i need information from anyone who deals with this and have you tried special diets with your child. I've been told to cut out dairy and gluten. if you have any information please let me know. i am over whelmed and not having a good day so any information will be welcomed. thank you W. d
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You should have had some kind of reason that the doctor wanted you to eliminate these things, they do blood tests to check for sensativity. If you know that he has some kind of an allergy, then this may help to some degree, but it is not the first line of treatment for a child with ASD by any means, though it is popular to think that way. Diet has very little impact on the majority of kids with any ASD. Some may have legitimate allegy issues and improve, but that is a small percentage of kids on the spectrum. If you want to try it, go ahead, but it is difficult and you may not see any results, and if that is so, don't waste your time. It is no cure all. If you are suspetable, you may see a placebo effect too, but if that is the case, it won't last for long. I would not spend much money on it (you can spend a fortune if you get hooked up with a "cleansing" doctor-who also happens to distibute the foods and suppliements you "need") so if you cannot do this diet without spending a boat load, I would not bother without conclusive, main streem, standard medical advice from a board certified allegist who has tested your son to see if he actully may benefit from this. If the person who told you to do it also wants to sell you stuff to make it happen, run.
Standard medical care is best. See a board certified Child psychiatrist for medical intervention. Get Cognitive behavioral therapy, speech and language therapy, social skills classes, OT, and behavioral and educational interventions (at school.) Look into developmental optomitry if he has visual motor or coordination issues that require it. That is standard care.
Read about asperger, Tony Attwood is the guru. Dr. Mel Levine writes about the general subject of high functioning children with neurobiolgical and developmental issues and his book, all kinds of minds is a good general read. www.wrightslaw.com is a great place to start to learn about school advocacy. NAMI offers classes that will help you as the primary care giver, and you can make connections and get good referals if you are not finding what you are looking for on your own.
If you have not had a full scale Developmental Evaluation that includes neuropsychological details, get one. Your psychiatrist can refer you for either a nueropsychological evaluation or to a Developmental Pediatrican to get this information. Do not count on the school to measure his educational needs. You should know more about how he functions and why than they do. If you do not get what you think he needs from the school, provide private therapy. Most, if not all of his therapy will be provided by you if he is functional at school and does not need special education. Even if you have to pay for these, do not skimp on therapy. Most cognative behavioral therapy is covered by insurance. Some OT, and some social skills classes (through speech therapists) may be covered, although speech and language is usually not covered.
M.
many times people with autism have gluten intolerance, but also it could be a candida overgrowth- which will look like celiacs. Sometimes the cultrip is sugar- does he act "drunk" after he eats sugars and fruits? sometimes there can be a clostridium infection. This gives off a nerotoxin and has been blamed for some kinds of autism. See link below.
I would at least get him on some form of magnesium- try to get him on 200-300 mg taken 3 times a day. When taken internally, it can cause loose stool in high doses, so you might have to work up to it. And then also get magnesium chloride to rub onto his skin. This is one way to increase magnesium without causing loose stool, but you need both avenues to get the magnesium up. If the boy has constipation, this will clear it right up. Magnesium is a metal chelator, but more important it will help calm anxiety as it is a calcium blocker and keeps calcium from exciting the nerves. It keeps the adrenaline down. if the child is a big milk drinker then he most likely has a magnesium deficiency. The interesting thing is that people will usually seek out the very foods that are detrimental to them- these foods are doing "something" to trigger a response, usually a serotonin surge.
Nutri-sleep helps for sleep issues. Also give vit b complex liquid drops under the tounge in the morning.
Mercury poisoning and Autism have the same symptoms , line item for line item!Does that mean it is some kind of heavy metal poisoning? could be, or something else that is acting on the central nervous system. The bottom line is something is doing that.
