Gluten free for Autism?

A couple years ago, my husband started researching diet and illness. Originally, he was looking for dietary ways to treat and control my multiple sclerosis and in doing so stumbled across several articles and books that suggested using a gluten free diet to curb some of the symptoms of Autism and mental illness.

So, the whole family (all 8 of us) embarked upon an interesting journey. We started the path toward becoming gluten free. We were already meat and (mostly) dairy free. My husband and his kids adopted that lifestyle when we combined our two families. My kids and I have had been meat and (mostly) dairy free since my children were very young.

I will freely admit that after almost 15 years working with children and adults with Autism in group homes, mental health facilities, and private homes, I thought the whole idea was stupid. But, I do, and always have, firmly believed in treating illness with nutrition and herbs first and foremost. So, I jumped in with both feet. - what's the worst that could happen.....

We've experimented with gluten and gluten containing foods over the last 2 years and I have come to the conclusion that there really is something important to the idea of avoiding gluten if you have Autism.

Occasionally, we'll slip up and decide to let the kids have 'regular' pizza, or something else with high gluten content in it, and we regret it for days.

Our 6 yr old becomes absolutely unmanageable when he consumes anything with gluten in it. He goes from a sweet, gentle mostly caring little man to an angry, wild, aggressive, unreasonable wild child.

Several hours after eating high gluten items he gets angry at almost nothing. He'll throw temper tantrums and break things, just for the sake of breaking it. He throws punches at me and his close in age sibs, and has even been known to take things from our 2 yr old. He'll kick the walls and stomp on the floors and slam the doors as hard as he possibly can.

In few hours the storm passes, but the symptoms continue. Homeschool for the next several days is almost impossible for him. His attention span is gone. He becomes incapable of following even the simplest of directions. I have seen this mostly independent child become incapable of the simple act of feeding himself for 2 days after the gluten rage.

For someone who has eaten and enjoyed homemade bread all her life, it is truly difficult to believe that the effects can be so serious.

So..of course we experiment a little here and there, let him 'break the rules' as it were.. like this past weekend.

I took the boys to a college football game with my eldest daughter. She plays in the band, and because of her age the band director asked me to go with to their only away game. He told me the kids were welcome to come along on the band bus and he would order lunches for them and spring for dinner, too. I brought along fruit and veggie snacks. My husband and I discussed the lunches and pizza party dinner. We decided that since we've been very strict about the diet lately, we figured one sack lunch sandwich and one slice of pizza probably wouldn't do too much damage.

Boy were we WRONG. When we got to the stadium everyone had lunch. By the time the game started 30 min later, our 6 yr old was more hyper than he's been in a long time. Unable to hold still, jumping everywhere, screeching at the top of his lungs.

I chalked it off to the excitement of the football game. He loves attending these games and I think he feels a part of the action since his older stepsister is in the band.

Right around half time he just wilted. He curled up on my lap and just sat there with is head buried in my shoulder. He reported to me that his "legs feel funny, like they won't hold me." He was miserable and acting very strange.

By the time we got home, he was starting to get angry and aggressive. He spend a good part of Sunday morning screaming, breaking things and throwing tantrums. Monday was better, the aggression has stopped, but the poor child was in a brain fog, unable to think clearly, unable to speak most of the day. Today, he is recovering and almost back to normal.

I'm sure MSG had a hand in the severity of his reactions this weekend. The sandwiches contained lunch meat, which are all loaded with MSG.

Never again will I break our gluten free, msg free diet.