Autism and the paleo diet for children

[dcschoenwolf]

We have a 2.5 year old little that was recently diagnosed with autism. I was wondering if anyone has used the paleo diet to help with autism and what improvements you have seen if any. Many with autism have a hard time with tastes and textures due to sensory issues. How do you/did you implement paleo for picky eaters or other children with special needs and has it helped?

[saravandy]

Yes! We use it for our entire family.
Three of the children have ASD and we are in the process of recovering them. (Supporting gut health, detoxing pathways, etc). Foods that showed up on the food cytotoxin tests (cross reactor foods) really set them off from rashes to behavior issues.

[helenjb]

My youngest is developmentally delayed and i put him on the aip diet for a chronic ear problem but one of the biggest improvements in him is his temper and behavior especially if he gets gluten he gets really angry and goes round hitting he has speech issues as he has hearing issues. he had issue with what he would eat and now he actually asks for veg and fruit. my other boy has texture issues i have had him gluten free eating paleo and is slowly becoming better at eating what he is given (no purees etc)

[kimmy]

My boy has fragile x syndrome which includes asperger's syndrome (he has all the typical symptoms caused by fragile x). He has been paleo (aip) for nearly 3 years now and he actually got glutened 4 weeks ago and he was FULLY AUTISTIC (not speaking properly/hand flapping/stimming continuously/angry outbursts/absolute meltdowns) for a whole week. It completely showed how much his diet helps him. He is a lovely boy and when his diet is right he actually can enjoy his life!

[saravandy]

Oh amen! It is crazy how much being glutened can cause affects. What an awesome mom you are to keep him so safe and healthy!

[evawitsel]

My son has issues with textures. I make fruit smoothies that he likes. I have a high speed blender (vitamix) that can blend everything very smoothly, so that helps with the texture thing. I put all kinds of things in his fruit smoothie: his probiotic supplements, water kefir, coconut water, gelatin powder, and fruit of course :-)

He also really likes this chocolate cake, I have shared this recipe with lots of moms and a lot of children seem to like it (it has zucchini in it, this was the first time in years that he had vegetables in any form ;-) ):

I think that if you start picky eaters on a paleo diet, the most important thing is to find just a few things that they really like. Don't go for diversity from the start. If they only eat sausages and fruit smoothies, then give them sausages and fruit smoothies all day. And from there on try new recipes with them and include the ones they like so you'll be able to expand their diet.
Another thing that has helped us is to not be too strict. Not everything my son eats is paleo. 80/20 works well for him. But we do try to stick with gluten free.

[alexandra]

My son 11 years old is Asperger and is a really picky eater, he has lots of problems with tastes and texture, to the point where he will vomit as soon as "upsetting" food touch his tongue, he is also underweight. I want to transition him and his sister (8 yo)to paleo diet, but the challenge is daunting, right now he lives on pastas, chicken, white fish, frankfurter, broccoli, milk and biscuits and a few fruits.
I need to get rid of the pastas and biscuits at least for a gluten free version at first, and implement more veggies and meats which I am dreading.

I've tried hiding veggies in brownies (zucchini, sweet potato...) but he always tastes it and refuse to eat it, and smoothies gross him out (his words).

I guess we'll have to start slow and build up.

[Karin]

I have Asperger myself and hope to get some improvements with paleo. It's hard to tell for yourself if your behavior gets better though. I have a very hard time keeping to a strict diet, probably partly because of my autism. It's difficult for me to organize and plan everything that's needed for a meal to come together at the right time. I easily lose sight of what I need to do. Cooking is a complex task.

[alexandra]

I try to involve my kids when I cook, and my son can easily become overwhelmed by the whole process, so now what we do is we read the whole recipe, and we break it down in small jobs, first we prepare all the stuff we need (chop veggies, measure spices, weight ingredients that need to be weighted) we put all of them in order of use on the table and then we start putting things together. Doing it this way is less intimidating for him, it's a list of small jobs with an order to them and it makes more sense to him than preparing the ingredients during the realization.
It doesn't help him eat better, but at least they will both know how to cook.

If you try making menus for the week maybe it would be easier to stay on top of it.

[Karin]

Yes, that is exactly how I do it. I make weekly meal plans (or at least aim to do that) and when I cook, I first prepare all my ingredients, just like you'd see on a cooking show. Lots of bowls of chopped veggies lined up. It does cause more dishes to wash though, but it makes it a lot easier for me.

[maren]

Check out the Spunky Coconut: www.thespunkycoconut.com/ Kelly has an autistic daughter and has blown me away with her stories although I have nothing to do with autism and don't know anyone who is affected.