Discussing Autism

After Amy’s comment yesterday I promised to provide you more Gluten Free and Casein Free information.

Basically, how does one get started on the diet, where does one go, and what foods are best?

1. How does one get started?
The best and most effective way to get started on the diet is to eliminate milk and all milk products first, as they are the easiest to remove.
Milk includes foods like butter, whey, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, Pediasure, milk-based formulas, and all sub-ingredients. To replace milk, use Rice Milk or Almond Milk. “Soy is so close in molecular structure to casein that it should be avoided in the replacement of milk and yogurt. It may have to be eliminated all together later but at least avoid it as a total replacement for milk.” Soy milk is high in copper and can cause aggression in children and has also been linked to estrogen issues in girls.

However, many doctors do not recommend rice or almond milk because there is little nutrition in it. Please see your doctor for nutritional supplements. We use a calcium, magnesium, and vitamin D supplement to help aid the Rice Milk (we use West Soy Rice Beverage) we use. It can also serve as an antacid.

During the first two weeks, read the book Special Diets for Special Kids, Two to get more in depth information on the diet.

Go to GFCFDiet.com and gather all the information you can. Here is a list to get you started on unacceptable foods. However, there are even more detailed lists with the nitty gritty details of foods:

What is really a milk product? Dairy of NonDairy? Test your knowledge.

Kosher Foods…what does it take to make it dairy free?

Do you know where milk hides?

An awesome list to LABEL READ for Milk…

And yes, we do eat HOT DOGS…just buy Kosher.

2. To really get started…
Label read, label read, label read.

3. Now, head out to your local computer and purchase either pre-made breads or bread, muffin, and pancake and waffle mixes. (We are only focusing on casein here but you can get started on some gluten.) If you live in the Chicago area I know that Jewel carries Namaste mixes (Whole Foods is discontinuing them and their 365 brand contains casein.) and Miss Robens carries the whole stock of Namaste. I have found this brand to be the BEST for mixes (and we tried them all).

Purchase some pure olive oil (hydrolyzed vegetable protein/oil is sometimes derived from casein and canola oil is from corn which can aid yeast). The Whole Foods brand is only $3-4 so we purchase this one.

We stay clear of yeast breads due to yeast but Namaste has fantastic muffins, pancake and waffle mixes, pizza crust, and even sugar free products. AJ loves the chocolate chip cookies (even though he can only have them in limited amounts because of his copper issues and chocolate).

4. Be aware that there will be some behavior changes, both good and bad (think die-off). There will be some physical changes in the gut resulting in some stool changes. There might be some loose stools or some more solid stools depending on what you had before. You may see some improvement in speech or sleep and you may see vast improvement in sensory issues.

5. But, don’t expect miracles.

6. If you implement the GFCF diet you also need to be thinking about supplies around you house but this is a different post…body care, school supplies, craft supplies. I will get to it, don’t worry!

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