lpears123
02-10-2005, 10:14 PM
My little guy has been DX with ADHD and a little OCD and we are now getting him tested for Asperger's which I really think he has...We are just learning about it and I would love to hear from anyone about what types of food we should have him eat or not eat...Ive read that dairy is a huge trigger...what about soy?
Thanks so much,
JakeysMom :wave:
Thanks so much,
JakeysMom :wave:
Sponsor
KathleenW
02-11-2005, 08:57 AM
[QUOTE=lpears123] What about Soy?
In all my posts I talk about eliminating milk from my son's diet. After my son's diagnosis of PDD we removed all milk from my son's diet and switched to soy. In one month my son went from having 25 words to 250. The first six months he was talking his language at 2 and a half reminded me of my friend's children at about 18 months. His language was very rote, he would walk around labeling everything. He would point to a dog and say doggie, but he still was not putting words together. Three months before he turned 3 we removed soy. It was like the fog lifted. My son seemed so alert and lost the far away look in his eyes. His language exploded. At 29 months my son's language and cognitive level was at a 16 month level. At 2 years 11 months my son's language and cognitive level tested at a 3 year 1 month level. (I also had my son in speech therapy 3 days a week and an ABA program and was working with him every second of the day. It seemed he could comprehend things better and focus when milk and dairy was removed)
I have read that a lot of children with autism who react to the proteins in cow milk are also affected by the proteins and soy milk. I always tell people how can it hurt? Remove milk from your child's diet for a month and if you don't see a difference then obviousley milk does not affect your child.
Initially I switched my child to rice milk. The company went out of business recently so the poster Lisa in Indiana recommended. Vance's Dairy free milk. We currently use that. My son is currently 4 and a half. I have no plans to go back to using milk or soy.
In all my posts I talk about eliminating milk from my son's diet. After my son's diagnosis of PDD we removed all milk from my son's diet and switched to soy. In one month my son went from having 25 words to 250. The first six months he was talking his language at 2 and a half reminded me of my friend's children at about 18 months. His language was very rote, he would walk around labeling everything. He would point to a dog and say doggie, but he still was not putting words together. Three months before he turned 3 we removed soy. It was like the fog lifted. My son seemed so alert and lost the far away look in his eyes. His language exploded. At 29 months my son's language and cognitive level was at a 16 month level. At 2 years 11 months my son's language and cognitive level tested at a 3 year 1 month level. (I also had my son in speech therapy 3 days a week and an ABA program and was working with him every second of the day. It seemed he could comprehend things better and focus when milk and dairy was removed)
I have read that a lot of children with autism who react to the proteins in cow milk are also affected by the proteins and soy milk. I always tell people how can it hurt? Remove milk from your child's diet for a month and if you don't see a difference then obviousley milk does not affect your child.
Initially I switched my child to rice milk. The company went out of business recently so the poster Lisa in Indiana recommended. Vance's Dairy free milk. We currently use that. My son is currently 4 and a half. I have no plans to go back to using milk or soy.
Joey'smom
02-11-2005, 09:33 AM
We noticed that my son had meltdowns when he ingested anything with red dye in it. We eliminated that and he became more verbal and then verbally he told us that he did not want to drink milk. He became even more verbal and then he told us no cheese or ice cream. He has been milk free for almost a year and he is doing remarkably well at school.
sarahrose
02-11-2005, 10:42 AM
I say get him tested first, to see if he has an intollerance to those specific things. Sam is allergic to wheat, milk, oats, sesame, and deathly allergic to peanuts, so the diet is absolutely mandatory for us, but I would get him tested to start. They use a blood test called RAST test, it's simple and can test for tons of things with just one tube of blood.
Tammy1
02-11-2005, 11:02 AM
I just started my son on the GFCF diet(gluten free, casein free) this week. I eliminated the dairy first and then the gluten. I have seen an increase in his energy level and his temper tantrums have decreased. He went the whole day yesterday without one.
KathleenW
02-11-2005, 11:22 AM
I say get him tested first, to see if he has an intollerance to those specific things. Sam is allergic to wheat, milk, oats, sesame, and deathly allergic to peanuts, so the diet is absolutely mandatory for us, but I would get him tested to start. They use a blood test called RAST test, it's simple and can test for tons of things with just one tube of blood.
I don't agree. My son had allergy testing and everything came back negative. According to his allergy tests he is allergic to cat hair and dust mites. I thought it was interesting that between the ages of 23 months and 29 months my son had constant ear infections (in the summer), dark circles under his eyes (his regular pediatrician said that sometimes circles under the eyes is a sign of food allergy's) and eczema flare ups. His regular doctor suggested removing milk. When I did all of the above problems disappeared. I thought it was interesting that even though the allergy tests came back negative, milk obviously does not agree with him.
