Bipolar babies or all babies are moody? #childhoodbipolar #foodandmood

Bipolar babies or all babies are moody?

Below is my recent response to more and more parents believing their genes have given rise to bipolar babies… There is no evidence of this happening… It is more likely that something happening around the child or happening to the child  is causing emotional distress. (Why does emotional distress need to be called bipolar these days?)

“I am alarmed that so many children are being considered to be bipolar. Until recently it was considered normal for children to have rapid changes in mood and extremes of mood. If these changes and extremes happened too often then explanations were sought and the child became better able to cope. If you suspect a child is at risk of being labelled as bipolar please seek expert advice on things that cause changes in mood before accepting a diagnosis.”

This does not mean it is always easy to help an emotionally distressed child to be less distressed. There are so many potential causes. The simplest way to tackle this is to start with the most common causes of emotional distress that can be easily eliminated. I am going to suggest parents start by examining the child’s diet and the first thing you might want to look at in their diet might be colourants added to the food that are known to cause rapid and extreme mood changes. All foods with an added colorants need to be considered to be suspect. If reintroducing food colorants after the mood difficulties are better controlled, to see if it was that colourant that was causing the trouble, then great care is needed to avoid dangerous highs and lows.

What would you put as the first or the next thing to check out in a child having extremes of mood, if these extremes were becoming unbearable??