Discussing Autism

The Gluten and Casein free diet has been getting a lot of press from Jenny McCarthy. The diet has never been proven but thousands of parents know that it works, including us.

Allen Lewis M.D. wrote in the Autism Society of America publication, Advocate, “Controlled studies of the GFCF diet and the ketogenic diet have indicated improvement. A dietary trial is safe and the best way to determine if dietary restrictions are of benefit.”

The first place to start before determining if the GFCF diet is the appropriate way to go is to perform allergy tests. Skin tests and blood tests, called RAST testing can determine if there is a physical allergy to Gluten products (wheat, oats, rye, barley, bulgar, durun, kamut, and spelt), and Dairy (casein) including products like cheese, butter, milk yogurt, ice cream, whey and margarines.

Additional testing may be needed to rule out lactose intolerance as well. This is AJ’s issue with all milk products and casein. Due to his history of H Pylori, he no longer has the lactose enzyme to process lactose. AJ does not have a “behavior issue” with lactose but can not process it. He does have behavior issues with gluten and a true oat allergy that was discovered with allergy testing.

The theory behind the behavior issues and the GFCF diet is that gluten and casein act as opiates in their bodies and it alters their behavior, thus altering their perceptions and responses to their environment.

According to the official GFCF Diet website, (one I frequent often) the theory is that the guy of children with autism is damaged from a weaker immune system. This “leaky gut” allows for food proteins from gluten and casein to pass through to the brain and create an opiate-like effect. Because opiates are a type of narcotic the gluten/casein foods act as a type of drug (morphine/heroin) for our children.

Our story is similar to millions of other families on the GFCF diet. However, we knew from the time we adopted AJ that he was lactose intolerant, as the orphanage had told us he was allergic to dairy. They had told us he had grown out of it but we were cautious and gave him few milk products. Once we realized he could not tolerate milk we quickly removed ALL casein from his diet. It was a difficult learning curve but one I should have learned years ago because I am allergic to dairy. (I have never abided by the diet because I can’t bear to and my symptoms are not that bad).

Once casein was gone we started to see what a difference that made in in health and began to explore his sensory needs. His Sensory Attachment Therapist suggested we try removing gluten and so we did. It was relatively painless and almost a miracle. He began to look us in they eye, respond to us, laugh more, talk more, stim less, and become so much more of a person.

I look back at before and after pictures and I see two different kids.

Before

After

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