GFCF diet

Stacy - posted on 02/17/2011

Whoo hoo! Glad to see so many people on board! :)

We've been CF for 8 weeks and GFSF for 6 weeks now. I've seen very positive changes with DS - he's a lot more agreeable, almost no tantrums, better able to focus, etc. No dramatic changes, but he's become a very pleasant little boy to be around! We found that it was necessary to eliminate soy as well - it mimics casein in the body. It was harder to eliminate soy than gluten, soy lecithin is in EVERYTHING!

I wanted to add one more diet to check out - the Feingold Diet. We've been on that since last October, and it eliminates all artificial colors, flavors and preservatives. It actually made a bigger difference with DS than the GFCFSF - it stopped the tantrums. Almost completely - only when he's overtired now do we see a tantrum maybe 1-2x a month, as opposed to 2-3x a day. He is very sensitive to dyes and we had no idea.

Kim - posted on 02/17/2011

Does everyone have a Facebook? I like to talk to everyone about the GF/CF Diet.

Rebecca - posted on 02/03/2009

I just wanted to say that my daughter has been GFCF since November 2006. We were in the midst of having her evaluated and I read about it online. It helped almost immediately. I have found the book "Healing the New Childhood Epidemics..." by Kenneth Bock, MD, an invaluable resource for starting the GFCF diet as well as biomedical treatments.

Carla - posted on 02/02/2009

Since we went gluten free about two years ago, my son's behavior has been MUCH improved. He is six years old.  There are some wonderful websites that have ideas, recipes, do's/don'ts... one is www.celiac.com.  I just gave it a try to see if it might help and it DID help.  It has been a blessing in our home.  He eats a lot of fruits and vegetables, fruit roll-ups, gummie snacks, and rice.  We are all much happier.

Liz - posted on 02/02/2009

Hi Colleen
We saw a noticeable difference with just the casein. We just started the gluten part the day before yesterday. I will let you know if I see a difference there.
Also, just wanted to let you know that other things besides dairy products can have casein. Look for ingredients that are called casein, caseinate, whey, milk, etc. Most non dairy cheeses have casein added. Stay away from all dairy including yogurt.
Hope this helps.
Liz

Colleen - posted on 02/01/2009

Hi Lauren! It did help but now my question is ... has the diet improved sysmptoms and are we talking only the casein free portion?

Lauren - posted on 02/01/2009

Hi Colleen,



I don't give my daughter foods that are made with any kind of milk product but will give her things made in facilities that also make foods with milk, soy, wheat...just as long as it isn't an ingredient in the food she is eating.



HTH!



~Lauren

Jacque - posted on 02/01/2009

Just a comment to praise the diet as well. We are a success family when we started using the diet our autistic son began talking with in a month we were amazed.....we also have adhd twins who have benefited also.....I hope all families have some success its a chore but truly worth a try.

Colleen - posted on 02/01/2009

I tried in the past the gluten portion of the diet and my son stopped eating rather than eat the provided, new alternative flours etc...its been a long time since this point in time and I would love to try again however cost is such an issue! Aside from that point, I think the casien portion would be worth it alone however, does this mean only dairy or should I be looking at every label? casein is milk, but did you eliminate foods that were processed with milk...and even a further step, did you not choose products that were processed on machinery with milk and eggs. I hope I explained my question well...Hope to hear from you soon, I'm new to this forum so, thank you for any advise and tips on how to get started. :)

Liz - posted on 01/29/2009

Thanks Tracey. I read that about the soy milk. We are using rice milk which I actually make and I think I might try making some almond milk as well to see if she likes that. We have a vitamix so making these milks is not difficult, also we can make rice flour and garbanzo bean flour. I sneak veggies into her fruit smoothies. I highly recomend a vita-mix with this diet, if you can afford it. It is definitely an investment but I have used mine every day since I got it... Sorry didn't mean to digress into an infomercial LOL

