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I need to speak my mind on this topic.

My older son is in 11 and was diagnosed with ADHD at age 5, Tourette
Syndrome at age 7.  My younger son was diagnosed with celiac disease at 20
mths, sever speech delay at 3.5 yrs old, ADHD at 4 yrs old and Tourette
Syndrome at 6.  I myself have celiac disease, diagnosed at 32 (after the
younger son).

The celiac son follows a strict GF diet, the other son follows a gluten
reduced diet because I only cook one meal for the whole family.  Although
diet may play a part in behavioral and emotional disorders there are also
hereditary factors to consider.  I do not know them and I am not a
professional in this area.

Both sons still require medication to assist with their disorders as we
teach them the appropriate behaviour.  Both are loving and kind-hearted
children.  They even get upset when I kill a spider in the house, they want
me to pick it up and release it outside.  They cry at sad movies or even
when there are sad parts in their books.  Because of their tics (vocal as
well as motor) they have been ridiculed and segregated by their peers.

I look as these school incidents and hope and pray that the good I have
instilled in my children will rule over the loneliness, frustration, anger
and dejection they feel due to the treatment they receive from their peers.
Not all their peers treat them this way but they have very few friends.

We have had a couple school incidents where the children doing the teasing
have been given detentions as well as my older son being given detention for
reacting.  But we have also had incidents where my son has been given
detention just because he reacted to the treatment he was receiving.  One
incident involved my daughter trying to explain to an adult lunch monitor
that the girl my son shoved had been kicking him when he was crouched down
trying to gather up his lunch that had been spilled.  The monitor told my
daughter to mind her own business and gave my son the detention.  We also
had parents at my sons school asking for him to be removed, that he didn't
belong in the "normal" school.  This was just prior to him being diagnosed
as having Tourette Syndrome and his behaviour was quite different;
squawking, sexual gestures, eating glue, chewing holes in his clothes, etc.

Sorry to be so long-winded but I believe the root of the problem is the
treatment these children receive and they tend to be identified as the
problem child.  More often than not these children are not the problem but
are bearing the brunt of daily crucifixion by their peers.  It is not an
excuse for their behaviour just an observation on my part.  I will do all I
can to teach my children to learn to live with their conditions and react in
appropriate ways.

Not everything is gluten related, let's keep an open mind and explore all
avenues.

KAREN HUTTON
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