After-school meltdowns, anger or tears that seem to come out of nowhere, irritability, lack of focus, and restless sleep… struggles that are all too real for parents of kids with ADHD.
You feel like you’ve tried all the things, but your child is still struggling.
It feels like there’s a piece of the puzzle missing, and often, there is.
Supportive nutrition through balanced meals is often overlooked when we trying to identify reasons why children with ADHD are struggling.
When a child’s nutrition is suboptimal or they aren’t eating balanced meals, it can set off a cascade of effects in the body. This contributes to nutrient depletion, increased inflammation, gut health challenges, and blood sugar instability, all of which can influence the severity of their ADHD symptoms.
Why Do Nutrition and Balanced Meals Matter for the ADHD Brain?
The brain is the ‘hungriest’ organ in our body. At rest, it uses up to 20% of our body’s energy. Due to this high demand, the brain relies on a steady and reliable supply of nutrients throughout the day to function optimally. For this reason, providing adequate, consistent fuel through balanced meals is helpful in supporting attention, emotional regulation, and more stable energy patterns.
Balanced meals also help with blood sugar regulation. When blood sugar spikes and crashes it can worsen ADHD-related challenges such as difficulty focusing, irritability, sudden fatigue, and emotional outbursts. Steady energy intake through balanced meals can help manage these symptoms.
A child’s gut health is largely influenced by what they eat. A healthy gut contributes to the production of important neurotransmitters like dopamine (focus, mood, and motivation) and serotonin (emotions, sleep, and digestion). When our gut environment is struggling, our brain struggles too. When a child’s gut is nourished through supportive foods, it helps promote stronger brain function as well.
What Is a Balanced Meal?
A balanced meal contains all three macronutrients (protein, fibre, and healthy fats) in appropriate proportions from whole food sources.
The goal is to limit the amount of ultra-processed food, especially refined carbohydrates, that can spike blood sugar, feed the bad bacteria in our gut, and provide minimal nutritional value.
A bowl of sugary cereal for breakfast is sure to lead to an energy crash by 10am often resulting in a mid-morning meltdown. Scrambled eggs with avocado and a slice of whole grain toast will provide your child’s brain with more stable energy to help support smoother mornings.
Protein, Fibre, and Fat: The Balancing Trio
The key to creating balanced meals that support the ADHD brain is to aim to have a source of protein, fat, and fibre at most meals. Each nutrient provides its own unique benefit for ADHD brains.
Protein provides the building blocks for neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin. It supports growth and immune function, aids in blood sugar regulation, and helps children feel full.
Kid-Friendly Protein Options:
Fibre is fermented by bacteria in our guts to produce short-chain fatty acids that support the gut lining and the immune system, reduce inflammation, and play a role in modulating mood and brain function. Many children with ADHD struggle with chronic digestive issues, which in turn (by way of the gut-brain axis) can affect how they feel and behave.
Kid-Friendly Fibre Options:
Fats make up nearly60% of the brain’s dry weight. Essential fatty acids, especially omega-3s like DHA, support cognitive function and neurotransmitter regulation. Fats are also calorie-dense, making them helpful for weight gain in children who are struggling with low appetite.
Kid-Friendly Options:
Putting It All Together
Creating balanced meals that support your child’s ADHD brain can feel overwhelming, especially if you’re dealing with picky eating or poor appetite.
Start by adding a source of protein, fibre, and/or healthy fats to meals your child already eats. Focus on building on one meal at a time.
Add berries and hemp hearts to their cereal.
Add blueberries to their lunch.
Drizzle good quality olive oil over plain pasta.
Dip fish crackers in hummus or almond butter.
When your child is ready, try some of these meal ideas:
Breakfast:
Lunch:
Dinner:
Simple Snacks:
Focus on progress over perfection.
Changing your child’s eating habits takes time and energy. Getting kids to accept new foods can take up to 20 new exposures, so consistency without negativity (no nagging, bribing, or guilting a child into trying new food) is what matters. It can take time to build new habits so be patient with yourself as well.
