HYPERACTIVITY AND DIET Available to Purchase

There seems no doubt in many parents' minds of the existence of the hyperkinetic syndrome, resulting in what they claim to be seriously disruptive overactivity in young children. However difficulties in diagnosis and the unknown aetiology of the syndrome lead the health profession, in general, to be more sceptical. The treatment of the syndrome has been even more controversial; many parents and some doctors have treated overactive children with an exclusion diet originally formulated by Feingold. This diet excludes a range of substances suspected to be allergenic particularly artificial colourings and preservatives. Results of double‐blind trials to test the effectiveness of such a diet have, however, been largely negative. Workers from the Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Sick Children, London, considered it more likely that a combination of foods or substances were adversely affecting the children and set out to test this hypothesis.