Monosodium Glutamate and My Grandson

I wouldn't have believed it two years ago, but even as an adult, I now question the wisdom of ingesting any amount of MSG. For the past few years my grandson (I'll refer to him as Henry to protect his anonymity) has exhibited intermittent bouts of hyperactivity and other behaviors that border on being diagnosed as manic and uncontrolled. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the behavior. Along with his parents, we looked at sensitivity to food groups, including lactose intolerance and wheat gluten intolerance. We looked at parenting techniques. He was examined by a physician for physiological causes. A psychiatrist offered nothing more that finding an outlet for his "difficult" times by having him squeeze a stress ball. She also zeroed in on stressful interactions with his mother as a possible cause. We looked at possible abuse situations by relatives and family friends.

Nothing, I mean nothing seemed to develop into any kind of relative pattern. He began kindergarten and the teachers immediately labeled him as ADHD and suggested medication (after only four hours of classroom interaction). We knew that this was not the case because he had calm, logical, and thoughtful times. He's a very loving child with empathy for those in distress, and a willingness to help out those in need. The first week of school he walked a child back to another classroom because the child was feeling lost. Henry was chastised severely for not coming back to his own classroom immediately after recess, and his mother was told that his ADD or ADHD was the cause of the infraction. In truth, his willingness to help another person in need overshadowed any urgency to show up on time to his own class.

Often after one of his manic behavioral phases (throwing things, running through the house wildly, emitting a guttural maniacal laugh) he would snuggle with one of us or his parents and sorrowfully claim that he was trying to behave, but his head (meaning his thoughts) just wouldn't let him do it. The sincerity of his voice and his body language told us that he was truly struggling with something that even he couldn't understand.

I was listening one day to an interview on a radio show about the possible behavioral and physical effects of monosodium glutamate, especially in young children. I set to work researching page after page of anecdotal information, as well as studies that claimed to have a basis in scientific fact. Everything that I read pointed to acute MSG sensitivity in our grandson. All of his behavior outbursts, the bouts of calm in between, his own confusion about what was happening to him, all of them pointed down the same trail. I talked with his mother and we agreed to remove as much MSG from his diet as possible.

Within thirty hours, the change was apparent. His broken sleep patterns transitioned to sleeping nearly all night. His nightmares began to subside. During the first three weeks of attempting to go MSG free, he had two episodes of abnormal behavior. We traced each of them to ingredients that we missed in his diet. Until he was MSG free for almost a month, he couldn't tell us that he had precursors to his nightmares in the form of multiple thoughts and memories racing through his head. It was those night that we had all struggled with him at bedtime. He knew from how his brain was functioning that he was going to have nightmares, so he would try to stay awake at all costs. In short, he was scared to go to sleep, but didn't have the clarity of thought to express it to us until he was off of the MSG for a time. At that point, we realized that when he said that he was trying to behave, he truly had been making an effort.

After dealing with the pain of knowing what he was going through, and the guilt as parents and grandparents of not having realized the cause sooner, we began to move forward. We struggled about what to do next, beyond reading labels and educating ourselves about the human body and the endocrine system? Our first concern was reassure Henry time and time again that what he experienced was caused by bad things in his food. We told him that we knew he was trying to behave. We let him know that he was still loved by all of us. We are also looking for a different school for him to attend soon, as the teachers and administration have labeled him as ADHD. Despite his changed behavior, they refuse to let go of that "diagnosis" and only look for bad things to come from him. His teacher has made it her mission to prove his parents and us wrong about our diagnosis. But we know better. We have seen him with MSG in his diet, and seen him without it. There is no question.

Instead of Henry having three or four really good days every month, he now has only a handful of bad days, and most of those can be related to MSG that we missed in his diet, or simply the mind and moods of a normally developing five year old. His mother is elated, as they have a new baby arriving soon. Henry is excited to help raise his new baby brother, but his excitement now is like any other child his age. We've been blessed to find the solution. My heart goes out to parents who's children have been labeled as hyperactive, or ADD, or ADHD and they struggle daily with the related problems. Could it be that a large number of these children taking Ritalin and labeled by their doctors and the school system are simply dealing with a food additive? Certainly not in all cases, but it's worth looking at as a starting point.

Go online and begin to research. There are many pages of information out there. A leader in the field of excitotoxins and their deleterious effects (especially on children) is Dr. Russell Blaylock. Logon to YouTube.com and enter MSG in the search box. MSG and it's active components can be called by many other names, such as Glutamate, Monopotassium glutamate, Textured Protein, Autolyzed Plant Protein, Calcium Caseinate, HPP, or HVP. There are many other labels that FDA allows food producers to use because of current regulatory loopholes. (http://www.msgmyth.com/hidename.htm)

Pay special attention to related articles on artificial sweeteners. They can have devastating effects on a developing mind and body. Some studies have shown that MSG actually elevates insulin levels, which plays with digestion, fat conversion (obese youth), metabolism, hypothalamus activity, and thyroid function. We already know that bad insulin levels produce some nasty side effects in adults, physically and mentally. Think of what it's doing to our kids. (See my related article on Losing Weight.)

Don't take my word for it. Research, research, research. Look into how MSG and Aspartame got their FDA approval and who was really running the show. Then when you are good and angry, pass the word on to those who can put it to good use for their children.

Or . . . . . continue to force Ritalin into your children because it's easier than bucking the system. Question authority and fight for your children and grandchildren. We did, and we harvest the rewards daily. You can too.