Celiac And Developmental Delays, Speech Delays And Autism Spectrum Disorder

[Sofire]

Has anyone noticed improvement in a child

[krystynycole]

As a teacher of children with autism, I have noticed with some children there is a significant decrease in negative behaviors on a gluten free diet. I however have seen the opposite with others and seen no effect. From my experience over the past six years, it is a case by case basis, but more often then not in my students it seems as thought it has helped with children with more aggressive behaviors.

[maximoo]

Grab a copy of "gluten Free for Dummies" from the library. Great section on autism.

[Mom2J112903]

If a child has a gluten intolerance, their behaviors will decrease. If a child does not have any type of gluten intolearnace, there will be no chage.

[Skylark]

Gluten-free/casein-free is a really standard diet to try for autism. It helped my cousin's children who have Asperger's. If you child is doing better off gluten it's well worth a trial of casein-free as well.

[Kelleybean]

Has anyone noticed improvement in a child

[Cara in Boston]

My son is not autistic, but he had lots of "spectrum-like behaviors" and was assessed three different times (as a toddler in EI, in preschool, and in Kindergarten) He would over-react wildly (to loud noises, smells, irritating clothing), flap his hands whenever agitated, make no eye contact, rarely initiate conversation, repeat words and phrases over and over, etc. He was never diagnosed because he didn't quite fit - he was very social with other children. He is also unusually bright and has a memory like I have never seen in a child. He taught himself to read (has an older brother to imitate) and is reading and doing math at two grade levels above what is expected. So all in all, he was just very unusual and every teacher seemed to think he may fall somewhere on the spectrum.

He was in EI for speech delays and gross motor delays (low tone) until age 3.

At age 5 he was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. The main symptom we saw was a drastic change in behavior - tantrums, meltdowns over the smallest frustration, nothing we did seemed to help, no consequences seemed to matter. He was also quiet and withdrawn and no longer enjoyed the things he had loved (doing homework, reading, legos, etc.)

Once gluten free, the behavior improved immediately and over time, we noticed that he no longer did any of the "quirky" things that had us so concerned. They just disappeared. Now, if he gets accidently glutened, his behavior is atrocious for about 3 or 4 days, then it gradually improves until he is his regular self.

Perhaps he just outgrew the other behaviors or perhaps they were related somehow to his gluten intolerance - I don't know. But there seems to be a connection.

Cara

[Sofire]

Sorry for the late response, my computer is being repaired. Thank you so much for your feedback!

I

[maximoo]

I asked my 17 yo son (mildly autistic) who has been gluten-free for 10 mths if he noticed any differences since going gluten-free. He said that he has better concentration. I did not lead him or anything-completely his own words.