ADHD child and sugar

[Anonymous]

My ADHD child has a sugar and carb addiction - quite beyond, IMO, what a normal child with a sweet tooth would want.

I understand that this is somewhat typical as children seek to boost their dopamine levels.

How do you deal with this, particularly over the summer? Do you try to teach them moderation and delayed gratification and keep some stuff in the house? Do you keep stuff in the house and "hide" it and portion it out? Or, do you not bring anything into the house and deal with the cravings (screaming, in our case).

[Anonymous]

Give him coffee instead

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My ADHD child has a sugar and carb addiction - quite beyond, IMO, what a normal child with a sweet tooth would want.

I understand that this is somewhat typical as children seek to boost their dopamine levels.

How do you deal with this, particularly over the summer? Do you try to teach them moderation and delayed gratification and keep some stuff in the house? Do you keep stuff in the house and "hide" it and portion it out? Or, do you not bring anything into the house and deal with the cravings (screaming, in our case).

i didn't know that these were related but mine also craves sugar like crazy. i didn't realize was trying to boost dopamine levels

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My ADHD child has a sugar and carb addiction - quite beyond, IMO, what a normal child with a sweet tooth would want.

I understand that this is somewhat typical as children seek to boost their dopamine levels.

How do you deal with this, particularly over the summer? Do you try to teach them moderation and delayed gratification and keep some stuff in the house? Do you keep stuff in the house and "hide" it and portion it out? Or, do you not bring anything into the house and deal with the cravings (screaming, in our case).

i didn't know that these were related but mine also craves sugar like crazy. i didn't realize was trying to boost dopamine levels

OP here. Honestly, my mind was blown. My DS is recently diagnosed with ADHD. We have always struggled with his crazy level cravings. Now, it's like a light bulb went off once I started reading the research.

Look into it and see what you think.

[Anonymous]

If DC was recently diagnosed, I wonder if stimulant medications (that increase dopamine), would tamp down the cravings?

[Anonymous]

We don't keep a lot of sugar in the house. My son does like to eat carbs, but between the medication and his high activity level, he is underweight, so I don't limit.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I'm hoping that medication will help with the cravings. They are intense and I had never connected it with any cause other than he likes sweets. Now I'm seeing it differently. He's at a healthy weight so we're not concerned with his weight. If we were to buy a package of Oreos, for example, and didn't immediately portion out his share, the entire package would disappear in about 30 minutes. That's super unhealthy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My ADHD child has a sugar and carb addiction - quite beyond, IMO, what a normal child with a sweet tooth would want.

I understand that this is somewhat typical as children seek to boost their dopamine levels.

How do you deal with this, particularly over the summer? Do you try to teach them moderation and delayed gratification and keep some stuff in the house? Do you keep stuff in the house and "hide" it and portion it out? Or, do you not bring anything into the house and deal with the cravings (screaming, in our case).

i didn't know that these were related but mine also craves sugar like crazy. i didn't realize was trying to boost dopamine levels

OP here. Honestly, my mind was blown. My DS is recently diagnosed with ADHD. We have always struggled with his crazy level cravings. Now, it's like a light bulb went off once I started reading the research.

Look into it and see what you think.

it makes sense. Mine has such strong reactions to hunger that he is like a different child. Oppositional, hyper, rage filled, devoid of empathy. I realized need to keep feeding protein early and often or has sugar low induced psychopathy. I have been looking into it and found 'reactive hypoglycemia' as a possibility that sometimes co occurs with high iq (which he has) but the puzzle is a complex one.

[Anonymous]

Oh wow. I have all the same questions for my child recently diagnosed with ADHD, not yet medicated. Keeping sweets in the house leads to trouble because of sneaking. I often won't realize that treats were snuck until there's a behaviour outburst and then later I'll find some muffin wrappers and put the connection together. We do try to keep the treats we do have around fairly high quality, meaning homemade muffins with reduced sugar and whole grain flour instead of hostess, for instance, or 75% dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate.

I'm still unsure if the cravings happen on days when she's disregulated anyway, like an attempt to self medicate, or if the sugar causes the disregulation afterwards. Does that make sense? There's a huge correlation, but I'm unsure of the order of cause and effect, if any.

What research have you read?

[Anonymous]

I don’t think the sugar itself causes the dysregulation (except to the extent that it replaces protein and other foods that help moderate behavior), but I think it’s part of the picture of impulse control and addiction susceptibility that comes with AdHD. It’s a major problem. We’ve debated getting a locked cupboard for treats because of it—in part because it’s not fair to siblings to say that “oh, sorry, the cookies we bought as a treat for dessert are now gone because sibling ate the entire package.”
We don’t have great solutions but I’ve done a combination of making sure that they consume other foods to fill up; buying treats that the child with adhd doesn’t care for; and checking room and closet regularly for sweet stashes.
tBH, I had this issue as a kid and largely grew out of it. I still occasionally will polish off a pint of ice cream but generally I eat things in moderation. But I can remember stealing syrup bottles to drink as a kid. For me, I think it was just brain growth that made the difference, as I never took medication.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My ADHD child has a sugar and carb addiction - quite beyond, IMO, what a normal child with a sweet tooth would want.

I understand that this is somewhat typical as children seek to boost their dopamine levels.

