Special diets and autism? - Autism Spectrum Message Board

CerebralChaos · 01-08-2006, 04:59 PM

For the past two years or so, my mom has had my brother on a special, "natural" diet that's allegedly beneficial. Gluten-free, wheat-free, etc. etc, so it is a bit limiting. Anyway, I don't recall if it has an actual name, but has anyone had any experience with these? Do they actually work? Now, my mother is all gung-ho about it, but myself as well as some other family members are rather skeptical; it hasn't seemed to help at all, and it seems a bit pointless, quite frankly [based on personal research and just observation alone]. If anything, he's gotten a bit worse. He's never talked [aside from noises, repeating, or saying the minimum amount of words required to answer a question] really, and now he only seems more withdrawn [but not unhappy necessarily, just more quiet] and uninterested. Granted, that could be a growing up thing.

He's 14, by the way. Soon to be 15.

Now, I know I'm no expert. Nor am I a parent, for that matter. It's just that I grow weary of some people acting as if autistic children are like broken toys that need to fixed, or poked and prodded like lab rats. Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I'm just wondering what you all think about those sort of diets. After all, if eating certain foods like french toast and ice cream every so often makes him happy [when he takes pleasure in such few things now], why take it away when it hasn't made any apparent difference for the past few years? But I digress.

heartcreature · 01-08-2006, 05:32 PM

I would have to agree that if there has been no improvement it seems pointless, but coming from a parents viewpoint I understand them trying to do all they can to improve your brothers quality of life. As a parent with an autistic child I'm never sure if I'm doing the right thing for my child.
If certain peoples theory is correct and autism has something in common with the flora of the gut then the gluten free diet is a good thing. The thing is that it's not all been proven.

2cutekids · 01-09-2006, 06:47 AM

My son is on this diet for the last 1 1/2 yrs and I can say, with out a doubt, it was the single best thing that I have ever done for him. He can now hold conversations with us, not flap or screach, and reason and he just all around better. He is learning again after about 6 mos before the diet that he just stayed the same. 6 mos is alot in a childs life.

He is in a mainstream kingergarten class and recieves only about 2 hours of services through the school a week, at that is social skills and speech cause he never had it before. Most think that he will only need it for a few years at the most, maybe only next yr and that is it.

I owe all this to the diet. There are some kids that don't react to the diet and sometimes something is sneeking in that you don't realize and corrupting the results.

ThreeBoys · 01-09-2006, 11:42 AM

The diet is called the gf/cf diet. Look it up, because it makes so much sense! You basically have to stay on it for a long period of time to get all the junk out of his system, that could be causing him problems. I don't know the facts about your brother..verbal, non verbal, stimming, etc... But when you start this diet and I mean NO sneaking foods he can't have, they may seem a little worse at the beginning because their body is craving the foods they can't have. Like detoxing, withdrawl. I have my son (4yrs) on the diet now for 5 weeks, and it's HARD. He "stole" a cookie at the grocery store the other day, and he had diarreah for 2 days straight! There is gluten in everything!! Right down to lip balm! There are great desserts he can have and great tasting things that have no gluten in them. And as far as making him happy, it may be doing damage to his body. Has your mom sent off stool,urine and blood samples to see what s going on inside of him?

It's a very hard thing to have a child w/ autism because there is no protocol to follow. No one knows how to treat the person(medically, biomedically) so you have to try a bunch of things! And not everything works for every body.

And like you said about them being treated as if they're" broken" so to speak...I want to make my son healthy. If he will never talk, so be it...but I can be his advocate, and be the person who helps him "feel "better...A lot of parents have to go through a mourning stage. Mourning the child they aren't going to get. Trying to make them "normal". But if they can find a way to help communication, to help digestive problems, and to reach their child in a way no one else can, then I hope they try everything!!! From diet, to chelation to supplements...

I don't want to change my son. If I changed him and formed him then he wouldn't be himself, he'd be a robot. I want him to be the best little boy HE can be! I hope I've helped. Look up the diet and find a DAN! dr website. It makes a lof sense. And maybe you can help your mom out since you sound so concerned and thoughtful. But I'm sure you do that already!!!

sherry092 · 01-09-2006, 12:59 PM

Question- I was considering this diet, but my son is on a feeding tube. The formula we make hima t night has whey in it-- is whey a no no on this diet?