Children's behaviour and diet

Dontknowanymore

Loulou2010 wrote: »

will he do reading, spellings and maths things on the pc? just a thought?

Oh he will do anything on the PC, even at school but obviously he can't do it all the time.
She is not worried he is falling behind with his reading as his reading skills are in her words ''phenomenal'' but obviousy he still needs to practise, they have a merit system at school and you can earn them for 3 times reading at home, so what I am going to do is set up something similar at home.

faithcecilia wrote: »

This could be important, he may well be bored and playing up because he is not challenged at school. I was always a good girl:A but had one terrible year in infant school where I was so far ahead I was bored rigid (I was reading novels at home while at school stuck with Peter and Jane). Maybe bring this up with his teacher if you think its likely.

Yes I will mention it to her, but she is a very good teacher and I woud like to think she has considered that.

meritaten

I would look at his diet hun - NO child needs the amount of sugar or colourings most of us take for granted. I researched this twentyfive years ago and the amount of chemicals in our diet scared me so much I started cooking almost everything from scratch. and it hasnt got better - its got worse! just read the ingredients list of 'Haribos' or Maoamis' (a favourite gift of our primary school to the kids). sounds like the formula for nuclear bombs doesnt it?
some colourings will make kids bounce off the walls. while other kids are not affected. so will some 'natural' foods.
keep a food diary of EVERYTHING your child eats and in a separate column grade his mood! but you need to put times in so it should display
Time Food eaten mood

also be aware of HIDDEN foods - you may think that spaghetti hoops are just spaghetti and tomato sauce - but some brands will include cheese powder, whey, colourings and sugar.
I suspect that the teacher has noticed that your childs behaviour is worse after lunch and that is why the teacher is recommending you monitor the diet. it could also be that the teacher wants to EXCLUDE dietary considerations.

Dontknowanymore

Thanks, just now I remeberd that one of the volunteers at a toddler group who is also a foster carer was talking to my friend about bad things in food, I remeber she gave my friend a little card, I just text my friend who said she had also emailed her some info so my friend is going to forward it on to me.

mrsspendalot

Goodness, this could be my own 7 year old son I'm reading about!!! Well, he used to be like this - he's much calmer now!

I too looked at all the dietary stuff, and I found fruit shoots and coloured sweets like starburst etc were the main culprit. I cut out all bottled juice, full stop. It was water or nothing. He didn't get any sweets other than chocolate. I looked at the cheap tinned spaghetti etc I had been buying to save money, and looked at the ingredients, and went for the slightly more expensive version which was missing a particular additive (again, can't remember the name). Not joking, within about 2 weeks he was a different child. I couldn't believe it. This boy had been literally headbutting me in temper his behaviour was so bad. A short time after that we went to a kids party and they had fruit shoots. Within half an hour of drinking it, he was bouncing. I couldn't believe it! I do think diet can have a massive influence.

However, my son was also very bored. He was (well, he is) very clever and he showed little 'gifts' at an early age, particularly for maths and numbers in general. He could do mental arithmetic before he went to school, and he is an August born, so was literally only 4 when he started. I find he needs to be constantly challenged. I can always tell when he's bored at school because his behaviour changes. He also, like others have said, needs a lot of physical activity. At the moment, he really likes reading so that is something which keeps him busy, but we have such manic lives with the kids having an activity of some description each day after school, I don't think he has time to get bored now.

When he was younger, I discovered he would do anything for a sticker, so we had sticker charts.

hollyh

My youngest is normally a very sweet natured, caring, well behaved boy. However if he has too much sugar or e numbers he turns into a bad behaved, tantrum throwing devil child almost instantly.:eek: Fruit shoots are especially bad and smarties as well even though they've apparently taken all the bad stuff out.

esmf73

DKAM - Are you my OH ??? We have a 6 almost 7 yr old son who has "issues" at school. The school have said we're to start the process of getting him statemented so they get funding for his full time teaching assistant.

We are a military family and have moved quite a few times. When we were in Cyprus and there was a lot of cheap fresh fruit and veg and not much ready prepared food I went totally back to basics. I made tomato sauce, lemonade, orange squash (well freshly squeezed orange juice. Then everything was made from scratch - pizza, chicken nuggets (quite healthy if you make your own!) burgers etc. It was hectic and took me forever. I have to say that with my children I found it made not the slightest difference - however, EVERY chid is different!

Being back in the UK we still have a similar diet (well sort of!). Drinks are mainly water. We do have a load of squash left from ages ago - but I water it well down before I give it to them. I make all my own cakes and biscuits and jam (if I can!) so I know what goes in it! As others have said a lot of it is to do with the amount of energy and opportunities he has to release the energy! It is a full on job and trying to keep one step ahead on him drains me at times. PM me if you want to release your frustrations at any time xx

starry_eyed_4

Along with the food diary I would look at any judo, martial arts classes in the area, these are brilliant at teaching self control, discipline etc

Any kind of exercise would be good at burning off excess energy and improving concentration.

One of mine was alway a bit hyper after certain fruit juices, it took forever to make the connection. But basically he was just a fidgety child with a short attention span, he is now a fidgety young adult with a short attention span :rotfl:
The martial arts did help him though and I would recommend to anyone.

CRANKY40

The orange food colouring that they put in red cheese gets mine (annatto). He goes like he's on fast forward. I have problems with jelly tots of all things. If I eat a whole packet I stay awake all night and don't feel tired.

xxvickixx

I'm considering doing a food diary for DS who is 3. How long after eating would you assess mood? Would something eaten at breakfast kick in around midday or 10 mins after? Do you only give simple food during the diarised period so it is easier to identify or would you carry out some analysis after a period of a couple of weeks?

I also didn't know about the omega supplements, I have been thinking I should try these with DS as we don't eat fish at all so think this may be helpful for his behaviour as well.

Woudl this be something I speak to my GP about for guidance? Thanks.

debtfreenewbie

Been there done and that and Im still here. I would highly reccommend a food diary for a month, also omega 3 tablets, my son likes the blackcurrant ones.They are higher dose than the orange.
Let us know how you get on...