Update On Our GFCF/Egg-Free Diet

Just a little back story...we were seeing a DAN (Defeat Autism Now) doctor before we made a move to another state this summer. We were trying all kinds of biomedical treatment, including different diets. I have written a lot about this in previous posts, but wanted to give a quick update. A gluten-free, casein-free diet is very popular in the world of autism. It is believed to help with lots of things, including speech and digestive issues. We first pulled our son off of gluten around age 3. We immediately noticed a change in his communication; he seemed to have more speech. Our son was in a little bit of a different boat because he tested positive for allergies to dairy and eggs. So not only did we cut out dairy (casein) next, but also eggs. Our son has pretty much consisted on meat, nuts, vegetables, fruits, and rice products for a year and a half. Before we moved, it was suggested by the DAN doctor that we could slowly introduce some of the off-limit foods back into our son's diet, even those that tested positive for allergies, to see how he did with them. When we got settled and started seeing a therapist in our new area, she suggested the same thing. We first reintroduced eggs and, guess what? He did great! He LOVED this new food that he hadn't had in so long! Behavior stayed steady, and no words were lost. After a few days, we decided to move onto dairy. Whew! That was not the same story as eggs! His behavior went out of control and he became very rigid (stiff!) and aggressive. We gave it a few days, just to make sure he wasn't just having an "off" day, and then stopped all dairy again. We saw one more really bad day after that, and then it was back to "normal." We were into the holidays by this point and decided that we really didn't have the time to deal with extra bad behavior while balancing so many other things, so we waited. On New Year's Eve, we started giving him gluten (a component of grains and cereals.) Let me preface this by saying how expensive gluten-free food is, so we were really hoping this would work! And, guess what? We have not seen any negative reaction! Yay, two out of three's not so bad! I will try dairy again in a little bit to make sure it wasn't something else that was getting to him. But I am so happy at this point that he can eat a little more normal! And he loves it too!