Don't get me wrong I am not saying that allergy testing is not important. I just don't think you should let that make your decision on whether you try certain diets.
I don't agree. My son had allergy testing and everything came back negative. According to his allergy tests he is allergic to cat hair and dust mites. I thought it was interesting that between the ages of 23 months and 29 months my son had constant ear infections (in the summer), dark circles under his eyes (his regular pediatrician said that sometimes circles under the eyes is a sign of food allergy's) and eczema flare ups. His regular doctor suggested removing milk. When I did all of the above problems disappeared. I thought it was interesting that even though the allergy tests came back negative, milk obviously does not agree with him.
Don't get me wrong I am not saying that allergy testing is not important. I just don't think you should let that make your decision on whether you try certain diets.
BetsyAnn
02-11-2005, 01:26 PM
I agree with Kathleen about the testing. It is not a bad idea to get it done, however, you can get a false negative. Also for alot of these kids the problem not an "allergy" in the sense that it is not a histamine problem. But they are still very intolerant to these proteins.
If your child has a problem with milk, you should be able to see results within a week. There is nothing to be lost by trying it for several weeks. If it doesn't help you can always go off of it.
I would like to say that it is very important that you remove all casein (the milk protein.) Some of the parents I know that report no improvement by going "milk" free only eliminated milk as a beverage. And would continue to feed them foods such as cheetos. You have to read all lables very carefully. You must eliminate all products that have even trace elements of milk. Flavored potatoe chips for example have minut amounts of milk but just 1 would keep my son from sleeping well for 3 days. Alot of proccessed foods have whey which is a milk ingredient.
Also be prepared for a regression. The worse the initial reaction, the more likely the diet will work for your child. If you child is having a problem with the petides from casein, they will probably have a withdrawl period of 3-4 days. A family I know had their child on the diet for 2 days. Her behavior got so completely horrific during those 2 days that they stopped. Now their conclussion is that the diet did not work for them. It is frustrating as an outside observer because I truely believe their results gave strong evidence that it would probably help their daughter alot. However, I do realize that it is important to respect other peoples decisions about their own children. I also believe that we are all doing what we believe is in the best interest of our children.
My son has similar reactions to soy as he did to milk only on a much, much smaller scale, so we have eliminated soy. If you are going to try to go milk free. I would suggest substiting rice milk instead of soy milk. That way if your child is sensitive to the soy, you don't have something else you have to remove later. Casein and the soy protein are very similar in structure.
If your child has a problem with milk, you should be able to see results within a week. There is nothing to be lost by trying it for several weeks. If it doesn't help you can always go off of it.
I would like to say that it is very important that you remove all casein (the milk protein.) Some of the parents I know that report no improvement by going "milk" free only eliminated milk as a beverage. And would continue to feed them foods such as cheetos. You have to read all lables very carefully. You must eliminate all products that have even trace elements of milk. Flavored potatoe chips for example have minut amounts of milk but just 1 would keep my son from sleeping well for 3 days. Alot of proccessed foods have whey which is a milk ingredient.
Also be prepared for a regression. The worse the initial reaction, the more likely the diet will work for your child. If you child is having a problem with the petides from casein, they will probably have a withdrawl period of 3-4 days. A family I know had their child on the diet for 2 days. Her behavior got so completely horrific during those 2 days that they stopped. Now their conclussion is that the diet did not work for them. It is frustrating as an outside observer because I truely believe their results gave strong evidence that it would probably help their daughter alot. However, I do realize that it is important to respect other peoples decisions about their own children. I also believe that we are all doing what we believe is in the best interest of our children.
My son has similar reactions to soy as he did to milk only on a much, much smaller scale, so we have eliminated soy. If you are going to try to go milk free. I would suggest substiting rice milk instead of soy milk. That way if your child is sensitive to the soy, you don't have something else you have to remove later. Casein and the soy protein are very similar in structure.
BetsyAnn
02-11-2005, 01:27 PM
Tammy 1, I am excited for you. It is great that you are seeing results.
lpears123
02-12-2005, 10:25 AM
Thank you all so much for replying...you have helped a lot, :wave:
Jakeysmom
Jakeysmom
grace19
02-13-2005, 03:38 AM
Did you all eliminate everything from the diet at one time or gradually take away things from the diet?
lpears123
02-13-2005, 10:57 AM
What types of cerals are you using? I just picked up rice milk and its not bad at all.
