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Removing artificial colours and preservatives from the diets of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) should be considered a first-line treatment to reduce hyperactivity, a child allergy specialist says.

Professor Andrew Kemp from the Children's Hospital at Westmead, in Sydney, says there is good scientific evidence that preservatives and colourings increase hyperactive behaviour.

But parents of children with ADHD were rarely encouraged to make dietary changes.

"Three main treatments are available for hyperactivity in children - drugs, behavioural therapy and dietary modification," Professor Kemp wrote in the British Medical Journal.

"The use of drugs and dietary modification is supported by several trials, whereas behavioural therapy, which is presumably thought necessary for adequate treatment, has little or no scientifically based support."

He said eliminating colourings and preservatives was wrongly regarded by some as an "alternative treatment" rather than a standard treatment, like drugs, for ADHD.

But alternative medicines that were regarded with suspicion by many medical practitioners were used widely by up to half of ADHD families, Professor Kemp said.

A recent trial in almost 300 British children without ADHD showed that eating a mixture of food additives, equivalent to that found in two 56g bags of sweets, significantly increased hyperactivity.

Professor Kemp said there was a strong case for trialling elimination in ADHD children because of the evidence, the harmless nature of such intervention and the large numbers of children taking drugs for hyperactivity.