child Will Thrive podcast.
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Join me in a conversation with Dr. Terry Wahls, as she explains how the Wahs Protocol treats all chronic autoimmune conditions.
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Join me in a conversation with Katie Kimball, as she explains how learning to cook can empower your child!
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Zinc is a mineral that is often found to be deficient in children with symptoms of ADHD. Zinc deficiency may affect cognitive development by alterations in attention, activity, neuropsychological behaviour and motor development. Zinc and copper levels must be in balance and have shown to correlate to ADHD symptoms when the ratio is low. Studies have shown that when children are supplemented with zinc, it decreases hyperactive, impulsivity and poor socialization behaviours.
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Magnesium is another mineral that is more frequently found to be deficient in children with symptoms of ADHD than in healthy children. In particular, studies have found magnesium deficiencies in children with hyperactivity, distractibility, and disruptive behaviour. Supplementing with magnesium has been shown to decrease hyperactivity, in particular, in children with ADHD.
A deficiency in magnesium has also been shown to induce anxiety, which often accompanies the symptoms of ADHD.Supplementing with magnesium reduces the symptoms of anxiety and stress.
Understanding the role of magnesium in the body, what causes its deficiency, and how to correct the deficiency is essential to helping our children with ADHD thrive.
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Multiple studies have demonstrated that children with symptoms of ADHD and other learning disabilities have low iron stores, and that increasing their iron stores with supplementation and/or diet improves symptoms such as verbal learning and memory.
One of the studies showed that children do not even need to be anemic in order to benefit from iron supplementation . This highlights the need to attain functionally optimal levels of iron in order to support brain function in our children. However, it is also important to be mindful not to supplement without monitoring iron levels, as iron overload can also be problematic.
This overview of iron deficiency in children with ADHD will help you understand the role of iron in the body, what happens when iron levels are not optimal, how to detect suboptimal levels, and what to do when you discover iron deficiency. (more…)