Autism Spectrum Disorders.. What Is In It For Autistics

Autism Spectrum Disorders are very complex in nature, and are still not completely understood. With one in 150 being diagnosed, how is it not an epidemic? So what is it in for a child/adult with autism?

We all know that chemicals and toxins are transported from the mother to the child in utero. Some mothers are carrying predispositioned children that are vunerable to every aspect of their environment, which can cause difficulties including autism and other learning and physical problems. Autistic children already have weakened systems, and are being noticed when the child is diagnosed with autism. They can not excrete metals and other toxins in their bodies (even during utero) causing an overload resulting in autistic like behaviors.

Interventions such as the GFCF diet, removal of additives, food coloring and flavoring, biomedical treatment, applied behavioral analysis, speech and occupational therapies, Floortime, and many others can help with the physical and social aspects of everyday living as a child with an autistic disorder.

There are many possible causes for autism spectrum disorders, and no one knows where to start in finding the one answer the world is waiting on. Is it genetic or is it environmental? I would say a little of both. With the modern technology of foods after World War II it seems likely that the food colorings and additives could play a major roll especially with behavior.

Researchers have also considered rainfall as a link to autism. I do live in one of the rainiest states in America. Their hypothesis is that it is due to a Vitamin B deficiency. One of the latest is autism and vinyl flooring. The list keeps going on and on. I usually overlook these and say well, it is a possibility.

The most common cause (for most parents) is vaccines due to the mercury/thimersol that was used as a preservative. In 1999, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Center for Disease Control (CDC), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) directed U.S. vaccine manufactures to remove thimersol from all children's vaccines as soon as possible. However, the preservatives found in the flu shots have not been removed. Please visit Safe Minds for more information. They are a non-profit organization whose mission is to investigate and raise awareness of the risk to infants and children of exposure to mercury from medical products.

As a young child, autistic children show a variety of autistic behaviors. What was your child eating before the diagnosis of autism? What were his first foods? Baby food contains salicylates and additives. Therefore unless you made it yourself it is processed baby food. Other foods were cooked vegetables (possible salicylates), fries cooked in oils containing BHA, BHT. and TBHQ. Read Common Additives In Foods, and Phenol Intolerance (PST) Dificiency.

You then realize that the biomedical aspect of autism becomes the child's state of well being. Their biomedical doctor keeps their bodies going. Therapies keep their bodies functioning properly helping with speech, and doing everything imaginable to help a child with autism spectrum disorder to function properly on a day to day basis. What extraordinary people they are.

I'm not very knowledgeable about teenagers and adults, but I do know that it can be a cherishable time, and then it can be difficult. At times when these teenagers and adults with autism express their sensitivities and "tantrums." It can go as far as the Sky Walker case, but it is rare. Most autistic teenagers and adults are just striving to survive in their world the best that they can. Gotta love all those wonderful people for working hard to understand their way of life. A friend of mine with triplet autistic boys is an example of how they are striving. Autistic couples are one of a kind and are striving even today. How wonderful that it is for them to share their lives together.


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Autistic Son Enters Gifted Class Despite Behavior Problems

Great news from the school on Eddie. He has scored high enough on the RAVEN test to qualify for evaluation for the gifted class at school. A few years back he was tested, bud did not quite make it. We are very proud of him any happy that he has accomplished this task.

Eddie is a very smart child with autism who has his difficulties. By the time he was six months old he was pulling up in his bed where he loved to play. He would then turn and dive to the mattress. At first we found what as now a child with an autistic trait to be astonishing and scary at times. Clearly as I recall now he was defiantly autistic then. We just had no recollection of what autism was back then. Not until he was three years old that we had learned the meaning of autism. He did have problem with sleeping habits by the time he was a week old and got rid of jaundice.

By the time he was one, he was throwing large toys at me, and here I was pregnant with Devin. I always had to watch my back with that child. I still have to watch out with him today, and he is seven -and-a-half. He had behavior problems in preschool as well, which caused me to visit the school on a number of occasions. He did "request" having the words wrote out along with the shape drawn so that he could learn how to spell words. I remember that in pre-school while staying with my mother he would write the names of his friends on a chalkboard. I was astonished. He never talked until he was three -and- a -half, and by the time he was four he was reading, writing, and spelling words.

