The GF/CF Diet...How and why we got started

After Kaylee was diagnosed with autism I got to researching. I read lots and lots of books and found a lot of information on the Internet (much of it conflicting...none scientifically proven, but that's a whole other post) and I don't remember where I heard of it, but I read one of the must reads for autism moms: Unraveling the Mystery of Autism by Karyn Seroussi. Before I read this book I never knew that autism was something kids could recover from. I thought kids were born autistic!

In this book, Karyn Seroussi talks about one of the first interventions she implemented for her son was the Gluten Free/Casein Free diet. This diet is one that excludes all wheat and dairy.

The standing theory is: when our children with autism eat these foods they can become chemicals like drugs that can fog up our children's minds and/or trigger their immune systems. This could be due to the 'leaky gut" syndrome, but nothing has really been proven as far as I know. But one thing is for sure, it has helped many children with autism either recover or at least improve their condition.

Now I was glad that there may be hope for my little girl when I read that, but I wept with an overwhelming fear and trepidation, "how am I going to do something like that????" I was expecting my third child at the time and I had a 2 year old and a 4 month old. Where would I find the time to cook all of this stuff? And what if she didn't eat it?

I believed that Kaylee was a definite candidate for this diet, pending her constant diarrhea, pale sickly look, and her underweight body seemed to be reason enough for me to take this step, scary as it was for me.

First, I took out the milk and replaced it with soy milk. She seemed OK with that.

The wheat? That was the hard part. If you want to go gluten free and you don't have much money (like us), you have to cook from scratch. That's what I did! I found some recipes online to replace what Kaylee's "usuals" were and I haunted the health food stores.

At first, Kaylee didn't like her new diet. I remember when I put the first GF/CF chicken nuggets in front of her. She wanted her Tyson chicken nuggets. She gave me a puzzled look at first and then proceeded to ignore them. I didn't fight her about it, I just let her from out of her chair and eventually she became hungry enough to eat them (this was at dinnertime) and she still eats them today.

After a little time on the GF/CF diet, I noticed that Kaylee's speech increased, and her poops were better, but still not normal. I was disappointed with her lack of growth. I heard of stories about people's kids speaking sentences after their child's gluten-and-milk-induced fog lifted, but such was not our case.

However, that is where I could lead into the next thing: the diet wasn't the whole problem for Kaylee. Later, after starting Kaylee on the NIDS Protocol for awhile I started to see that we were removing her triggers one by one: viruses, yeast, allergies. We are still working on the allergies now. It is important to know that even if your child doesn't totally show an improvement on GF/CF, you may be missing a part of the picture, but still on the right path! I believe that most if not all of our kids with autism have an issue with these foods until they become healthier.

I have been cooking GF/CF for Kaylee for over a year and a half now, and now I have a system that works for us. I will be sharing some of my tips in my next post.

A cookin' fiend!

That's me lately...I have been burning things up in the kitchen. My wonderful husband was my hero and helped me late at night, too. (It's really hard to cook while holding an 11-month old.)

Last night we made Gluten free/Casein Free Meat Puffs. I didn't want to put a picture of them up here because they look gross! They taste awful too, but Kaylee loves them and we hide beef, carrots, sweet potatoes, and zucchini in them.

The night before that we made a bunch of GF/CF/Soy free/Egg free pancakes, too. Then I freeze them, because it is so convenient (and necessary!) to have stuff already made and ready to pop in the microwave.

The reason for all this cooking is that I am yet again cutting another ingredient from Kaylee's diet because I have to be totally sure there is not a food allergy going on and that ingredient is soy. And soy is in EVERYTHING! So basically I have to make everything she eats from scratch now. But that's ok. She's more than worth it!

Dr. Russell didn't tell me to do this, he told me he doesn't think her diet is the culprit here for her allergies and the return of her "bad poops". I think he's right but I need to be totally sure. I will be finding more out about that very soon, I believe.

So that is all for now...May God be with you!

Another Piece of the Puzzle

I have been experiencing too many problems with Kaylee and I knew something has been wrong. She had recently begun taking Singulair for allergies and Lexapro to help restore blood flow in the brain. But Kaylee became hyperactive, excessively irritable (notice I said excessive, she usually has irritability anyways), and I couldn't reach anyone to find out what to do because of the holidays! First I stopped giving Kaylee the Lexapro, and the problems persisted so I discontinued the Singulair.

I just knew something still wasn't right but I couldn't put my finger on it, so to speak. Three days after we stopped the Singulair, Kaylee had hives.

Day after day this kept happening, each day getting worse, with Kaylee's hives getting bigger and her behavior getting worse. She started to get diarrhea and her nose kept on dripping and she was not sick. When I thought about it, I noticed a pattern emerging: it was happening after certain meals...Kaylee never displayed any with foods before, but now everytime she eats anything with strawberries she has an allergic response.

Now that Kaylee's immune system isn't needing to address her viral and yeast issues because of the medications she is on, her allergies are flaring up.

Right now I am scaring myself a bit, because I am wondering if Kaylee needs the Elimination Diet to identify any other possible triggers. Our number one priority in the NIDS Protocol is to cool down the immune system, and if the foods she is eating are causing an immune response, we have to find a way to decrease it. If her immune system continues to act up, and even more difficult, I believe that she may need the Rotation Diet to prevent any new allergies to food.

Maybe I will make a post explaining more about food allergies and more about the basics of immune system function soon. I need to brush up on some of it myself. I believe it is extremely important to understand the immune system if you have a child with autism because it is a key issue, if not one of the most imporant one.

If you want to do some research into food allergies yourself, check out the book Is This Your Child by Dr. Doris Rapp.

In the mean time, may God bless you richly with His wisdom! (James 1:5)
-Jennie