Tracey - posted on 01/28/2009

make sure your not using soymilk...it acts the same as dairy. Our daughter loves the Pacifico almond milk (vanilla for cereal and chocolate for drinking) I have to get it at an organic market. We give her coconut ice cream and coconut milk yogurt and she seems to enjoy them both. As for the gluten ...I didn't find it difficult at all because our daughter is not a picky eater. The caseine was the hardest because she loved cheese. We noticed an increase in vocab with the Caseine taken from the diet and she became much calmer. As far as suggestions for gluten...I have a great recipe for cupcakes using an old fashioned gluten free cake mix if you're interested. Glutino has the best selection and you can find gluten free ice cream cones. I'm finding that a lot of food manufacturers are now putting gluten free on their packaging which is really nice. Hope some of this helps...make sure to check out the GFCF website.lots of ideas there to help

Daisy - posted on 01/25/2009

I haven't tried a diet with my son, he won't eat most things. His diet right now consists of Oatmeal, pasta, potatoes, some cookies, he likes chips,and yogart. I just got him eating cheese a couple of months now. He drinks no problem except for water that's usually a meltdown. I've tried giving him pb, jam, muffins, cupcakes, lettuce, banana's and apples and he runs from it and has a tantrum cause i'm trying to give it to him. Normally when he would like something he'll let us know by leading us by the hand and pointing that's how he's communicating but I can't put a dent or subsitute in his diet.

I don't really know if this is healthy for him cause i've tried blending meat into his mash potatoes but he's gotten too smart for that and knows the difference now. I don't really know what to do about this. His behavoir has gotten better since I've taken Most of the sugar out of his diet. He has calmed down alot since..

Kathleen - posted on 01/25/2009

I saw changes with the diet and my son.. I recommend it to anyone.  I want you to know we can tell when my son has a violation and some gluten got into his diet he get bloated and his belly hurts and ...he is HORRIBLE for 2 weeks.  I was like you we started slowly but it is pretty easy now that we have done it for so long.  My son loves pb & j waffles or pancakes.  Since they are better than any of the breads i have tried we send those in his lunch.

Kathleen - posted on 01/25/2009

I saw changes with the diet and my son.. I recommend it to anyone.  I want you to know we can tell when my son has a violation and some gluten got into his diet he get bloated and his belly hurts and ...he is HORRIBLE for 2 weeks.  I was like you we started slowly but it is pretty easy now that we have done it for so long.  My son loves pb & j waffles or pancakes.  Since they are better than any of the breads i have tried we send those in his lunch.

Lauren - posted on 01/25/2009

Hi everyone,



My daughter has been on the gf/cf diet since age 23 months. We saw changes within the first week! eye contact went from a split second at a time to a couple of seconds at a time and she started crawling up whole staircases that week, something we knew she was capable of because she could do one step but she had never done the whole staircase before...she also sat down on the floor without prompting (she had literally never sat from the time she could walk!)...about a month into it she "shared" a moment with me- she thought something was funny, she was laughing and for the first time she looked at me to share the moment- it was incredible! I highly suggest the diet- I know it doesn't work for all but it is worth a try!



My daughter eats mostly meat, eggs, fruit, veggies, rice and corn made snacks and fortified almond milk and we give her a mulitvitamin. It was mostly a matter of removing cheese, whole milk and bread/crackers and finding substitutes. There are websites that tell you what is and is not on the diet if you have a question about something and the books about gf/cf will tell you what ingredients in foods to avoid.



Luckily here we have supermarkets near us that have gf/cf foods such as waffles, "granola" bars, cookies, etc. but you can also make all of those foods yourself with recipes found in the books mentioned.



My daughter is so used to the foods she eats that she won't even try some of the new recipes we have found!



Good luck everyone and please feel free to ask me any questions!



