HAVE YOU TRIED DIET INTERVENTION?

After Jordans Dr suggested Diet Intervention along with other treatments we decided to give it a go. I bought this book called "Diet Intervention and Autism" by Marilyn Le Breton, I found it to be not only very interesting to read but helped us put the puzzle together of some of Jordans extreme behavioural problems. With certain individuals sometimes it hasnt worked but to make it work you have to be committed, patient and dont expect it too work in a week.

SOME FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT GLUTEN & CASEIN

If gluteomorphin and casomorphin are in our children from the foods that they eat then it is possible that they are not doing well in therapy because they are distracted by the effects of the foods. Many children have extremely high pain tolerances and do not cry when they bang their head against the wall or run into a door. It is possible that the "morphine" effect from the food they eat could play a role in not letting them feel pain and stealing their attention span to prevent them from learning when parents spend thousands of dollars on therapy a year.

Before we had heard about diet intervention and gave it a go, Jordan was a "drug addict", when i say this it is because after reading the effects that It is well known that casein (from human or cow milk) will break down in the stomach to produce a peptide known as casomorphine, which, as the name implies, will have opioid activities. Similar effects are noted with gluten from wheat and some other cereals [notably oats, barley and rye] in which the compounds formed are gluteomorphins. He suffered from sleepless night (neitherless to say so did we)
He would wake up crying, thrashing around in his sleep and seemed to be in some sort of pain, even though he seemed to have a high pain threshold, there were times my husband Jason and I would get so frustrated with him which didn't help, I was later to find out he was in pain, I suffered a lot of guilt for a long time after learning, that he was coming down from all the foods he had eaten containing Gluten and Casein that day which was causing thus mimicking the effects of opiate drugs like heroin and morphine. He was screaming out for another hit of Gluten and Casein. He would at times get up in the middle of the night, pinch a piece of bread, eat it and go back sleep. It was like he knew the bread would relieve the symptoms. (pretty smart way of thinking don't you think).

When we started cutting out all Gluten, Yeast, Casein and cutting down his suger intake it wasn't as easy as we thought it would be. I found all the foods that did not contain these ingredients, were expensive and very time consuming. We had to read all the ingredients on the back of everything we bought. People would stare at my husband and I as we argued about the contents of each packet, analysing everything about their hidden contents.

My mother and father ended up buying us a bread maker so we could make our own bread. The ingrediants like Xanthum gum amongst other items were just as costly to buy than the loaf itself along with the aggrevation of having to get the measurements correct in order for the bread too rise properly. I tried cooking biscuits and cakes and found along with the bread he wouldn't eat it unless it was toasted. Butter was replaced with Nuttalex margarine. In the bin the Vegemite went along with the peanut butter, he could only have honey and some jams on his toast. Because he loves baked beans he virtually lived on them. The bread would go off quickly if not frozen, and would crumble easily and this was the same with bought bread. Gluten free sausages had to be ordered from the butchers so they would make them first thing in the morning before other sausages were made because the machine would other wise contain traces of Gluten etc.

Because Jordan loved Yogurt I switched to soy yogurt and soy milk for his cereal, we did also try rice milk but after trying it myself i could understand why anyone would heave at the taste, he ate his breakfast with soy milk but wouldn't eat the yogurt.
We tried giving him treats such as soy chocolate, which he quickly decided this was not something his taste buds enjoyed. Dishes like Lasagna and Spaghetti Bolognaise was costly because of the price of pasta not containing these ingredients but we were lucky he still would eat it. Cheese which he loved was replaced with goats milk cheese or vegetarian cheese something he wasn't keen on either. His diet had become so limited that I became worried he would starve to death. Thank god he had always loved and eaten his fruit though thinking back now there were some fruits he couldn't have.

Everything I had containing Gluten, Yeast and Casein in the house had to be put out reach as their were days he would find something and help himself which would undo all our hard efforts. Nicolas had to go without around Jordan because Jordan couldn't understand why he would have to miss out. He had to stop having his favourite take away "McDonalds" We had been told that he could eat the fries but after further investigation found that the oil used for cooking contained traces of Gluten etc because it was the same oil used for cooking the Hash Browns from the morning menu. The only chips he could eat were the plain flavour french fries from a packet.

After first starting his diet, for 2 weeks his Autistic behaviour became more unbearable which was to be expected because he was detoxing. I tell you honestly I almost chucked the towel in after the first week. He constantly screamed, the mind numbing noises he always had made became louder and more aggressive. His sleeping pattern was disturbed even more at night. (i wish back then we knew there was such a tablet called Melatonin).

After his second week the changes in his behaviour became more noticeable. Jordan started sleeping soundly once put to bed, his eye contact improved somewhat, his mind numbing noises decreased even better than previously and his screaming around the house out of sheer frustration seemed to diminish also.

What I found more profound was the repetative behaviours he had displayed like spinning constantly, lining things up, switching lights and the television on and off which was a Obsessive Compulsive Disorder problem, reduced dramatically. His once gabbling of non sensical words (we used to say he was speaking French) turned into words we could understand. Along with the other treatments his Dr put him such as, Zinc, Magnesium, B6 complex, acidopholis along with his medication for his Candida problem, the overall change was amazing. He started counting to ten, reciting some of his alphabet which was obviously due to the fact he loved watching educational videos, along with grandma and I also reading alphabet books to him. By now he was about 3 years old. After keeping him on the diet for 3 months we ended up introducing these foods again to his diet.

The great thing was, he didn't revert back to all his old behaviours as some people had experienced after stopping the diet. It was around about a month later we started letting him eat normally again, we did notice he was harder to put to bed and get him to sleep at night. Once he was asleep he no longer woke again until the morning.

When Jordan turned 4.5 after starting special school it became harder to get him to sleep and stay asleep. You would think after starting school he would come home exhausted, not our little Jordy boy, no way. We would think he was asleep only to be awoken between 1am and 3am in the morning to a blaring stereo and television.

When Jordan was 5 years old, we were told about Melatonin and purchased it from his Dr.

Melatonin is a hormone, secreted by the pineal gland and derived from serotonin, that helps set the timing of the body's biological clock, which some autistic individuals don't produce properly, Jordan happens to be in this group of minority, and it became a life saver for him and never the less for us. Pop him this magic wonder pill and within 15 minutes he was sound asleep and stayed that way till morning. Within 3 months after starting on Melatonin his speech and language picked up, concentration at school improved, he could sit and listen and learn for longer periods than before. His was now understanding more when instructions were given to him. Obviously all these masked improvements were because he was getting a better nights sleep and was able to function better on a day to day basis.

He now today understands every thing we ask him to do, he answers our questions yes or no, he no longer repeats sentences over and over or new words in a repetative way. He does however role play out his days at school or his days at home at school which is still somewhat a obsession at times. We hear everything that the teachers may have told him like "sit down Jordan" or "that was very naughty" which we say to him often enough as well. Overall his outlook has become somewhat very optimistic after his Dr told us so. The fact is we have also seen all these positive changes with his progress.

So thanks to diet intervention and treatment by Dr Underwood he has come a long way and hopefully he will reach the top of the mountain that awaits him.