Perhaps you may have insight on this situation: child with autism, age 3, only eats wide variety of meat, vegetables, fruit, yogurt, milk. Never grains, anything sugary. Always drinks water, coconut water, never juices. All foods home cooked, not packaged. Just introduced some rice in last month. Makes wide variety of sounds, but does not talk. Any suggestions?
The first thing I would try is removing milk and milk products. If you have not already checked, I would also check for tongue tie. If you're not giving cod liver oil, that can be very helpful, along with probiotics and digestive enzymes. There are some very good multi-vitamin supplements that have been developed specifically for children on the spectrum. Simple Spectrum is one that seems to be working very well, with parental reports of increased eye-contact and speech, along with improvements in behavior.
I checked out the vitamin website; because child eats very well, meat/fish etc,(not a fussy eater at all) is it possible that taking the vitamins would be duplicating a lot of what is already in diet via food? Appreciate your input.
The advice about dietary changes to help non-verbal, autistic children is great, but what does one do when the child will not eat anything but white bread of a specific brand, milk of a specific brand, juice boxes of a specific brand and container design, Milano cookies, potato chips of a specific brand and every now and then, a PB&J sandwich. DON’T try changing a brand on her, she knows. And DON’T try adding anything to the juice, she knows and will thrown the full container away. This has been going on for YEARS and no one can understand how the child grows and has good strength. “Feeding therapy” resulted in major negative behavioral changes. What to do, short of tying her down and inserting a feeding tube? She is now 9. As a toddler, she ate applesauce, toddler fruit and vegetable pouchies and eggs, but since about age 4, the diet is what is described above.
Hi Jennifer: I can certainly relate to your dilemma. My own daughter was extremely rigid in what she would and would not eat as a young child. She was also extremely small and received a diagnosis of failure to thrive, being below the 10th percentile for weight. Because of this, we allowed her to eat whatever she would eat, just to get something in her. Her diet consisted of scrambled eggs with cheese, macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, French fries (which very often contain gluten), and sugary, pink yogurt. Her diet was full of gluten and casein. Children who have injured guts and who develop intestinal hyperpermeability (leaky gut) very often are not able to break down gluten and casein, and those proteins get into the bloodstream, where they are misidentified as opiates. This is why it is so difficult to get them to eat anything else. They are not eating for nutrition, they are drugging. They are addicted. The "foods" they choose are supplying their "fix."
It was only after I attended my first DAN! Conference (Defeat Autism Now!) and really began to understand WHY she wouldn't eat anything else, that I galvanized myself (and dragged my husband and other children along) that we were able to stop the addiction cycle. The first thing was to eliminate ALL sources of gluten and casein from our home. We all did it together, so that it was not a punishment for her. It was a slow process and one that was not comfortable, with many meltdowns initially. Withdrawal from opiate addiction is not a comfortable thing. You have to realize what is happening and really prepare yourself to stay the course.
As my daughter began to feel better, she was more willing to accept new foods. As her diet changed, she began to realize that when she did eat something she shouldn't have, she felt bad, which helped get her back on track.
I would strongly suggest getting in touch with TACA and seeing if there are any mentors in your area who can help you through this process. The TACAnow website has some excellent information about changing the diet one step at a time. In my opinion, the most important thing that needs to happen in order for you to be successful in this endeavor is support from others who have been through it. Here is a link to the TACA Mentor program: https://tacanow.org/what-we-do/mentor-program/
You may also want to read this article, written by me, about gluten and casein addiction in childhood and how it translates to drug and alcohol addiction in adolescence and as an adult:
Perhaps you may have insight on this situation: child with autism, age 3, only eats wide variety of meat, vegetables, fruit, yogurt, milk. Never grains, anything sugary. Always drinks water, coconut water, never juices. All foods home cooked, not packaged. Just introduced some rice in last month. Makes wide variety of sounds, but does not talk. Any suggestions?
The first thing I would try is removing milk and milk products. If you have not already checked, I would also check for tongue tie. If you're not giving cod liver oil, that can be very helpful, along with probiotics and digestive enzymes. There are some very good multi-vitamin supplements that have been developed specifically for children on the spectrum. Simple Spectrum is one that seems to be working very well, with parental reports of increased eye-contact and speech, along with improvements in behavior.
Thanks. We’re acting on your suggestions. ❤️
I checked out the vitamin website; because child eats very well, meat/fish etc,(not a fussy eater at all) is it possible that taking the vitamins would be duplicating a lot of what is already in diet via food? Appreciate your input.
The advice about dietary changes to help non-verbal, autistic children is great, but what does one do when the child will not eat anything but white bread of a specific brand, milk of a specific brand, juice boxes of a specific brand and container design, Milano cookies, potato chips of a specific brand and every now and then, a PB&J sandwich. DON’T try changing a brand on her, she knows. And DON’T try adding anything to the juice, she knows and will thrown the full container away. This has been going on for YEARS and no one can understand how the child grows and has good strength. “Feeding therapy” resulted in major negative behavioral changes. What to do, short of tying her down and inserting a feeding tube? She is now 9. As a toddler, she ate applesauce, toddler fruit and vegetable pouchies and eggs, but since about age 4, the diet is what is described above.
Hi Jennifer: I can certainly relate to your dilemma. My own daughter was extremely rigid in what she would and would not eat as a young child. She was also extremely small and received a diagnosis of failure to thrive, being below the 10th percentile for weight. Because of this, we allowed her to eat whatever she would eat, just to get something in her. Her diet consisted of scrambled eggs with cheese, macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, French fries (which very often contain gluten), and sugary, pink yogurt. Her diet was full of gluten and casein. Children who have injured guts and who develop intestinal hyperpermeability (leaky gut) very often are not able to break down gluten and casein, and those proteins get into the bloodstream, where they are misidentified as opiates. This is why it is so difficult to get them to eat anything else. They are not eating for nutrition, they are drugging. They are addicted. The "foods" they choose are supplying their "fix."
It was only after I attended my first DAN! Conference (Defeat Autism Now!) and really began to understand WHY she wouldn't eat anything else, that I galvanized myself (and dragged my husband and other children along) that we were able to stop the addiction cycle. The first thing was to eliminate ALL sources of gluten and casein from our home. We all did it together, so that it was not a punishment for her. It was a slow process and one that was not comfortable, with many meltdowns initially. Withdrawal from opiate addiction is not a comfortable thing. You have to realize what is happening and really prepare yourself to stay the course.
As my daughter began to feel better, she was more willing to accept new foods. As her diet changed, she began to realize that when she did eat something she shouldn't have, she felt bad, which helped get her back on track.
I would strongly suggest getting in touch with TACA and seeing if there are any mentors in your area who can help you through this process. The TACAnow website has some excellent information about changing the diet one step at a time. In my opinion, the most important thing that needs to happen in order for you to be successful in this endeavor is support from others who have been through it. Here is a link to the TACA Mentor program: https://tacanow.org/what-we-do/mentor-program/
This link will take you to articles to help specifically with implementing dietary changes: https://tacanow.org/resource/diet/
You may also want to read this article, written by me, about gluten and casein addiction in childhood and how it translates to drug and alcohol addiction in adolescence and as an adult:
https://marcellapiperterry.substack.com/p/substance-abuse-has-many-forms
I hope this information is helpful to you in your journey.