I need diet advice/hand holding/somebody wiser telling me what to do!
About 8 months ago, I put my 4 year old autistic son on the GFCF diet. We saw an allergist first and were told that he had no food allergies and tested negative for celiac disease, but we tried it anyway because we figured it couldn’t hurt and it just might help. We went cold turkey all in one day, and he didn’t have any withdraws or miss too many of the foods. He’s a good eater; he’ll try anything I put in front of him and his favorite meal is salad without dressing. There were no changes for almost 3 months, and then I felt like I started to see some improvement in eye contact and speech and sleep and diapers. They weren’t big changes, but I felt like they were there.
Since then, we’ve seen his sleep and behavior and poo fluctuate in cycles that don’t seem to have anything to do with the diet (I’m actually stating to think it has something to do with the weather). We’ve also been to a pediatric gastroenterologist who (with the help of a resident and med student who were very excited to be able to work on an autistic kid) tested him for everything imaginable, including “leaky gut syndrome” – which I am told he does *not* have.
So now I wonder…Did 8 months on the diet heal up his intestines? What would that test have shown if they had run it before going GFCF? Or is it possible that the diet really doesn’t do anything for him and any improvements were imagined or related to something else?
So a few days ago I gave him pizza and yogurt for lunch and waited for his head to explode. No changes, other than his quiet joy at being allowed to eat pizza for the fist time in 8 months. Behavior, speech, eye contact, diapers…all the same. He slept fine that night. The second night, he was up at 2AM, but that’s common on the diet too.
Is it possible that his gut has healed enough to let him eat these foods again? Is a partial GFCF diet OK? If I keep him on soy milk and corn pasta and rice cakes, can he have the occasional slice of pizza or scoop of ice cream?
I seriously have no idea what I’m doing at this point, but I’ve come to learn that when it come to ASD, the parents know just as much as the doctors. Does anyone have a similar story? Advice? Recommendations?
What test did they run to check and see if he has leaky gut? IF they did a peptide test, then if your child has already been gluten/casein free the test is not valid. Little Byrd will have lots more technical info on this one. But basically, if you have already taken your child off of wheat and dairy, then they will not be able to test to see if they have leaky gut.
And yes, leaky gut can be healed, but I'm pretty sure it takes longer than 8 months. Maybe a year or two.
I have the same question! I am hoping someone knows, if you find out please let me know!
Thanks!