GF diet. Is it effective?

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Greetings, everyone. I am new to this board. My 6 year old son is autistic. For a few years now we have had him on a GF diet. From the literature I've read, it seems inconclusive whether a GF diet is really effective, both from a biological and behavioral standpoint. My son was tested for celiac years ago and it came back negative.

A GF diet has been challenging to follow. Not only is it costly, but I'm worried about nutritional deficiency considering he is already a selective eater. We plan on working with a dietician soon. We also have just introduced gluten foods (he loves bread!) and will use data from ABA therapy he's receiving to monitor behavioral changes.

My question is; what is your experience with a GF diet? Any advice? Thanks in advance!

I am not familiar with the “GF” diet. It might be helpful for you to describe some of the distinctive features of the diet for those of us who are unfamiliar.

I would not think any diet would be particularly effective except to the extent that an impact on the neurological configuration that manifests as Aspergers would be effected.

If the neurological configuration that produces increased complexity, speed, or sensitivity can be impacted by diet, this might produce some effect. For example, Fava beans have high levels of dopamine and could make neurological processing even more intense (worse).

If a diet were to produce a sedating effect, it might take some of the edge off sensory or anxiety issues.

One approach is to help the child learn to manage himself. The ground work can be laid now, but only really works well once the child gets to the mid teens or latter.

Tony Attwood videos on Youtube can be helpful as well as these booklets;

http://christianpioneer.com/blogarchiev ... e_2017.pdf

http://christianpioneer.com/blogarchiev ... g%20v2.pdf

All people react differently to different diets.

My understanding is that gluten free diets are only really useful to people who are celiacs or have a noted problem after eating gluten.

If you don't notice any difference with or without gluten in your diet, then there is no reason to stay gluten free.

I personally work really well on a low carb diet, but that is more from a weight and fitness perspective. Everyone is different and you need to experiment and see what works best for you and your kid.

She means "Gluten-Free". Gluten-free diets have not been proven to work as treatments or "cures" for autism spectrum disorders. Well-meaning parents waste a lot of time, money and effort on expensive gluten-free foods that have no real benefit for autistic people at all.

In fact, unless Celiac Disease is a problem, alleged sensitivity to gluten probably has nothing to do with gluten at all. The real culprit could be fructan, which is a type of carbohydrate found in grains like wheat, rye, and barley. It is also in gluten-free foods like agave, artichokes, asparagus, garlic, leeks, and onion.

Stress makes it harder for most autistics to function. This ought to be really easy to figure out.