Diet

For us, "the diet" consisted of: gluten (wheat, oats, rye) free, casein free, soy free, corn free, artifical color/flavor free, and many, many other things. Basically he could tolerate only 8 things: rice, potato, beef, chicken, pork, pears, asparagus, and sometimes brocolli. We were able to use maple syrup, sugar, spectrum all natural organic shortening, coconut oil, gluten-free baking powder, baking soda, and rice, tapioca, and potato starch flours. We used Ener-G egg replacer. Eventually, with NAET we were able to clear eggs and dairy after one year.

Parents frequently ask, "should we do the diet if no results are evident?" Remember that every person is different. I don't believe every child can, should, or needs to do the diet. I only think the diet is necessary if food affects behavior or health which in our case it did. If it doesn't, why bother?

I will say though I think anyone can benefit from a diet free of artificial colors, flavors, MSG, and other artificial ingredients. But that is my own personal opinion and is not even necessarily related to autism. Also, I think it is important to give the diet significant time to see if it is working, and be honest in how stringently it is followed. Even a slight infraction can cause behaviors so eliminating just *some* and not *completely* may not be a good indication of whether it is working.

The best resource I can recommend for beginning glutenfree/caseinfree is Lisa Lewis' Special Diets for Special Kids. It has a depth of information, tips on getting started, staying on the diet, and many recipes. There are so many websites and books dedicated to this topic, I am not going to get in depth here. Simply web search on "gluten free autism" or see the links page. You can read in the recovery plan how we did the elimination diet and what exactly my son ate.

Parents often complain to me it is too difficult to do the diet. Believe me, I understand. I followed my son's diet for 2.5 years while I nursed him. It was not easy to give up pizza, icecream, chinese food, chocolate, and all but 8 foods for those years. In fact, it was one of the hardest things I have ever done. But it was worth every bit of effort to have a happy, functioning child and I learned an invaluable amount regarding my own health.

For those that may not be able to manage the diet for whatever reason, I would highly recommend enzymes. My son required No Fenol enzymes for several years. We saw a return of spacey and aggressive behaviors if he went off of them. Some choose to start with enzymes instead of the diet. This is a personal decision - only you can decide what is the best route for you.

One last thing, I do not have much faith in traditional skin testing for allergies. I believe them to be highly innacurate in many circumstances - particularly with false negatives, and give people a false sense of security so they continue to feed their child possibly harmful foods. This is my own personal opinion and I do have some statistics to support this. We did electro-accupressure testing with a naturopathic doctor: Dr. Richard Maurer, Portland, Maine.

However, with that said, if skin testing is your only option, it is better than no testing at all. I would just be cautious about feeding foods that came back with negative results. My son tested negative to every food but eggwhites on traditional allergy testing (blood), although he clearly reacted physically, immediately and delayed, to many, many foods.

If your child has a life-threatening allergy, it is imperative you work with a specialist.