Right Brain? ADD? Food Allergy?

Why is it that some kids have an easy time in school and some kids struggle? As a parent with one of each type of child, it's difficult to see this!

My kids are both bright, fun, funny and different! One gets mostly A's and a few B's in school without trying, one struggles to get C's. They are both rewarded for their grades. No, they don't get money, but they both get recognized for their effort and their report cards get put on the fridge.

One was "diagnosed" with ADD - attention deficit disorder. No hyperactivity in this child at all, in fact, just the opposite! One happy and relaxed child. We were so freaked out by his grades that we put him on medication (concerta). His grades went up. We took him off the medication, his grades dropped. A LOT!

I HATE using medication for anything, as does my husband (who is in the medical field). Although we take our daily vitamins, we rarely take any other type of medication.  After spending some time researching ADD more this summer I've found a few things.

All four of us took a right brained/left brained test. Right brained being the creative thinker, the left brained person being the one who likes rules and not so creative. Let me just tell you that I'm the odd one out in my family.

If you scored 0/21 you were left brained. 21/21 = right brained
Me: 4
Husband: 16
Child 1: 15
Child 2: 21

Now that explains a LOT! I always think Child #2 is arguing, but really that isn't the case. Right brained people think that there are a lot of ways to do one thing. Left brained people, not so much.

Child #2 can tell you the answer to a math question without being able to explain why. I can't. I have to have everything written down so I know how it all works.

My husband is now reading a book called Right Brained Children in a Left Brained World. I look forward to reading this as well. Hopefully we'll be able to get some school pointers.

In my research, I also found out how that 30% of kids are allergic to milk. I forget what % are allergic to grains. Here is one article that I read.

For two weeks we focused on eliminating milk products. We didn't eliminate all intake of milk, but most of it. My husband asked my son how it was going. My son's reply, "I don't have a stomach ache all the time anymore and my head stopped hurting." EXCUSE ME???? Every morning....every single morning before school I'd make him drink his milk. Good protein you know? Many mornings (hindsight) he would end up walking around doubled over because his stomach hurt. This was before I realized how much our food intake affected our health....here I thought he didn't want to go to school. OOPS.

We are not perfect in this, but we try to avoid giving him milk. He seems to want it more now that he knows he shouldn't have it. Aren't we all like that? I need to try this experiment with cheese and yogurt as well. I'm giving the kid a break right now. He can have heavy whipping cream (in a smoothie) and have ice cream (the real stuff - made with cream) without stomach aches, so it might just be milk.

I've heard that many kids are deficient in zinc, magnesium and B6. I've recently ordered new vitamins so we'll see if anything works there.

Instead of dreading this school year, I'm excited to see what these changes will bring!