I've had quite a few people asking me about autism, ADHD and diet recently so I thought a blog post would be appropriate.
This is one of the main reasons I'm as obsessed with nutrition as I am. I've seen first hand the drastic effect diet can have on behavior. (This is the only digital picture I could find near the time of his diagnosis)
Almost 8 years ago, our oldest son (referred to as A#1 in all my posts), was diagnosed with autism shortly before he turned 3. We were noticing signs from the time he was a small baby but being first time parents, we didn't realize they were signs. The first sign was lack of eye contact. We just thought it was funny how he would do everything in his power to not look at us when we were holding him. My mom said we should mention it to the doctor but I didn't see why. I had no idea that lack of eye contact was a sign for anything. He was slow to talk, but I'm not a big talker myself so I just thought I didn't talk to him enough. By the time he was 2 with only a couple words and lots of jibberish, we were getting concerned. I was especially concerned because he seemed to not understand us at all either. I knew babies comprehension was usually larger than their expressive language. My mom again told us we should mention it to the doctor, but I still didn't didn't believe something was wrong.
And the obsessions! When people would tell me their child was obsessed with something like cars, I would laugh and say they had no idea what obsession was. My child was obsessed. Fans, wheels, washing machines (basically anything that spun), electrical outlets and phones. Oy the phones! We actually had to lock our phone in a kitchen cabinet out of his reach to keep him from calling people at age 2. We had "time and temp" programmed into the phone so he could "talk" to someone when no one else was available.
The breaking point was a conversation my sister had with my uncle's sister, a special ed teacher who worked mostly with autistic children. We had been to a birthday party at my aunt and uncle's house where Barb was able to interact with A#1. She spotted the signs right away. God bless her for saying something to my sister. My sister very gently let me know what Barb had said so I finally had the kick in the butt to make some phone calls. I had no idea that autism had many different faces, not just the face of Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man.
So now we'll jump forward a few months after confirming with a child clinical psychologist and early childhood experts with the school, high functioning autism. Here I need to thank my mom and Uncle Munch for instilling basic nutrition facts in me from the start. My mom used the Feingold diet with us kids when we were small so I was well aware of the fact that diet can affect behavior. The first thing I did with Alex was start researching diet and autism. I was already aware of the gluten/casein connection but knew there had to be more.
I stumbled upon the SCD (specific carbohydrate diet) and it seemed to be the answer. I purchased the book, "Breaking the Vicious Cycle" and immediately changed his diet. Basically you remove anything that takes effort for you body to digest. Protein and monosaccharides are what you can eat. Meat, nuts, properly cultured dairy only, cooked fruits and veggies, that's it. No grains, no startches. The key to a diet like this is to focus on what you can have and not what you can't. While it may seem restrictive, it's incredibly healthy. To make it easier on Alex, the whole family ate this way for the most part (we'd sneak forbidden foods when he was sleeping). For 2 years he ate this way. We noticed within months of starting the diet, his vocabulary increased exponentially. His activity level was more on the level of other boys his age, he could handle change better and better, hand flapping disappeared, obsessions... well, that's about the only thing we still deal with. He's spinning my salad spinner right now as I'm writting this. But salad spinners are pretty cool...
We were on the strict SCD for 2 years and slowly worked over to a modified gluten free/casein free diet. Sugar is very strictly limited, no soy and limited grains as well. He seems to do totally fine on unpasteurized cow milk (it's interesting that we tolerate unpasteurized but not pasteurized). We also follow the Weston Price Foundation guidelines of eating real foods: Meats, eggs and milk fed on pasture; cod liver oil and sunlight; lots of fresh veggies; bone broths; lacto-fermented foods, yogurt and all sorts of probiotics. We've gotten to the point where if he gets wheat on accident, he's fine but I still won't add it back into our diet as a regular guest. Maybe at some point I'll be ready to try soaked/sprouted wheat or true sourdough bread, but I'm still scared of gluten.
Recently I came across and new diet called GAPS (gut and psychology syndrome) diet. From what I understand, it's like a mix of the SCD and the Weston A. Price Foundation principles. This is the diet I point people to now. http://www.gapsdiet.com
After having A#1 on the diet for a few years, I noticed that I too have a gluten intolerance. I was in denial for the longest time, but when I realized my morning sickness symptoms were exactly the same as my sister's gluten intolerant symptoms (yes, it runs in the family) I was finally convinced. Apparently it hits me much harder while pregnant. I was able to enjoy my last pregnancy almost completely morning sickness free!
Back to A#1, now he's 10 1/2 and doing superbly awesome! His pediatrician a few years back told us to just forget the diagnosis. Aside from a few quirks (salad spinner, driving us nuts with computers and lawn mowers), he's a perfectly normal boy. Well behaved, social, loving, intelligent, all around awesome kid.
I love talking nutrition and kids so if anyone has any questions, please ask. Email me or comment below. I'd love to hear from you.
