Coping With Autistic Behaviour And Celiac Diet?

[Guest andie]

hi

One of the girls at work would like to start her 6 year old son on a gluten free diet, but is not sure she can cope with the disruptive behaviour while doing it.

he has a heighened sense of smell (as most do) and can tell by the smell of the food if it is the right brand etc.

she is asking for advice from anyone who has experience with this.

should she do it gradually over a period of time or just make him go cold turkey and try to cope with the behaviour for as long as she can?

He's back to school in a week and this will also make it hard for a teacher to cope. He is a high functioning autistic so can be reasoned with minimally.

Also any ideas about his lunch? He will only take corn pops and yogart tubes (even though he is otherwise lactose free). She allows him this because otherwise he is so hungry by midafternoon that they cannot work with him.

She is a member on the autistic message board, but I just wondered it someone had tried this here.

thanx

Andie

[Kibbie]

I have had 2 friends go gluten free for the same reasons each of them did it differently.

1. The cold turkey approach (she did a complete elimination diet down to the bare essentials) it took roughly 2 weeks of fighting. After some amount of time (I'm not sure what it waS) she reintroduced foods in one at a time. She found the main triggers to be: gluten, dairy, and paprika

2. The slow approach: My friend substituted 1/2 and 1/2 and slowly eliminated the other products. that Too took roughly 2 weeks. Though her son was not as fruious about it they still say it was a rough two weeks!

Does she have the book Special diets for special kids? I believe that gives a few options about how to do it!

hi

One of the girls at work would like to start her 6 year old son on a gluten free diet, but is not sure she can cope with the disruptive behaviour while doing it.

he has a heighened sense of smell (as most do) and can tell by the smell of the food if it is the right brand etc.

she is asking for advice from anyone who has experience with this.

should she do it gradually over a period of time or just make him go cold turkey and try to cope with the behaviour for as long as she can?

He's back to school in a week and this will also make it hard for a teacher to cope. He is a high functioning autistic so can be reasoned with minimally.

Also any ideas about his lunch? He will only take corn pops and yogart tubes (even though he is otherwise lactose free). She allows him this because otherwise he is so hungry by midafternoon that they cannot work with him.

She is a member on the autistic message board, but I just wondered it someone had tried this here.

thanx

Andie