Testing a Theory

The day started out rough today and hasn't gotten much better for Tessa. She has been in some form of a fit or another since 4:30 this morning. She's finally given up and is passed out on her bed.

Now, don't get me wrong, Tessa has always been our "spirited" child. This magnitude of a fit is like none I have seen though. As a mother, I'm always worried I'm doing the right thing. When this happens, I never know whether to cuddle and tell her everything will be alright, or to ride it out. Today, I tried some of both. In the end, neither worked, she just had to give up.

Here's my theory though. This girl has lived on Ovaltine since she was two, probably two sippy cups a day at least. Last week, all week, we were out. So, no chocolate milk, at home. She probably had one or two glasses at the sitter or out, but for the most part, no milk. We were just remarking last week that her behavior was improving. Now, yesterday was the first day we had Ovaltine in the house. I can't think of a specific issue yesterday, but today obviously takes the cake.

I remembered a "crunchy" teacher of Josie's mentioning that she eliminated dairy with wonderful results. A quick Google search affirmed by curiosity. Milk and dairy products can cause behavior problems in some children. This particular article really describes a lot of things Tessa does, including the forgetfulness and constant crying, though not to the same degree as this little girl.

So, we will be cutting out chocolate milk at this house and others for Tessa. It won't be hard to cut out the rest of the obvious dairy products too as she doesn't particularly care for them. However, I'm not sure I'm ready to take it to the next level and truly scrutinize labels for every stitch of dairy. I think we'll see how eliminating the milk does and go from there.

I would love your thoughts and recommendations. Have you heard of this? Any anecdotal stories? Am I crazy? Is it enough to start with basic dairy, or do I really need to diligently read labels. Please weigh in...