I am curious how many of you have LD/ADD kids who also have food allergies. I’ve been interested in this every since I read an article that mentioned that a higher percentage of special needs children have food allergies than children in the general population. I know there are a number of articles and books that tout a diet connection to some learning issues. My husband, and I think our highly allergic daughter’s sickly babyhood contributed to some of her delays and since then I’ve wondered how food still affects her now.
Re: Food Allergies & LD/ADD
Dear Rogomom2,
My eight-year-old daughter was just diagnosed with a verbal learning disability. Reading your description of your child was like reading a description of my own child. She has multiple food allergies and has never been a healthy child. I, too, have wondered about nutritional defifiencies, although I never heard of the link between food allergies and LD diagnosis. (Alhtough I am quite new to being a parent of a LD child.)
Re: Food Allergies & LD/ADD
Looks like you read my mind! I have always thought about that, that there must be a link between allergies and developmental delays. My 8 yr old son has expressive and receptive language delay and LD. He’s allergic to some nuts (severely) and some other foods. He is also very under weight for his age, ( 3rd percentile). No one in my family has allergies, and while i was pregnant i did eat all the foods he was allergic to, never giving a thought of what the consequences could be. I do think that has caused his developmental delay. He had all genetic testing done and nothing wrong was ever found.
I’d be interested to know of the articles that you came across suggesting the link between allergies and delays.
Sadmom
Hi Rogomom2,
I was part of a discussion of this elsewhere, a while ago.
A good idea that came out of it, was simply to keep a daily diary for a month. Which noted what was eaten that day, and how the child performed that day.
Then over time, you can look back at the ‘bad days’, and see if their were any common food/s that stand out?