4 ms·

The fact that you've been downvoted is one of the main issues with the understanding of autism by the world at large (those not in the autism community). There

• giarc 12y ago
  Just came back and a bit surprised at the downvotes... but that's ok. I don't know a huge amount about the connection, but I know many autistic kids have GI issues (loose stools) and this has many families considering diet changes as a treatment, so to speak. If you look through my history, you will see that I actually donate stool for stool transplants. My understanding of the connection (or what the hypothesis is) is that the flora of children doesn't adjust the same in autistic kids as it does in others. We naturally have a level of Clostridia bugs in our guts when we are born and they typically taper off at around 10 months or so. It's believed that in some kids, it doesn't taper off and continues to grow in their gut. As we know, Clostridia bacteria are great at producing toxins (botulism, c. diff toxin, GAS gangrene) and it's believed the Clostridia that are in the babies guts are producing neurotoxins that produce these autism symptoms. We've completed transplants on a few autistic kids with mixed results (younger kids seem to do better than older kids, the thinking is that the older you get, the more damage the neurotoxins have done). As many have pointed out, autism is still such a new diagnosis, and it's truly a spectrum of symptoms, but also a spectrum of causes. Therefore a stool transplant might not work for every child.
  • fecak 12y ago
    There are many studies about autism and GI issues over several years. Parents of ASD children take heat for trying various things to help their kids, including diets. There are several diets that have helped some kids, but as you wrote autism is a wide spectrum and no two may react the same. The biomedical side of autism is often dismissed, and likely misunderstood, which I think explains the downvotes. Spending time with hundreds of children with autism, and you start to hear similar complaints and issues. Many of these kids are sick.
    • giarc 12y ago
      The microbiome of the gut is like the new frontier of medicine. It's currently very en vogue and lot's of interesting research coming out. For example, the link between bacteria population in your gut and obesity. Diet can drastically alter these populations, and therefore when parents adjust diets (remove gluten, remove dairy etc etc) they are actually adjusting the gut flora.
      • fecak 12y ago
        The microbiome may be new, but treating children with behavioral issues with dietary intervention goes back 100 years (with varying levels of success). The GFCF diet (and others) seems to get criticized because parental reporting doesn't seem to match scientific studies. But the anecdotal evidence is overwhelming. The Autism Research Institute has surveyed thousands of parents about diet and results, and some of the diets have a high success rate with helping some symptoms.
• ideaoverload 12y ago
  3 year girl in my family had serious gastrointestinal issues. She suffered on the daily basis and it made contact and therapy just much much harder. Diet adjustment was huge win. It does not cure but enables development.
• hoopism 12y ago
  I did not downvote (don't even have the ability). Our daughter had severe GERD at a young age, she would be screaming through the night in pain. Apparently GERD and gastro issues are somewhat typical of kids with ASD. That being said I did a lot of reading on effective treatments. There's absolutely no shortage of parents seeing results with dietary changes and it's a fascinating area. Unfortunately I have not found any studies that conclusively make any link that we feel comfortable implementing. Gluten intolerance and dairy intolerance run in my family. For the last 4 months we have cut out gluten. The reason is that it seems to anecdotally have a high link to symptoms and it's super easy to eliminate (comparatively). Our Pediatrician (who is well versed on this sort of thing) expressed concerns that often the strict diets bring a fair amount of stress to both the parents and child. ASD kids often have feeding issues already... I know several who only eat 1 or 2 types of foods. She did not feel comfortable based on the research recommending any drastic change. On a side note... there are a TON of well meaning and desperate parents out there. There are also TONs of unscrupulous companies who will make all sorts of claims. One of my biggest concerns is with all the poorly researched vitamin and medical interventions. I am not stupid enough to dismiss the entire field as without merit... but I have seen some pretty awful claims and therapies that have huge risk and almost no factual evidence. It's a scary landscape out there if you are uneducated and desperate. You don't have to do a ton of searching to find some really scary interventions out there being done on very young children.
  • fecak 12y ago
    Regarding diet and stress - we started with diet about seven years ago. She was a very picky eater and we kept the snacks she liked in one cabinet, and when she wanted something she would come take your hand and drag you to the cabinet. If you asked her what she wanted, she'd take your hand and place it on the item (no pointing, no grabbing it on her own). The day we implemented the diet, I took her to the cabinet and opened it up. It was empty but for a few things she still could have, and we eventually filled it with things she was allowed. Flash forward to today, and her favorite foods are almost entirely vegetables and meats. She is very restricted - no dairy, gluten, soy, corn, sugar, any grains, and little processed food overall. She has been sick (cold) once in the past three years and attends elementary school. The stress of a child not sleeping for years far outweighs the stress of meal planning and preparation, at least in my family (wife is at home). I'm not a doctor (if that wasn't obvious already), but diet worked for us and she quickly realized that she would have to eat from choices we provided. There was no more than maybe a day of any negativity about it from her. Her diet now is incredibly healthy, and my wife is creative to make things that are safe alternatives to stuff that other kids are eating. Some diets take more prep time than others, but I don't know that I've ever heard of stress to family or child as a stated objection to try it.
• gclaramunt 12y ago
  I wish it were that simple and a magic diet made the autism go away...