please help us! we're going nuts!

tonysmomndad

New Member
We have started our difficult child on a glutn/casien free diet for the past week now, and have been very strict to what we have educated ourselves on. However, we have seen no improvement , only constant anguish in our difficult child. He protests every new gluten/casien free food that we give him. Endless crying and tantrum. His amount of consumption has decreased dramaticaly. No noticed change in his attitude or behavior. I have heared from his school teachers that urine tests from a specialist should be done to evaluate wheather or not this diet will do any good. I have debated if we should contiue with this diet until testing, but we have no idea where to find a doctor to provide these services. Our local pediatrician seems to know very little regarding autism, and we live in a fairly small town with no other choices. We were wondering if anyone had any other insight as to where to start, or where to find the right doctor to do the testing. Cheaper places to purchase theese foods would be great too! :hammer:
 

Josie

Active Member
I pm'd you the name of the lab I used for testing. You send it in yourself and get the results.

If you are buying girlfriend/CF alternative food, I agree with him, it isn't very good. It will be easier and cheaper if you give him naturally gluten/casein free food. Fruits and vegetables, lunch meat rolled up and eaten plain or rolled in a heated corn tortilla, Lays potato chips, candy as a treat (Skittles are girlfriend/CF).
 

LovingAbbey

New Member
My difficult child has too many food allergies to bother listing them individually. But once I found out about the allergies we started experimenting with how to make foods she could eat. I involved her in the whole process, from deciding what we would have, to helping prepare the foods.

What was key in this was that I ate the foods too!!! I didn't eat only what she could have but I ate the foods I was giving her. I often tried them first and if I hated them, she didn't have to try it if she didn't want to.

Now she eats a lot of fruits and veggies. I try to make most meals allergin free for difficult child. Some foods are more expensive than non-gluten free. So she has rice pasta (3 bucks a pack) and husband and I have reg pasta (69 cents) but we use the same sauce and topping (ie sausage, hamburger, veggies, etc). I've learned how to make meatloaf she can eat with no gluten or eggs. She makes her and I make one for husband and I. I use a margerine that she can eat in all the cooking I do. We have been baking breads together and making cookies. Her birthday cake this year was a gluten-free, vegan cake with cocoa free chocolate frosting. This was the cake I served at her party for everyone. It's not as good as a regular cake but it's darn close. The activities are good time together and make her more interested in eating the foods. Every weekend we plan on making a big batch of something "Abbey-friendly".

The goal has always been for her diet to look like everyone else's and taste as good as possible. And it's actually at lot healthier!
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
Yes, I know several middle aged women who had arthritis and it completely abated when they went gluten-free.
Thanks for the baking reminder... I have to practice making cakes and cookies.
 

mattsmum

New Member
I brought my difficult child to a naturopathic doctor. They did a single finger-:censored2: blood test that tests for 96 food sensitivities. The results are available in 2 weeks. What you get is a chart that rates the sensitivities from low to high. It cost me about $160 out-of-pocket, although I am sending the bill in to see if I can get reimbursed.
 

Doc Bob

New Member
A good book regarding ADD but has applicability to Autism....is Delivered from Distraction by Ed Hallowell MD and John Ratey MD...
 
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