autism and diet therapy?

autism and diet therapy?

I have a child with autism / developmental delays....had tried the gluten free casein free diet when he was little (2-3) but did not notice much difference so we quit. Now he is 11 and I am thinking of giving this another try. Just attended a lecture on autism & dietary links and there are several therapies I may be interested in looking into. This would be a big change for our family as GF/CF diet eliminates over 90% of what we currently eat, but I think it may help my allergies as well. I believe God has been leading me to start paying attention to what we are eating (not just my son) more closely and this lecture just came up so the timing is right along what I was already feeling in my heart.

Anybody have any experience with an autistic child and GF/CF diet or other diet based therapies? Advice, success stories, etc? Any other mom's been getting this same pressing about paying closer attention to foods & possible dietary changes? Not a "paranoid" feeling or anything - just like a nudging to really become aware of what is in our food and taking steps to make changes.
 
I have a 7 yr old son who has been undergoing testing; they are waffling on aspergers but say that he has some symptoms (normal) that aspergers children do not have and several aspergers symptoms that he is not displaying.

Overall, he appears ADHD sometimes and I have found that preservatives and food coloring in anything seem to make him "worse" for being able to keep his focus on what he is doing. Natural fruits, veggies, real meat and little to no dairy, fresh or whole grain breads and very little "sweets" seem to work well for him. He drinks milk every day but we think that he is dairy and gluten sensitive; like his father.

:groupray: I believe that you are on the right track; eliminate what causes problems before medicating. I am sure that he is a delightful son.:D


 
I have a child with autism / developmental delays....had tried the gluten free casein free diet when he was little (2-3) but did not notice much difference so we quit. Now he is 11 and I am thinking of giving this another try. Just attended a lecture on autism & dietary links and there are several therapies I may be interested in looking into. This would be a big change for our family as GF/CF diet eliminates over 90% of what we currently eat, but I think it may help my allergies as well. I believe God has been leading me to start paying attention to what we are eating (not just my son) more closely and this lecture just came up so the timing is right along what I was already feeling in my heart.

Anybody have any experience with an autistic child and GF/CF diet or other diet based therapies? Advice, success stories, etc? Any other mom's been getting this same pressing about paying closer attention to foods & possible dietary changes? Not a "paranoid" feeling or anything - just like a nudging to really become aware of what is in our food and taking steps to make changes.
My grandson has been diagnosed with mild aspergers/autism. My daughter has two close friends that both have a child with more severe autism. It really is getting to be an epidemic. I personally think it is enviourmental and more specifically something in the food and/or vaccines.
Anyway Jen's friend put her son on the glutten free diet and both she and Jmy daughter tell me that he is doing remarkably better with his behaviour and speech so there must be something to it. I do not know if it wil help all who try it but in this case it really made a difference.
 
I think you hit the nail on the head , son as we are seeing a marked increase in autism, diabetes, allergies and so many different strains of flues and super bugs.

And yes it has to do with all the chemicals and additives that are put into our food and also the environment that we are living in with polution etc. Man has been his worse worse enemy and now we are all paying the price for it and I feel sorry for the little children.:(:(
 
I agree - I have suspected enviornmental causes for years but had not seen any real "evidence" on this until lasts nights lecture... maps correlating industrial areas with high levels of airborn heavy metals and agricutural areas where crops are sprayed with pesticides and correlating very high rates of autism. Also, military families seem to be at twice the risk though there is no evidence to show why. We are not military but live near several military bases.

The GF/CF diet is not the "only" option but would certainly eliminate most potentially harmful additives also as it cuts out processed foods. I am glad to hear that others are seeing improvement through these dietary methods. I am wondering if maybe my son was too young for us to really evaluate specific improvements when we tried this before? Now that he is older I think changes would be more obvious. He's going to hate it for a while though - he is very picky and only eats the foods I will have to take away. I know if I do this I will have to be really strong and not cave in to the kids... lol...
 
