I know about the gluten and casien free diet, I've read in a magazine called exceptional parenting about vitamin b12, fish oil, lots of vegetables and fruits help kids with autism, but as I read on yahoo answers I am finding out more and more things parents are doing that have been successful with thier autistic children. so I am asking parents who tried different supplement, equipment, education techniques to share with the rest of us these tried and true methods so our children may benefit as yours did. I have a son with aspergers syndrome and I am open to any tried and true ideas as long as it is safe. since having a child with autism I have felt as if all autistic children are mine, I've adopted them all within my heart... sounds crazy dosn't it. but they are loveable and I love them all. this is the kind of question/answers that yahoo answer was meant for. this is what I read yahoo answers for. you can help so many of us especially those without support groups, so please answer. I wish I could choose all of you as best answers, because you all have given me information that I was not aware of before. I think others can benefit from these answers as well so I will extend this question a little longer, I have given you all stars and I plan to save this question and answer so that I can refer back to it. and I will try many of the things you guys suggested, thankyou sooo sooo much!! Have you had the doctor test his stool for Candida Yeast over growth? Candida can cause all sorts of problems; constipation/abnormal bowel movements, brain fog, skin rashes, thrush, etc. My daughter and I both have problems with Candida Yeast, so we are using a product called THREELAC for Candida yeast elimination. We also did Oregano Oil and Coconut Oil for two weeks previous to the THREELAC to minimize the yeast die-off effect.
We put Flaxseed Oil and Cod Liver Oil in her food. We additionally, have switched her vitamins to Super Nu-Thera. Overall, that is a great supplement for our daughter, although we have to make sure that she is getting enough Iron. Also, our daughter is on a Gluten Free Casein Free diet (e.g. Wheat Free Dairy Free), and I am on a Gluten Free diet. One in every 100 people has an intolerance to Gluten. You really need to read ingredients of food and other products. If he likes to eat Play Doh, you should know that has Gluten in it, as well as some tooth pastes. When I get just a little Gluten in my system within 30 to 60 minutes, I start feeling like someone hit me over the head with something, I'm disoriented, the muscles around my eyes feel tight so I don't want to make eye contact with anybody, and I feel way over sensitized to sound, light, air moving, touch, etc. Sounds rather autistic, doesn't it?!
Okay, that covers what we do in terms of biomeds, but that's not the whole deal. You also need to find the teaching modality that will work for your child. Most school systems push a behavioral modality called ABA, which works well for 48% of very young children, if done one-on-one. Our daughter's progress in the year we have been doing the Son-Rise Program has far out paced the previous 3 years with ABA, in terms of verbal communication (from one word requests to 7 or 8 word spontaneous sentences), eye contact (up to 30 seconds uninterrupted), demeanor (no more 3 hr. tantrums), sleep pattern (no more praying for her to finally go to sleep at 4 a.m.) and toileting (finally in "big girl underwear" and announcing when she has to go). This has been life altering!!! And, although it is not our focus with Son-Rise, she reads and writes above grade level and her math is on grade level. We work one-on-one with our daughter every day. Parent training is vital, since parents spend more time with their children than any teacher, therapist, doctor, etc.
I highly recommend reading "What You Can Do Right Now to Help Your Child with Autism" by Jonathan Levy http://www.tenthingsautism.com/ who is a Certified Son-Rise Teacher that has worked one-on-one with over 800 special children. In my opinion, Levy's book is the best practical book for parents dealing with Autism. RDI and FloorTime are a relationship modalities. Son-Rise is a relationship modality with additional attitudinal training of the parent/caregiver and makes use of setting up a non distracting environment. The attitudinal training helps to ensure that the parent/caregiver is focused and accepting of the child and themselves. If the person working with the child is bringing a lot of baggage into the playroom, for example "if she doesn't say a word soon, I'm a bad mother"..."I can't believe my husband started complaining when he got home"..."Oh God, I hope my car doesn't die soon!" the child will likely start tuning that person out because the child senses something is not right. Thus, the person is less effective as a facilitator for learning. To get an idea of the attitude needed for working with any child [regardless of teaching modality] and a way to defuse stress and thrive with all of life's challenges; not just Autism, I highly recommend the book, "Happiness is a Choice" by Barry Neil Kaufman. Both "What You Can Do Right Now to Help Your Child with Autism" and "Happiness is a Choice" may be at your local library and both are quick reads. You could likely read them both within a week or so...maybe sooner.
