PizzaYes, Connor loves Domino's (only Domino's) pepperoni pizza, and yes, he will ask for it often, and eat it for all three meals when it is in the house, but I've never seen any behavioral change in him whatsoever when he eats it. No spaciness, or appearing to be high. It's a preseveration issue for him, not a biological one. He's obsessed with certain foods. He feels the same way about McDonald's. He's been tested for every food allergy known to man, and has none, nor has he ever had any gastrointestinal issues. But like I said before, sugar definately triggers his anxiety. He's a hair puller, so I'm always watching how what he eats effects his behavior. Dawn, I could start a whole new thread dedicated to my experience on South Beach and it's wonderful benefits! I try to sneak in it's principles with Connor wherever I can, but it isn't easy. Like I said earlier, I use his love of pizza and McD's to my advantage by using a "pay" system. If he wants Domino's, he has to have a serving of fruits or veggies first. It's all a trade off, and you have to know how to pick your battles. As he has grown older and understands the true benefits of healthy eating, it has become a little easier, but not much. We have been using a behaviorist for the past six months to help us with different strategies to get him to try new foods and eat healthier. You didn't mention how old Adam is. It sounds like our boys have a lot in common, including language based learning disabilities. The past two years were dedicated to getting the learning disabilities sorted out and finding the right school that was willing to develop the right education plan for him and be able to implement it. Now that he is all squared away with that and doing great academically, the anxiety is totally out of control I know you say he doesn't have any behavioral changes with eating regular pizza. But has he ever totally been on the gfcf diet? Just so you can see the difference. You can make a gfcf pizza. This is a slippery area and I don't want to offend anyone but I can't imagine a healthy diet even in a kid without issues wouldn't be better. Did anyone catch the movie Supersize (the movie about the guy who only ate McDonalds for a month) Yikes!! Although my son seemed to have no visable "allergic reaction" to pizza or any of these items. The effect of the GFCF diet has been nothing short of a miracle. It is not just what I think, but what others that do not know he is on a diet think. If you find that your child does not sleep well, try GFCF for a couple of weeks, and see the difference. After an unintentional challenge to his diet, I learned quickly that it affected his mood ( transitions), gripless responses to small problems. Blake is 6. The effects of pizza on him would not surface for 24-48 hours. He would have a more emotional response to small issues than without it. In addition, he would often wet the bed. After GFCF --no accidents completely dry. Amazing. [QUOTE=andrea]I know you say he doesn't have any behavioral
I'm not offended about discussing the GFCF diet. No, we have never tried it, and we don't plan to. I whole heartedly agree that healthy, unprocessed, preservative free food is what's best for ALL people. That's why I've been an adherent of South Beach for the past year. However, GFCF is not for Connor, and here's why: Connor is a very high functioning, fully verbal Asperger's kid. He has no behavior problems, or spaciness. He has moderate ADD which is controlled very well with medication. What he DOES have is difficulty reading and understanding social cues, severe learning disabilities, and above all else, severe anxiety disorder that we have not been able to get under control yet, and with the onset of puberty, I fear it will be several more years before we do. He stresses out over things most people would consider insignificant, and he has Trichotillomania, so when he stresses, he pulls out his eyelashes and hair on his head. Putting him on the GFCF diet, and taking away the foods that he loves, from a purely nutritional standpoint might make sense, but from an autism standpoint would reap no benefits. And the big down side would be the amount of anxiety he would experience. I can guarantee you he wouldn't have a single eyelash by the end of the first week. I'm not knocking GFCF. I know some people have had wonderful success with it. But it's not for everyone, and it is extremely difficult to implement once the child is past toddler/preschool age. Connor wasn't even diagnosed until he was seven. And like I said, nutritional benefits aside, it would create more behavioral problems than it would help.Karen, Conner sounds a lot like Adam. At first his anxiety was so bad we couldn't really tell what else was going on. I haven't tried the diet either because I feel like we don't need to trigger hix anxiety any more than it is already. Adam also has receptive language learning disabilty. We are trying to introduce more unprocessed food into his diet. (as well as ours) South Beach is a very good jumping point. It has been recommended by several doctors as a healthy diet. I know I feel overall better when I am not eating highly processed food. Just found out what you type on this web site can be picked up over the web. Be careful if you place pictures on this site. I went under google and typed in some words and this site popped up. I was able to read this over the web. (not just under Autism-PDD Message. Have a nice day! It was nice talking to you all. Mickey |
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This, of course, is due largely to the onset of puberty, and the beginning of the worst three years of any person's life: middle school. Sigh.