I am just starting this diet for my ds with severe autism. He just had food allergy testing done. I had considered trying GFCF diet before but was apprehensive. His test showed he is allergic to corn, rice, soy, eggs, and fish. Everything but GFCF! Glad I didn't try that diet, it was everything he could eat. Also glad we didn't go back to DAN doctor since I don't think she would have done allergy testing. So we are just starting this. Basically just meat and fresh or frozen veggies, nothing canned. It doesn't sound too bad, I will have the whole family eating healthy. The doc said would take about a month for him to stop vomiting. So I guess I don't have an answer for your question, but I thought it was interesting after all my research about gut issues and diet. My son had no other visible symptoms, but an upper GI scope showed eosinophilic esophagits, then got referral to allergist. This is a newer disease that many doctors don't know much about. I have switched doctors so many times over the years trying to find someone that would tell me his constant vomiting was NOT normal. I have been poisoning my son for 7 years! I want to encourage everyone that thinks their child has gut issues to keep looking for answers. I will call his pediatrician to thank him for the referral even though he said vomiting was okay. Also, with the allergy testing, the school has to comply with his diet. Has anyone tried just a plain organic diet (no dyes, processed foods) or a general allergy elimination diet without doing GFCF that had any positive results?I just started adjusting my son's diet over the last month. Dyes were the first thing to go! My son's DAN doctor is an allergist so he recommends that ALL people stay away from processed foods and dyes (Feingold diet I believe it's called). I haven't seen any changes in my son, but I think minimizing the intake of processed foods and dyes makes great sense. I've always been a terrible eater (I love junk) so I am making an effort to try this on myself as well. We do the feingold like diet and the changes have been amazing...in fact, we don't drink tap water and my 4 yr old had some at school and he was wild all afternoon...I also use a water ball for the tub that turns...I think that the less chemicals that you can put in our kids, the better off they will be...I am learning that autistic kids don't always have the ability to flush these things out like others can!!! For us, chemicals make my kids more frustrated and irritable!!!I was a non-believer in diet issues. Until Legoland in California. Daughter was doing great, behaving well, things were going just fantastic. We decided to get some lunch and gave her a hot dog. Within a short while she was screaming, angry, yelling and rolling on the ground. And for no apparent reason cause we did not do or tell her anything that should have caused any reaction and the lunch was a quick grab at a stand so it did not slow us up any. Since then I've noticed a similar reaction though not as severe when she gets such food at school or if we try to give her bacon or other processed meat. This has gotten better with time and we do give her some bacon now. Anyway, yes we have an informal list of foods we avoid. Fortunately we may also be the only family in the country that the DAN! doctor said did not have to go gfcf. I thought that was just standard, but apparently not.
My godson did improve after cleaning up the diet (whole foods, organic, etc)... and then after taking enzymes, cod liver oil and probiotics, he was completely transformed (within a matter of months). He was completely non-verbal at 3 years old. Now he will be attending regular school in the fall.
Bottom line: it can't hurt to clean up the diet.