Originally Posted by DeeDee
CD, I agree that food history is fascinating in principle, and I'm not shocked that a dietary change made a difference. I just think that without a rigorous elimination diet-- where you track carefully what you took out, and add back in only one thing at a time-- you can't tell what you eliminated that made the difference.

I agree with DeeDee and others on this point. Over the years I've read a lot about all sorts of different "diets" (plus know quite a few folks who've tried different diets for themselves and their kids. FWIW, I think that sometimes what happens when a person tries a special diet such as paleo, gfcf, salicylate-free, etc and sees a positive benefit, rather than the benefit coming from the specific diet, it's a happenstance that the foods that were problematic for that individual are no longer part of their diet, and sometimes it's simply a person taking a closer look at what they are eating on a meal-by-meal basis. I've also known a few families where I suspect a really good elimination diet could have helped pinpoint problem foods who instead gave up because they looked at the issue as "let's try gfcf because that might work" and not seeing any kind of positive changes.

For a child who seems to have behavior symptoms related to food, my recommendation is to simplify their diet to the point you know exactly what ingredients are going into each meal and snack, and keep a very detailed food/behavior diary.

polarbear