Remember, small, consistent changes are what lead to lasting results. Every small change you make towards balancing your child’s meals, helps to support their ADHD brain.
While researching this topic I came across several articles listing a variety of Apps that can be useful for those with ADHD. Not surprisingly, many of these APPS are simple reminders, or assist with time management and organization. Some are designed for children, such as Epic Win which turns boring chores into a fun role playing adventure, or 123Token which rewards positive behaviours with a token system.
An APP named Rescue Time builds reports on how you spend your time. This allows you to track time spent procrastinating as compared to time spent on productive activities. Another APP, Freedom, allows you to set the time(s) that your internet is turned off, allowing you to restrict distractions at the end of day or for particular periods during the day. We all know that e-mails and social media etc. can be hugely distracting if not limited. Others are designed to help build healthy habits, manage your money and restrict impulsive spending.
A note of caution; be leery of Apps that claim to improve executive functioning and decrease ADHD symptoms. To date there are no peer reviewed, large scale studies that back up these claims.
Articles on Apps for those with ADHD
I have been aware of the connection between ADHD and eating disorders for many years now. I first became aware of this relationship when assisting with a research study that examined the impact of a new medication in adults. On long term follow-up, one particular adult with celiac disease reported that her disease symptoms greatly improved when she was taking the medication versus the placebo. When we discussed why she thought this occurred she said that it was very obvious. When on the medication treatment she was able to resist her impulsive urge to drop into a McDonalds or other fast food restaurants, thus reducing flare-ups of her celiac symptoms. Now, years later and after attending presentation’s by Dr. Lance Levy (for CADDAC ) and by Dr. Brain Stonehawker (for CADDRA) on ADHD and obesity, the correlation between ADHD and eating issues seems like common sense.
A recent blog post by Dr. Mark Bertin (a featured speaker at our next CADDAC conference) directly links poor decision making around food with impaired Executive Functioning (EF) – poor planning and organization, as well as impulsivity, all symptoms seen in those with ADHD. Bertin also points out a link to emotional over-eating due to boredom, stress or overstimulation. Eating disorders associated with ADHD are not only those associated with impulsivity, such as binge eating and bulimia, but also the often overlooked anorexia – seen in those seeking order in their chaotic world. Poor decision making due to EF impairment - lack of thought and structure around meal and eating routines and even hyper-focusing can also lead to poor health even if weight is not an issue.
Dr. Bertin closes out the article with a list of useful strategies that he refers to as “mindful eating”.
To access Dr. Bertin’s full article visit http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-bertin-md/mindful-eating-adhd-and-n_b_7257190.html.
A Great Resource for Teens, Preteens and Young Adults with ADHD
by Heidi Bernhardt
I came across an interesting resource for teens and young adults with ADHD, a web site http://www.addyteen.com/adhd/ that also hosts a free guide for teens with ADHD entitled “Embracing Your ADHD.” The guide is free to download after registering on the site.
The site notes that, due to high costs, medication is often the only option for many teens with ADHD despite the fact that so much more is required to meet their needs emotionally, socially, academically, and organizationally. The free guide is written by Grace Friedman who is still a teen herself, and provides useful tips and strategies on how to not only “survive but thrive” in school and life in general. The guide is a well balanced view of ADHD addressing it as a medical condition while looking at it from a young person’s perspective.
Wisely, the guide devotes a great deal to addressing emotional challenges and ways to understand and cope with them when you have ADHD. It also covers the topic of medication and typical feelings around this and reviews beneficial health strategies around diet, exercise, and sleep. In addition, academic strategies, accommodations, and self-advocacy are reviewed along with methods that can be useful at home. The guide ends with a section on the importance of and how to discover your talents, gifts, and passions – a great message for any teen.
Below is a link to an article written by Grace Friedman for the Huffington Post that originally led me to this great resource:
