what to do?

tonysmomndad

New Member
We have had our difficult child on a girlfriend/cf diet for six weeks now and also seeing a naturopathic doctor. He is becoming violent with us and is intentionally harming himself by slamming his head and body onto the floor. Hasn't slep but for a a couple of hours in any given night. Screams at the top of his lungs constantly. Anyone been here before? Any insight? We have actually thought about medications at this point, but don't know.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Do you have him in any interventions outside of a diet? I would definitely have him in every intervention you can. My son was very self-harmful until his interventions. We never put him on a diet, but he's doing great, and I credit that to all the help he got in speech, Occupational Therapist (OT), PT, social skills and life skills. He is medication-free because he really doesn't require any medications. Autistic kids often act out when they are beyond frustrated. They NEED a lot of outside help, most of that coming from the school district.
 

tonysmomndad

New Member
Anthony is in a very good preschool, with physical therapy, speech, everything imaginable. We try everything they tell us, but the thing that has had us up at night is the violence. I spoke to his naturopathic dr. this morning and he said to maybe stop the girlfriend/cf diet. We wanted to test it and we gave him a cup of milk......15 minutes later , he wrote most of his abc's on a piece of paper for the first time! Not sure if it is a coinceidence or what.
 

Josie

Active Member
I can address the diet part of this. My kids are also girlfriend/CF but are not autistic. Now that they are on that diet, tiny traces of gluten or casein can cause extreme behaviour problems. Not quite as extreme as what you are describing but my younger daughter has thrown herself around in a fit before. My older daughter is more likely to be violent with others. We have to be very strict about cross contamination to avoid this. Is it possible your child's behaviour could be related to getting some gluten or casein? It may not show up immediately but within a day or two.

Even if that is the case, it would still be worth other interventions and/or medications. It is impossible to avoid getting traces of gluten/casein occasionally in today's world.
 

Josie

Active Member
I just saw your second post on this. You could always try adding milk back in and see if the behaviour gets better or worse.

Even if he doesn't have a problem with casein, I have never heard of any negative effects of not having it as long as he is getting enough calcium.
 
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