How do you deal with this, particularly over the summer? Do you try to teach them moderation and delayed gratification and keep some stuff in the house? Do you keep stuff in the house and "hide" it and portion it out? Or, do you not bring anything into the house and deal with the cravings (screaming, in our case).

i didn't know that these were related but mine also craves sugar like crazy. i didn't realize was trying to boost dopamine levels

OP here. Honestly, my mind was blown. My DS is recently diagnosed with ADHD. We have always struggled with his crazy level cravings. Now, it's like a light bulb went off once I started reading the research.

Look into it and see what you think.

it makes sense. Mine has such strong reactions to hunger that he is like a different child. Oppositional, hyper, rage filled, devoid of empathy. I realized need to keep feeding protein early and often or has sugar low induced psychopathy. I have been looking into it and found 'reactive hypoglycemia' as a possibility that sometimes co occurs with high iq (which he has) but the puzzle is a complex one.

It's incredibly impressive that you managed to cram the humble brag about his iq into a post about sugar. Hats off!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh wow. I have all the same questions for my child recently diagnosed with ADHD, not yet medicated. Keeping sweets in the house leads to trouble because of sneaking. I often won't realize that treats were snuck until there's a behaviour outburst and then later I'll find some muffin wrappers and put the connection together. We do try to keep the treats we do have around fairly high quality, meaning homemade muffins with reduced sugar and whole grain flour instead of hostess, for instance, or 75% dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate.

I'm still unsure if the cravings happen on days when she's disregulated anyway, like an attempt to self medicate, or if the sugar causes the disregulation afterwards. Does that make sense? There's a huge correlation, but I'm unsure of the order of cause and effect, if any.

What research have you read?

Sugar doesn't cause behavior issues. There is zero evidence that it does, though it was a widely spread falsehood a decade or more ago.
Too much refined sugar is, of course, nutritionally void and a trigger of systemic disease. But consuming it does not cause behavior problems like hyperactivity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh wow. I have all the same questions for my child recently diagnosed with ADHD, not yet medicated. Keeping sweets in the house leads to trouble because of sneaking. I often won't realize that treats were snuck until there's a behaviour outburst and then later I'll find some muffin wrappers and put the connection together. We do try to keep the treats we do have around fairly high quality, meaning homemade muffins with reduced sugar and whole grain flour instead of hostess, for instance, or 75% dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate.

I'm still unsure if the cravings happen on days when she's disregulated anyway, like an attempt to self medicate, or if the sugar causes the disregulation afterwards. Does that make sense? There's a huge correlation, but I'm unsure of the order of cause and effect, if any.

What research have you read?

Sugar doesn't cause behavior issues. There is zero evidence that it does, though it was a widely spread falsehood a decade or more ago.
Too much refined sugar is, of course, nutritionally void and a trigger of systemic disease. But consuming it does not cause behavior problems like hyperactivity.

Then what is the take away from observing hyperactive/disregulated/frantic behavior and then learning that there was a lot of sugar consumed shortly beforehand?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My ADHD child has a sugar and carb addiction - quite beyond, IMO, what a normal child with a sweet tooth would want.

I understand that this is somewhat typical as children seek to boost their dopamine levels.

How do you deal with this, particularly over the summer? Do you try to teach them moderation and delayed gratification and keep some stuff in the house? Do you keep stuff in the house and "hide" it and portion it out? Or, do you not bring anything into the house and deal with the cravings (screaming, in our case).

i didn't know that these were related but mine also craves sugar like crazy. i didn't realize was trying to boost dopamine levels

OP here. Honestly, my mind was blown. My DS is recently diagnosed with ADHD. We have always struggled with his crazy level cravings. Now, it's like a light bulb went off once I started reading the research.

Look into it and see what you think.

it makes sense. Mine has such strong reactions to hunger that he is like a different child. Oppositional, hyper, rage filled, devoid of empathy. I realized need to keep feeding protein early and often or has sugar low induced psychopathy. I have been looking into it and found 'reactive hypoglycemia' as a possibility that sometimes co occurs with high iq (which he has) but the puzzle is a complex one.

It's incredibly impressive that you managed to cram the humble brag about his iq into a post about sugar. Hats off!

YOU GOT ME. humble bragging on an anonymous forum (about my kid with a developmental disability no less) is the best and most satisfying use of my time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh wow. I have all the same questions for my child recently diagnosed with ADHD, not yet medicated. Keeping sweets in the house leads to trouble because of sneaking. I often won't realize that treats were snuck until there's a behaviour outburst and then later I'll find some muffin wrappers and put the connection together. We do try to keep the treats we do have around fairly high quality, meaning homemade muffins with reduced sugar and whole grain flour instead of hostess, for instance, or 75% dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate.

I'm still unsure if the cravings happen on days when she's disregulated anyway, like an attempt to self medicate, or if the sugar causes the disregulation afterwards. Does that make sense? There's a huge correlation, but I'm unsure of the order of cause and effect, if any.

What research have you read?

Sugar doesn't cause behavior issues. There is zero evidence that it does, though it was a widely spread falsehood a decade or more ago.
Too much refined sugar is, of course, nutritionally void and a trigger of systemic disease. But consuming it does not cause behavior problems like hyperactivity.

anecdotally i will tell you that you are categorically mistaken that there is no link. though if you insist, please feel free to come babysit my kid after he has eaten cake while I go lay down.