A little sugar = craziness

I may have mentioned this before, on my other blog that I've since neglected, but somewhere along the line I (or me and my hubby) came to the realization that sugary snacks in the evening create sleepless nights for everyone in the house but the one causing the problem.

My youngest son, age 9, has had night terrors for quite some time, and about a year ago I noticed a pattern as to what set it off. Excessive screen time (t.v., adrenalin-rush movies [which, for him, would be Harry Potter], video games) and/or sugary snacks (which could be anything from Kettle Korn to cupcakes to ice cream to candy) are the culprits. We limit his screen time and he really doesn't watch t.v. much, except on weekends, and we limit his video games to two hours on weekends only.

Last night, the kids had activities at church. Hubby retrieved them and brought them home, and they proceeded to get ready for bed. After they had gone to bed, all was right with the world. Until the screaming began. K (I'm using initials, yes) started screaming and hubby went to calm him down. Eventually, K went back to sleep. This morning, I asked K what went on at church last night, and he said, "We had cupcakes." WHAMMO. That's what set him off. If only I could convince the church to have healthy snacks instead of sugary snacks.

What I really want to figure out is what can we change or what can we, as parents, do to help our child? How long will this screaming-at-night thing last? Is it a psychological thing? Does he need help? He's already on meds for ADD, so I really don't want him to take anything else. And really, I almost believe that sugar is the cause of his ADD because most foods contain some amount of sugar and studies have shown that if children ate no sugar, their ADD/ADHD symptoms subsided. And no, I don't feed him Pop Tarts and candy and cookies. We try hard to have nutritious meals and snacks at home. I don't have much control over what he eats when he's not at home.

Anyway, I'm hoping that tonight there is no craziness and that we all get a good night's sleep.