How eating paleo has started to help my children's behavior

Before our move to southern California, while I was in grad school rather then working the crazy hours of an ABA therapist, my kids ate pretty well. They ate fruits and vegetables and a whole grain diet. I had already decided that sugar and artificial sugar were triggers for S, so we primarily used agave in our cooking. I had received reports from school that S's behavior were much better when she ate healthier.

Then the crazy eating happened.

And the crazy behavior happened - from all three.

J hit puberty and got put on Seroquel because his rages were scary.

S had an increase in medication due to hallucinations and paranoia - was doing good - and then the hallucinations and paranoia started poking through again.

L started having horrible panic attacks and spent a week in the hospital for trying to jump in front of cars.

I had no intention that eating better would magically solve all our problems. I did know that it would help - at least S.

When L first regressed at about the age of one I put the family on a GF/CF diet. The transformation in L was miraculous. I did not really see an impact in J and S got worse (I think it was all the rice flour and other junk we used at the time). Eventually it got to stressful and expensive and we stopped.

In truth back then I did not really understand the concept of eating healthy. Frozen gluten free pizza or gluten free chicken nuggets for dinner every night is not all that great. I am not sure if my kids ever saw a vegetable - unless French fries counted.

So, when we got back on track this time, and I came across information about eating paleo I decided it would be a good fit with our family. It takes into account the issues S has with sugar, and the issues L has shown with gluten. I knew that J and myself would benefit as well.

I when I did not see benefits right away I was starting to get discouraged. Then I found out none of the kids had stopped eating school lunch at school.

At the end of the two week break small behavior changes have started to creep up on me. On Sunday the three kids played a game together, while I was working in the kitchen, and no one yelled or hit. It lasted for over two hours!

Then the first day back to school hit. L was not happy. But. . . there was no screaming, yelling, or hitting. They all sat down for breakfast early. We made it in plenty of time.

These little moments have started to creep into our day. We still have the yelling. S still spent hours this weekend crying. L threw a fit with dinner last night (but it was not near as bad). J had a mini meltdown - but just one, and nothing got broken.