Anyone tried GFCF diet? Have questions

[Still_Learning]

We've been on the GFCF diet for the last 2 months, 100% and hardcore about contamination.

The first 2 weeks we saw immediate results. Our 6yo with Asperger's was like a neurotypical child for those 2 weeks.

Since then he's been back to his "typical".

I'm really struggling with staying motivated to stick with this. I hate how difficult it is as far as travel and grabbing food on the go. If it were to work for him and help him with some of his struggles, I would be excited to commit to it. It's the not knowing if we're wasting our time/effort/sanity. It's Halloween coming, Thanksgiving, Christmas...

But then I stick to it because "what if it ends up working?" "What if DS is relived of his anxiety, anger, outbursts..."

Anyone tried and gave up? Tried and sticking with it?

Any and all persepctives appreciated.

[APToddlerMama]

Have you added anything to his diet that he didn't regularly have before? Particularly after those first two weeks...? We are GFCF and added a few things into my son's diet initially trying to substitute GFCF foods, but it turned out he had big problems with some of the substitutions so it took months to see the results. We stuck with it though and are SOOOO happy we did.

[Still_Learning]

Thanks, glad it's working for you!

We eat more rice that usual, but that's about it. Thought maybe I should try and get rid of soy as well. We haven't added any, but I don't know.

[TXmommy2be]

Gfcf

We started the GFCF diet a couple of months ago as well. I've seen quite a few positive changes in my DS, but honestly I'm not sure we're 100% GFCF (probably 99%). As much as I have read and researched I think I still have some things to remove/replace. I am trying to remove soy now, too, because I've read it can also be an issue with ASD kids.

My son is still EXTREMELY picky and it is so hard to find things he will eat. My problem hasn't been replacing foods, it's finding foods he'll accept

No matter what I've committed to 6 months on the diet.

[nicky85]

Leaky gut could be an issue, and if it is, you may have to take out other stuff as well. My husband has rheumatoid arthritis and chronic fatigue syndrome from leaky gut. We tried GFCF and only saw temporary results. We've had to eliminate a whole lot of other stuff, but he is finally able to exercise and work again. In addition to casein and gluten, foods on the "no" list include: soy, yeast chocolate, citrus, sweet and hot peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, sugar, nuts, beans, eggplant, and I think that's it. Those were sensitive foods for him. It seemed daunting t first, but we've become creative and we'll do anything that works at this point.

[heatherdeg]

A gastro told me that 80-85% of kids that react to dairy also react to soy. So if you upped the soy intake, that could be the source of your problem.

Also, it's entirely possible that your child is reacting to something else. In the diet. You should be keeping a log. If you pm me, I'll send you an Excel sheet that prints out to one page that will help you with it.

We are now dairy-free for 6 years because of the serious changes in my son as well as soy free for 5-1/2 years (and that was a PROFOUND change), corn free for 5 years and we WERE gluten free for a few years, but he tolerates limited amounts of gluten before there's a physical reaction. We are about to go completely gluten-free after the holidays for a full year to see if there's a developmental/behavioral reaction.

As for finding food on the go... well, you adjust to carrying stuff and/or where you can get food. Wendy's will serve a kids hamburger meal minus a bun if you ask. Outback Steakhouse is WONDERFUL for allergies and when they saw my online order removing butter from veggies, they called to let me know that the kids steak is cooked on a grill with butter but they could remove it. Chinese food places always have steamed chicken and broccoli. And worst case, we stop into Whole Foods or Target and grab sushi (California or Cucumber rolls have no raw fish in case you're squeemish about that).

You adjust. It seems overwhelming, but it's not horrible. And now they have all this awesome coconut-milk based stuff. It's expensive, but delicious. We splurge on chocolate yogurt (our equivalent of pudding) and ice cream. You'll find yourself eating a bit more whole foods (although removing corn & soy would put you over the edge to completely whole foods).

Keep the log for 2-3 weeks and watch for what affects him most. Work from there. In the meantime, I'd cut the soy out for 2 weeks just to see if that's the issue.

[buttercup]

Something you might also consider looking into is other biomedical and dietary interventions to heal the gut such as giving probiotics (multi strain), digestive enzymes and as another has suggested seeing if soy or some other food is also causing health problems.

both of these are good resources:
autism.com and http://www.autism.com/pdf/providers/...ed_summary.pdf

Jenni
mom to 3 children with autism

[mom2mygirls]

The whole family is on a very strict diet we changed our diet because of the kids all with special needs we have noticed with our autistic daughter an our daughter with ADD the diet has help alot we have been on this diet for almost a year now we really didnt see great results until about 6 months of doing it so I would try and hang in there if you can a little longer. hugs

[NightOwlwithowlet]

DS age 8, was on GFCF diet from the age of 4 to 7 years old. We saw huge changes when he started the diet. He had improved social awareness, speech, receptive language, and just much more aware of the world around him.

He went GFCF at the same time, so we didn't know if we could add one back in. All the info I know now, I realize we should have done one first and the second several weeks later. We learned through infractions, his worst reactions is to milk (vomiting, diarrhea, very painful stomach cramps). We've also discovered he has little reaction to gluten, but a big reaction to wheat (skin rash, stomach cramps, and general "spaciness"). So we've added limited wheat free gluten into his diet. He eats a CF, dye free, wheat free, and very few preservative diet.

[HealthHomeHappy]

That's what happened to us. The first 3 days-week on GFCF was amazing, I had a NT child. In our case, after that first week she slowly started regressing back to where she started. I googled 'regression on GFCF' and somehow came up with GAPS/SCD, which we started almost a year ago and have seen her slowly improving with that. She's not back to the amazing neurotypicalness we saw for those few days, but we have hope that she'll be there some day

Since we saw those amazing results on GFCF I was really encouraged to try other biomed stuff, so I've done a lot of experimenting since then.

And it's not that I'm unhappy with my ASD child, I love her dearly. The interventions have greatly improved her quality of life, and she is happier