Autism Awareness Month: What my son can('t) eat - Day 2

*If you are new to this series, you may want to go back and read the post for Day 1.

Everyone is familiar with what food allergies are. Whether from peanuts, seafood, wheat, soy or whatever. The food is eaten and the person gets an immediate physical reaction like a swollen tongue or throat, rashes, etc. What you may not have heard of are the less discussed Food Sensitivities (Non-allergic food hypersensitivity).

Here is some sort dietary chart that I don't understand.
Reactions to certain foods can happen when the body has an absence of specific chemicals or enzymes needed to digest that particular food substance. The reactions tend to be less physical and more behavioral. While there may be pains or discomforts it can also manifest as sleep issues, tantrums, and challenging behaviors. Children with Autism tend to have unusual or atypical immune systems and it seems (I'm not going to bore you with statistics) that eliminating all gluten and casein from their diet helps tremendously.





While he isn't currently, Noah was on a GF/CF (Gluten Free/Casein Free) Diet for a while. In addition to that diet, he was taking high doses of Omega-3 supplements and we noticed a major increase in his ability to communicate with words. From age 2 -3, he primarily communicated to us with pictures and pointing his figures at things that he wanted. Or shouting out the color of the thing he wanted and waited for us to guess it. We were told that if we did not get his speech on track before age 5, it would not be very likely that he would ever develop strong communication skills. We were determined to do whatever it took. After the diet and those extra vitamins, Noah started catching up to age level in speech very quickly.

Even as I am writing this post, I'm wondering to myself if I did the right thing pulling Noah off that diet. Could some of his other behaviors be helped if he was back on it? It may seem like such a simple answer but the truth is - this diet is HARD. Especially for a family with 3 other kids who do NOT need the diet. . . or do they?

Continue reading this 3 part series tomorrow with Autism Awareness Month: What my son can('t) eat Day 3















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