Also, the Autism Treatment Center of America just came out with a Son-Rise DVD: "Breakthrough Strategies for Autism Spectrum Disorders". It is an excellent tool for parents. Some of the editing is not as smooth as liked prefer, but video production is an interest of mine, so I am picking about such things. There is a companion booklet that comes along with the DVD that gives some basic notes on the various strategies as well as cites studies that support the given strategy. Raun Kaufman, who use to have Autism, is great in it! That said, I had him as a teacher last weekend and the video doesn't full demonstrate just what a phenomenal teacher he is! Raun is incredible in person!!!
To see the most comprehensive list of therapies that I have found on the Internet, check out Kyle's Treehouse: http://www.kylestreehouse.org/about.cfm It gives some basic info about all the therapies listed. The therapy pricing might not be up to date, but it helps to figure out what you want to investigate further for your child's individual needs.
By the way, it doesn't sound crazy at all...I adopt them all in my heart too. These children are magnificent gifts!!!!!!!!!!!! I eat gluten free due to Celiac Disease, not because of an autistic child, however I taught early childhood education for years and did see results with the Gluten Free/Caesin Free (GFCF) diet in autistic children.
These sites should help some, best of luck:
www.gfcfdiet.com
www.csaceliacs.org
www.celiac.com
www.celiac.org
Many Gluten Free foods are also Caesin free. U will have to learn to read labels and become familiar with all the different names for gluten adn casein (the gfcfdiet.com site should help with that.)
Try seeing if your local parents center or hospital has an autism support group. You may find parents there who already do the GF CF diet and will be able to better guide you (I only do GF, not CF).
Best of luck!!
Amy
My fave GF products (not sure of CF status) that are toddler friendly:
Glutino cereals and breakfast bars
Pamela's Products cake, cookie and baking mixes YUM!
Bob Red Mill flours
Tinkyada Pastas (kids wont be able to tell the difference!)
Kinninnick breads, donuts, etc.
Shopping sites help u break things down by allergen:
www.glutenfree.com
www.glutensolutions.com
Best of luck! Besides learning to do my own therapy with my son, the greatest help to us has been supplements and vitamins that I gave him from Melaleuca. I saw instant progress in him when starting these, everything from increased vocabulary, less traumatic tantrums, less stimming, and even sleeping through the night. Like everything else, they don't work for everyone. My neighbor used the same exact supplements with her two kids that are on the spectrum, and saw little results. It's just what worked for my son. It's what helped him progress to the point that I could start working with him. I started with aloe vera juice and lipoceutical glutathione for my autistic son to help heal his intestines and help to detoxify his body. Aloe vera juice helps with constipation and soothes the intestinal wall. Glutathione is the body's antioxidant used to remove toxins from the body and is typically low in ASD. I then added Kirkmans supplements. My son takes Spectrum Complete, unique because it adds DMAE, coenzyme Q 10, grapeseed extract, etc. I didn't want to use Super Nu Thera because of the high b6/magnesium in it. Amino support because he doesn't eat enough protein. Advance MIneral Support to help with behavior issues. Cod liver oil for vitamin A to correct eye contact caused by defiency of vitamin A. Digestive enzymes to help break down food and seems to help with constipation. Probiotics to restock the intestines with good flora while taking Nystatin to kill the yeast infection. We use Kirkman's probiotics and Three Lac. Coenzyme Q10 to reduce oxidative stress. Methyl b12 shots to increase a low cysteine level which helps to raise the glutathione levels. DMPS to remove mercury and lead. Magnesium, zinc, and glutathione creams. Additional zinc when neccessary. 5 HTP to raise tryptophan levels and helps to promote restful sleep. Chiropractic care wth massage therapy. We found a misalignment in the cervical vertebrae causing him to throw his head backwards as an infant and later banging his head as a toddler. This also significantly reduced the number of sinus infections he had. Prompt speech therapy to correct motor control of his mouth caused by heavy metal poisoning and chronic inflammation. ABA therapy and now floortime therapy. Potty Power video to help with potty training. My son seems to respond better to visuals and has problems with abstract pictures.
