[mamafish9]

Hi mamas,

My little guy just turned two, and is autistic. He's been starting on more solid foods over the last few months (he's a hard core nurser, LOL!). He's been eating a bit of cheese in quesadilla every so often for quite a while, and I never noticed any reaction. I eat lots of dairy, so he's always had lots of milk proteins flowing through his breastmilk. I watched for triggers when he was little, but only chocolate was a problem.

So, in the last six weeks or so, he's developed a love of yogurt and ice cream, and started drinking a little milk from a cup (like an ounce or so). Not too much at any one time, but probably a little almost every day. This is a big deal - finding foods he will eat has been a challenge.

We had a nasty cold about six weeks ago, and he has had a stuffy nose (the dry crunchy kind, not runny) since then. I thought it was just the cold dragging out, but I don't think that's it. In the last couple of weeks, he's also started itching his butt any time he has access - clearly it's really bothering him.

I cut out his dairy for about a week, then watched as he had a bit of yoghurt two days ago and then again today (I realize from my quick reading here that this was not an ideal test!), and he's been really cranky a few hours later. He's two and he's autistic, so cranky is not that unusual, but...

Oh, and he was also constipated, although I've fixed that by pushing the fruit lately.

Anyhow, does it sound like milk sensitivity? Is it common for the sensitivity to show up when they ingest enough directly, but not react to breastmilk with dairy content?

And how do I figure this out? Eliminate dairy from his diet, obviously - two weeks? Do I need to eliminate from mine as well (uggggghhh, I love dairy!). And then how do I challenge (give him dairy? how much?)?

Thanks mamas for sharing your knowledge - I so hope it isn't dairy, that takes away half of what he eats, but I would like to get it figured out!

 

[changingseasons]

Yes- you would need to eliminate dairy 100% (watch for hidden ingredients!) in both your diets for at least 2 weeks. Then you can trial some straight milk for him and watch for reactions.

I'm sure you've probably read all the info about GFCF diets in relation to autism, right? I just recently finished Healing the New Childhood Epidemics by Kenneth Bock, and it was an amazing read. I would highly recommend it if you haven't already read it. He talks a lot about gluten and casein free diets- it's one of the first diets he recommends for autism or ADHD because those two proteins don't always get broken down correctly. That leads to a partial protein floating around in the bloodstream, which causes an opiod effect. That opiod effect is what causes the cravings for dairy and bread products, which is why so many people who are allergic to foods actually crave them. (You might want to watch symptoms in yourself too when you remove and trial dairy!

I say that because after removing dairy from my diet for DD and thinking I was going to diet without it... I found out that I am allergic too.)

Oh, also- when you're ingesting a substance every day, you often won't notice symptoms because they seem like a normal part of the person. That's why you want to remove it completely and then retrial, because that will usually bring out those subtle symptoms and make them much easier to spot.

I hope that all makes sense... I'm very sleepy.

 

[mamafish9]

Quote:

Originally Posted by changingseasons I'm sure you've probably read all the info about GFCF diets in relation to autism, right?

Yup - my son's autism doesn't really fit with what Bock describes, so we haven't tried GFCF, although I know it helps some kids. His food issues are texture related - yoghurt was a big win because it's "mushy" and he will still eat it. He's not a big fan of wheat (again, most of it's mushy!), and I don't see behavioral stuff when he eats it.

I did GFCF myself in the past (for endometriosis), with little effect - I think my love of dairy is just my inner farm kid

.

Quote:

Originally Posted by changingseasons Oh, also- when you're ingesting a substance every day, you often won't notice symptoms because they seem like a normal part of the person. That's why you want to remove it completely and then retrial, because that will usually bring out those subtle symptoms and make them much easier to spot. I hope that all makes sense... I'm very sleepy.

Thank you - good advice. This will give us a chance to see if my dairy intake may have been effecting him all along, so we will watch for more subtle changes as well.

 

[tanyalynn]

A child can react to foods only ingested directly and not through mom's milk, this was the case for chocolate and cashews for my son.

Some food reactions are really obvious, but some are more subtle, and given that you've always eaten dairy, they may not be apparent until it's eliminated. My son (and I) have no digestive/skin/sleep type reactions to gluten, but my fatigue lifted dramatically when I cut out gluten and dairy from our diets, and it took longer for him, but he stopped banging his head on the wall. My health, and my kids' health, is affected by the mercury that was in my amalgam fillings. For dairy, we had sorta normal intolerance symptoms, I wouldn't notice eating just a bit, but eat more and I'd get congested and phlegmy, so those reactions seemed dose-dependent. And he had trace amounts of dairy in things, and ate cheese regularly, but small amounts of non-fermented/cultured dairy (a few bites of ice cream, specifically) made him vomit. But I think my fatigue was related to even small amounts of dairy.

So it can be a mix of reactions depending on the amount, and different reactions depending on what exactly is going on. Not very exact, but that's been our experience.

 

[mamafish9]

OK, we're off dairy as of this morning, thanks mamas!

One question - I've read that it's not good to sub in soy or goat's milk because those can be allergens too - how is coconut milk? I found some yummy coconut milk yogurt with active cultures at the store today, it seems like that might be a good replacement for my son's beloved yogurt.

 

[lil_miss_understood]

There are a good many mamas here who use coconut milk and coconut milk based products (yogourt, ice cream) instead of dairy or soy.

 

[mamafish9]

Cool, thank you! The last thing I wanted to do was replace his dairy with something new he would react to

. I have to say, the coconut yogurt was very good! I'm going to get some coconut oil too, that sounds like a good butter substitute for all the baking we do.

 

[isaoma]

I'm not sure what others might think of HLC Mindlinx - it's a probiotic formulated with specific strains to help digest the wheat and dairy exorphins. Dd took it in large amounts when she was detoxing from wheat and casien. I really believed that it helped.

http://www.rockwellnutrition.com/HLC..._p_0-1091.html