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I received a comment this week that addressed an important issue related to something I wrote about in my first Raising Healthy Eaters post. After talking to a friend about it today, I realized that it might serve my readers to read both the comment and my answer, to bring some clarification to something that I talked about:
Thanks
for your comment, Pieces. I apologize if my post came across as saying
that I believe it is the parents fault, or that nutrition (or lack of
it) is the cause of these childhood disorders. Although I believe that
it very likely contributes (and in some cases may be the cause), I do
not believe it is the only cause, nor do I believe that it is
necessarily a cause in every case.I believe that there are many different reasons children get
disorders- diet, other environmental factors (both in and out of our
control), vaccinations, viruses (as you mentioned), genetics, etc. I
certainly do not intend to "heap guilt" onto mothers who are dealing
with such difficult circumstances.I have personally worked with many, many families that have children
with disabilities (esp. Autism, as well as Cerebral Palsy, and others)
and part of my passion to see parents informed about nutrition is that
I have seen firsthand the pain and difficulty these families and
children experience, and it breaks my heart. I know that it is not the
answer to all of their problems, nor do I wish to add guilt, but I do
wish to see them being benefited as much as possible by a proper diet.
To anyone who may have heard or felt judgment or condemnation from what I originally wrote, I sincerely apologize, and I hope that this more clearly communicates my true intentions and thoughts.
While
I agree in theory with some of what you have written, I need to speak
up for the parents of children with health issues such as ADHD, autism
and the like. It is an oversimplification to state that so many of
those disorders are caused by diet--either that of the pregnant mother
or the child. For example, researchers now believe that childhood-onset
diabetes is caused by a virus. I just hate to see more guilt heaped
onto a mother who is doing the best she can to raise this precious
burden that God has given to her.