Autism-World

Q: Is gluten free diet really helpful with kids with autism? Has there been studies on this? This would mean no flour type products?

Answer:

I’m not sure what has been done as far as studies, but there are many parents who have good results with dietary interventions, and others who see no difference at all. With my kids, my oldest had behavioral changes with dairy products but I didn’t see anything obvious with gluten. (He was GFCF for a long time – several months anyway – we are not currently doing this diet since we started with enzymes.) There are also digestive enzymes that some have good luck with – my oldest has been taking those since last spring. One company has made a digestive enzyme product specifically to replace or supplement the GFCF diet – Houston Neutraceuticals is the company, that is also where we get our enzymes. If you are interested in digestive enzymes you can read on www.enzymestuff.com. (That’s an informational site, not a sales site.) They discuss the different types of enzymes and what they might be used for, and also give info on different online companies that you could purchase from. Unfortunately, they are fairly expensive – we buy the bulk powder that is about $40 per can and lasts us about 2-3 months if we use it just for our oldest son – less now that our 3-year-old is also using them. We use Houston’s Zyme Prime and also AFP Peptyzide. (Not sure I spelled those right …) Right now I am trying my 6-year-old off them to see if he does ok without.

If you go gluten free it means no wheat, rye or barley products, and many people don’t use oats either. You will need to read labels on all canned or packaged foods since gluten can be hidden in foods as well. When we were doing this diet I pretty much cooked everything at home just to be safe. It wasn’t that hard for us since my 3-year-old is very dairy intolerant so I have to do most of our cooking from scratch anyway, but it does take a lot of checking and cross checking if you use any canned or packaged foods at all. The toughest part for me was the bread – I really never got the hang of that and could not produce a tasty loaf to save my life. I finally gave up and just made muffins and pancakes instead – and made non-GF bread for my husband and me. (Worked here to have both around because my kids didn’t seem to notice and my 6-year-old gets all his foods pureed so he doesn’t want the bread anyway … doesn’t work for kids who will notice the difference or who are “addicted” to bread and might try to sneak it!)

Good luck if you decide to try gluten free diet!

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 31st, 2007 at 12:16 pm and is filed under Ask and answer.