{"id":11838,"date":"2009-09-23T01:00:03","date_gmt":"2009-09-23T06:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/?p=11838"},"modified":"2009-09-21T12:10:35","modified_gmt":"2009-09-21T17:10:35","slug":"learning-to-love-the-casein-free-diet-for-autism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/09\/learning-to-love-the-casein-free-diet-for-autism\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning to Love the Casein-Free Diet for Autism"},"content":{"rendered":"

The week of September 20 is Autism Awareness Week<\/a> at DietsInReview.com.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Janice<\/em><\/em><\/a>

Janice Wright's son's favorite food: Oyster cracker & cream cheese<\/p><\/div>\n

Guest blogger Janice Ellen Wright blogs about her experiences with her son\u2019s school program for students with high-functioning autism and how this experience\u00a0got her sent to the principal\u2019s office for the first time in her life. Feel free to search for controversy at <\/em>Autism and Public Schools<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

When my son was about four-years old, and struggling with Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD), a behavioral disorder of autism, I bought a book titled Unraveling the Mystery of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder<\/a>: A Mother’s Story of Research and Recovery<\/em>, by Karyn Seroussi.<\/p>\n

I had no idea what the GFCF diet<\/a> was, nor did I want to know. But Seroussi was such a thoughtful writer, I kept on\u00a0reading. When she wrote something like, \u201cHow can you not try removing dairy, for your child\u2019s sake?\u201d I knew I had to try.<\/p>\n

I never tried gluten-free<\/a> because I didn\u2019t know what my son would eat at all. He\u2019s picky, with many sensory oral issues. Eating out was especially tricky \u2013 between what he couldn\u2019t eat and wouldn\u2019t eat, we just stayed home most of the time.<\/p>\n

My husband thought I was crazy, until we saw some improvement. Our son\u2019s tantrums were less extreme, his ability to tolerate the unexpected increased a bit.<\/p>\n

After about\u00a0two years we tried going off it over Christmas break, and his behavior did not deteriorate, at least, no more than any kid does over a school break. He ate a year\u2019s worth of Goldfish crackers in a month, but still prefers Tofutti Cuties to other ice cream.<\/p>\n

Now that he\u2019s\u00a0seven-years old\u00a0and can eat anything, I\u2019ve noticed he\u2019s trying more foods \u2013 still one reluctant bite at a time, but it\u2019s progress. Parents of kids on the spectrum know the terms \u201cpreferred\u201d and “non-preferred;” for my son, foods are much more black-and-white: Favorite or Hated.<\/p>\n

We find ourselves struggling to know whether a refusal to eat is a sensory issue or a control issue, spectrum behavior or age-appropriate testing of his limits.<\/p>\n

Everything is a battle with my son, and sometimes the food is what I choose to lose on, especially during the school year when so many social demands are made of him all day long. He eats more processed foods than I\u2019d like, and more carbs than I\u2019d like, but his weight and height are fine, so we\u2019ll just keep trying new foods a little at a time, and hope his tastes expand with age, just\u00a0as mine did.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The week of September 20 is Autism Awareness Week at DietsInReview.com. Guest blogger Janice Ellen Wright blogs about her experiences with her son\u2019s school program for students with high-functioning autism and how this experience\u00a0got her sent to the principal\u2019s office … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1367,3695],"tags":[1489,2428,2417,3245,23,29],"class_list":["post-11838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-health","category-diet-and-nutrition","tag-autism","tag-autism-awareness","tag-gfcf-diet","tag-gluten-free-diet","tag-guest-blog","tag-nutrition"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11838"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11845,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11838\/revisions\/11845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}