To GFCF or Not to GFCF

I am a Mom. This comes before everything else. I also happen to be a Mom of a fabulous four year old boy with Autism. I don't get a lot of time to talk face to face with other "autism Moms", I tend to do most of my conversing via the computer. But whether it is face to face or cyber, it seems like the topic of conversation always comes back to the GFCF diet. It makes sense, for those of us who have our children on the diet it is our daily reality. For the families who are not on it there is an ongoing conversation about the merits and the actual feasibility of it. I will tell you honestly that when we finally came out of denial about our son's autism, I was so desperate to do anything that would help that I would have sung naked hanging upside down from a rope if someone had told me there was a 10% chance it would help my son. So when someone said, "You could try the Gluten Free, Casein Free diet, there's no conclusive evidence that it helps, but you can try it." - I was only too thrilled to have something to do.

It made sense to me - I have multiple food allergies, wheat being one of them, so gluten free was actually easy for me. It was a big adjustment for my son, but I already knew the ins and outs of a gluten free diet so I wasn't stressed about what to feed him, and I knew that he would adjust quickly. Dairy free was a whole other ball of wax, but by the time I realized how challenging it was going to be, we had already seen such improvement in our son that I knew we were in for the long haul.

I am a fan of the GFCF diet, I love to help other parents figure it out. Please know that I do not sit in judgement of those of you who have not tried it. All of our kids have different issues, so it would be impossible for me to tell you - This is easy, why aren't you doing it? But I will tell you that I vehemently believe that it is worth a try - a good "college try" - to see if it works for your child.

My mother laments about the diet - "Isn't he ever going to get to eat ice cream? What kind of life is that?" My answer to her is simple - He can have ice cream at any time - but at what price? Without ice cream he can speak and look people in the eye, walk down a sidewalk, hold my hand, ask questions, and have friends. With ice cream in his body he can't do any of those things. What kind of life is that? That is our truth.

When we started the GFCF diet our son was down to a 5 word vocabulary, which he used sporadically and compulsively. Within a week of starting the GFCF diet he was adding 5 words a day to his vocabulary. It doesn't work that way for everyone, some people see little or no change, others see the benefits after being on the diet for 6 months. All I can say is I would have been thrilled with only a little change. Progress is progress. And at the end of the day, the diet is healthy, much healthier than the average child's diet. So what do you have to lose?

I ask Mom's that all the time and their answer is usually about fear - Fear that their child won't eat, fear that they won't know what to feed their child, fear that is will be a huge waste of time that will garner nothing. I'm willing to help anyone who wants to give it a try. We have tried all of the diets at some point and have kept elements of Feingold and SCD, but we remain strictly GFCF. Our child eats really well and I spend very little time preparing his meals - I'm not one of those moms who is constantly baking. - I love to solve problems though, so whenever we have an event or a special occasion I try to come up with an appropriate substitute. Some of my concotions are hits others are not. Our day to day meals are incredibly simple though, something anyone can pull of easily.