Hi

I have never been in an autism situation so I don't know much about it but I am asthmatic, I have really bad allergies and I have endometriosis which is reaking havoc with my hormones so I've been seeing a Christian naturalist and my diet was the first thing we talked about. Being a chef I am also very interested in food but I have always wanted to cook the right way, without a lot of fat and as few preservatives as possible. This lade suggested the blood type diet and gave me a little book for my blood type which O that says what I can and can not eat. Now I am not following this very well and I am a little skeptical about these kind of things because God made all foods and we should be able to eat them all in moderation. I really think the problem does not lie in what type of foods we eat but how many foods that contain preservatives, groth hormones, antibiotics, etc. we eat. I don't know how you cook now, how much time you have, financial resources, etc. but my suggestion would be if you can to eliminate as much fast food and food with preservatives as possible and start buying organic and natural groceries. The organic and natural usually do not have groth hormones and pesticides and things of that nature so you start eliminating a lot of the harmful chemicals just by buying this stuff. I know that organic can get pretty expensive but there are stores like Wal-Mart here(I don't know what you have there) that carry organic brands that are less expansive. As far as meat goes, if organic is way too expensive, try the natural grown and look on the back where it should say no hormones or artificial substances or something like that. I can suggest recipes or anything like that if you want and if it wouls help. Just for clarification, I'm not trying to suggest you're doing something wrong, just wanting to be helpful since the way I cook for my family is on my brain a lot:).

Laura:)
 
While there is not yet an established link some scientists are beggining to think that anti-bacterial soap contains ingrediants that could trigger Autism. Again this is stil under study and not conclusive but since this soap offers 0 advantages over plain soap I see no reason to use it. Here is the article:

Safety of Antibacterial Soap Debated
 
Thank you for posting on antibacterial soap - no doubt we do not need to keep using things that are unnecessary. It seems like nothing is just "plain" anymore - it's all "new & improved" - something always has to be added to things that were just fine left as they were...

I stopped using antibacterial products in our household earlier this year but for a different reason - I have read a great deal about use of these products only weakening our systems and making the "bugs" stronger (superbug development).... now here's another reason :) I am sure these type of products are helpful in hospital settings and such where absolute sanitation is needed but not for routine use by healthy people.

I would really like to just have my own little farm someday and get away from all the "junk"... and I do feel bad for the kids. They were just born into all this. I am talking to a friend about getting a greenhouse started on his property and a larger garden so I can expand on the canning / preserving of heirloom plants I grow myself. I guess that is a start.
 
:groupray: I believe that you are on the right track; eliminate what causes problems before medicating. I am sure that he is a delightful son.:D



Thank you - yes, he is the sweetest - my pride & joy! I have just been getting more concerned for him lately as he is reaching a point of awareness that he is not "the same" as other kids and I really see him wanting to interact more. I hope to help him with this anyway I can :)
 
momof4 said:
This would be a big change for our family as GF/CF diet eliminates over 90% of what we currently eat, but I think it may help my allergies as well. I believe God has been leading me to start paying attention to what we are eating (not just my son) more closely and this lecture just came up so the timing is right along what I was already feeling in my heart.

Anybody have any experience with an autistic child and GF/CF diet or other diet based therapies? Advice, success stories, etc? Any other mom's been getting this same pressing about paying closer attention to foods & possible dietary changes? Not a "paranoid" feeling or anything - just like a nudging to really become aware of what is in our food and taking steps to make changes.

I know this is an old thread, and momof4 hasn't been around, according to her profile, but I wanted to bring this thread up and make a comment about GF foods, for future reference.

I do not know about, nor have I experienced if GF can help with autism or not. I have heard people herald the success of helping autism with diet.

I will say that going GF doesn't mean that you will have to give up 90% of your diet. It only means that you will have to learn to read labels and substitute foods. These days they make GF everything from pizza to ice cream cones. You can buy mixes for breads, cookies, pancakes, etc. You can buy GF flours. The only time you will most have to watch out is when you eat out.
 
As an educator for more than 20 years I would like to ask individuals to be cautious before "jumping on the nutritional" bandwagon as the answer to many childhood issues and problems. It is true that we have seen evidence of children having less frequent symptoms from some childhood issues with proper diets, however, I have seen far too many wild claims from the very people who stand to profit from such claims. Having worked with parents over a number of years I have watched, heartbroken, as parents chase all manner of diets and nutritional supplements only to see little to no results.

That being said, I have two personal family experiences that show we should be open to finding alternative treatments. My own daughter now 18 years old has less than 20% of her diagnosed ADD symptoms when on proper allergy and asthma medication! And my wife has suffered from migraine headaches for years and has seen a dramatic decrease in those headaches when closely monitoring and limiting the intake of a few foods.

I suggest anyone wanting to try diet or nutritional supplements get several opinions, do research on credible internet sites and meet with a good primary physician before launching such diets or using supplements.

And of course, you should follow the leading of the Holy Spirit! It has been my experience to see such promptings nearly always substantiated by credible sources.

May God bless your child and may you see the wonderful gifts God has given to them!
 
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