GFCF Diet

I haven't posted in a while because it's been a rough few weeks since we got back from the beach.  After meeting 2 amazing families, both dealing with Autism, my sweet new friend Andi sent me several books on gluten-free diets and I have spent a lot of time reading and researching gluten-free and casein-free diets in children with Autism.  We have tried this diet once before, when Chase was around 2 1/2, but we had been thinking (prior to our beach trip) about trying it again now that he is older and eating more of a variety of foods (and in feeding therapy to help support us in the process).  I initially said I didn't want to try the diet on him until I had definitive answers as to whether or not he had any gluten/casein allergies or sensitivities.  I wanted to get blood work done (IgG and IgE blood panels), but after calling around and looking in to that it seemed like an expensive process, not covered by insurance (surprise), and not worth the hassle.  I can't help but wonder if God put Andi in my life to revisit this diet option and introduce us to new literature and information about it?   So we dove right in and started the diet 2 weeks ago Saturday.  We just cut all gluten and casein out of his diet cold turkey.

He has done really well, for the most part, adjusting to the foods we have had to replace with GF options and hasn't seemed to miss his dairy products all that much.  He doesn't LOVE the new options, but he eats them and doesn't put up much of a fight (like our last experience with this diet).

One reason we decided to give this diet a try again is that Chase has seemed abnormally (for him) hyper the last several weeks.  His attention span is shorter than normal and he has been waking up SUPER early, even for him (4:30-5:00am!!!!!).  It is taking its toll on the whole family and really wearing all of us out.

So the more I read about gluten and it's relation to Autism, and how it affects people's (not everyone's) brain, it really made a lot of sense to me and got me wondering if maybe removing it from Chase's diet would help with all these issues we have been having lately.

In a nutshell, what I gathered from everything I read, is that children who have "leaky guts" doesn't necessarily mean they have bowel movement issues.  Chase has always been very regular in this department so I previously thought we had no reason to think he had "leaky gut", thus no reason to try this diet.  BUT from what I gathered, researching all of this, is that "leaky gut" just means that the way some people digest certain food proteins (particularly gluten and casein proteins in this case) can affect how their brain functions and reacts to those proteins.  So some people with "leaky guts" don't fully digest gluten or casein proteins in food, they get through the digestive tract walls in to the blood stream and go to the brain, acting on the brain like Opium, and causing all kinds of behavior and developmental problems in some kids/people.  This made sense to me when thinking about all of Chase's ADHD type behaviors and the way he has been BOUNCING OFF THE WALLS lately with hyperactivity.

We are now a little over 2 weeks in to this new diet.  The first 10-12 days were ROUGH.  His behaviors got REALLY bad, waking up sooo early, VERY VERY hyper and "stimming" WAY more than normal, and having tantrums over the smallest things (like not going the way he wanted to in the car).  He has pretty much not had a tantrum in almost 6 months prior to starting this diet.  I had read that there can be a "withdrawal-like" side effect when you first start the diet and that it can last anywhere from a few days to a month while the gluten/casein is working its way out of your system.  And a lot of times behaviors get worse before they get better.  It's like "coming off of a drug" and having drug withdrawals.  I am praying that is what we are going through.  Although Chase has still been getting up really early still, just the last few days the hyper-activeness and overall wildness have seemed to settle down a little bit.  It's still a little early to tell how this will affect him, but I hope in the next week or 2 we have a clearer idea.  Stay tuned...

These are a few links to some of the books and information and I read:

http://www.amazon.com/Kid-Friendly-Autism-Cookbook-Updated-Revised-ebook/dp/B004PLNSDG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1401737637&sr=8-1&keywords=Gluten+Free+diet+in+autism 

http://www.amazon.com/Grain-Brain-Surprising-Brains-Killers-ebook/dp/B00BAXFCPO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1401737726&sr=8-1&keywords=grain+brain

https://www.youtube.com/embed/iL4SD5f2toQ

http://www.thegfcflady.com/

http://www.drperlmutter.com/a-gluten-free-casein-free-diet-may-lead-to-improvements-in-behavior-and-physiological-symptoms-in-some-children-diagnosed-with-an-autism-spectrum-disorder-asd-according-to-researchers-at-penn-stat/

http://blogs.prevention.com/inspired-bites/2014/05/12/food-allerg/