Autism

I have 3 kids – Mikey 6, Genesis – 5, and Dan Jr -4. My youngest son was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum when he was 2 years old. He was diagnosed with celiac disease when he was 4 years old. He is a beautiful little boy who is very smart but unfortunately is non-verbal. He is in a special education preschool class at school and we have in him speech and occupational therapy as well. He ha been doing all of this things since he was 3.

Lately we have seen an exponential increase in his communication but there has only been one major change that we have implemented - a gluten free diet.

How He has Changed Since Being Gluten Free

In the 2 months since we have started the diet he has gone from saying 1-2 words only when prompted to saying 20-25 words non-prompted. He not only says words but he says phrases such as “I want milk” or “I want chips”. He used to be be in his own little world and it was nearly impossible to get him out. Now, you will be sitting their minding you own business and he will get in your face in order for you to pay attention to him. He is much more social now to where he wants to go where you go and does not like to spend time by himself as much.

The other major change that e have seen is that he is much more patient now. Before he used to get very frustrated and would bang his head on things. When this would happen it wold be very difficult to get him to settle down. This hardly happens at all now and when it does he is very easy to settle down.

It is so wonderful to see the positive changes in him in such a short period of time.

The Gluten-Autism Connection

It is debated by some as to whether gluten really does play a part in autism. The main reason for this is lack of long term research. Both autism and celiac disease are so new that there just isn’t enough data out there to say yes, celiac disease is or os partially a contributing factor to autism. But, there are many people like ourselves that have seen first hand the benefit of what a gluten free diet can do for a child with autism.

When I was first diagnosed with celiac disease I went to Barnes and Noble to find books on the condition. In my research I picked up a book on autoimmune diorders that happen to talk about autism as well. The book was What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Autoimmune Disorders by Stephen B. Edelson & Deborah Mitchell. In this book they talked about how celiac disease can cause important nutrients to not be absorbed which can effect certain parts of the brain and contribute to autism.

I was shocked.

It was at that point that we decided to have my son tested for celiac disease. Once he was diagnosed as positive we started the gluten fre diet right away. We have seen the single largest result in his progress with going gluten free then with anything else.