Eggs, nuts, wheat and milk may be full of nutrients for children who can tolerate them. But, for children who are allergic to them, far from being nutritious, these foods can make them ill - and even threaten their lives.

The evidence that there is a link between what children eat and their behaviour is coming now not only from academics and researchers but from schools themselves.

Additives, colourings and sweeteners

Although the Foods Standards Agency's own research confirms that behavioural problems in normal children can be related to food additives and colourings, it is the experience of those schools who have banned fizzy drinks and sweets from the vending machines and dining halls which is most telling. Although there are few concrete figures as yet, anecdotal evidence of reduced disruption and improved attention in class after break and lunch is widespread within the school community.

Most children are affected to some degree by additives in foods but sensitive children can be dramatically affected by these substances. An azo dye colouring for example (tartrazine or one of the brighter blues or reds), can turn a perfectly normal, pleasant child to a screaming monster in the space of minutes.

The new healthy-eating guidelines should do much to help these children but there will still be a significant number who are affected by the food itself - those who are allergic to cows milk, eggs, refined wheat products etc. The guidelines will do little to help them.

Food intolerance and behaviour

Just as a colour can turn a normal child into a monster, so can milk, wheat, eggs, citrus fruits or soya dramatically affect the behaviour of a child who is allergic to them.

Work carried out by the Hyperactive Children's Support Group (www.hacsg.org.uk), by Allergy Induced Autism (www.autismmedical.com) and by Autism Unravelled (www.autism-unravelled.org) have shown that children with behavioural problems often have severe digestive difficulties, in many cases combined with intolerances to specific foods or ingredients. Remove the offending food from the child's diet and its behavioural problems will improve dramatically, sometimes resolving entirely.

There is also some evidence to suggest that nutritional deficiencies and food sensitivities could be implicated in the growing epidemic of clinical depression amongst children (see So Sad, so Young, So Listen from the Royal College of Psychiatry www.rcpsych.ac.uk/.publications).

How the Allergy Aware Schools Catering Manual can help

The Allergy Aware Schools Catering Manual enables schools and school caterers to understand the problems of those children on restricted diets.

The guidelines and recipes included will allow them to feed all those children on restricted diets safely –- and with dishes that are not only tasty and nutritious, but which all the children in the school, allergic and non-allergic alike, can eat.

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