Kindergarten rolled around and he was having major behavior problems. His autistic behaviors included, destroying property, hitting others, climbing under tables, and being disrespectful. He started medication in first grade to help control ADHD which they both suffer from. Things got better for him, but he lost a lot of weight, so I ended up changing his medicine again. We are still wishing for better help which only biomedical, GFCF Diet, Feingold Diet, therapies, and etc. that can help with autism symptoms. Getting that help when you are dealing with autism and poverty can be one of the most difficult things you can go through.

Second grade is here and he has done very well. He is now in a regular classroom, and only has a few sensory integration deficits such as sounds and lights. He does not like the chatter of the other classroom children. The intercom is another sensory problem with him. All he can do is cover his ears to get away from the noise. Eddie has done well, growing up with two conditions.



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Rice Milk...Made Easy

Currently I am reading two books from the library. In one book called, "The Kid-Friendly ADHD & Autism Cookbook. By Pamela J Compart, M.D., and Dana Laake R.D.H., M.S.,LDN. There is a recipe for rice milk. I enjoyed it after I made some for Dev. Milk makes his stomach hurt, so I thought that I would try this to see if he could tolerate it. He drinks it, but not like he would regular milk. It is different for us, but maybe he will eat it with cereal. I thought that I would share this recipe with you.

Rice Milk
4 cups hot/warm water
1 cup cooked rice (white or brown)
1 teaspoon vanilla. (Use pure vanilla extract and not imitation vanilla for the Feingold diet)

Place all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Let the milk set for about 30 minutes. Pour the milk steadily into another container, leaving most of the sediment in the first container. Store in fridge for up to 5 days.

Hope you will enjoy this recipe.

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Hand Grounded Rice Flour

Hello everyone, I thought about making some rice flour as I try to learn how to apply the GFCF/Feingold diets to our lives. Something that seems hard to do since everything they eat, they probably don't need.

Rice Flour (hand-ground)
Large bag of white rice (I used 1/2 bag this time.
Allow rice to soak in water for 2 to 3 hours. (With mine, I started after soaking for three hours, but realized it needed to be a little softer since I was hand grinding it.

Use a cheese cloth to place rice in to drain out excess water. Use something heavy to put on top to "mash" the water out of the bag. Do this as you are grinding the rice into powder by hand since we are also removing the moisture out of the rice.

I would crush up the rice a little at a time until it was grounded into flour. It does dry over time. I also sift the flour many times to remove the ungrounded rice.

It is a very long and dreadful process. I've been working on mine for about 2 days, and it still needs some drying. I really enjoyed making it, and was well worth the time that I put into it. I hope that there is something that I can make out of it without having to grind up another kind of flour and buying other ingredients. As we all know a budget is a budget, and besides it was kind of painful for my joints which have problems of their own. You may also use a blender or grinder before you place it in a cheese cloth. This is my first batch ever, and I haven't tried it any other way.

Hope you will try it if you can cope with all the work involved.

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A Child's Plea For A Change

My little Dev had some ice cream, which I knew was a no no for some reason. He said," Mommy my tummy hurts. We need to take out all that bad stuff." I had told him that it was probably the milk. It was Breyer's chocolate ice cream. Once an active milk drinker is suddenly turned away from it because he ended up in the bathroom with a sick digestive system. A few days ago, He had some orange juice that was not on the Feingold diet. He was now complaining of it hurting him as well. I had showed him a bag of Doritos that was a big no no for the Feingold diet and GFCF diet. He said he didn't want those either. He is now sitting at the table drawing on a piece of paper being very good. As the days went by, I've noticed that he is learning what is not good. He is starting to realize all along what I've been telling him. These foods are obviously bothering him, and he just doesn't want anything else to do with it. I hope so anyways at least for home if not for school. Then again he is always full of surprises, and he may stay away since he knows what it makes him feel like. I'm not sure what Ed thinks about it. He never really said, but I can tell a difference when he isn't flooded with all the bad ingredients. Unfortuantly, I am having a hard time getting my husband to understand that modern day foods are filled with many toxins that can alter a persons behavior causing a variety of symptoms. I believe that it would help the entire family, but when you can't agree on something then there isn't much you can do. As far as the children goes, I don't think that it will be too hard to eliminate some if not all of the ingredients. I do have a list of all possible problems with chemicals from the Feingold diet. I will be more than happy to provide you with that list if you are wanting to see what is on it. Thanks again and see you all soon.

