Anti-Stress Nutrition Programme to Improve Mood,
Health, Behaviour and Learning
By Brenda Sampson
SUMMER SCHOOL FOR KERI AND ME
By Hellyn Jordan
(condensed from an article in "Pure Facts", newsletter of the Feingold Association of the United States)
Keri is Hellyn Jordan's 9 year old grand-daughter. She has Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and learning disability. She is bright at maths but there seemed to be a mental block where reading was concerned. She skipped words, reversed them, laboured over every word until she lost the meaning. As a result, all subjects suffered progressively to the point of frustration for her bright little mind. (This can happen with sufferers of ME (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome although maths would suffer as well).
She was to have a reading tutor in the summer holidays, and the grandmother volunteered. It meant a shift of 200 miles, but her husband was agreeable, also her son-in-law; and Keri and her mother were delighted. So grandmother began her homework on how to teach reading. She also read books on ADD and the hyperactive child, and how to cope with their learning difficulties. Diet was mentioned frequently as a possible causative factor. A week before she had to leave, she heard of the Feingold Association, who gave her the Feingold programme. She realised that she could initiate the diet, as well as tutoring Keri in reading; and by the time she came home, the parents would be adjusted to the different way of eating and could continue it.
They began the reading sessions on a Monday, and the programme two days later. This is how the grandmother describes their progress. One day in the first week, Keri became so frustrated that she banged her fists, stomped her feet, shook her head, and through clenched fists, said, "I can see the words, but I just cannot make them come out!" Another day I looked down at her sitting beside me, and saw a tear run down her face while she was reading; she was still trying to slay that dragon. In a few minutes she burst into tears and cried, "Grandmother, my mind just won't let me do it right!" We sat there wrapped in each others arms and cried.
Daily we seemed to see her calming down, and she was a real trouper about eating correctly. On Monday, only the sixth day on the Feingold diet, she read a short chapter in her reader without stumbling. The tears that day were tears of joy!
Not every day since has been as good, but I could relate numerous incidents that show beyond a shadow of doubt that the change in our nine year old is diet-related. She has a long way to go to reach her grade level in reading, but we have found the key to calming that little mind so that it can catch up.
