My Feingold Story
As my second daughter started growing up, I noticed many differences from that of my first. I know we are told that “each child is different” and not to “compare”, but something was off and, as a mom, I could feel it.
Anne was born three pounds smaller than her sister at full-term. She was a very docile baby and hardly cried. Again, not to compare, and this difference was well welcomed, as I had a two year old at the time. As she approached milestones, they came later than her sister and the doctors informed me she was in the low range on the charts but that she was “fine”.
Anne was very clingy and by the time pre-school came, an activity her sister loved, I started noticing many more differences and getting more concerned. Anne refused to separate from me, which made her miss most of her first year of pre-school, as I couldn’t leave just leave her and force her to adjust. I’m not sure if I exacerbated the matter by doing that, but with her big sister already in kindergarten, I loved having Anne home with me and we just did our thing.
I also started noticing a speech impediment, and when asked by her speech pathologist realized she started talking (limitedly) very late.
As Anne grew, we noticed signs of quick anger and lack of focus. Things that are now very clear to see looking back that I just took as the difference between kids.
One day, while at the bus stop, a neighbor was speaking of her son’s tics and the research she had done in trying to help him. Boy, did I feel like a horrible mom. Research…… who has time to do research on their kids, I just about had enough time after they went to bed to drop by Facebook and check in to see what my friends were up to.
This neighbor had told me that she found that removing Yellow Dye from the diet was supposed to help with tics. Over the next few months, her son’s tics miraculously went away in my eyes and when I asked her about it, she said they had greatly improved. Yeah, mom’s know their kids best and she was with him a lot more than my daily encounters at the bus stop.
Ironically, at the same time, I was looking for a job. I responded to an add on the computer and found myself at the doorstep of the Feingold Association. I started learning a lot more about how these petro-chemicals effect our bodies and our children.
I made the decision to give the diet a try. After all, I was working for them. How could I answer the phone and speak to moms who felt “helpless” to figure out what to do for their child, without doing just what I was telling them to try.
It took a little while to settle into my new way of grocery shopping and cooking, but WOW…. I started seeing changes. Significant at first, then we had some back-tracking into symptoms coming back, but then Anne seemed as if her brain was “clearing out”. She was now at the end of kindergarten and was easily able to separate from me. She’d wave and smile getting on the bus, instead of clinging to my leg or hitting me while crying. I also noticed improvement when she would sit down to do her homework. She was much more focused. She was also able to play “alone” for longer periods of time.
I also noticed various improvements in myself. I had more focus too!!! I also experienced fewer headaches, slept better, felt more alert and my restless leg symptoms disappeared.
I remember one particular evening when out for dinner with friends (without the kids) and I ate anything I wanted from a favorite restaurant. That night when I got home my restless legs were back and the next morning I was so foggy, I made a decision….. WE WERE GOING TO BE A FEINGOLD FAMILY FOR LIFE!!!
I am currently the Membership Director here at Feingold. My job is very fulfilling and I often get phone calls from parents who are at their wits end trying to help their son or daughter. They know something is off, and all they get from their pediatrician is “we could offer medication”. They usually end up going home and Googling “natural ways to improve ADHD”. And that is when the best part comes into play…… they call me!!! I am happy to share my story with them and almost everyone one of them doesn’t hang up the phone before deciding to give it a try too. But here is the even better part, and the reason to this day, I love Feingold. Around a month or so later, some of those frantic parents call me back!!!!! They talk about the great improvements they are noticing. I actually get tears of joy as they tell me they are noticing “eye contact” with their child, that some of these kids are putting more words together and communicating with them for the first time, and the list goes on and on…….
And that is the real reason, WE ARE GOING TO BE A FEINGOLD FAMILY FOR LIFE!!!!!