Mothers say GFCF diet is working for their kids

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Mothers say GFCF diet is working for their kids

07:48 AM CDT on Friday, July 11, 2008

By CLARA TUMA

KVUE News

It’s called the GFCF diet, but some parents of autistic children say

it’s nothing short of a miracle.

With his infectious laugh and beguiling set of imitations,

three-year-old Sander Stone grabs attention wherever he goes. But

less than a year ago, Sander was making entirely different kinds of

sounds.

“When he wanted something, he would walk up to you and say ‘abalab uh

huh, abalab uh huh huh’ and you were supposed to know that meant, ‘I

want ice cream,†said Meagan McGovern, Sander’s mom.

After doctors diagnosed Sander with a severe speech disorder, McGovern

believed Sander was headed toward being diagnosed as autistic, as are

about one in every 150 children.

“They wait until after three (years of age) for an official diagnosis,

but he was not responding to his name,†said McGovern. “He was up all

night, screaming every night.â€

McGovern, like a growing number of mothers across the country, turned

to vitamins and a new diet to see if it could help Sander. She says

it did.

“We’re talking about a three-week span where he jumped a

year-and-a-half in speech,†said McGovern. “We’re not talking about a

slow, quick burst. We’re talking about nothing short of miraculous.â€

Actress McCarthy is drawing attention to what’s known as the

GFCF diet, meaning a diet that’s gluten-free, casein-free. Casein is

the protein in dairy products.

Though not all doctors embrace it or believe autism can be treated

through a diet, some say it can make a dramatic difference.

“Once they go on this diet, you usually see a great calming,†said Dr.

Kendal , a neuro-otologist, board certified in ear, nose and

throat disorders with training in neurology and neurosurgery. He says

autistic children all have troubled immune systems. “These kids do

have a higher rate of having sensitivities to wheat and casein,†said

Dr. . “They can't break those products down as well, so it

puts them at a very high risk and actually contributes to a worsening

of their social and behavioral status.â€

But cutting out wheat and dairy is no easy task. Christianna Hale

says her son, Blaze, diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, went through

withdrawal similar to a drug addict.

“He was doing a lot of screaming, a lot of tantrums, a lot of physical

aggression,†she said.

But within three weeks, she says Blaze was remarkably calmer.

“It's wonderful. Before, we weren't even able to go eat at a

restaurant or go to a movie, so we were pretty much homebound,†said Hale.

She says Blaze is more social, and now sometimes responds to

strangers, something he never did when he was eating wheat and dairy.

“What I did is just pretty much modify all the things he was eating

already, and I found them in a gluten-free form,†said Hale.

Fellow mom Jonasu Mangum switched her autistic son, Zefram, to the

diet last year. She says he’s talking more and making contact with

strangers, new behavior that she says came with the diet.

“He talks on the phone to people. He goes up to people and says, ‘Hi’

and he wants to hug. He's never hugged before,†she said.

Mangum says Zefram’s fifth birthday party last year illustrated his

autism.

“I'm trying to get him to play with them and he's just not,†she said.

In the video you can hear him, all he's saying is ‘cake’, that's a new

word he heard that night is ‘cake cake, I have birthday cake.’â€

But just a few weeks ago, Zefram was acting more like a typical

five-year-old.

“He was playing with me. My child has never played with me before. He

has never responded to me playing with him,†said Mangum.

We want to stress the mothers don’t say the diet will work for every

child, and they admit it’s not a cure for autism. But they insist

their children regress if they eat wheat or drink milk. McGovern says

she’ll never feed her son wheat again, and has converted her bakery

into a gluten-free, casein-free business. She and other moms admit

the diet is tough, but they say, so is watching an autistic child

struggle through a day.

Mothers say GFCF diet is working for their kids

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