When Alexia was first diagnosed with autism we really knew nothing about autism or autism diets. We had of course heard about autism but had never really given it much thought.
Almost four years ago , after wondering what could possibly be wrong with Alexia over the past few years, she was diagnosed with autism and we had to start learning all we could about how to deal with things differently. For the first year we spent most of our time just trying to learn to deal with the tantrums Alexia was having on an almost daily basis.
These were not your typical 3 year old's tantrums but something almost unnatural. Actually I suppose they were someone unnatural and definitely not something easy to learn to handle.
At some point, Liz learned from Alexia's doctors that there was something that seemed to cause a drug like symptom in her system. Liz says they compared it to being something like morphine that children with autism for some reason have.
It seems their system sometimes acts in a way such as to have the same chemicals as what may be in morphine. Needless to say this explained the way she sometimes acted. Put a child on drugs of this nature and I would imagine there might be some similar reactions as in the tantrums and inability to focus and retain information.
One day while watching Oprah there was a woman by the name of Jenny McCarthy and she started talking about the autism diet. I don't know if she actually called it the autism diet but I remember she talked about how the change in her son's diet had made such a difference almost immediately. She started talking about how she had changed his diet to completely cut out wheat and dairy.
Ms. McCarthy spoke of a gluten free, casein free diet which some have called the autism diet which she explained basically meant no wheat no dairy. I called my daughter immediately, excited to tell her all about it and she said she had already heard about this autism diet.
I have to say I was just shocked that she hadn't given it a try immediately. I mean anything would have been worth a try if it meant that Alexia might begin to behave differently or to learn how to speak a little more clearly. I pretty much gave her a hard time and said she absolutely had to look into this and give it a try.
Mind you it isn't always easy to change a child's diet especially if they really do have autism. Products that fit the criteria can be difficult to find and also may be more expensive but......
After a week or two Liz called to say she had started to really find out more about what this autism diet meant and was going to try to find different foods for Alexia. One of the first things she changed was Alexia's milk. This proved to be quite a challenge as Alexia just happened to love milk and so at first she simply refused to drink the new milk.
The new milk is soy milk which isn't to hard to find but is more expensive. We found out we could get it a Aldi though and that definitely helps.
I do want to point out thought that the difference in the way Alexia started changing almost immediately would have made the soy milk worth just about any price.
While Liz did keep her away from bread and pasta for a while she eventually found that the wheat in moderation didn't seem to bother Alexia as much as the dairy. One of her favorite foods is pasta but she has to eat it plain with maybe a touch of salt. She just hasn't learned to eat grown up food such as pasta sauce yet.
Alexia can no longer have any milk chocolate, cheese, butter, or any other dairy products. When I say she can't have dairy I am saying for Alexia this means not one bite or the change is dramatic as if she is completely transformed into a different child.
I hope you enjoyed this article and that it gives you some ideas and hope but I also suggest you find out more before putting your child on what they call the autism diet.
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