For those of you who have tried to elimate dairy from your children's
diet and uas the GF/CF diet when did your children begin to show
symptoms of food allergies or was it always an issue for them?
My ds is just a little over 2 and he is not a picky eater.
Everyone is amazed at all the different things he eats. (Salmon,
Spinach, Broccoli, Baked Chicken, all different kinds of fruits except
banannas, and yogurt to name a few) Not to be gross but he has
always been regular with his bowels and hardly ever irritable.
The reason the I am asking is that about 3 weeks ago he started with
what we thought was a cold, runny nose and a slight cough.
He was to his regular ped last week and we will probably start
antibiotics tomorrow for a possible sinus infection. This would
be his first sinus infection and he has only had 2 ear infections in
his young life.
I have just ordered the Dr. Bock book and since I have pretty much
finished my reading on ABA and Floortime stuff I can now begin to
concentrate on the Biomedical stuff. It is all so overwhelming
and I feel guilty feeding him dairy thinking that it might be making
him not feel well.
Thanks in advance for you input. Have a good night
Don't feel guilty! There is no conclusive scientific evidence that the GFCF diet works, but there's enough anecdotal evidence that it's reasonable to try it if and when it feels right for your family. The Norwegian government came out with a brochure to help people make that decision. I posted a summary of it here:
http://www.autism-pdd.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=19595&am p;PN=2
We do not do the diet. My son had his urine peptides checked as part of his autism evaluation by the hospital's multidisciplinary team, and it came back normal for gluten and casein.
My son has lactose intolerance, however. This we noticed at age 1. If we gave him more milk products than usual one day, we noticed he got the runs. If we cut them out the next day, his bowel movements were back to normal.
My son can tolerate a certain amount of lactose, but not on an empty stomach, so we avoid yogurt at breakfast, but it's okay at lunch. Ice cream is the hardest for him to digest.
below are some good resouces. when you are giving antibiotic, make sure he gets a probiotic. antibiotic kills all good bacteria and leaves you gut (and body) vulnerable to a bunch of problems. another big problem w/ our kids is yeast.
Gluten-free/ Casien-free diet (GFCF) – leaky gut
http://members.aol.com/lisas156/gfpak.htm
http://www.tacanow.com/dietinfo.htm
http://www.greatplainslaboratory.com/book/bk8sect1.html
http://osiris.sunderland.ac.uk/autism/durham95.html
http://www.autism.com/ari/faq.htm#_Diets
http://www.autismwebsite.com/ari/dan/reichelt.htm
GF/CF Books:
Unraveling the Mysteries of Autism and PDD by Karen Seroussi
Special Diets for Special Kids I & II by Lisa Lewis (also a recipe book)
GF/CF Yahoo Group: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/GFCFKids/?yguid=1365527 97
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/GFCFrecipes/
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/ANDI-ADI/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FOODALLERGYKITCHEN/?yguid=1365 52797
Yeast overgrowth – leaky gut (also see SCD below)
http://www.autism.org/candida.html
http://www.stillpointhealth.com/Page.html
http://www.stillpointhealth.com/AntifungalParadeTreatment.ht ml
http://www.healing-arts.org/children/antifungal.htm
http://www.autismwebsite.com/ari/newsletter/candida.htm
http://www.autismndi.com/gut.htm
http://www.greatplainslaboratory.com/yeast.html (you can also order testing here)
http://www.expertwaterproofing.com/html/autism.html
http://www.enzymestuff.com/conditionbacteria.htm
http://www.yeastconnection.com/
http://osiris.sunderland.ac.uk/autism/durham95.html
Yeast Books:
Biological Treatments for Autism and PDD (Revised 2002 Ed) by William Shaw
Children with Starving Brains (2007) by Jaquelyn McCandless
Biomedical Assessment Options for Children with Autism and Related Problems (2005) by SM Baker, MD and Jon Pangborn, PhD
These books are not directly related to autism, but have great information:
Yeast Connection Handbook (1999) by William Crook
Yeast Connection, Medical Breakthrough (1987) by William Crook
Yeast Connection Cookbook; Guide to Good Nutrition and Better Health (1989) by William Crook
Our son's bm problem disappeared within 2 days of going off dairy. Dairy was the one I worried most about removing because he loved his milk drinks and yoghurts but at 3 yo, he was young enough for it to be done quite easily.
I would not have picked my son was intolerant to gluten but the blood test picked it up.
However, all of this made it a lot easier to pick my daughters intolerances to both dairy and gluten
Kim