My husbands nephew has ADHD and is a teenager. He was doing terrible on meds so he was referred to a neurologist who is also a chiropractor. The Xrays revealed a severe misalignment of the first cervical vertebrae caused by traumatic birth. This was corrected and a special behavioral vitamin supplement was added. All meds were weaned off. His behavior has improved 100 percent. I know its strange to think that a misaligned spine can cause behavioral issues but remember that the spinal cord is in the spine. Nerves can get pinched or moved into incorrect position. It makes sense. When your back or neck is hurting, doesn't it make you cranky? This doesn't happen in all ASD but its worth looking into and is covered by insurance. Find out what your child is allergic to. Then change his diet accordingly.
Anything that causes stress in an autistic child magnifies his autistic symptoms, and changing his diet for no good reason will cause him stress, so you should be careful about taking advice about diet from anyone on this website. I mean, it's OK to experiment with tiny amounts of suspect food in the first place to see if your child is allergic, but that's as far as it should go. Then you will know for sure what caused the autism in the first place.
For instance; the most common autism-generating food is casein, but sometimes if a child has celiac disease gluten is the culprit. By now you would have known if the allergy is to casein, so you should give your child a little gluten by itself to see if there is any reaction. Then you will know. In my opinion the posters above have given you VERY good advice-it's all a bit overwhelming. Don't get discouraged though, most kids can be helped through a combination of the things people have put here for you. The trick is isolating which ones work for your child.
In our case I noticed immediate improvements when casein is removed. It was strange to us that milk could be bad for our son-but bad it is and as you research you will see it is nothing unusual for this to be true.
Both kirkmans supra-nuthera and brainchild nutritionals vitamin and mineral supplements made immediate improvements. We found brainchild's worked better for us. I think the kirkmans had to much b-6 for our boy.
Glutithione brought about immediate improvements in vocalizations.
Cod liver oil has been very beneficial as have Epsom salt baths.
By improvements I mean GLOBAL IMPROVEMENTS. Improvements in eye contact,concentration,imaginative play,desire to interact with people,reduced stimming,ability to feel pain, better sleep, better mood, vastly reduced temper tantrums, less hitting and violent behavior, improved fine motor skills. Improvements in responding to his name and number of interests. He responds very well to occupational and speech therapy provided by our school system and I highly recommend both. I am looking into floor-time and RDI at this time.
Good luck and don't discount the bio-medical approach and food sensitivities. They have been life changing for us. No doubt about it, the most significant improvements for my son were removing allergens from his diet (which included gluten and casein in his case), removing preservatives & artificial colors & flavors, removing sugars (to improve the flora in his intestine), and using every available therapy resource the government will pay for.
Doctors may warn you against the GFCF diet, but the parents will tell you otherwise. Do it! What have you got to lose? And be warned: If the food you are removing is an allergen it will get worse before it gets better. You'll know that you are on the right track, so don't give up!
If you do decide to go GFCF, read "Unraveling the Mystery of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder" by Karyn Seroussi and "Special Diets for Special Kids" by Lisa Lewis.
I would also recommmend joining a Yahoo group like GFCFKids to get more advice from other parents. There is so much to learn, and other parents are absolutely your best resource. |