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Feeling Lost With Doctors

As many may know, my boys are dealing with rashes (eczema and psoriasis). I have taken the boys to a pediatrician hoping I would find the help that I need so much. Didn't get to far with that one, just learned I need to find a DAN(Defeat Autism Now) doctor. I turned to my yahoo group ASD-MS, and was told of one in Louisiana. I am not able to travel so far, so now I really feel lost. Before I just jump in to putting them on the GFCF diet, I need to know what they are allergic to (if anything). As far as the Fiengold Diet goes, removing the colors and dyes in their diet seemingly means that it would be my choice in doing this. I believe it would help them as well. I have asked a few people what my options are now with finding a doctor. Maybe they will help. If anyone who reads my blog knows of any options that I might have, please let me know. I am just wanting to care for them the way I should, and finding the right doctor to test them is my top priority. I will search the web and hope to find something, but I just don't know. Thanks for reading and I'll be happy to hear from you.
Amanda

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Food Additives and Your Child's Behavior

I was searching something to write about today and I found something on the food additives that so many companies put into food. So how bad it is...I'd say very. I came across the Feingold Diet .
I've never heard of this diet, but it makes such obvious sense. Part of the overview is this, and I quote,"Numerous studies show that certain synthetic food additives can have serious learning, behavior, and/or health effects for sensitive people. The Feingold Program (also known as the Feingold Diet) is a test to determine if certain foods or food additives are triggering particular symptoms. It is basically the way people used to eat before "hyperactivity" and "ADHD" became household words, and before asthma and chronic ear infections became so very common.
The Feingold Association believes that patients have a right to be given complete, accurate information on all of the options available in the treatment of ADHD as well as other conditions. Sometimes, the best results come from a combination of treatments. This might include using the Feingold Diet plus allergy treatments, or plus nutritional supplements, or plus a gluten-free/casein-free diet, or even Feingold + ADHD medicine. We believe that it's useful to start with the Feingold Diet since it is fairly easy to use, not expensive, and because removing certain synthetic additives is a good idea for anyone."
As I have addressed in previous posts that my children's therapist has always suggested removing the colors from their food and drinks. I suggest as well removing colors from other products as well. From medicines to play-doh. These colors really affect my kids in my own opinion. They usually get even more hyper when they eat or drink something with any colors in it. Talk to your doctor about removing colors from your/their diet. Explore all the possibilities of allergies and their source if possible. Every child is different so getting them tested will help you know what types of allergies they may have. Explore the Feingold Diet and see if you think it is right for your loved ones.

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GFCF As An Alternative Treatment

The GFCF diet is an alternative treatment for autistic children who apparently suffer from gastro-intestinal problems. This is a very difficult diet to follow and must be followed specifically, or all your hard work will not pay off. So where do you start? I suggest talking with a trusted Dr. or a dietitian. There are two blood test that can be done to check for problems. They are the IgG and IgE tests, that can be done by a pediatrician or an allergist, as noted here at TACA (Talk About Curing Autism).

Symptoms of gastro-intestinal problems (needing GFCF diet), are easily spotted. This reprint done by Jenny W. is my favorite place to view symptoms. Symptoms can be found all over the internet, but I will use these for today.
Does your child...
* Have a blotchy color to their skin over part or most of their bodies
*"Shakiness" before or immediately after eating
*Enjoys sweets before eating a meal
*Eating salty foods
*Drinks lots of fluids during the day
Other symptoms can include irregular stool patters, sinus and congestion, urinating more at night, history of psoriasis, eczema, and/or other rashes, ear infections and prolonged use of antibiotics. The list goes on and on so it's wise to read up on it. Especially when it comes on how to do the diet. It is recommended that you start out slowly to avoid withdraws from the foods that you are missing.
Friends have recommended to me to take out the casein before the glutein to allow time for their bodies to adjust. One friend removed the glutein after three months of being casein free. Noticing overall changes within six months of treatment.
Some of the best websites for the GFCF diet are as follows:
TACA Talking About Curing Autism
GFCF Diet.com
Nutrition and Autism

Groups also help when it comes to having questions and concerns. There are dozens of forums to choose from. I recommend the following:
GFCF Kids (Yahoo group)
GFCF Recipes (Yahoo group)
Autism Web.com Forum for autism

Choosing to go GFCF can be a difficult process, but with the help from your doctor, you can make the right decisions for you and your family. There are tests that can be done, but once you know the symptoms and how they affect your body, then you will know if it is right for you and if you need to have a word with your doctor. Thanks and have a great day. There is more to come later on about foods and what is ok and what is not.

Amanda

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