Psychful

Parents of children suspected of having ADHD would never provide their children a breakfast of cookies and potato chips. Intuitively parents know this isn’t healthy and might aggravate the symptoms of ADHD. Yet millions of kids in this condition eat breakfasts of toasted oat cereals and juice and are off to school only to bounce around the classroom and get into trouble for inattention and hyperactivity. It turns out that cereals and fruit juice are only marginally better than cookies and potato chips when it comes to fueling the ADHD child.

To understand all the physiology of these nutritional decisions may require a college degree, but to prevent these dietary errors does not. A good starting point for preparing meals for youngsters suspected of having ADHD or SPD (sensory processing disorders) is the 20/20 Protein Rule.

The 20/20 Protein Rule recommends that you feed your child 20 grams of protein (“brain food”) at breakfast and 20 grams of protein at lunch in order to improve his or her mental and behavioral functioning. Rather than going into a discourse on glycemic indexes and other nutritional issues, the 20/20 Protein Rule provides a simple guideline to start parents thinking about how to prepare healthier meals for their children so that symptoms of ADHD and SPD are at least minimized.

How do you provide 20 grams of protein to your child at breakfast or lunch? In the simplest of terms, avoid “filler” food like cereal from a box and provide higher quality meals from food groups like meat and dairy. For example, a 1 ounce (1/4 cup) serving of most meats and fowl yields about 7 grams of protein. The same goes for lunch meats, an egg, and an ounce of cheese or a hot dog, 2 tablespoons of peanut butter or a ¼ cup of cottage cheese. You get about 8 grams of protein from an 8-ounce cup of milk or yogurt. Combine a few of these options and you can quickly get to 20 grams of protein.

Proteins do not make you fat like simple carbohydrates (cereal, bread, toaster treats) and protein keeps your blood sugar more stable. Having a stable blood sugar helps with focus and attention, prevents moodiness and also prevents hunger pangs a few hours after a meal. This is critically important for youngsters who are especially sensitive to blood sugar levels and have no access to corrective nutrition while in school. A small snack of jerky and a few macadamia nuts can tide an adult over between meals but children do no have this option during school.

Relying on school lunch programs to provide 20 grams of protein in a meal is unrealistic. Protein is more expensive than carbohydrate and when schools provide meals under Federal guidelines, the protein requirements are extremely low. In order to help your child sustain attention and focus after lunch at school, it may be necessary for you to pack a lunch that contains the needed 20 grams of protein.

It will also be critical to monitor your child’s consumption of these higher protein meals. Just because you pack the lunch doesn’t mean it gets eaten, and even if it was eaten, it may not have been eaten by your child! Trading lunch components for sweets is a common problem with carbohydrate-craving ADHD children.

The 20/20 Protein Rule is not meant to be carved in stone. It is a starting guideline for parents who struggle with doing the best they can for their children who have become the focus of teacher attention in the classroom. Before you ever consider medication for ADHD, try feeding your child by the 20/20 Protein Rule and monitor the results. If your child’s mood and behavior improve by only 20%, that may be enough to curb the school’s desire for you to medicate your child.