Story Idea-Gluten Free Casein Free Diet

This person wants to share their story of doing a diet. This item was emailed to this blog--AR

Here is my story .

My twins were diagnosed with Autism in October 2006. I started doing research on all things Autism and found the website autism.com <http://www.autism.com/>where it says that autism is treatable through the gluten free casein free diet.I did my own research with a PhD in
"Google" and began to search through my own cabinets and found that everything has gluten in it. I started the diet in December but found it difficult because of all the sweets at school during the holidays. That December, I used the 10 weeks of GFCF through the http://www.tacanow.com/ website, and started eliminating dairy.

The second week I did breakfast, the third week I did dinner, and the fourth snack. I started giving them leftovers for lunch. By the end of January we were fully gfcf. I kept a food diary and noticed they were hyper from other foods, apples, tomatoes and other vegetables. I found the Feingold diet and started taking away artificial colors and flavors and all the foods listed in
the Feingold plan. After being on Feingold stage 1, and GFCF for about a month, the teachers said they were noticing improvements. The kids were completely potty trained and seemed better. Still not being completely sure the diet was working, I gave them some sweet hearts from Valentines day and they had a complete meltdown. I knew I would be much stricter on
their foods from now on. That May, I started to reintroduce the fruits and vegetables from Feingold stage 2 and the temper tantrums came back, the messy underwear came back. Every three days after I'd reintroduced a new food they would melt down and mess their pants.

By August, after keeping a food diary for two months with these foods, Beginning kindergarten, I had a list of foods to stay away, and remarkably different children. Now, people look at them and doubt that they ever were autistic in the first place. My pediatrician who had seen
them when they were babies, said she didn't believe they were autistic until she saw the report from the other doctor.
I was told by the first doctor that they would need a lifetime of constant care and the only suggestion she gave me was respite care away from them now and then. She said they could never go in a regular classroom.
One of my sons is transitioning to a regular classroom. He used to be in physical therapy because he could barely write his name at the end of preschool and couldn't draw.Now, he has homework to write sentences, and he can write all his numbers and letters. He had summer school last summer, and his teacher said he can read like a third grader in
kindergarten. He is drawing pictures for fun.
He used to not be understood by anyone but me. He had speech therapy at home, and at school. Now, his speech is much clearer, and we can have complete conversations. I can't get him to stop talking now. He is understood by his classmates. The other kids call him by name, and he is
making friends. He still has speech therapy at school but not much more than other kids his age. The important thing is that he understands the conversation and can talk to other people without me. I went into a class once, and he raised his hand to answer a question. He now knows who hie should be listening to, and he's focusing on his teacher. He's even singing in Music Class!
He used to shake his head when he ran and would fall on his own feet. Now, he runs to school with his brother. He used to get occupational therapy, and because he had problems not knowing where to put his feet.
He used to hold his hands on his ears and scream, because large motor activity was much too hard. Now he is beginning to transition into a large PE class.
I know he wouldn't have made such remarkable progress in such a short time if I had not found the gluten free casein free diet and took away the additives and high phenolic foods from the Feingold diet, he would not have improved so dramatically.
My other son had a touch of OCD. If I didn't travel the exact route to get places, he would scream until I turned around. Now, he studies maps and searches for new ways to go. If all the clocks didn't have the exact same time, he would scream. When we cooked dinner, round pans had to go on round trivets. Rectangle pans were to be placed only on rectangle trivets. Now he doesn't care about any of that.
We tried to go bowling with him once, and he screamed until we would leave because it was too loud. Three months after the diet, we had a bowling party. He cheered everyone on, and had a blast.
He is in regular kindergarten, and except for some minor tweaks getting used to the routine on the first day, he has had green stamps for good behavior ever since. He is in a regular kindergarten and has his own friends. He has a helper, but seems to be just fine.

Please, do something on the affect on diet and it's relationship to behavior. This diet has changed my life. To see articles about diet
go to my website and blog
howtostartgfcf.com <http://www.howtostartgfcf.com/>
http://autismpreventiondiet.blogspot.com/