Two days after putting Aidan on the GFCF (and soy free) diet, he started talking much more. I will never forget it. We were sitting inside of a tent that my Father had given him for his birthday and I said, “We’re hiding in the tent!” and Aidan said, “We hiding! We hiding in tent!”
It was a complete “holy shit” moment. Is this really happening right here, right now? And then I realized that it was. Every day he was saying something new. It wasn’t always appropriate, or in context, but he was talking! Not only was he talking, he was finally sleeping!!!!!!! I would put him to bed, and 15 minutes later he was asleep and would stay asleep ALL NIGHT. He even started napping during the day, and we could move him from his car seat to the house without him waking up. And when he would wake up, he was a sweet cuddly and lovey little angel. He would wake up with a huge smile on his face, ready to start the day.
The other thing the diet made me realize, was that Aidan really did have poor eye contact. I never noticed it until we changed his diet and added Cod liver oil to his supplements. He would look me dead in the eye the entire time I would talk to him. Before, he would look at me, but then look all around and come back to meet my eyes. He would never hold my gaze for a really long period.
After 1 month on this diet, Aidan seemed to be back with us. He was tuned in, however new concerns began to take shape.
Remember how I wrote that hand flapping was never something my child had exhibited? Well, now he had. Interestingly enough, now that we had changed Aidan’s diet, he became even MORE sensitive to food additives, food dyes, and artificial anything! Before I knew this, he came down with a nasty cold, and a slight fever so I gave him cherry flavored Children’s Tylenol. You know, the kind with Red Dye #40 and a million other crap additives? Then entered crazy, intense hand flapping. It was like he could not control his hands or his body. He looked like he was going to fly away he was flapping his little arms so hard. My husband watched in horror, while I sat there trying to stay calm and fight back tears. I had no idea what was going on at this point. I wish I could go back to that time in my life and give myself a hug and say, “things are going to get better, I promise!”
At that time, I had not read all of the books on nutrition, Autism, candida, metal toxicity, and behavior interventions that I have today. I was so lost and scared, just trying to get my son on track as fast as I could. But as so many in the ASD community say, “Recovering your child is not a sprint, it’s a marathon!” I still think people have a hard time believing me when I tell them this, but it is the honest to God truth: I started to see more “Autistic” behaviors in Aidan AFTER putting him on the GFCFSF diet then before. Aidan flapped his hands (just the one time), walked on his tip toes (twice), and began shaking his head, all after we changed the diet. For some reason, I still held on to the diet. It was so obvious that it helped him sleep and communicate, that I couldn’t take it away.
It wasn’t until a year later when I read, Unraveling the Mystery of Autism and Pervasive Development Disorder : A Mother’s story of Research and Recovery, that I realized cleaning out the gluten and casein really did wake Aidan’s body up to other things that had been bothering him all along, but were masked by the opiate effect that gluten and casein were giving him. It was like he hadn’t felt anything before I took these two major offenders from his diet.
My husband always brings up how Aidan was immune to pain before we changed his diet. He would fall so hard, and not even shed a tear. We always thought he was such a little tough guy. One time he fell on a really sharp edge, I freaked out thinking he was about to go ballistic. He just picked himself up and kept going. Two hours later, I noticed blood coming through his shirt, and he had a huge cut down his chest. He still has a scar from that fall, and it is a constant reminder to me that he was NOT well. Now, if he falls, he cries, and asks for Mommy. I secretly love it! : )
If you are looking for more about how gluten and casein have an opiate effect on many ASD children, please check out the books in my suggested reading section. This link gives a very brief overview: http://www.autism-help.org/intervention-casein-gluten-free.htm
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