my picky eater needs help again
 

If you're good at remembering other people's trivia, then you'll recall that my picky eater is now gluten-free, dairy-free, and corn-free. When we one-by-one removed each of these things from his diet, his behavior or other things in his life got dramatically better. He had been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome and with sensory integration dysfunction, but removing dairy from his diet made 95% of the sensory integration problems vanish, and removing corn made the last of the behavioral problems vanish. His endless complaints about stomach aches vanished then, too, and his poops became normal for the first time.

He is still a really picky eater, though, and I am worried that the lack of variety has created a new food sensitivity.

This is maybe what they call "too much information," but, over the past month or two, his poops have started looking like strange "food allergy poops" again. At meals, he often stops eating early, complaining that he feels sick. The food seems to be what makes him feel sick. His behavior has fallen apart again -- he is crabby, impulsive, obnoxious, and he bangs his body into sofas and walls and things, almost like his entire body *itches* inside. All these problems were problems for years in the past, but they disappeared for months when we first removed gluten, dairy, and corn from his diet. But now they are back, and getting worse, just in time for the start of the schoolyear. And, worse, he has now developed some paralyzing new fears that scare him silly at bedtime every day. It takes 3 hours of terrified whimpering child to get him to sleep every night. He used to have awful problems getting to sleep before we first took gluten out of his diet, but removing gluten made a dramatic difference in his ability to get to sleep. Until a few weeks ago.

No doctor has ever been any help with figuring any of this out, so I don't feel that I can turn to our doctor for any help at all. As far as I can tell, she thinks the whole food-behavior connection is my way of denying that my kid has Asperger's. But the difference in my son when he first stopped eating all these foods was dramatic and long-lasting. Even though our doctor doesn't believe me, I am completely convinced that food was the key.

But now I'm at sea trying to figure out what to try next. He eats so few foods and is already so food-restricted that it's hard to even think about taking anything else out of his diet. I don't think he is getting any accidental gluten, dairy, or corn in his diet. Our house is gluten-free and nearly dairy-free, and we are very careful about what he eats. He's been home from school and camp for a few weeks, so he hasn't been doing much eating anywhere but here with us parents. But he is still clearly reacting to something.

The people in this group have been a great source of help in the past. If anybody has any words of wisdom, we are really struggling here and could really use some advice.

Anonymously signed,
me too

It often happens that more allergies/sensitivities rear their ugly heads once you have the biggies out of the way. So it sounds to me like that's what's happened here. And I do know how frustrating it gets even considering removing more from your diet or your kids' diets!

And then there's always the possibility of cross contamination, too.

I wish you luck in figuring it out.

Rachel

What about things like art supplies? Pet food? Plastic containers? Silly putty? Straws? Balloons? Vitamins? Corn is truly everywhere. Oh...and lotions, sunscreen, pool chlorine, shampoo, toothpaste, shared toothpaste are also potential concerns.

What *does* he eat?

My diet is pretty limited (No: Corn, gluten, gourds, olives, citrus, meat, potatoes, cruciferous veggies or lettuce. Limited dairy (Working on it. Dd goes dairy free starting tomorrow. She's happy-sad about it. And now that I posted, I can't back out :P)

A few kid friendly ideas: Sweet potato fries, roasted root veggies (including beets. Call them bloody anything and it may increase the appeal), tinkyada rice pasta with grapeseed oil, chebe bread (Forget trying to knead it, I just make drop biscuits. They disappear fast.) Baked apples or pears, Pie filling, gelatin (homemade. I follow the knox blox recipe but use 2 cups liquid total per envelope, makes it more like Jello)

I feel for you. My ds is vegan (therefore dairy-,egg-,meat-free), gluten-free, soy-free, corn-free. The soy and corn are "trials" that have been going on for at least 2 months. Recently he started having wet nights on a regular basis. For him, this has always been a sign of a food intolerance. I too can't imagine what else to remove and don't *think* he's getting contamination... I did learn that his new (began mid-June) vegan/gf multi contains some soy and corn, however his wet nights didn't begin until 7 nights ago, and he's been off the multi for 5 days now. I haven't been able to find ANY vegan, gf, corn-free, soy-free multis for children! Frustrating!

