Diet Considerations

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-07-2004
Diet Considerations
4
Thu, 08-24-2006 - 2:30pm

Has anyone here done some diet changes for your child? If so, what and how did it work out? What is the elimination diet? Is this the same as the Glueten Free diet? Also, we have an appt with an allergist next week to test my son for allergies and food sensitivities as I have heard children with Autism/AS often have food sensitivitiy issues. Are there any additional tests I should request? Also, the allergist doesn't do the peptide test, who does this test?

Thanks

Melissa

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-11-2003
Thu, 08-24-2006 - 2:46pm

We removed milk from our kids diets and use some GFCF products, like waffles & bread. It has improved his skin and he's less congested. We are hoping it keeps him healthier this winter. (we made this change over the summer) We also use digestive enzymes to cover what hasn't been removed. My dd's NP suggested we go on the Specific Carbohydate Diet. We are trying to slowly transition to that. We didn't do any allergy testing.

Samantha

Samantha
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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-28-2003
Thu, 08-24-2006 - 3:35pm

I recently had my oldest dd at the allergist. This allergist told me that skin testing was more reliable than blood testing. Don't know if that's true or not, but that's what he told me so I thought you might find that something to inquire about. The environmental test came up that she was allergic to tree and weed pollen. We only tested for a few foods and those didn't show any results. HOwever, he did make it clear that food allergy is not the same as food tolerance. Example, some people can't tolerate lactose due to having less of or an impaired enzyme that deals with it.

I had my youngest dd blood tested for food allergies years ago. She showed up to be highly allergic to many foods. I found it to be real life inaccurate tho. Some of the foods I gave back after avoiding them and she got better when I returned them to her diet. That may not be the same for everyone else, of course.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 08-24-2006 - 6:17pm

Haven't yet been to an allergist so most we are doing on our own. We took out most sugars andjust about all processed foods, dyes and such. We haven't gone specifically GF or CF though I would like to try dairy free it seems no one else is on board with me with that idea. I am more inclined to give them something with natural sugar in it that any unnatural sugar substitute if it comes down to that.

We have noticed a big difference with this. Some of the things we have noticed is much less intense mood swings, lack of diabetic like symptoms he was having before (drinking constantly, almost hypoglycemic mood swings and behavior if going to long between meals, peeing often, even wetting his bed. All those are gone). Yes we had him tested for diabetes and he doesn't have it.

Also noticed the kids are much healthier. They had a combined total (4 kids) of I believe it was 6 absences the entire year. And 2 of those were "mental health" days for my middle schooler who was stressed. Emily and Mike had 1 absence each and Dave had perfect attendance. They get over illnesses much quicker and they have much less severe illnesses.

There is a big difference in David's behavior when he has this kind of stuff. You can tell within 10 minutes of when he had sugar. He becomes almost unbearably hyper, out of control, angry and non-compliant for the day.

Renee

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iVillage Member
Registered: 10-03-2004
Thu, 08-24-2006 - 6:50pm

When Malcolm was 3 and starting Therapeutic Preschool and other interventions, one of his OTs recommended the Feingold Diet. We did not do any medical or other food allergy testing except to try the Elimination Diet, which meant we dropped ALL possible allergens, which as I remember included wheat, milk products, eggs, soy, peanuts (we ate cashew butter -- yum!), citrus fruits. I think almost all veggies were allowed and meats. We noticed an immediate change in Malcolm, much more focused and less fussy and difficult, much happier. At the same time he started lots of therapies and started to make gains, so we did wonder which came first and made the difference. Then over time we slowly added foods back and watched. Wheat and milk were the only add-backs we saw the difficulties return, so we kept him off them for many years.

Recently we have added the digestive enzymes, as Malcolms LOVES real pizza and ice cream. And this is fine so far. I do try to hold the pizza down to once a week, ditto the ice cream. In general, I just do not buy wheat or milk products, but also carry the enzymes and give them to him regularly. There are so many good alternatives to wheat and milk that this is now not a real huge problem, we are used to the regime.

Malcolm is also seriously healthy kid, I think I can count on 2 hands how many times he has actually been sick in his entire 9 years of life. I also give some of the health credit to extra years of breastfeeding, which Malcolm was very loathe to give up and even to this day, occasionally mourns the loss...

Sara
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