ADHD Diet - Gluten-Free and Casein-Free Diet

Of all the diets designed to manage ADHD, the gluten-free, casein-free diet (GFCF) is among the more well-studied and recommended. The theory behind the GFCF diet is that wheat and dairy products contain gluten and casein, respectively - proteins that form harmful amino acids called peptides when they are digested improperly. These peptides behave much like morphine on the human body and trigger hyperactive and inattentive responses from children when they enter the bloodstream. Parents who have tried the GFCF diet on their ADHD children have seen amazing results - increased attention span, improved social skills, and fewer incidents of aggression, fidgeting, and tantrums. Unlike taking medication, the benefits received from the GFCF diet last a lifetime and have absolutely no side effects!

Putting your child on the GFCF diet will require many dietary and lifestyle changes, as well as a lot of tough love. Most of the foods kids love eating - ice cream, pizza, cake, spaghetti, cookies, etc. - contain gluten and casein. If your child is younger than four years old, you might have an easier time implementing the diet. At that age, children have yet to develop their food preferences and you can help form these by simply placing the right foods on the dinner table. Even if your child is older, you can still get him or her to follow the GFCF diet, but you may meet some resistance at the start.

There are two ways to start the GFCF diet. The first is to go cold turkey and remove all gluten and casein-containing food at once. This method is highly recommended by health care practitioners because it is easier and faster to check if your child is responding well to the diet.

The second method is to remove the foods slowly and gradually. Before implementing the diet itself, start introducing foods that have no casein or gluten in them. For instance, if pasta is your child's favorite food, start placing more quinoa and whole rice on the table. Include a side dish of green leafy vegetables during every meal, and offer fruit for dessert. Use your child's favorite food as an incentive to try out a new gluten-free or casein-free food. Start the diet by changing one meal at a time, starting with snacks. When your child is used to eating gluten-free and casein-free snacks, move on to breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Eliminate one food at a time so as not to shock your child. Remove cereal, then bread, then pasta, and so on until all gluten-containing foods are gone. Then remove cheese, then milk, then ice cream, and so on until all casein-containing foods are out.

Watch your child's behavior very closely with every new casein-free or gluten-free food you include in the meals. At the start of the diet, your child may get worse before he gets better, and experience withdrawal symptoms like gastrointestinal problems, rashes, and more severe ADHD symptoms. Like morphine, gluten and casein are addictive substances; once they are gone, the body will "crave" them. The withdrawal symptoms can last from a few days to two weeks. If there are improvements once the withdrawal symptoms have passed, continue the strict diet for at least a month. If you choose to introduce foods slowly, it will take longer until you reach the strict diet point, but make sure your child does a month of the strict diet. After a month, you can slowly reintroduce gluten- and casein-containing foods, but if your child starts acting up again, return to the strict GFCF diet.

When buying groceries, make sure you read the food labels very closely. There are many food products today with the gluten-free or casein-free label, but there are other foods that serve as hidden sources of these proteins. Be on the lookout for ingredients like whey, malt, malt flavoring, vegetable protein, hydrolyzed plant protein, and artificial additives.