“A lot of people are concerned about it. Because it’s something you are seeing more and more. Parents are concerned. Physicians are concerned,” says Dr. Charles Turnier. He specializes in allergy and immunology at Lee Physician Group.

Recently, there’s been a lot of controversy surrounding attention deficit disorder. Now, researchers are studying to see if food allergies could trigger ADHD. “There’s been a lot of studies trying to find out and so far they may have showed some dyes you find in food, may cause attention deficit. But most of the studies have been confusing and don’t exactly tell you if it’s a good relation,” explains Dr. Turnier.

Until more concrete evidence is gathered, Dr. Turnier has an action plan for parents who may be concerned. “If you feel the food is causing attention deficient, you can have the patient test for it. Most of the time, 90 percent of the time, you won’t find a positive test. Don’t stop there.”

He says altering a child’s diet could help. “Let’s say you have a suspicion of milk, so say, and stay off milk for about 2 or 3 weeks. See if there’s an improvement. If there’s a big improvement, great.” He adds that reintroducing food or drink in small doses to see how it affects the child can be helpful, but he does caution parents. “You can do that for any food you have a suspicion of, when you are talking about ADHD precisely. Not if you are thinking about a life threatening reaction.”

Consulting the family physician is also important in this process. The doctors can help to rule out problems and find a substitute.