Welcome and Introduction
This is my standard welcome to our world introduction. This diet took me hundreds of hours to figure out and apply it to my son’s world. I want to share with you what has worked for us and our now 8 year old son, Jeff. Good luck to you and your family - we are all in the same boat!
The bad news: This diet, for the first month or two, may make you crazy. The good news: This feeling will go away and it will become second nature to your life. Everywhere you will travel with your child in tow with a small cooler with all of the foods you need. (We even call ahead to restaurants and present the pre-prepared food the restaurant manager to heat up and serve with our meals!! Even attending family functions is a breeze. This includes careful instructions to wash hands and not mix with any other restaurant foods.)
Why we do this diet: it will make your child more healthy than ever before and will not hurt the child. You cannot lose! Here are the steps I would do to help organize your life around this very complex, worthwhile hurdle of the GF/CF diet.
- Keep in mind - the GF/CF diet helps 85% of the children out there in improving everything about their learning disabilities and overall well being. This includes speech, better bowel movements than before, better sleep patterns, less cranky behaviors, less stimmy behaviors, less in a fog / daze look and more ready to learn than ever before. (Wow, how nice all these items are!!)
- The best navigate this diet, it is recommended to acquire these four books: (read them in the order presented - study them!)
- Unraveling the Mystery of Autism - Karyn Seroussi (great story with some worthwhile recipes)
- Biological Treatments for Autism & PDD - Dr. William Shaw
- Special Diets for Special Kids - Lisa Lewis - (great recipes)
- Special Foods for Special Kids - Todd Edelson - (great recipes)
- Get your child’s allergies tested - a blood test called the IgG and IgE. You need to find a pediatrician that will do this or an allergist’s doctor that performs both of these tests. Both tests are NECESSARY. If you can, get your hands on the Summer 2000 ANDI newsletter it explains this allergy testing in DETAIL that I cannot believe. This is very important because your child could be allergic to the GF/CF foods you supplement with! Make sure you start on the right foot.
- Get the peptides test from Great Plains Labs; this will tell you what problems your child has. For example - high yeast growth, intolerance to GFCF foods, calcium or ZINC or other deficiencies. This will help you plan what supplements you need and what internally is going on with your child. Another lab is Great Smokies Lab. Both do great jobs and are very helpful.
- When you remove casein that removes an important thing: CALCIUM. Get the supplements you require to “balance” your child’s GF/CF diet. We supplement our son with daily doses of: Cod Liver Oil, Magnesium, Calcium, Zinc, TMG or SuperNuThera (no dyes or added flavors is the best formula - new & improved formula), and ProBioGold (Acidophilous). All of these are available from Kirkman Labs. These folks are patient, answer all your questions and are a GOD SEND.
- Once you start the diet, an important follow up step is to obtain Allergy testing. Many times once you remove foods from the diet and add in new foods – new allergens can be introduced. The TACA web site has additional information on allergy testing off the MEDICAL link.
- Adding foods that are new to their system is important to do slowly. It is recommended to add one new food every 3-7 days.
- Last piece of advice - it is very important to Live the diet. 95% of the people I have known have seen results typically in 2-3 months. Some unfortunate folks have to wait a year. Typically the 1 st month is the hardest due the child rebelling from the new foods. Jeff did not eat for 3 days in his rebellion but soon changed his ways to healthier eating and better symptoms – within 1 week I saw a change. You must do the diet 100% or all your hard work is wasted. Please give yourself an adequate time to test the diet and coordinate with your doctor on that timeline. Do not give up on the diet!
I know this sounds like a lot of work. Take 1 day / 1 week / 1 month at a time. How we got started is just by starting!!
Other hints:
a) It is important to keep and food and behaviors journal. Track all intake and yes outake (did he do good “poops” today or were they runny and icky.)
b) Do not introduce things all at once ! Go slow! IT is easier to track down a problem when they are introduced slowly - one at a time.
c) Read all food labels. When in doubt - make it your self. Any unquestionable ingredients are probably not good for them.
d) Watch for face and bottom rashes. This is how something is telling you “this is not working”
Again… take it slow. Know you are on the same boat as THOUSANDS of other families and it will ALL come together.
TAKE ONE DAY AT A TIME AND YOU CAN ACHIEVE ANYTHING
