Hi and welcome to Whole-Food-Living!
My name is Nancy Horn and I'm a mother of three, who had to "see it to believe it." Something as simple as a shift in my son eating habits, changed his erratic behavior... This is where my passion for healthy, nutritious food began...
On a beautiful spring day in 1982, when my first son, Matthew was born. He was a bundle of joy and continued to be, but as each year passed, little changes started happening, and looking back, I'm sure some were your typical age appropriate stages, but some where not. It wasn't until the first year of kindergarten that the change in behavior became totally unacceptable. My son's behavior can only be described as "Jekyll and Hyde." One moment he was fine and the next he was throwing things or in a rage.
As any mother, who knows her child better then anyone, there was a deep "knowing", that this behavior was not who my son was. Something was wrong! I looked in all the typical places for answers; to the school, counselors, systems, structure, rewards, punishments, doctors, and my own personal "what seemed like at the time" failure as a mother.
One of the solutions the school wanted to do since kindergarten through sixth grade was have my son tested and offered the solution of Ritalin. I avoided that option until the last three months of sixth grade. Matt had not gained much progress in the "on again off again" behavior, and was about to enter seventh grade. So in the last three months of sixth grade, feeling my desperation mounting, I decided to let the school test him and take the option available - putting him on Ritalin. I didn't see much difference, because by the time he came home from school the medicine had worn off. But one day I went on a field trip with Matt and he was like a zombie. I took him back to the doctor who prescribed him the medicine with no knowledge about Matt other then the piece of paper from the school saying "yes, he has ADHD" and had the doctor lower the dose.
With school out for the summer, I was left with, a beautiful son, for who I had no more solutions for then when I started. But somewhere during those "dog days of summer" I came across a little ad in the back of a magazine claiming that "food" could cause behavioral changes among other symptoms. I was skeptical, but my husband at the time said I should at least send for the information and see what it was all about. It was the Feingold diet http://,.org.
Who knew "food" would be my answer! I followed their advice, and my son was returned to the happy, healthy son that I gave birth to, on that beautiful spring day.
But... the journey continues.
But... the journey continues.
Ten years later I had two more beautiful children, another son and daughter that had me questioning their behavior almost from the beginning. Neither were good sleepers, and my son David would literally be bouncing up and down at midnight and his behavior during the day was constant agitation to all those around him. My daughter couldn't sleep more then twenty minutes at a time, she was constipated ( only consuming breast milk at 2-3 months old) and was always miserable. I took her to three doctors and no one had a good answer that provided me with results. So I went with what I knew... FOOD. Off to the library I went to research and low and behold I found my answers. David's issue was corn syrup and Gennifer's was a milk allergy, not an intolerance. She was getting components of milk I was drinking through my breast milk. (later I discovered she also was gluten sensitive.
Over the years I too realized I had milk and gluten issues. Mine did not manifest itself in behavior but I had physical signs that I didn't understand. But through these years of trial and error, we found our way to better health.
