Can Special Diets Treat Autism?

Can Special Diets Treat Autism?.

Can Special Diets Treat Autism? Review of Studies Shows Gluten-Free or Casein-Free Diets Aren't Effective as Autism Treatment By Kathleen Doheny WebMD Health News Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD May 5, 2010 -- The use of gluten-free and casein-free diets to treat autism is increasingly popular among families, but researchers who reviewed 14 published studies on the diets say science does not back them up as useful. "The evidence that has been collected does not support the use of the diets as a treatment for autism," study researcher Austin Mulloy, a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin, tells WebMD. "A number of studies have been done and they are all inconclusive about the diets' effectiveness," he says. The review is published in the summer edition of Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders. About one in 110 children in the U.S. has autism spectrum disorder, a group of neurodevelopmental disorders that include autism as well as Asperger's syndrome and other forms that involve difficulties in social relationships and communication.

Comments

[David N. Brown]

My take on "special diets" has always been that any health issue can be expected to make the manifested symptoms of autism more serious, simply by creating extra stress. So, it is plausible that changes in diet could improve a subject's functioning IF said subject has an actual food allergy.

[SCR]

Of course not, diets don't help any kind of problem. So continue to eat chemicals, dyes, preservatives, meat injected with hormones and antibiotics, milk injected with hormones and antibiotics, GMO foods inserted with a BT pesticide, fruits and vegetable loaded with even more pesticides. Really, no problem at all to eat the standard american processed diet. Eat lots of gluten, who wants to eat all of that gluten free food that is out there...
So when you are fourteen we can just take out your gallbladder and when you hit your twenties we can just do a colon resection and cut out that problem. Who needs a diet?

[dan]

Truth is, we know very little about autism. In fact, I often say we are still in the dark ages of neuroscience. Effective treatments for autism spectrum disorders wil only come AFTER we unravel the mysteries of the condition, but families can't be paralyzed until then. They can't be patient. They DO have to try snake oil, have to try diets, have to try alternate forms of therapy. One hopes they will do this "safely" in controlled and medically monitored ways. Until a treatment is proven - many years from now - the entirety of the autism-affected community will hear "there is no proof," which families will hear as "there is no hope." Let's try to change that dialogue into something more constructive.

[cmate]

I have certainly found that red food dye and MSG have an impact on some autistic children.

AAIG

[sandy]

Whether diets work or not (and for many kids they do) who would want to feed their children (autistic or not) dyes, additives and a variety of other garbage? Sad to say but walk into any school or center and you see fat, out of shape autistic kids. Usually "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" as they say. Fat Mom and Dad is typical. The kids should be physically healthy since they have to work so hard everyday and the parents should stop feeding them unhealthy foods.

[xine]

One of the families I work with has tirelessly tried many diets in an effort to alleviate symptoms of their twin boy's autism. They go through this rather ridiculous, predictable cycle. First, the strict diet, which makes both of the boys stressed out, usually leads to them having an increase in the behaviors which the parents want to eliminate, and often causes them diarrhea (the specific carbohydrate diet was particularly nasty). The diet is militantly followed for months, and when it is becoming apparent to the parents that it isn't working, they feed their kids KFC for two weeks straight until they find a new diet to try.

I have only once worked with a child on the spectrum (out of about six dozen) who responded remarkably well to exclusive dietary intervention (GFCF diet). He has a dual diagnosis of ADHD and autism, and would have 300 to 400 aggressive behaviors each day (when we're in school for 405 minutes). Within a few days of them starting the GFCF diet, his aggressions decreased to less than a dozen per day, his attending went up, and his verbal skills increased. Unfortunately, two months into the experiment, he broke into the family's pantry in the middle of the night and ate everything with gluten he could get his hands on. His parents decided the diet was too stressful, and after ending it, the student's aggressions went back up to their high numbers. Whether he has an actual allergy or not I'll probably never know.

Children should be fed good food, period, but forsaking your child with autism a cupcake once in a while (when there is absolutely no proof their diet helps them) is a bit cruel, I think.