freakin' food allergies

since liam was diagnosed with asd back in september of last year, it has been constant learning, reading, researching...figuring out what we can do to be the best advocate for liam as possible. one of the books i read was Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies by Kenneth Bock. and i also read Mother Warriors by Jenny McCarthy. kenneth bock's book described various treatments that could "heal" autism and jenny mccarthy's book was full of testimonials from families whose children with asd underwent these treatments and were "cured" with diet changes, supplements, and other biomedical treatments. the underlying belief is that there in an undeniable connection between the body's gastrointestinal system and neurological function; if the gut is not healthy, the brain cannot function well either.

this type of integrative biomedical treatment for autism is a practice that is not wholly supported by the conventional medical community. when i asked our pediatrician what we could do biomedically to help liam, he said there was nothing. he said that the only thing that would help him was intensive behavioral therapy (which we are also undergoing), as autism is a mental/behavioral disorder and not a medical problem. with that being said...it is not covered by insurance...and it is expensive.

i danced around it all for a while. i kept reading. i kept researching. and then i danced around it some more. i found a local defeat autism now! (DAN!) doctor that was referenced in kenneth bock's book. i explored her website....every day. i would throw bits and pieces of this information in throughout conversations with shawn. i knew it would be difficult to get him on board because of how expensive it would be.

then, one day, i got fed up. liam had been having gastrointestinal issues for a long time, even from before he was diagnosed with asd. when i talked to his pediatrician about it, he said "keep a food log." i had been doing that and learned nothing. i asked about it again and he said, "well, liam's growing well so there is nothing that leads me to believe there's anything harmful happening to his body." umm...yeah, ok.

within three weeks, i convinced shawn that we needed to see the dan! doctor and had our first appointment. they drew his blood to run a comprehensive allergy screen, chem panel and comprehensive blood test. we also submitted a stool sample for a comprehensive stool analysis. and then we waited....and waited...and waited.

fast forward 6 weeks, and we finally got the results. some weren't surprising...and some were. i'm thankful that all of his blood work and chem panel results came out normal.

allergy screen results

• liam showed an allergy to almond. what what in the what? this boy drinks almond milk. not a whole lot, maybe 2 or 3 sippy cups a day, so it couldn't be a false response due to  overconsumption. looks like we're switching to coconut milk or rice milk.
• he showed a true and very high allergic reaction to casein, yogurt, cow's milk and all cheeses, including cottage cheese. his reaction was so high that the doctor called it "poisonous" toward his little tummy. we're "lucky" in the sense that it wouldn't be deadly if he ingested any on accident, but it does have a significantly harmful and painful effect on his gi system.
• he also showed a true and very high allergic reaction to gluten, wheat, and flax. just when i started to think that we might be able to ditch the gfcf diet...well, i was just kidding. looks like whole foods will be seeing shawn's whole paycheck.
• he also had an allergy to soy. this doesn't surprise me since most kids that are allergic cow's milk tend to be allergic to soy, also. so, let's make that gfcfsf. fabulous.

stool analysis results

the results indicated a small presence of yeast and higher-than-normal levels of "bad bacteria". he also has a low presence of "good bacteria" that is essential for proper digestion. he also has inflammation in his gut, which is what has been causing his abdominal pain. 

what now

obviously, we'll be sticking with the gfcfsf diet. he's also starting on some ultra potent probiotics formulated especially for kids with autism, to help replace the good bacteria and hopefully displace the bad stuff. this should also help reduce the inflammation and pain in his gut. he'll be taking calcium, vitamin d and magnesium supplements to replace what he should be getting from cow's milk. and he's also started on a gfcfsf multi-vitamin. you can imagine the cocktail i put together for him every morning and night. thankfully, everything mixes into his beloved apple juice, so he has no idea.

also very thankful that popcorn is gfcfsf because this boy eats it like it's going out of style.