BetsyAnn
02-13-2005, 11:42 AM
We started with casein. We stopped drinking milk for a week. Then we took out yogurt, cheese, ice cream ect. Then we eliminated all trace elements of casein. We did not see any big improvements until all casein was removed. But the results were remarkable. The most noteable improvement was sleep. After three days being casein free my son sleep soundly for the first time. To us it was miraculous. He had been taking Tenex for sleep, but no longer needed it. His sleep is much better than it had been taking the tenex and without side effects. He also stopped flipping the lights on and off. Furthermore, he lost his obsession with the Wiggles.
After three weeks of casein free we removed gluten. The improvements from removing the glutten were more subtle. But the terrible withdrawl symptoms and desperation to eat anything with glutten, even foods not previously liked, convinced me there was a definite problem with the glutten.
Later on we discovered after my son started eating a lot of soy yogurt that he was not sleeping quite as well. So we took out soy also. Interestingly 2 containers of soy yogurt did not effect his sleep as much as 1 sip of milk.
I give my son Cocoa Pebbles. I love the Kraft company because thier policy is to disclose any source of glutten, milk, or other common allergens. Not all companies do this so you have to call about many of the ingredients. For example next to hydrogenated vegatable oil (which can be a problem) they have in prarenthesis coconut and palm kernal oil. If there was a gluttenous source it would also be listed.
After three weeks of casein free we removed gluten. The improvements from removing the glutten were more subtle. But the terrible withdrawl symptoms and desperation to eat anything with glutten, even foods not previously liked, convinced me there was a definite problem with the glutten.
Later on we discovered after my son started eating a lot of soy yogurt that he was not sleeping quite as well. So we took out soy also. Interestingly 2 containers of soy yogurt did not effect his sleep as much as 1 sip of milk.
I give my son Cocoa Pebbles. I love the Kraft company because thier policy is to disclose any source of glutten, milk, or other common allergens. Not all companies do this so you have to call about many of the ingredients. For example next to hydrogenated vegatable oil (which can be a problem) they have in prarenthesis coconut and palm kernal oil. If there was a gluttenous source it would also be listed.
sarahrose
02-13-2005, 02:12 PM
I just did the testing because I needed to know exactly what he was allergic to, I guess I never had any false results with his testing, but do know of some parents who have. Sam was 18 months when he went through his first round of tests, and we have done it each year after to check and see where his levels are, so I need the test results to check on things, but some parents don't. The elimination diet didn't help us too much at first, but I have heard of great results for the majority of people. Good luck with your continued testing!! :wave:
grace19
02-13-2005, 06:12 PM
so what do you eat? most foods have some kind of Gluten or Casein in them,right?
sarahrose
02-13-2005, 06:56 PM
Your local natural food store should be able to help you, but meats are usually safe, they make rice and soy cheese, without casein, they make rice pasta, corn pasta, it's all kind of confusing at first, look up gluten free diets on the web, that may help.
BetsyAnn
02-13-2005, 08:10 PM
so what do you eat? most foods have some kind of Gluten or Casein in them,right?
Most processed foods do. We eat alot of meat, eggs, chicken, vegtables, and fruits. Meals that I fix almost weekly are spagetti (corn or rice pasta), roast with potatos and carrots, and toco soup. I also bake chicken alot.
For us it has worked better to do food elimination rather food substitution. The only "substitute" foods I use on a regular basis are rice or corn spagetti, rice milk, and rice crackers. My son does not like gluten-free bread or alot of the other products. (However, alot of kids do.) I am able to do almost all of my shopping at a regular grocery store. We just don't buy alot of processed foods. The exceptions are Cocoa Pebbles, rice pasta, rice crackers, corn chips, plain potato chips.
It was difficult at first to change the way we shop and eat and figure out what products were safe. It is no longer a big deal. It is just habit and it is so worth it.
Most processed foods do. We eat alot of meat, eggs, chicken, vegtables, and fruits. Meals that I fix almost weekly are spagetti (corn or rice pasta), roast with potatos and carrots, and toco soup. I also bake chicken alot.
For us it has worked better to do food elimination rather food substitution. The only "substitute" foods I use on a regular basis are rice or corn spagetti, rice milk, and rice crackers. My son does not like gluten-free bread or alot of the other products. (However, alot of kids do.) I am able to do almost all of my shopping at a regular grocery store. We just don't buy alot of processed foods. The exceptions are Cocoa Pebbles, rice pasta, rice crackers, corn chips, plain potato chips.
It was difficult at first to change the way we shop and eat and figure out what products were safe. It is no longer a big deal. It is just habit and it is so worth it.