girlfriend/CF vs Feingold

[luvmyboys]

My 12 year old DS was diagnosed with ADHD 7 years ago with ADHD. We put him on medications and all has gone well. NOw that he has hit puberty the medications aren't working as well. Something I have wanted to do for a long time is see if anything in his diet could be affecting him. He has ADHD, is hyper, impulsive can't pay attention and is totally disorganized. He recently developed some mild anxiety and depression (had a REALLY bad teacher this year and he also suffered a lot of bullying). He also has eczema, seasonal allergies and has a difficult time falling asleep and then sleeping well. I have decided to "go for it" this summer but don't know where to start. I have done a lot of reading and am torn with whether to start with the girlfriend/CF diet, just CF or the Feingold diet. Any opinions on which diet to try first?

Thanks for your input!

 

[Josie]

I am not too knowledgeable about the Feingold diet. My two kids and I have been on the girlfriend/CF diet for over 2 years.

My (undx'ed) ADD symptoms and anxiety went away when I started the girlfriend diet. My daughter's hyperactivity went away on the girlfriend diet. I don't notice a difference in myself from giving up milk but one of my daughters gets mean when she has it and one gets a stomach ache.

Is there any reason you think milk might be a bigger problem than gluten for your son? I think milk would be easier to give up than gluten. If you try that and don't see any positive results then you could try the girlfriend diet. If you see some improvement from the CF diet, then you could add the girlfriend part.

I believe a lot of people would feel better if they eliminated gluten. The doctor that diagnosis'ed us thinks at least 30% of the general population is gluten intolerant to some degree. I thought I felt fine until I saw how much better I felt without gluten. For that reason, I think the girlfriend diet is worth a try.

 

[luvmyboys]

I am not too knowledgeable about the Feingold diet. My two kids and I have been on the girlfriend/CF diet for over 2 years.

My (undx'ed) ADD symptoms and anxiety went away when I started the girlfriend diet. My daughter's hyperactivity went away on the girlfriend diet. I don't notice a difference in myself from giving up milk but one of my daughters gets mean when she has it and one gets a stomach ache.

Is there any reason you think milk might be a bigger problem than gluten for your son? I think milk would be easier to give up than gluten. If you try that and don't see any positive results then you could try the girlfriend diet. If you see some improvement from the CF diet, then you could add the girlfriend part.

I believe a lot of people would feel better if they eliminated gluten. The doctor that diagnosis'ed us thinks at least 30% of the general population is gluten intolerant to some degree. I thought I felt fine until I saw how much better I felt without gluten. For that reason, I think the girlfriend diet is worth a try.

Thanks for your reply! I really don't know where to start - the Feingold diet removes dyes, additives, etc. I think my DS might be reacting to something like this based on some recent behaviors. The reason I thought about going CF first was that it seemed it might be an easy way to start and from what I've read you usually see results quickly and by 3 weeks you can do the challenge. Also, the first time my DS had an eczema outbreak was when milk-containing product was introduced. We then kept him milk free till he was a bit older. My understanding of girlfriend diets is that it can take as long as 3 months to really know if their is a sensitivity to it. How long until you saw results? I read somewhere today that it was best to do girlfriend/CF at the same time since when you went to challenge you would have 2 things to look at vs. only one.

Tomorrow I'm starting something - maybe I'll let my DS decide!

 

[Lothlorien]

I started Missy on Feingold. I found that after I took it all out of her diet and restarted her on things, the two biggest reactors were corn syrup (especially high fructose) and all dyes, not just red, but all. I can see the difference within about 20 minutes. Food coloring makes her very angry and corn syrup makes her very emotional. Mix the two and holy moly, you'd think the world had just crumbled down upon her.

 

[Josie]

Doing the girlfriend/CF diet eliminates a lot of the dyes and additive anyway. I have found it tastes much better to make my own food rather than buy the processed girlfriend/CF food but even that is mostly made for the health food crowd and free of a lot of the additives.

I noticed an immediate difference in the way I felt when I went gluten free. By the end of the second day, I knew that I would be doing it forever. For my difficult child, I thought I could tell it was helping within the first week but since she had had good periods before it was hard to tell.

I think it would be easier to eliminate one at a time. It will be easier to figure out how to eliminate milk than gluten. If you noticed problems when you introduced milk to your son as a baby, I think it is a good bet that it is still causing problems now.

When I eliminated just gluten, there were times that I was hungry and didn't know what to eat. I went through the same thing when I eliminated milk. I just think it would be easier to work on one and then the other. When finding new foods to eat, look for some that are girlfriend/CF just in case.

If you eliminate gluten, it is important to get rid of all traces of it. I tried the diet about 5 years ago to see if it would get rid of migraines. I didn't worry about cross contamination or hidden ingredients but just eliminated obvious wheat, barley, rye, and oats. I didn't notice any difference. This time when I tried it, I was already being very serious about it for my daughter who had a stomach ache from tiny amounts of gluten. I think that is what made the difference so noticeable. We can not tolerate even items that say "manufactured in a facility with wheat" or "may contain traces of wheat".

It takes a long time to figure out what is really girlfriend. For that reason, it might take several months of working on it to notice a difference. A good internet resource is www.glutenfreeforum.com.

I did a test that I ordered online to check for gluten and casein intolerances. I needed it to get the discipline to try the diet. It is $99 per test. If you are interested in ordering it, it is www.enterolab.com.

Good luck whatever you decide!

 

[Ann85]

I am making this short, as each time I try to post something here I waste a great deal of time typing then it does not work. So if it works this time I will write more later! My children all react to food dyes. At first I just stopped red and yellow but then this summer stopped all dye. After a month with none, I gave them each a blue sucker and they went nuts. Hyper, silly running in Krogers. I had gotten used to them off dye and didn't realize how good they were till they had the blue suckers. As I said I am stopping here because I could go on and on about this topic

Ann

 

[TerryJ2]

I started Missy on Feingold. I found that after I took it all out of her diet and restarted her on things, the two biggest reactors were corn syrup (especially high fructose) and all dyes, not just red, but all. I can see the difference within about 20 minutes. Food coloring makes her very angry and corn syrup makes her very emotional. Mix the two and holy moly, you'd think the world had just crumbled down upon her.

Great observations!
I was going to start a thread on Feingold but saw this thread.
We are phasing into it.
Some of it is easy, and some is time consuming. It is so logical, though, I don't know how I can NOT do it.
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