~Lauren

Natalie - posted on 01/25/2009

Hi we are in the UK and following Dan biomed diet we started June last year and seeing loads of positive changes we are just starting with the sonrise programme as well.  My son is 5 he regressed at 3.5yrs happy to chat to anyone with any questions

Natalie

Kerry - posted on 01/24/2009

Thanks liz, I might give it a go, think i will gluten free them, we have minimal milk products now anyway.

Kx

Liz - posted on 01/24/2009

Hi Kerry
Well, regarding books I think the easiest one to understand and gives the best overview as to why this diet works for a lot of ADHD/ASD kids is The Kid-Friendly ADHD and Autism Cookbook: The Ultimate Guide to the Gluten-Free, Casein-Free Diet. The Special Diets for Special Kids is a lot more dense and, while it is good to have that knowledge I think the first one is a very easy read and seems easy to get started. There is also a lot of information if you just google "gluten free casein free diet."

Also, you might give it a shot with your kids as well. While early intervention is best (as with every other kind of treatment for Autism) there have been even adults that have started it and noticed a difference. My sister is autistic and cut out the gluten a couple years back. She doesn't cut out the casein but she does say that she can tell a difference with the gluten. Says she can think better/things are clearer. Worth a try anyway.

Hope this helps

Love
Liz

Kerry - posted on 01/24/2009

Hi Liz, the gfcf diet was not around or talked about when my guys were younger, but as my sis in law is having trouble with another one of her little ones, I thought she should try while he was still yooung (2yo) so that he grew up used to the diets.  He is a very big boy for his age and violent toward his older sisters.  there are some diet issues already with one of the older sisters being very restricted as to what she can eat the doesnt upset her internally.  She would for years only eat cucumber sandwiches because that was all that didnt give her pain and diahrea.

And she now tells me that after 3 years in school, the oldest sister cant read or remember anything they tell her at school (the docs said something about not retaining any memory) So what to do next for that one ( i think there is another autistic there, and she might be like me and have 3 out of 4)  So the best thing i thought she could try was gfcf, it might help her sanity to think she is doing something to help while the docs are scratching their heads.

Where do you suggest we start? Books are hard to get hold of here in australia so is there one that covers most of the information from begining to when there is enough learned to work the rest out herself? Which one should we try to get ?

thanks K

Liz - posted on 01/24/2009

It is not so restrictive with the casein part, which is recommended to get rid of first, the gluten part is going to be the most restrictive part. The key is to find substitutes that your kid likes, like gluten free pasta and rice or almond milk. My SIL has celiac and neither my mom or my sister eat gluten, so I am used to these things and in todays world it is pretty easy to find gluten free substitutes for most things. Try amazon.com for tons of gluten free items. It will take some getting used to, but if it works I think it is well worth it! There are also some suggestions of supplements for your child to take to help them with the transition and make the "yucky" foods taste better...

Trisha - posted on 01/24/2009

Thanks for posting about this, Liz -- I read someting about this diet when my son was first diagnosed (AS), but haven't tried it because he's doing so well with the other steps. Still, if it works that well, and it would mean my son has an easier time coping with his world, I would certainly want to try it. Have you found it to be hard to follow, though? Is it very restrictive?

Liz - posted on 01/24/2009

My daughter has not been diagnosed yet, which I am happy about but there is talk. She is going to be four in March and has been in special ed since she was about 14 months old. You should pick up the book The Kid-Friendly ADHD and Autism Cookbook: The Ultimate Guide to the Gluten-Free, Casein-Free Diet at your local library or you can buy it at amazon or most book stores. This was my jumping off book and I am pleased that I read it. I'll let you know how it goes when we eliminate the gluten. I am also reading Special Diets for Special Kids. This is packed with tons of great information. Hope this helps!

Nikkie - posted on 01/24/2009

thank you, I was curious to know if it actually works, of course there are different spectrums of autism so I still wonder if it works with asperger kids. I think I may try it and see how it works. How old is you child, mine is 6 and don't know how he will respond to restricting some food from him.