firstdonoharm2

Hi John's Mom,
My daughter has been on the GF/CF diet since Jan/2001. I suggest you get ahold of one or two very good books on how to implement it, Special Diets for Special Kids by Lisa Lewis and/or Unravelling the Mystery of Austim and PDD by Karyn Seroussi. You will need some very explicit instruction in implementing this diet that the GF/CF websites don't offer and that you can find in either of these two books. Lisa Lewis' book also offers alot of recipes.
I have found that I can find alot of GF/CF foods at Fred Meyer (noticed you live in WA), though you have to know what ingredients to avoid. An example of how tricky this diet can be in terms of identifying acceptable foods you must read the ingredients and be able to recognize some that may seem innocuous but are not allowed, ie "modified food starch" may be derived from wheat.
They have a line of breakfast cereals called Envirokidz that my daughter likes especially. But don't get the choco rice krispies - they have barley malt (gluten) in them.
I had my daughter on the diet for a month before I saw any improvement. The most dramatic difference came once I added a digestive enzyme with each meal. Within 3 days of adding the special peptidase enzyme she was calmer, less tantrums, better focus, more eye contact and stopped her self-injurious behaviors. The enzyme helped breakdown any opiod peptides that had been hanging around in her system. And the enzyme also helps when accidental gluten/casein ingestions occur - and they will! Good luck, it's time consuming at first but well worth the effort!