Diet for children with autism?

Many families with children with autism have found that a glueten- free/casin-free diet has helped. Go to www,gfcfdiet.com and you will find a lot of information. Read some of the stories from parents who posted about the improvement in there children. Also look into the Feingold program; www.feingold.org. It is a diet where food additives and food dyes are eliminated.

Helen

Thank you, I will definitly check into this. Do you know anyone who has benefited from the diet? Julia

I’ve used the Feingold diet for my now 17-year-old since he was three. The diet helped with behavior. I have come in contact with many families who have had success with both the Feingold diet and the GFCF diet who have children with autism. I will post some more links for you to explore.

Helen

http://members.aol.com/lisas156/gfpak.htm
http://osiris.sunderland.ac.uk/autism/sulphate.htm
http://www.paleodiet.com/autism/
http://autism-diet.com/
http://www.mercola.com/1999/mar/21/milk_linked_to_autism.htm
http://www.autisme.net/DepartAutism-uk.html
http://www.kessick.demon.co.uk/aia.htm

The Diet (gfcf) has helped literally thousands of people with autism achieve a higher level of functioning. Best guestimates place the percentage of children who can be helped by the Diet at 25-40% . Yahoo has several groups dedicated to this, two being the gfcfdiet and recoverredkids. Additionally, at the gfcfdiet.com sight tere is a link to a message board where a great many parents post their experiences and share support.

It is a mistake however for this doctor to claim the diet “cured” his son. Autism has not yet been cured by anyone using any method. However, “recovery” is an attainable goal for many people on Spectrum.

The difference is pretty basic. It is very doubtful that the metabolic dysfunction “leaky gut syndrome” (which may be the problem highlighted by Andrew Wakefield’s work in IBS) actually causes autism. What is more likely is that the child was already autistic, and that the process of non-digestion of proteins followed by improper absorbtion and subsequent partial metabolizing by the liver of these proteins into poly-peptides causes a mild caseof autism to be aggravated into a profound case of autism.

By using the elimination diet, you avoid the body’s intake of these proteins, and as the body detoxes, the effects of these peptides upon the brain fades. This is not a cure in the least, because until such time as the gut can be fully healed (and this can literally take years) and proper digestion restored, any falling off the wagon can bring a rapid return of the negative behaviors and also cognitive and verbal regression.

Think of the Diet in the same light you would insulin for a diabetic. Once the need for the Diet is established, it becomes a lifetime committment. This is not meant to discourage you from making the attempt, but just to steel you for the reality that this will be for the long haul.

Currently there are no accurate testing procedures widely available to check for the need to use the Diet. The only way to tell is to try it and see if improvments result. The easiest way to do this is to first remove all casein (dairy) for a period of about 3 weeks (the average time reported for detox). This has to be 100% casein free to work, no milk, no cheese, no butter, no milk solids, no pre-processed foods (like mac n cheese) which will have any milk solids in it. It has to be 100% or you may not get any tangible results that support the need to continue.

Once you establish that the Diet is needed, removing all gluten comes next, and this is the hard part. This means no wheat products, no rye, spelt, millet or malt, often no corn or oats either. This includes ALL preprocessed foods which have “food starch” as an ingredient, which leaves out most canned soups, most prepared foods, most deep-fried foods which have breading or batter, most fast food…

Go to gfcfdiet.com for more detailed information.

Thank you both so much, you were so helpful!!