Noah's Dieting

Gluten Free - Casein Free diets have recently been found to help in curing autistic kids of their symptoms. It has to do with kids with autism having severe allergies to both of these things and it's like a poison in their system and they can't break it down. Therefore it inhibits their development, etc. Also, gluten has an "opiate-like" affect on children that have gluten allergies, so it puts them in a drugged up like state (zoned out, no eye contact, limited speech, etc). Noah doesn't have autism but he definitely has the developmental delays. Our physical therapist told me a while back about how she works with several kids that are delayed (no autism) where their parents have put them on the GFCF diet and their development has improved drastically and she really wanted me to put Noah on it for a little while and see if it helped him any. Obviously, we will do WHATEVER if it helps Noah but to say I was overwhelmed at the thought of this diet is the understatement of the year. I AM NOT saavy in the kitchen, and (as embarrassing as it is to admit) I don't cook very often. Gluten is found in wheat, barley, and rye... therefore breads, crackers, cereals, chips, cookies, basically EVERYTHING! It's also in tons of processed foods, from canned soups to soy sauce and ketchup. Also, Casein is found in milk and dairy products, so cheese, milk, ice cream, butter... all off-limits. We are also doing no soy. The only milk I've found is Rice Dream. So I have to know what to look for and check the ingredients label of everything before we give it to Noah.

See why I was so overwhelmed?!

Anyways, I enlisted my mom's help and we purchased a book to tell us all about it (and other food allergies) and gives a TON of kid-friendly recipes. The grocery stores in Florence (Walmart and Southern Family) have a very tiny selection of gluten free casein free foods (I did find brownies, pretzels, and rice noodles for making pasta). So I had to go to the health food store and was able to find a rice almond sliced bread, cereal, apple cereal bars, peanut butter, mayonnaise, cheese, and rice flour (for baking). Like I said, gluten is found in processed foods so the only sandwich meat I can find that's GF (at least around here) is Boar's Head. The diet is alot of fruit and veggies and meats.... which as most of you know isn't on the top of "my favorite foods" list for most toddlers. Our plan is one day a week, to cook several meals and freeze them. This diet is not cheap... those 7 items that I purchased at the health foods store cost $45! I'm hoping that when we are in Huntsville for therapy I can find some things at Publix or Whole Foods for cheaper. It requires ALOT of meal planning. Noah can't eat fast food or at restaurants at all. So I'll have to pack his meals if we got out to eat.

Today is Day 1 on the diet. They suggest trying it for 2 months to see if there is any improvements. I'll keep up with his progress on here to let you know if we see any kind of changes.

One thing I would like to mention, in talking with the owner of the health food store, I told him that I've had Noah on soy milk for several months (because he has constipation issues with regular milk) and he told me that BOYS should NOT take soy milk because it's loaded with estrogen and causes boy's hormone levels to get off kilter (they have more estrogen than testosterone)!!! YIKES! I had no clue... my pediatrician is the one who suggested soy milk!