Finally making progress

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I have not been here in a while. Good to be back. My 8yo daughter was diagnosed with Aspergers and a slew of other stuff (adhd, odd, ocd) when she was 5 and having trouble in class. I have FINALLY gotten the ability and contacts to have her properly evaluated and she has AS but none of the others (which as her mom I already knew). Here's the issue. About 6 months ago I brought her to the ER because she was complaining of sudden blinding headaches and vomiting then being lethargic afterwards. She was kept for 5 days and found to have epilepsy. She has petit mal seizures and they are not dangerous, no more like that eisode. We have been able to find the general triggers, or most of them, but she continues to have twilight seizures in which she wets her bed and is so tired the next day. Now that I know what they look like, she has been having these for at least 3 years. I thought the drifting off into another world was just a new AS thing, but apparently not. Anyway, she got a little better for a few month and is on a downswing right now with one almost every night. I did make a connection to the fact that she began eating school lunches over these few weeks so I think that food may have something to do with aggravating it. That led me to wonder about diets. I have found info on the GFCF diet, SCD, Feingold, and many others. Are there any that are truely effective? I ask you parents because the internet is so conflicting. I want to give the poor thing relief and I want to do it in a healthy way. The behavioral specialist (in which I love by the way) said she could not medically say there were improvements in these kids on the diets. However..... (wink wink) if I wanted to try one she has heard anecdotal reports that they are helpful. unfortunately due to the fact that she can't say much, i couldn't get any specifics out of her to which one, dang liabilities. Feedback from other parents would be great. I have been trying the scd myself to see if I could get comfortable with it to make the transition easier on the kids, but I want to see if I am on the right one. Thanks.

Hi trialanderror,
Check out The Sunderland Protocol http://www.ei-resource.org/articles/aut ... protocol-/ and see what you think. To understand it you may need to google the opoid excess theory. If you want to read my sons story read the "All those special diets" thread.

Will do. Thanks for the input. Will getback with you once I checked it out

We just had a thread about the special diets, and you might want to read it. Basically, there is no short cut to discovering if diet issues are affecting your child. There are some conditions you can test for, that diet is specifically known to be linked to, but for many people figuring out that food A causes issues B is a long and slow process that includes solid journaling and then some guess work and intuition.

Gluten seems to be the most common sensitivity, and Ouinon and Penguinmom are the members here that probably know the most about it. The whole area is still being researched, so you will hear a good amount of pseudo-science and odd ball theory, but the fact is that for the right person, eliminating gluten makes a difference. The only way to know for sure with your child is to go through your own trial. Even then, odds are at best 1 in 3 you'll have hit on something.

Other common trouble foods appear to be dairy, soy, and certain food dyes. For each one of those, we have several members on this board who have found a sensitivity either in themselves or in their child. My son is sensitive to soy, which we figured out pretty much by accident. Turns out my husband is, too.

I want to get my NT daughter tested for food sensitivities and I don't really have a clue where to start. As I just told a friend of mine, it feels like I'm planning to turn onto a road full of quack doctors, closing my eyes, and hoping some magic energy field leads me to the right one. Most doctors aren't solidly trained in all the potential diet issues, and many who hang out their shingle claiming they are may be feel good scammers. But, I know people whose lives have turned 180 by learning to understand their food issues, and the affect to one's life and health can be very real. I work with an NT man who spent his entire childhood feeling sick, but tried to grin and bear it because everyone around him thought it was all in his head. As an adult, he found a dozen foods he can't eat, including tomatoes (I only remember that one because if the office orders pizza, we've got to get him a special one). It made all the difference in the world to his life, to get that list. I do believe that if a child is complaining of constant tummy aches, or goes through periods of odd reactions, something is going on and it quite likely involves food. I just wish science would catch up faster to give us reliable tests for what we already see and know.