So,
heavy metals
food allergy
candida (yeast)overgrowth in the gut ( gives off a toxin)
Clostridium (infection in the blood or the colon)gives off nerotoxins
iron supplements
vaccines
severe nutrient and trace mineral deficiency (use fulvic acid to help)
bacterial overgrowth in the gut.
parasites which affect serotonin
low cortisol or low serotonin
Usually it is the sugar in most starches and glutens that creates a problem for children with these types of mental disorders, therefore, parents are advised to reduce the intake.
I am not sure about dairy. Usually you gut dairy when children have excema, allergies, or other autommimmune disorders, if they are sick often or have digestion and bowel issues.
Mental illness runs in my husband's family (his dad is bi-polar, his mom OCD, his brother has Aspergers and his sister has depression, his great aunt on his dad's side was bi-polar, and my husband suffers from Anxiety with OCD tendecies and depression) and we suspect our 4 year old daughter has somehting going on (have not seen a sepcialist yet). She had excema as a baby and toddler and we eliminated gluten and dairy from her diet for 6 months and it cleared up, she was not sick and her runny nose stopped, and I believe her behavior improved as well. We will need a lot more research for her but I have friends with kids that have Autism and they keep their kids far away from gluten (it somehow stimulates their symptoms and behavior).
I am not sure what stores you have in TX (I am in AZ) but a Whole Foods, Sprouts type of store or the organic/natural foods section of your grocery store should provide food options that are dairy free and gluten free. The staples I relied on were:
8th continent soy milk (beware of Cacein)
Smart Dogs (soy hot dogs w/out casein)
Garden burgers
Blue Diamond Almond Crackers (lots of flavor varieties)
Here is a helpful and informative website as well.
Good luck and hopefully you get the answers you are looking for.
My 8 year old was diagnosed with Aspergers at age 4. We had the blood test done for allergens and were told to eliminate soy, milk and wheat. We tried it for a while and thought it helped some with extreme mood swings and meltdowns but honestly we just didn't have the discipline (especially with other children in the house) to keep him 100% free of these things. His restricted diet slowly morphed into all of us just eating healthier and that has seemed to help some. It's hard to know if the diet is working or if he has just matured but we figure eating healthier is good for everyone anyway.
I know you're overwhelmed now but with school starting it's important to get the ball rolling so that he has everything he needs for support in the school as well. If you haven't already done so, you'll want to contact them soon and get them the diagnosis.
You might also want to find a therapist who works with teens with Aspergers. I'm not there yet, but it seems that the teenage years are especially h*** o* Aspie's and having a therapist working with him early might be beneficial. My son has benefited from working with an occupational therapist for some fine motor skills that he has struggled with as well if that is a problem for your son.
Good luck,
K.
Hi W.,
Wow, it is amazing how conflicting information is given. The GFCF diet has shown to improve the cognition functioning of everyone, especially children with a diagnosis under the AU spectrum. The research is showing that if you improve the guts functioning, the individuals neurological functioning also improves. I do agree that getting tested would be beneficial, but make sure the lab is reliable. Some labs have a 40% variance in their results and that would make your efforts useless. We used Immuno Labs through our pediatrician. You can call the lab and they will tell you what doctors will order the bloodwork. We did the ImmunoCap, making sure to do the gluten test, the subfractions for milk and eggs, candida (if been on numerous antibiotics), and of course the foods. If cost of the labs is an issue, just eliminate the foods for one month and see what differences there are. The key is to TOTALLY eliminated the foods; if the food is given even once, the body will produce more antibodies to fight it making it take longer to clear the system of the antibodies. It does get easier with time and I can share several things I have used that will help. One is an e-book----message me your email and I will gladly share this with you. The key to getting ahead is once you find a recipe that works for your child, the next time make a double batch to freeze to save you some work later. Whole Foods, Sprouts, even Kroger have lots of items these days to make it easier. Read labels though; don't assume even if you have bought it before.
Hang in there.......
Send me your email and I will forward the book to you......LOTS of recipes.
K.
Do yo mean Ciliac's? Asbergers treatment usually has very little to do with diet.
