What is Feingold?

My family follows the Feingold Diet (http://www.feingold.org/).  It is a diet tailored towards people who have sensitivity to or specific known allergies to the chemicals which make up artificial food dyes, artificial flavorings, artificial fragrances, preservatives (BHA, BHT, TBHQ), synthetic sweeteners, and surprisingly natural salicylates (there is a big list of fruits and vegetables along with Aspirin).   People who have these sensitivities, and are eating foods or using products which contain them, can exhibit behaviors typically labeled as Hyperactive, ADD, ADHD.  In the simplest explanation I can think of…the Feingold Diet is a natural route to remove the triggers of these behaviors, with their motto being "Nutrition is a Better Way." 

My son, Jake, was born 5-weeks premature, and with that has come a never ending guest list of doctors and on-going appointments.  Up until a year ago, he was pumped full of at least 5 different lung and allergy type medications daily. As is typical with preemies, and more specifically boy-preemies, his sensory system didn't get a chance to fully develop and what little he had was overwhelmed with pokes, probes, procedures, evaluations, and tests... to name a few.  So in addition to us being 1st time parents, with at that time a "terrible-two", it was very hard for us to decipher the difference between unwanted behaviors that where typical of a two year old, behaviors amplified by steroids, or possibly just a poor parenting style.  

As noted above, we suspected that he had some sensory integration issues (http://out-of-sync-child.com/), but we didn't know exactly how much or how little those factors played into the behavior triggers or his ability to control his own actions.  

I’m really trying to keep this short :), Jake, will be 4 in March, and his lung health is improving, we've narrowed down the list of external allergies to avoid, we've identify the allergy medicine that doesn't turn him into Jekyll and Hyde, and rarely have to use it. We are down to 1 daily inhaler... with plans to be weaned off after this RSV season passes.  Over the last year, while we've been trying to get him off of any unnecessary meds, we've had some fantastic (super sarcastic here) experiences with certain long term allergy meds (which usually turn him into a crazy person).  The last one we tried... hoping it would be a double-wammy of Allergy+Asthma relief had the most amazing side effects...crazy to the extreme.  This was the 1st med that was a dis solvable red pill...after taking him off of this little pill he returned to "our normal" very busy, unpredictable, super smart little guy.

I started doing a bunch of research, as another mom told me that her son had responded the same way and he was also sensitive to dye used in so many foods, Red-40.  This research led me to http://www.feingold.org, and our life changed.  We cleaned out our house of any offending products, worked with his school to allow us to bring in our children’s meals each day, we, and his teachers, took behavior baselines before Feingold, 4 weeks in, 6 weeks in…etc..  It isn’t easy, but it is hardly hard.  Offending foods still sneak in every once in a while, labeling can be tricky sometimes.  However, we can usually figure it out and remove.

Within about 3 to 4 days, we saw a difference… a level of calm we hadn't experienced before, ... or we were hallucinating, wanting to see a change.  The teachers confirmed the same thing we were seeing at home, they were now seeing at school.  The results have been amazing for us and our son.  Our whole family (and any guests that visit) follows the plan.  We eat better, healthier, less processed food… think back to the farm… the way our grandparents probably ate… I believe it’s called Real Food J.  


Jake started occupational therapy in December and is excelling after each session.  I truly don't think he would be able to get as much out of it, if his little body was still fighting with artificial influences.  

Let me know if you have any questions.  I'm still learning, but their site is amazing and informative, plus I have special literature that helps us know which brands and products are considered “approved” foods.

Best to you and your family.

Holly