Vitamins, enzymes, probiotics, GFCF

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Registered: 08-06-2003
Vitamins, enzymes, probiotics, GFCF
4
Tue, 03-20-2007 - 9:04pm
idaphne63


Edited 6/5/2007 9:36 pm ET by idaphne63
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Registered: 03-26-2003
Tue, 03-20-2007 - 11:59pm

Start slow would be my advice.

I am the same as you about being cautious (not a weenie, cautious!lol). I have not used a DAN! doc or nutritionist per se but I did do a lot of research on my own and have sought out advice from nutrionalist, natural docs, etc. We couldn't afford a total DAN! doc and I wasn't quite willing to put all my faith in one doc and do all my own research anyway.

I have not gone total GFCF either. I hear it works for some parents and not others. I think we could possibly benefit some from removing dairy but I don't think it would make a big enough difference to lose the benefit we get from dairy currently.

What I do is a mostly organic, very natural, very low sugar, low refined foods type of diet. I can send you links on articles on why this type of diet can be helpful for ASD children. It comes down a lot to how they process food and have difficulties with MT proteins and basically processing a lot of the garbage that is in todays food (particularly sugars) cannot be done by thier livers.

The diet has honestly helped us all over all. We all just feel better and function better on a daily basis. I can tell a HUGE difference with sugar. Ask Debbie what happens to my son after he has had a shake, lol.

We also do digestive enzymes and probiotics. The probiotics started for us because our NT dd had encorporesus and we just all adopted it for better digestion and health. The digestive enzymes can in some ways take the place of or augment the GFCF diet as well which is nice.

Renee

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Registered: 04-11-2003
Wed, 03-21-2007 - 8:17am

1) A nutritionis probably can help you with the GFCF diet. Our Chiropractor is a DAN. She just advises on diet and supplements though. Her assistant is on the GFCF diet and advised us on it. We did not go GFCF though but are milk free.

2) www.enzymestuff.com

3)I've not personally used a nutritionist. We have consulted with our chiropractor and a DAN NP. Mostly I do my own research like Renee. I don't like to rely on anyone else too much. I really like to read the yahoo groups and see what other parents are doing and whats working or not for them.

Samantha

Samantha
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Registered: 01-19-2005
Wed, 03-21-2007 - 1:24pm

Hi Daphne,

When we decided to try GFCF 2 years ago (my son was 2.5), we asked our neurologist and our pediatrician what they thought. Both said, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, you just have to try. They both recomended meeting with a nutritionist.

By the time we met with nutritionist, I had already begun to test the waters with GFCF and supplements, mostly from my own reading. The nutrionist had us keep a food diary for a week. She looked it over and confirmed that Eric was getting enough of everything. She made a few recommendations for supplements (omega 3, probiotics, multi-vitamin). She also had a few suggestions specific to my son's own picky nature. It was worth it. She spend about an hour, gave us lots of good information and it just made me feel like I was on the right track. We haven't gone back to her since, but it gave me a good comfort level when I was just starting out.

"Special Diets" is a good book. Two good Yahoo newsgroups are GFCF Kids (but it has thousands of members and somtimes can get off track, don't get overwhelmed!) and GFCF Recipes, which is a nice group of people too. Another nice recipe website is the "glutenfree goddess." She is not totally cf, but mostly is. It's not an ASD site, the "goddess" has celiac, but I've found great recipes there. The site is www.glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com. Frankly, the South Beach Diet books are good too. Phase 1 of the diet is gluten free.

I do buy a few pre-packaged GFCF things (Wellshire kids gfcf chicken nuggets!) but mostly we do like Renee, try to eat whole foods, organic, no preservatives. Just doing that made a big difference. Also, at first I tried making all the bread and things from scratch with all the different flours. But it was too time intensive. We just decided to cut back on bread. I do sometimes buy GFCF bread and pizza crust from a local bakery and for cookies, cakes I use mixes now. It's just easier.

For probiotics and enzyme information, the Defelice enzymestuff.com site that Samantha recommended is great. There is also a pretty good section on constipation etc. We use the Houston's enzymes and get them online. At the nutritionist's recommendation, we use Brainchild Multivitamins, also online, but they are super expensive. Hoping to phase them out eventually. For probiotics, we get them from his yogurt.

A good book for vitamins, though very "medical-speak" and written by a DAN doc is "Children with Starving Brains" by McCandless. It covers lots of things, maybe mroe than you need to know! But it's a good ready reference.

We can't afford DAN either. I would recommend a nutritionist if you want some extra reassurance. But we have been able to do fine on our own. Much of it is observing your child and seeing how they react. Go slowly, only one change at a time, so you can make sure you know what is affecting your child.

Good luck! For us, the dietary changes did make a difference, for all of us!

Katherine

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Registered: 08-06-2003
Wed, 03-21-2007 - 11:35pm
Just wanted to say a big THANK YOU for all the advice.


Edited 6/5/2007 9:40 pm ET by idaphne63