Josiah's Story

{A very big thank you to Leah from Practicing Joy for sharing her story. Please visit her encouraging and informative blog to learn more about their lovely family. I highly recommend her post series: Parenting a Strong-Willed Child.}

Anticipating the birth of our third child was a sweet time.  I looked forward with excitement to baby days filled with nursing, holding, and rocking a little one again.  It had been almost 6 years since I’d held a newborn baby, and I couldn’t wait to meet the precious little boy God was knitting together in my womb.

What I most remember from the day I met Josiah was the crying.  From the beginning, he was more sensitive and cried more often and more intensely than my first two children.  He refused to be rocked and only let me hold him standing up.  By 5 weeks old the pediatrician confirmed her early suspicions that he was suffering from GERD and she prescribed an acid reducer which gave only slight relief.  For the next 8 months eating became a battle.  He began vomiting my milk, and by 3 months he had weaned himself by refusing to nurse.  We put him on soy formula since he didn’t seem to tolerate milk and hoped things would improve.  They did—he didn’t throw up anymore.  Other than that, eating was still a fight.  At 5 months Josiah was hospitalized and tests were done that medically confirmed his pediatrician’s diagnosis, but the information did little to help his symptoms.  He would go for hours and refuse the bottle, then become so hungry he would eat ravenously to make up for his missed meals.  This kind of eating only made his GERD worse, but there was little we could do to change his eating patterns.  The ever-moving Josiah learned to walk at 9 months of age, his crying stopped, and the GERD symptoms disappeared.

After a few months reprieve, new issues developed.  At age 1, we switched Josiah over to whole milk and celebrated our escape from soy formula.  Within weeks, he developed his first ear infection after a bout with RSV.  For the next year our son was constantly fighting off ear and sinus infections and went through several courses of antibiotics.  We suspected a milk allergy but testing was negative so he stayed on milk.  That year he had two sets of tubes and his adenoids removed.  We breathed a sigh of relief when the final surgery gave way to good health.

The terrible twos came and went.  They were more intense than with my first two children, but by this time we knew everything was more intense with Josiah so didn’t give it much thought; we just felt exhausted.  However, by the summer after his third birthday, Josiah’s behavior was unmanageable.  He was constantly hitting his siblings, yelling, throwing fits, and interrupting.  Toys did not interest him; the way he kept busy was by bothering others.  He had very little impulse control and cried at the littlest frustration.  My husband and I grew more concerned when he began plugging his ears and yelling.  But mostly, I was discouraged, not knowing what to do with this child I loved so much but could not control even though I did everything I knew to discipline him.  I did the only thing left to do, prayed and begged God would intervene and give us wisdom to help this precious little boy.

In desperation, I took Josiah to his pediatrician.  She sent us for psychological testing and because of my background in special education, I suspected he would be diagnosed with ADHD.  While we were in the process of having Josiah evaluated, I began to research the Feingold diet I had read about in college during my teacher training.  My son was 3 ½; if he was diagnosed with ADHD I wanted medication to be our last resort.  After visiting Feingold’s website, I ordered materials and began to read everything I could about managing ADHD with diet.

Our first days of Feingold added more tension to an already tense situation as we walked on eggshells over what Josiah could and could not eat.  We made quite a few mistakes at first.  But within days, we knew there was a link between food and Josiah’s behavior.  By the time his ADHD diagnosis was given to us, it was not devastating because we had hope.  Josiah had been meeting with a social worker at that time, and she noticed a change immediately after we implemented Feingold.  “What are you doing different?” she asked us.  When I told her about the change in diet, she encouraged us to continue.

Our first step in diet changes were in removing artificial flavors, colors, and preservatives, along with many fruits and a few vegetables that also seem to cause behavioral issues in sensitive children.  The changes were wonderful.  I kept a food diary and quickly spotted other foods that were causing reactions in Josiah.  We removed corn sweeteners, chocolate, and MSG with good results.  During this time we were dealing with many mysterious digestive issues in our older children that had doctors baffled, and watched in amazement as their symptoms also disappeared on Feingold.  After a year of these diet changes, a regression in Josiah’s behavior led us to remove milk (casein), gluten, and a few corn derivatives.  A majority of children are helped by Feingold alone, but it seems Josiah needs to follow a GFCF diet (also sometimes recommended for children with ADHD symptoms) to get the most benefit.   

Looking back, I can see signs of Josiah’s food sensitivities from birth.  His intolerance to cow’s milk is most likely what made him vomit when he was nursing (since I consumed dairy in my diet), and he probably had sensitivities to ingredients in his formula that continued to aggravate his GERD.  Many children with milk intolerance also have chronic ear infections—that is what had made us test him for a milk allergy in the first place, but intolerance does not show up on a blood test.  While investigating Feingold, I learned that one symptom of salicylate sensitivity was ringing of the ears; is that why he covered them and yelled?  My prayer now is for healing in his gut so that perhaps someday these sensitivities will fade.

It took over a year and a half of diet tweaking, but today Josiah shows very few symptoms of ADHD.  I never get over the wonder of watching him play with toys, something he rarely enjoyed as a toddler or early preschooler.  He loves being with his brother and sister and can play with them happily for hours.  This little boy who once seemed so strong-willed and defiant now responds well to discipline.  In our home school he is learning to read, write, and loves math.   His frustration level is much better, sensory issues have faded, and he is very accepting of his special diet because he knows it helps him feel and act better. 

It’s hard to know what the future holds, but every day with Josiah is a miracle to me.  After 5 years, I am finally getting to know and enjoy who he really is.  It reminds me of a verse in Joel 2:25-26, “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten…and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you.”  God has restored our little boy to us, and we are in awe of the ways He can transform lives, not just physically but also spiritually.  We hope our story will encourage others to persevere in praying and looking for natural solutions to help children with ADHD.  But more than that, we hope Josiah’s physical healing will help point people to a spiritual healing that can only come through knowing our true Savior, Jesus.

We are linking up with:
Creative Juice Thursday @ Momnivore's Dilemma

Holy Spirit Led Homeschooling












Are you encouraged here? I invite you to subscribe to Hope for the Difficult Child (it's free!) and receive our latest posts straight to your inbox.  Connect with us on facebook and receive updates not posted on our blog.