Ever since Amy was diagnosed with ASD, it has been suggested from several sources that a gluten/dairy-free diet might be the way to go. As a Mum my priority has been managing some of Amy's more unsavoury ASD traits up to this point. The social/emotional/behavioural stuff has been exhausting and I didn't have the time or energy to do much beyond managing our ASD preschooler on a daily basis for quite some time.
However now that Amy is pretty much settled into Morning Kindy with a teacher's aide, and that I am getting some "me-time" (i.e: time to think!) while she is at Kindy, I feel ready to explore the dietary aspect of ASD.
Many moons ago (in the mid-nineties), I worked two Summers in a children's camp in the USA for children with learning/emotional and behavioural problems. The camp had a preservative-free diet. Half-way through the camp the parents could come to visit and often came armed with a lot of food full of all the stuff these kids had been so carefully weaned off! Not surprisingly the kids with ADHD were off their nut after eating copious amounts of junk food. It took several days for the kids to settle down and a lot of extra work and patience was require by the camp counsellors! It was very obvious that diet affected a lot of the children that went to this camp.
The ASD child comes with high anxiety levels. Amy is anxious on a daily basis around some simple routine-tasks such as toileting and getting changed to have a bath, for instance. So scenarios outside the home that are riddled with uncertainties that cannot be preempted are a constant source of worry for her. I can read how anxious she is on any given day or week by how regular/irregular her toileting is and in particular this is often indicated by what's going on (or not going on!) in the poo department.
The last couple of weeks have been extra-anxious ones for Amy. We went away for a week and then the week in which we came back was about her decompressing after our trip away. Sure enough she got a bit more bunged up than usual - and this only adds fuels to the fire on the ASD front. When I got a text from my husband on Sunday reading Poo at last! I understood totally his jubilation! When a poo finally arrives, Amy's demeanour completely changes. It's almost as though sometimes the whole household cannot relax until a bowel movement happens!
I have been thinking about how when we were away we ate a bit of junk food/food full of preservatives. Our diet is usually pretty healthy overall. I felt gross myself after all the stodge. I personally cannot eat a lot of gluten myself so have always agreed with the theory that some of us just cannot eat a lot of it. A very good friend of mine claims to be around ninety percent gluten-free and has felt so much better since eliminating gluten from her diet.
Amy and I typically bake together once or twice a week. I have been aware of all the extra gluten going into her system and a couple of weeks ago bought some gluten-free flour. This was my first step towards thinking I might give the gluten-free thing a go for Amy.
My husband also recently found out he has high cholesterol levels so I thought I may as well start reducing the dairy-intake in our household as well. So I went food shopping this week without doing a lot of research - just winging it to see what I might come back with. It was pretty easy - I just got some gluten-free cereal for Amy (which has Cocoa in it which she loves), some gluten-free bread (which Amy isn't that keen on) and some gluten-free spaghetti. Wheat flour is the ingredient to look for. Some of the meals we've had this week have had wheat flour in them: chips/fish fingers/quiche - I am a WIP around reading the labels for gluten/wheat flour content.
For my husband I just looked out for no cholesterol products - the only big difference was changing brands for margarine. For the first time in a long time I came home with no cheese! I will miss that on our spaghetti bolognese and no more cheese toasties which makes me a little sad! I am choosing to join my family in these dietary changes as obviously having food in the house that a four year old cannot eat is not fair nor worth the hassle! It is going to be an adjustment but perhaps a welcome one. Even I am bored with cooking and eating the same-old, same-old.
There is a wealth of information on the net about ASD and the gluten/dairy free diet. I haven't dipped into it too much at this point. I am just following my intuition. Amy won't be gluten-free overnight and I am on the fence about her being entirely dairy-free. I think for now I will just cut out cows milk (I bought her some lactose-free milk which she likes) and cheese but will allow yoghurt. (just not on a daily basis).
Amy had her B4 School Check today which went well although she is being referred back to audiology (she went through audiology as part of her ASD diagnosis almost a year ago) as there were some minor issues around hearing a particular pitch. She also wasn't so keen on wearing an eye-patch or having me cover her eye so she didn't complete the vision test and will go back in about six months to do it again. Part of the check entailed talking to a nurse about her development across the board. Since she has a diagnosis I was about to talk to the nurse about her ASD in detail. Basically these checks are an opportunity to pick up any problems before New Zealand children start school. When I said I was looking at making Amy's diet gluten-free she suggested I put her on a complete gluten-free diet for a whole month to see if it makes a difference so I will do that. I guess I am slowly gearing up towards doing so!
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