I asked a friend of mine to share how a gluten and casein (dairy) free diet has changed her daughter's life. This is what she had to share. . . .
"Our
daughter was diagnosed with high-functioning autism right around her third
birthday. Like many parents, we began
obsessively scouring the internet for research on what to do next. We
researched therapies from the mainstream to the unconventional. Through our research, we encountered people
discussing the importance of a gluten-free, casein-free diet for children on
the spectrum. It would be mild to say
that we were skeptical. We pretty much scoffed at the idea. How on earth could diet affect a condition
that was neurological? My prevailing sentiment was, “if life is going to be
more challenging for my daughter, she might as well be able to enjoy
cheese.” And since she often restricted
her diet to cheese, bread and milk anyway, the thought of taking those items
away seemed impossible so we dismissed it out of hand.
Over time,
our daughter’s symptoms caused us to consider that changing her diet might be
worth trying. We began to notice that
our daughter would vomit on occasion for no apparent reason. She would vomit for a day and it would
pass, but no one else in our household would be ill. Her pallor was always pale
with dark circles under her eyes and she struggled with pretty severe
constipation. And when she did get the stomach flu, it would take her days
longer to recover than the rest of us.
It became obvious to us that something in her digestive tract was
unusual, but nothing could be pinpointed.
Overall, she seemed unhappy, uncomfortable and sick all the time. She would wake up most mornings with intense
meltdowns, crying for sometimes close to an hour. Finally, after another episode of vomiting my
husband and I decided to give the GFCF diet a shot. We committed to two weeks and that was all.
We were so tired of seeing her look ill and unhappy all the time we figured we
had nothing to lose.
We removed
gluten and casein from her diet right after her fourth birthday and without a
doubt, changing our daughter’s diet has given us the most significant results
of any therapies we’ve tried. Within
days off of dairy, she began to respond to questions without us having to
repeat them multiple times. She
reciprocated in conversation, which had never happened before. Her meltdowns
became less frequent and less severe.
Color returned to her complexion and her dark circles went away. The vomiting ceased. And best of all, she stopped waking up in a
meltdown state. For the first time, she
began waking up in good spirits. And the
most surprising aspect of all was that she got on board with the diet. There
was some resistance in the beginning but I think she was able to make the
connection that those foods were making her ill. We would tell her we needed to change milks
because we were afraid it was making her sick and she wouldn’t complain. Within a few weeks, she was pretty adjusted
to a new way of eating and relatively okay with the changes. She still limits her diet quite a bit (like
lots of kids on the spectrum) but she eats better than before.
In spite of
these great changes, we tried putting gluten and casein back in her diet for a
few weeks earlier this summer. I think this experience was the greatest proof
we needed that the diet was working. Our
pediatrician (who doesn’t have any faith in the diet) suggested we go off for a
while. I was feeling fatigued by the limitations of her diet and thought it was
a good idea. I mean, what if the changes
were just developmental or results of her other therapies? So we went off the diet and hoped for the
best. Within days, the volume and intensity
of her meltdowns increased. She became
less responsive and attentive and her sensory sensitivities seemed much more
intense. And she began waking up in a
meltdown state again. I felt like kicking myself for bringing cheese back into
her life! Needless to say, it didn’t take us long to scratch our doctor’s plan
and go back to eating GFCF.
Seeing the impact of being off the
diet made us thankful to be reminded what a huge impact the GFCF diet has
made. Honestly, I feel like it enables
our daughter to enjoy her life and be happy rather than in pain. The diet isn’t a cure-all for our
daughter. She still struggles with the
impact of autism and has not been “recovered.” But I feel like it gives her a
chance to be happy in her body, which she wasn’t before. I’ve read studies and
speculation about why the diet works but being able to accurately explain
“leaky gut” hasn’t had near the impact of seeing the changes with my own eyes,
which is ironic since before trying the diet I would have dismissed my story as
insubstantial anecdotal evidence.
Will the diet help all kids with
autism? Sadly, probably not. I’ve read about people having tremendous
results with their children and some having no results at all. In no way am I claiming that everyone will have
results like we’ve experienced, even though I wish it were that easy. I wanted to share our experience in case
anyone is questioning whether this would be a next step for their family.
Obviously, we think it’s worth a shot.
*If you want to consider giving the
diet a chance one very helpful resource we used is the book, Nourishing Hope by Julie Matthews. It broke down the nutritional aspect better
than any book we read on the subject. It
was very approachable and worth checking out at the library or purchasing at
Amazon. TACA.org is also a very helpful
organization that can help get you started."
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