Food and Mood

     So... Food and Mood. It plays such an important part in a typical person's life, what does it play in a bipolar child's life???? For JC, it is one of the MOST important parts! Not only does it affect him, it affects our whole family. When he says he's hungry, it's time to find some food immediately if we can. We are really working on trying to get him to eat better and less because JC's medication makes him lethargic and hungry.... not a good combination. While he certainly is not obese, he is a little overweight and much less strong than most kids his age.
      
     Yesterday, we spent the whole day at Roaring Springs (a local waterpark). It was a ton of family fun and JC behaved fairly well for most of the day save for a couple little things, no big deals, really. We had fun with him and he had fun with us (this doesn't happen as often as it should when we take JC with us on outings)!!! When it was time to go, there was little to no fight, of course he was "starving" (he had eaten breakfast, dinner and a snack already). Another great thing - no fight to leave!  My husband had to leave the water park an hour earlier to pick up his truck from the "tranny shop", so we decided to go to dinner out with his cousin and aunt who had come along for the day. We had to stop by and pick up my niece from Grammy who was at a near by fast food chinese restaurant first. JC got out of the car and wanted food. We were not eating there, my other son doesn't like it and neither do I really, so we had already decided we were not eating there. That fact didn't stop JC from starting to "fight" for his way. He was hungry and there was no stopping him. It didn't help that his cousin and aunt had decided they were tired and were just going to eat there, but we understood... and I almost thought it might be better to just go home at this point. When we got in the car, JC was throwing a big fit and kicking the backs of the seats and pounding his hands because we had decided not to eat there. I decided to just try and get dinner at the little "diner" in the same shopping center, which was our original plan. JC didn't like it, and declared that he was no longer hungry and would not be eating there. My other two kids and I ignored him and got out of the car and proceeded to walk into the restaurant. JC followed of course, but was not happy.  We were quickly seated, thankfully, and all of us but JC were checking our menus. JC decided to throw crayons (he is 12&1/2, mind you, and looks a bit bigger), crumple up his menu and begin to bug his sister sitting next to him. So, I quickly changed seats and tried to calm him down to look at his menu so he could make a selection. Instead of calming down, he got worse. I was embarrassed and many of the other people there were staring at us - I tried to tell him that to use that as a tool to help him stop the behavior, it didn't work. He was screaming and yelling because he was mad / out of control and I was trying to cover his mouth to keep him quiet. It just wasn't a good situation and at the same time I was looking for his "melt in your mouth" medication - found some... He kicked me under the table as I covered his mouth and told us all to "shut up" when I let go. I decided that we would just leave and grab McD's on the way home - my worst choice, but only choice I thought... when JC heard me tell the kids that, he perked up, looked at his menu and circled his choice?!?!?! Who knew????  I quickly gave him his medication while he would take it! He calmed down enough to tell the waitress (who wonderfully took it with calmness and no questioning of what had gone on) what he wanted and I just prayed the food would come fast! During this, I had made a quick call to Devon, my husband, to tell him what was going on and that we were going to try to stay. He was on his way back and decided to eat with us. JC's behavior went from HORRIBLE to better instantly when food hit his mouth. Devon didn't even experience the difference, just the better mood when he got there... 


     It is just amazing how much food affects his mood. He still wasn't in a great mood, but with a little food, he definitely got better. I must remember to carry healthy, low fat snack options in my car from now on. I don't want to "give in", but want our lives to not become at the will of JC. Anyways, we were all exhausted and went to bed within an hour of returning home from Roaring Springs with smiles on our faces!!! :) In the end, we all remembered the fun we had as a family all day, and as my middle one would say, "tomorrow's a new day" and in the words of JC "tomorrow's a start over"....