Autism/ Celiac

[skurtz]

Do children with autism tend to have celiac or gluten intol.?

[MySuicidalTurtle]

I know a gluten-free, and even casein-free, diet helps a lot of those with Autism.

[psawyer]

I can't comment on celiac in this context, but I do know that children with autism respond positively to a gluten- and casein-free diet. I have a friend whose two sons are autistic, and when they went on a gluten-free/CF diet there were significant advances for both of them. They began interacting with other children in the day care, and began talking in complete sentences.

[Carriefaith]

From what I've read, I think that people with autism tend to be gluten and casein intolerant. I don't think that there has been much research done on this subject.

[Ursa Major]

There seems to be a lot of confusion on this subject. My opinion is, that gluten and casein won't actually cause autism, but will make it much worse in many autistic people. There is great resistance to this in especially Asperger circles, as they want everybody to believe that ALL of the symptoms are caused by genetics, and that diet and vaccinations etc. have NEVER anything to do with autism. That was one reason why I quit all but one of the Asperger forums I used to belong to, because those people were so unreasonable in some areas. They claim that they're so very logical, but in my opinion, many of them are illogical and ridiculous to the extreme.

I agree with what has been said above. It appears that a gluten-free/CF diet helps a lot of autistic people to function better, me included. And when you look at the fact that gluten and dairy intolerance causes not just intestinal problems but attack the brain as well, it makes sense to try the diet on autistic people to see if it will help.