Works-For-Me-Wednesday

Today's WFMW is somewhat about myself, and my son. When I was a child, I was diagnosed with ADD (they hadn't come up with ADHD, but that probably would have been closer to what I really was dealing with). After many years of medication, with regular increases in dosage and little result, my mother turned to the Feingold Diet, discovering that my real issue was allergies to preservatives, colors, and basically anything that really had no business being in good food to begin with. She immediately forbade me to eat any of the things I had grown to love, and noticed a drastic improvement in my behavior. The only thing that she did wrong, was to cut me off completely. I essentially went into withdrawl for the things that I liked to eat, especially candy. Because of that, I rebelled and ate candy whenever I could. Unfortunately, she could tell just by the sound of my voice if I'd had candy during the day, and would find me out almost immediately.

Now, I am noticing some of the same things in my son. While I'm not sure he has the major issues that I did as a child, I know for sure that his bad behavior trigger is chocolate. If he gets chocolate, he's nearly certifiable. He's aggressive, can't listen or sit still, and it's very difficult to get him to focus. He's already had trouble with taking chocolate and candy without asking, so I know he has the same desire for the things he shouldn't have that I did.

For him, I came up with this idea. I remembered how difficult it was for me to give up those things that I couldn't eat, so for my son I decided that he could have chocolate one day a week. He could have chocolate one day a week, close to bedtime (so it wouldn't affect his behavior too much). I allowed him to pick the day that he could have chocolate so that he felt like he was involved. I explained why it was so important for him to not have chocolate at any other time, and hopefully his seven year old mind can understand it. This is our first week, and tomorrow is his first Chocolate Day. I will post next week about how this process is going.

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