My Grocery Bills are Through the Roof!

I know you may say, well naturally you have three growing kids, a husband, two dogs and a cat, of course you will have high grocery bills. But now I am scouring the health food shelves looking for organic this and that, whole wheat and natural products, products without high fructose corn syrup and all those added, evil yellow and red dyes. No I haven't become a granola. But I have become the mother of a child with ADHD. I used to think that is was a convenient excuse for parents who wouldn't control their children and think evil things of them in my own head. And then one day I was that other parent. The parent of a non toddler who threw an absolute temper tantrum in the grocery store. Other people would stare and whisper while I tried to cajole, calm and eventually drag out a very strong 5 or 6 year old. We of course then didn't believe we should ever medicate our child, again another excuse for over medication. Sadly, after 2 years of trying different diets, punishments and many cases of wine, we realized our family was breaking and we needed help. At this point I begged on my knees for a doctor to find a medicine for our little guy (after all the blood work and such came back that he was perfectly healthy, other than this one little thing). After taking the medicine for 8 days we woke up to a child who could control himself during the 10-12 hours that the medicine works for him. Not a zombie, not altered, but a wonderful, spirited child that we knew we had but who was hiding within that horrible problem of his brain not firing on all it's pistons at all times. It's hard to be this parent. There are days I literally want to throw that child against the wall with his comments and frustrating behavior (and no I don't act on those impulses, although some days are harder than others). And then there are the days that he shines and makes us laugh and I feel horrible that we waited so long to get him help. These are the dilemmas of being a parent, nobody knows what it will be like for you, what cards you will be dealt, you just get them and have to plow on through and be the best you can. Some days that happens, and some days it doesn't and you feel like crap as you crawl into bed at night. But tomorrow is another day, another roller coaster in this crazy world of "life", and as long as I can keep my mantra that this too shall pass I know that I can get through it. So for now I scour for foods that will help him when the medicine won't, no fun cereals that contain all that sugar and dye, I have to up his protein, and try and keep him away from chocolate milk. Fortunately he loves fruits, vegetables, salmon and organic cereals or I would be in huge trouble! Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and the organic section of my supermarket are my new favorite places to be as I scan the labels for magnesium, zinc and calcium, just in case you are looking for me.