Research summaries for autism therapy: gluten-free diet

definition of gluten-free diet: Dietary change used as an alternative therapy for autism. All foods with gluten (e.g., barley, rye, oats, and wheat) are removed from the diet.
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Treatment of Food Selectivity in a Young Child with Autism, Summarized Mar 16, 2010

Therapeutic feeding intervention may increase the number and variety of foods eaten by a child with autism.

This case study describes feeding intervention with a five your child with autism who was on the gluten-free casein-free (GFCF) diet. The treatment package focused on four new food items. The boy learned to eat GFCF pizza, GFCF waffle, apple, and french fries. He often said no when asked to try a new food. And at times, he left therapy sessions when hand-over-hand prompts were used.

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Parental Reports on the Efficacy of Treatments and Therapies for their Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, Summarized Dec 18, 2009

An Internet survey showed that most parents report that autism symptoms improve with drug, educational, and behavioral therapies.

This article reported results of an Internet-based survey of 479 parents of children with autism, Asperger’s syndrome, or pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS).... For example, half of children on a gluten-free dairy-free diet were reported as improved. And 50% to 70% of parents said their children improved with educational and behavioral therapies.... Read more...

Food Allergy and Autism Spectrum Disorders: Is There a Link?, Summarized Sep 15, 2009

Probiotics may help to relieve gut problems in children with autism.

This review article describes proposed causes of gut problems in children with autism and describes the risks and benefits of treatments. There are a lot of data to support that children with autism have a chronic immune response in their gut. Many parents treat the gut problems with the gluten-free, casein-free (GFCF) diet even though there is not a lot of data to support the use of the diet. While there is some concern that the GFCF diet may not provide all needed vitamins to children, this concern is not backed by data. Treatment with probiotics makes sense, but it has not been proven to work in scientific studies of children with autism.

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Syndrome of Allergy, Apraxia, and Malabsorption: Characterization of a Neurodevelopmental Phenotype that Responds to Omega 3 and Vitamin E Supplementation, Summarized Sep 4, 2009

Combined vitamin E and omega 3 therapy may help a type of verbal apraxia (speech problems) that may be caused by food allergies and nutritional problems, and could affect children with autism.... They reported low carnitine levels, high anti-gluten antibodies, low vitamin D levels, fat absorption problems, and other results. The authors described how nutrition and metabolism might be different in some children with autism.... Read more...

Showing 1-4 of 34 results

Synonyms for gluten-free diet include: gluten, gluten free, gluten free diet, gluten-free
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