Someone asked me a while back, “What is the biggest mistake people make with a GFCF diet?” My answer was then and still is today – SUGAR! When coaching families who have claimed, “gluten-free casein-free diet did not work for us," we many times have discovered that the amounts of sugar they were consuming daily were extremely high. How many grams of sugar do you think you’ve eaten today?
Let’s revisit for a moment the reasons why the Gluten-Free, Casein-Free diet was suggested in the first place.

Like most parents of young children I know, I’ve been scrambling to buy school supplies and revert back to strict bedtime routines to prepare Ethan to start school in just over a week. Additionally, since Ethan lives with an Autism Spectrum Disorder – Asperger’s Syndrome – I’ve also been busy working to prepare information to be shared with his new classroom teacher next week at “Meet the Teacher” night.
Every year I tend to do the same thing(s) and I’ve had rave reviews from teachers, administrators and support staff, so I wanted to share some ideas.

In my last post we covered some basic questions about yeast and now I want to get into testing, treatment and what parents should know and expect. I find the kids that do great under care have parents that are willing to comply with treatment and follow through to the end. The consistency especially when treating yeast is imperative to ridding the body of it.
How can parents determine if their child has a problem with yeast ?

Many kids come into my practice with a laundry list of symptoms and many parents are surprised to find out they have yeast growing in their digestive system. You can imagine many parents are angry, they ask me “why was this not ever considered by our family doctor or pediatrician?” Let me first defend them, they don’t know that this exists, nor are they taught to look for or treat this epidemic. Many have long since graduated from medical school and unless they keep current with the functional medicine aspects of disease they wouldn’t know about it.

At the recent FEAT-NT conference, I was chatting with one of Ethan’s doctors – Dr. Amber Brooks – about a problem that many children on the spectrum (including Ethan) face: Yeast. Since this is a topic which affects so many of our families and one that is often not very well understood, I asked Dr. Brooks if she would answer some questions to share here. Dr. Amber Brooks is a Defeat Autsim Now! (DAN) Doctor, Board Certified Pediatric Chiropractor, and Craniosacral Therapist. She owns Whole Child Wellness in Dallas, Texas, where she helps families (like mine) put all the pieces together by bridging traditional and alternative medicine for optimum pediatric wellness.

About a year ago I talked my husband into investing a nice fruit and vegetable juicer (made by Breville). I’d read about the general health benefits of fresh fruit and vegetable juices and had a friend who was incorporating fresh juices into her son (living with an Autism Spectrum Disorder - ASD) and her neurotypical daughter’s daily diet. After talking to her about the machine itself and whether or not her kids actually drank the juice – which they did, I was sold!
While my son Ethan lives with Asperger’s Syndrome and is on a Gluten-Free and Casein-Free (GFCF) and mostly Soy-Free (SF) diet, we are blessed that he will eat a variety of foods and actually enjoys a range of textures. Even so, since so many kids with ASD have absorption issues, I tend to worry that he is not getting adequate nutrients on a regular basis. While I don’t put a lot of stock into our nation’s current USDA dietary guidelines (primarily because I think the USDA suggests that we eat far too many grains/carbohydrates than is truly healthy and because dairy is off limits for my guy) I do work hard to incorporate a wide selection of foods, including several servings of fresh vegetables and fruits (heavier on the vegetable end) each day.

Over the past few months, I have been blessed to attend several conferences and workshops related to Autism, Autism Spectrum Disorders and Asperger’s Syndrome. I’m always eager to learn more, meet new people and return home with a renewed sense of encouragement, stamina and hope.
Late last fall, I attended a tremendous event hosted by the NAA (National Autism Association). Holly Robinson Peete keynoted the conference and there were countless amazing speakers on hand to discuss treatment options for our kids. On Monday, I helped to organize a presentation and book signing with Mark Blaxill and Dan Olmsted, authors of THE AGE OF AUTISM. This week I am attending a local conference hosted by the FEAT-NT (Families for Effective Autism Treatment – North Texas).