Gluten-Sensitive Children | Asperger Syndrome | Gluten Free Diet | Allergy

Experience with Gluten-Sensitive Children with Asperger Syndrome and ADHD

by Allergy Guy

Here is a mother’s experience with a gluten-sensitive child who has Asperger syndrome and one way to deal with it.

Different children may react to gluten in different ways, so find out what works best in your case.

Christine left this long and helpful comment which deserves to be an article in its own right.

If your childrens’ test shows they don’t have celiac, then how strict you want to be depends on what you observe.  This is the case in our family. I have celiac but my children don’t. Youppi !

At first, we were doing low-gluten diet for my Aspie [Asperger syndrome, in autism spectrum] son, then we realized that once a week was still too much and decided instead of having the so-so pizza at school lunch once a week, we would go to a resto with real good pizza once every other month.

Basically, an exception once a month is OK.  However, last week it was my son’s birthday, he wanted to go to Outback and have the bread.  I didn’t go because I couldn’t risk accidental gluten exposure (it puts me do bed for 3 days) because of an important meeting the following day. My husband, who finds me annoying at times, was in charge of controlling the amount of gluten for the night.

Well, the following day, my husband saw our son trying to speak to his teacher and he could not look at her in the eyes, kept looking everywhere but at her, was stuttering, basically a very autistic behavior.  My husband was so angry with himself.

Our son was better the next day.  But the question is: is there permanent brain damage done, since our children’s brains are still growing?

So my advice is before birthday parties, feed your kids so they are not hungry, let them have a tiny bit of everything, the cake the ice cream.  Avoid food coloring (I was underestimating this until last Halloween, see Dr Feingold diet for more info or see Wikipedia to know what goes in the colors, I dont get why it is allowed in our food).

Make sure your kids know that these foods (gluten and dairy) make them act weird and that is how they can lose their friends.  My 11-year old daughter with ADHD did not want to stop gluten and dairy until I was able to show her the connection between her depression crises and what she had eaten during playdates.  Now she’s sold.

So it is easier, they know if they eat the bad stuff at the bday party, they may start acting in a way that will not go well with their friends, or be sad, be mean, or as my son was told: weird.

What is your experience with Asperger or autism and a gluten free diet?  Leave a comment!

 

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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Corey March 16, 2012 at 00:39

Christine,
Thank you so much for your support and advice. We agree with all your comments/views on the kids. I am looking forward to having this test behind me. I will wait it out another week or two based on my docs recommendation. But, I am really amazed how little most docs know about celiac and gluten intolerance.

For anyone else out there going through this….The worst part is not the aching joints or the stomach pain. It is the moodiness, short temper and general depression. I really didn’t realize I had any of these conditions until I spent six months with no gluten and really was a happier person. Hopefully I can confirm this in a couple weeks. (I only started this diet due to asthma that appeared out of nowhere at age 40). Sometimes it is hard to be 100 percent sure what is the cause of problems because they appear so slowly and leave just as slowly. I will keep you posted.
Corey

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2 Allergy Guy March 16, 2012 at 10:49

I agree with you Corey, the mental symptoms are the worst and that’s what really convinced me to kick gluten. It can ruin your life, not unlike drugs, come to think of it. And then once gluten brings you down, its much harder to find the energy to get gluten out of your system and out of your house.

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