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In This Issue
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Diet intervention: Is it for you?
· Starting
a special diet: The Rotation Diet
· Food
Allergy or Intolerance
· Readers
Recipe – LuWenn Jones
www.utaharts.org
connecting you to art
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Buy the Co-founder Tim Wilson’s marbles right
now
www.usautism.org
US Autism & Aspergers Association
www.yahoo.com/group/utahkids/
Utah parents of Children with Special Needs
www.utahparentcenter.com
April 13th & 14th
Family Links conference, Salt Lake City
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Art show, Date & Location to be announced
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Diet change the first steps
Services you are entitled to
Alternative therapies
Stress relief for parents
Support groups for family
Organic food choices
GFCF, SCD, LOD Which diet does your
child need.
Going GFCF
DAN! Doctors
Biomedical treatments
Supplements
Speech therapy
Occupational Therapy
The Star Program
Floortime
Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatments
Coping with OCD
Setting a routine in place to benefit
child and family
IEP process
GI issues the minds connection
Environmental Toxins
Sibling Issues
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Diet intervention: Is it for you?
There
are many diets and modifications to diets out there. According to the Autism
Research Institute website family’s reported improvement in behaviors in 40%
to 65% of children with special diet intervention, depending on which diet
was used. The most popular diet is GFCF (Gluten free ~wheat derivatives
Casein free ~milk protein). Children treated with this diet reported a 65%
improvement in behavior. Some people do just GF and they reported a 48%
improvement, while others do just CF and reported a 49% improvement. So you
can alter this diet according to your child’s tolerance or intolerance to
particular foods.
Starting a special diet
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The
Rotation Diet is a good place to start. If you have a very selective child
who eats the same thing at breakfast, lunch and dinner, you may need to
rotate foods. Sometimes the body doesn’t have a complete intolerance to certain
foods it just can not handle the excess or overload of constantly consuming
the same thing. If you give the body time to rest between these exposures
to “trigger” foods you may not have to completely eliminate them.
If
you think about it we have 7 grains yet the most consumed is wheat, and
often when going GF wheat is replace with white rice. The body gets a break
from wheat but is now over loaded with rice, which may be the reason
children seem to develop intolerances to rice after being on the diet for
some time. Try some brown rice, wild rice, quinoa, barley in addition to
the wheat and white rice.
There
are also 7 fruits and 7 vegetables. Fruits affect each child differently,
some children experience hyperactivity with apples, while some do not process
citrus well. This is an area of trial and error, you are the expert on your
child. You can use fruits in smoothies, fresh, cut up with various dips,
pureed and frozen for popsicles or dried. Also avoid juice from concentrate
(both blends and 100% juice) the sugar content and fillers make this staple
in so many of our children’s life a waste of calories.
Vegetables
are not always the easiest thing to get children to consume but become
creative and you will be surprised. Add grated veggies to sauces, make homemade
juice (best within 72 hours) fruit can be used with vegetables as a natural
sweetener, serve them raw just before dinner when your child is typically
hungry. In a day of convenience we have turned to canned veggies as a time
and money saver. So you are consuming a vegetable, now step it up a level
in means of quality. Fresh vegetables are healthier; a lot of canned foods
are high in sodium. Of course organic is an even better option but I also
understand the financial burden that some endure trying to buy organic. In
the summer it is easier and cheaper, visit your local farmer’s markets
which are usually held weekly, check your local paper for times and
locations.
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Food Allergy or Intolerance
There
is a lot of talk about food intolerances in the Autism community. Intolerance
is not the same as allergy. Allergy by definition is “altered bodily
reactivity (as hypersensitivity) to an antigen in response to a first.”
Intolerance by definition is “exceptional sensitivity (as to a drug),
specifically: inability to properly metabolize or absorb a substance.”
There is not currently a test that will show all intolerances to foods. When
we take our children for an allergy test, they are testing for a histamine
reaction, similar to a bee sting, where the body turns on a defense. What our
children need is a test that shows delayed reactions or effects of certain
foods, which is food intolerance. The best way to find out if certain foods
poorly affect your child is to keep a food journal. Include the food consumed,
time, behaviors, GI issues (ie. Abdomen pain, diarrhea, constipation, etc) or
others. If you diligently record everything for a 2 week to 30 day period you
will have the data to back up food effects on your child.
Reader’s Recipe
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Elaine
Jones
11
years old, Cedar City UT
This recipe comes
from Elaine’s mother LuWenn Jones.
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Gluten
Free/Dairy Free Texas Sheet Cake
Cake:
Icing:
1 Cup
Nucoa Margarine ½ c. nucoa maragarine
1 cup
water ¼ c. coconut milk
¼ cup
baking cocoa 3 T. baking cocoa
2 cups
gluten free flour mix 3 ¾ c. powdered sugar
2 cups
sugar 1 t. gluten free vanilla
1 t.
baking soda
½ t.
salt
½ c. coconut
milk
Directions:
In a
large saucepan, bring the margarine, water and cocoa to a boil. Remove
from the heat. Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt, add to the
cocoa mixture. Stir in the coconut milk until smooth. Pour into a greased
15 x 10 x 1 in baking pan. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick
inserted near the center comes out clean.
In a
saucepan, melt the margarine, add milk and cocoa. Bring to a boil. Remove
from the heat and whisk in the powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth.
Pour over warm cake. Cool completely on a wire rack.
Note:
This recipe does not use eggs. It is a wonderfully delicious, moist cake.
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www.autismwebsite.com
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For
more statistics on diet intervention please visit the Autism Research Institutes
website.
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