[chuckie]

Hyperactive Children,

I have a daughter who reacts badly to colourings and flavourings in food, she becomes hyperactive and nasty. Most of the time this behaviour is controlled with diet, sometimes though this slips and the bad behaviour presents itself. When this occurs she is aware and describes feelings of anger and loss of control. If this behaviour is noted I give her an over the counter antihistamine, chlorphenramine maleate. The result is remarkable with improved behaviour and a happy little girl.

Has any one else got any experience of this, or has anyone got any other evidence of this as a treatment.

I would like to be able to recommend this to other parents if the evidence is there to support my findings.

[Ricu]

Originally Posted by chuckie

Hyperactive Children,

I have a daughter who reacts badly to colourings and flavourings in food, she becomes hyperactive and nasty. Most of the time this behaviour is controlled with diet, sometimes though this slips and the bad behaviour presents itself. When this occurs she is aware and describes feelings of anger and loss of control. If this behaviour is noted I give her an over the counter antihistamine, chlorphenramine maleate. The result is remarkable with improved behaviour and a happy little girl.

Has any one else got any experience of this, or has anyone got any other evidence of this as a treatment.

I would like to be able to recommend this to other parents if the evidence is there to support my findings.

Hi Chuckie,

I have a son who has ADHD with similar sensitivities to additives and sugars in foods. Generally we limit this in the house alltogether and have fewer poorly controlled episodes. Teaching the child early on that (s)he must take responsibility for avoiding taking these things in order to maintain temperment is key. As you stated, the child certainly doesn't enjoy experiencing out of control behavior so this is really a good motivator. On the subject of medicating, we took our time making this decision and eventually decided after controlling foods and behavior as much as possible, to use time released Ritalin. There are many other meds out there but this one seems to work the best for our son right now. We've used others at different times. Antihistamines are well known to be good for sedating and many including me have, been known to use them to help sick toddlers to sleep. Nothing works better for head colds and stuffy noses- even teething than diphenhydramine. For the purpose of daily behavior or attention control, I wouldn't choose this. There are unpleasant side effects like mucosal dryness that should be avoided. Additionally if you're not very precise with dosing, slightly more than needed causes the opposite effect- excitability. Are you in the U.K.? I ask because you use English spellings but more because the issue I'm about to describe along with it's outcome may not have occurred there. You mentioned that you use Chlorpheniramine but I would avoid this drug. I cannot remember exactly what the issue was but several years ago here in the U.S, this drug was linked to serious illness- I believe neurologic in nature afflicting young females from adolescent to adult age. How old is your daughter? I'm sure the abstract information is still available but packaging here contains warnings. Good luck

R

[cougarnurse]

My husband was classified as ADHD as a kid, and my MIL had stated that it was some of the preservatives that would set him off. Soooo......I watch what I buy. And yes, it is up to the individual to take responsibility for monitoring what they eat, too.

Medication may be fine at times, but it isn't a cure-all.

'Cat'