Finance/Children

Hi Taylor: Like everyone else, I’ve been stuck at home with my kids a lot more than in years past. I’m Taylor a little worried Kovar about the toll it’s taking on my mental and physical health. You’ve got kids—any tips for how to do my work, keep my kids alive, and salvage my health? - Dani

Hey Dani: This is a great question that I’m sure a lot of people have on their minds. I know my wife and I have talked about how we can stay sane plenty of times over the last year. You can get specific exercises from personal trainers and such, but I’m happy to throw out the things we’ve found helpful.

Stretch whenever you can. During the first few weeks of the kids being home, every spare moment saw me hunched over a phone or a computer, trying to catch up with the work I felt was slipping away. Meanwhile, my back and hamstrings were screaming at me not to forget about them. If you can take that phone time and do it on the floor with your legs stretched out, or in a doorway with an arm pulled back, your body will feel less abused. Then the brief workouts you can manage will be more productive and you should sleep better as well. It’s hard to lift weights while you’re typing, but you should be able to figure out some stretches.

Cardio playtime. A few exercises I’ve tried out while hanging with my kids, each to varying degrees of success: push-ups with a toddler on my back; squats while holding a kid on my shoulders; long-distance hide-and-go-seek; see who can jump the highest; and sit-up high-fives. At no point did these home workouts result in washboard abs, but every time I can at least get my heart rate up while managing a tiny child army, I feel a lot better about myself the rest of the day. People have a tendency to avoid brief bits of exercise because it’s “not enough” or “won’t make a difference.” If your options are to jump in the air twice or do nothing, you might as well jump.

Go outside. So easy and so hard at the same time. You have to get on jackets and make sure everyone’s used the restroom and bring water and maybe a snack—all that prep work makes it feel like you’ll never get out the door. Once you do and everyone gets a breath of fresh air, collective joy instantly goes up. Every child will say they want to sit and watch TV, but a trip outdoors clearly makes them much more energized and happy. Just as importantly, it helps your mental health to break the monotony and get out of the house.

Check in with actual fitness experts for effective exercises. In the meantime, hopefully these minor activities can make you feel a little better about your day. Sending our best to you and your family!

Legal Disclaimer: Information presented is for educational purposes only and is not an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and, unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial adviser and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein. To submit a question to be answered in this column, please send it via email to Question@GoFarWithKovar.com or via USPS to Taylor Kovar, 415 S 1st St, Suite 300, Lufkin, TX 75901. A headache does not mean one has a brain tumor, but some brain tumors do cause headaches.

John

Rosemond Likewise, ADHD behaviors do not mean one has a food allergy, albeit some food allergies cause, in some children, behaviors that are on the official list of ADHD symptoms. (Mind you, I believe ADHD is one of many bogus psychological diagnoses, but that is subject for another column.)

I take requests, the latest of which comes from a parent who wants me to encourage everyone with a child who is impulsive, lacks concentration skills, and exhibits other ADHD symptoms to see an allergist, preferably one who specializes in allergies to foodstuffs of various sorts. I also turn down certain requests, as I will do with this one.

Several months ago, someone pointed out to me that no credible, peer-reviewed study has ever confirmed the ADHD-food allergy connection. Well, that’s not exactly true. Research reports averages. Research does not report on individual cases. So, for example, if one thousand children are included in a study that purports to determine whether or not food allergies cause ADHD behavior and ten children (one percent) are reactive but nine hundred and ninety are not, the study’s authors report that their research failed to find a connection. Not so. It found a connection in one out of one hundred cases. What is reported and what actually happened are two different things.

Are some children allergic to certain foods? Yes. Do certain food allergies manifest behaviorally? I believe so, but don’t expect to find a peerreviewed study that confirms that. If you do, it will be an anomaly. Nonetheless, over the course of my career, I’ve heard hundreds of reports from parents who credibly claim that when they eliminated junk from their children’s diets, ADHD behaviors disappeared or abated considerably.

It is a parent’s responsibility to feed a child responsibly. That includes eliminating or minimizing refined carbohydrates, cane sugar, caffeine, and processed foods. The latter tend to contain artificial flavorings, preservatives, taste enhancers (e.g., MSG), and colorings. That’s simple commonsense.

If your child exhibits ADHD behaviors, and you suspect certain foodstuffs are a culprit, be your child’s personal allergist. Eliminate the above junk from his or her diet for two weeks and see what happens. If you see improvement, keep going.

I need to point out, however, that eliminating certain foodstuffs from a child’s diet can have a placebo effect. In other words, if your child thinks that his behavior – which he has seen causes much angst among adults, including you – is going to improve if he eats nothing but fresh veggies and grass-fed, free-range, vaccine-free animals, his behavior may well improve even though he is not medically reactive to any of the aforementioned junk. In that case both you and he will think he is allergic to the typical junk found in lots of foods and your family will eat better and everyone will be happy, which is just fine and dandy.

Family psychologist John Rosemond: johnrosemond.com, p arentguru.com.

John Rosemond has worked with families, children, and parents since 1971 in the field of family psychology. In 1971, John earned his masters in psychology from Western Illinois University and was elected to the Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society.

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