All the 'special diets'

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wanted to add - I did a research paper in college where a group of Amish had a strange disorder where apparent healthy babies by the age of two because completely mentally impaired, and most died early. A doctor studied it and found that a large number of Amish in Lancaster, PA have problems processing a milk protein and having milk destroys the brain.

I have that tucked in my head - what if Wheat or Dairy is attacking my son's brain? don't I owe it to him to check it out - even if that possibility is remote?

I, personally, think the diet questions are a whole other world from chelation and vaccine concerns. What many of us are fining is that our kids DO have food sensitivities of one sort or another and, of course, dealing with that helps behavior. Has the child been cured of AS? NO. He's been cured of a food sensitivity.

The difficult part is that this was brought into focus by some curabies latching onto the GFCF system, and discovering it helped (mistranslated to cure). But how it got brought into focus is less important than the reminder: if your child has trouble coping already, adding diet problems can add a thick layer of severity. Get rid of the food problem, and your child will do better.

Every child deserves to feel well.

I work with a man, completely NT, who has a huge list of food allergies. I asked him one day how he had found out about them. It was a long, long road for him, because he grew up with parents who didn't believe there were such things (at least not in a child not breaking out head to toe hives), so he spent his entire childhood feeling very sick. With no one believing him. An entirely verbal child expressing his desire to feel better, and no one ever listening. As an adult, he sought answers, and got his life back.

The main problem I have with GFCF is that by itself it is not an answer, and could actually be very wrong for the one unique child. As I've noted before, my son has turned out to be sensitive to soy, something we figured out almost by accident, and GFCF tends to involve an increase in the use of soy products. With soy sensitivity being a very common issue, parents who don't know to split the hairs on this question, and look at their child as a unique individual, may actually be creating the opposite result of what they are looking for.

Awareness that an AS child may have food issues is, I think, a good thing. Cassien, gluten, and soy are all common ingredients that some kids will do better without. Very, very few to be GFCF; it tends to be one, not both, that is the issue. Over applying a concept, and expecting it to do things it will not, however - that is the bad thing. On this forum we've been striving to get parents to understand why some families see improvement, and figure out how to decide what road is best for them. There isn't a black and white line here, and trying to draw one increases the divisions between the groups of parents, instead of drawing them together. I know there are strident parents advocating this diet who don't want to split the hairs on who it really works for, and we may never cross bridges with them, but that doesn't mean the conversation shouldn't continue. Here, anyway.

I do not, btw, think food issues are any more prevalent in the AS population. Just, maybe, with all the other sensitivities and issues the child is likely to have, they may be more devastating. In my family, it is my more or less NT daughter that I want to start food experiments with; it is insane how many mornings she wakes up with a tummy ache. So, we taking notes. We're talking. We may go find a specialist. That process is a lot easier with an NT child than an AS child who may have trouble communicating, or who may not realize that communicating his tummy ache is a priority, or something he should be doing. So, parents with AS kids do need to look.

Well I personally think the vaccine thing is a bunch of Hooey. I think that for SOME kids with ASD, their symptoms might be worse because of a food allergen (they are less able to tell us if their tummy hurts, etc), but don't believe it's a cure.

I should qualify here: I meant it as where I live, not on WP. Sorry about that too.

Wow, I feel like I should go hide in a hole until tomorrow. I am pretty off today

No don't do that... we all have days where we just can't deal with one more hooey, sensitive topic. I DO feel your frustration and gals like Jenny McCarthy don't help!

Ouinon, interesting points on the leaky gut; new stuff is coming out all the time, and maybe I've fallen behind (it's not one of my special interests). This is tricky because the whole concept of "gut" issues gets connected to Wakefield, and anything connected to Wakefield is suspect. The first time I heard the term I assumed it was just more quack science, but I've known you long enough to believe that you don't fall prey to quack science that easily. I'm not really ready to go research it all, or completely give up my suspect, but I'll try to be more nuanced in how I respond to the idea.

And ... you know, my NT daughter is really having stomach and mood problems. Both my kids have to go through regular rounds of constipation medicine. Something is going on, isn't it? One more for the list for the pediatrician ...

I try and keep my Autistic sons diet as free of additives and presevatives as I can. I limit any type of splenda,nutra sweet,all of those fake sweetners as I saw depression from them. Gluten free did nothing for him but using high fats in his earlier seizure years helped. Go figuire.

Update: Wow I can't believe it's been almost a year since I originally posted this! My daughter was diagnosed as Autistic in March/2010. We've moved to another province that has better funding for autism treatments and she's doing really well. She goes to a developemental pre-school in the mornings and we went with a SCERTS service provider in the afternoon.

After talking with our pediatrician we ended up putting our family on a whole foods organic diet. I didn't really see a change in her behavior, but I think it's a healthy choice for all of us.

Will maybe try the GFCF diet when she's older. But for now she's still a really good eater and I don't see any obvious digestive issues. Thanks for all the responses on this thread. Very interesting reading!