After removing the problem foods you do have to make sure your child is getting the proper nutrition (including supplements), enzymes, and possibly consider something like a rotation diet. Unfortunately eliminating those foods is not the only thing you need to do.

Enzymes are important. The right nutritional supplements can lessen the allergic effects or even eliminate them altogether. The most important nutrients are vitamin b6, zinc and vitamin c.

Have you consider a rotation diet? This is a big challenge as it requires some advanced planning, but it does allow for more variety.

http://www.food-allergy.org/page2.html

There are many avenues that I think you can take with dealing with AS and the gut. It might be helpful to find a DAN! doctor. I believe there is a link on The Gluten File.

Also, you might want to check out digestive enzymes:

http://www.enzymestuff.com/index.htm

For me, testing for delayed food sensitivities (IgG antibodies - it's a blood test) was very helpful to figure out what to eat and not to eat. Even though my doctors were skeptical of the accurracy of the results, I avoided the foods I was reacting to, and I feel better. Of course, the foods I have been avoiding, like gluten, corn, and dairy, did not show up at all as any kind of reaction. That's to be expected, because the body won't produce antibodies to these foods after a while.

There is tons of links on this website from a mother of children with autism. She has links on AS as well. The amount of information on here might be overwhelming, but you might find something of use:

http://www.danasview.net/index.htm

I researched these websites for my own information because my nephew has Asperger's Syndrome. I figure we share similar genes.

Claire

My son has some things he is still reacting to that we can't isolate. Sometimes he gets glutened just playing with other kids too (like at vacation bible school).

I find that supplementing his B vits and zinc is EXTREMELY important during these times. I also make sure he gets an epsom salt bath or two to help draw toxins out through his skin. I don't know why this works but it does.

I must say that I've found zinc will reduce his 'twitches' if any arise. After being contaminated at VBS, his one eye started twitching (blinking) more this time. He is a tiny 6 year old (35 lbs?) and it took almost a week of supplementing 25 mg of zinc every day and then basting him on the arm with some 5% iodine twice throughout the week.

I couldn't figure out why this worked... but then read that autistic kids are severely deficient in zinc. He's not autistic but I figure there can probably be other people out there who require higher levels of zinc.

A couple of years ago he used to take a deep breathe about every 3rd word. It wasn't like an asmtha breathe, it was like a 'twitch'. Zinc got that too.

Last thing I'm trying to find the answer to lately is his stilted speech. He doesn't exactly stutter... it's more like hesitated speech in between words. Like they used to say Einstein did... Anyway, I'm trying out vitamin A in the form of chicken livers and cod liver oil. I'll let you know. It's certainly helped his mood along with the zinc. :)

Sorry so long. I've been out of touch for so long that I feel like I need to catch up. :rolleyes:

Hey Kim,

Have you tried magnesium and or taurine with your son? These are 2 keys things for Colin. If I leave off the magnesium he gets a small vocal tic that gets amazingly annoying really quickly. The taurine just seems to keep him on a really even keel. I've been told you can get magnesium taurate and then you get both at the same time, but I've yet to find that anywhere I regularly shop yet.

Nice to see you here!

Rachel

Hi Rachel,

The only place I've been able to find magnesium taurate is at vitaminshoppe.com.

http://www.vitaminshoppe.com/store/e...jsp?id=CV-1094

They seem to be a little slow in shipping - it took a good 10 days for me to finally get it. (iherb usually arrives in 2-3 days.)

myst

I seem to remember someone on the old forum giving their child adult vitamins...ground them up or something. Anyone know of a good vehicle for getting said vitamins into a 6-year-old? :p I'm thinking half the adult dose, based on comparing the children's multi I have against the others...