If Ciliacs, then your son will have to stay away from wheat based products which means about 95% of the stuff he's eating now. The other bad news is that this means a permanent change in diet for the rest of his life. The good news is that there are a number of substitute ingredients and items can you and your family can purchase and you can functionally live a long healthy life as long as this special diet is maintained.
There are a number of different websites regarding Ciliac frendly foods. I suggest you do some reasearch. True this is difficult news, but a lifestyle change can be done. Good luck!
Wow! I cannot beleive it took this long to get a diagnosis. I am so sorry for you.
We are on a gluten free diet. However, we don't take it for the reason you are suggesting. My son has celiac disease, and we found being on the gluten diet helps with some of symptoms (PDD-like). I would suggest having the blood test for the celiac disease before you start the diet. It will effect how strict you need to be. I know people who people how do the gluten free to help their kids with school, but on the weekends and summer give them a break from it. They also don't have to worry about cross contamination like we do. If you start the gluten free before the blood test, the test won't work. You'll have to add the gluten back in before the tests.
The percentage of celiac among Autism sectrum individuals is higher than the general polution, I have heard. It might be worth checking the blood first.
Good Luck!
I've seen many patients with autism. For many, the diet (GFCF) makes a huge difference. One child was able to get off 6 of her medications just by changing her diet. Another child's seizures disappeared after removing gluten. Some children also need IgG food sensitivities removed. Alletess has a blood test for that. IgE testing for food allergies is also helpful and can be done via LabCorp or Quest. TACA (www.tacanow.org) has an article on 10 weeks to GFCF that may be helpful to you. Dr. Kenneth Bock has a book called Healing the New Childhood Epidemics that you may be able to find at your library that may also be helpful. Change of diet doesn't help every child but for many it is a huge piece of the puzzle.
Updated
I've seen many patients with autism. For many, the diet (GFCF) makes a huge difference. One child was able to get off 6 of her medications just by changing her diet. Another child's seizures disappeared after removing gluten. Some children also need IgG food sensitivities removed. Alletess has a blood test for that. IgE testing for food allergies is also helpful and can be done via LabCorp or Quest. TACA (www.tacanow.org) has an article on 10 weeks to GFCF that may be helpful to you. Dr. Kenneth Bock has a book called Healing the New Childhood Epidemics that you may be able to find at your library that may also be helpful. Change of diet doesn't help every child but for many it is a huge piece of the puzzle.
Read "Look Me in the Eye" by John Elder Robinson and "Thinking in Pictures" and "The Way I See It" by Temple Grandin, both wonderful writers and generally successful human beings who are autistic.
http://www.johnrobison.com/
http://www.templegrandin.com/
Both websites have a lot of information and links.
My first cousin has three grandchildren with aspergers. One is 14, 6 and 4. They have had some wonderful doctors and counsel. They were never told to eliminate any foods and to this day, only the 6 year old has allergies, normal like any other kid.
They were told many things about exercise, tho and one of the odd things that helps an asperger child is spinning in a swing. They had a basement and had a net/sling swing and were told to spin her 10 minutes one direction and then 10 minutes the other dir. 6 times a day. This helps with their speech and she loved it. Also a trampoline is another perfect exercise for their brains do not work like ours and the exercises promote a normal brain function!
She has a high grade point average in school, is a little shy, but functions normally.
My cousin said if you would like to talk to her to give you her phone number. Please contact me privately and I will.This grandmother, my cousin, is a wealth of information on so many subjects my daughter and I call her frequently to ask all kinds of questions about anything.
I have heard that diet does have an influence on the autism spectrum. I have heard of people eliminating or limiting dairy. I've also heard that Omega 3 Fatty acids re good. Keep in mind, nothing will cure Aspergers or any form of autism. But it couldn't hurt to try.
I have a good friend with a son (now about 14), and a neighbor with a recently diagnosed son (now 9 yr old) with Aspergers and I know it's a tough diagnosis to get your head and heart around. Keep in mind he is the same kid that he was the day before diagnosis....Best wishes!
