Week three for our son and not observing too many positives...

[Guest guest]

Hi,

Hoping for some comments and words of advice to a family new to the diet We

are on week three of the SCD for our 16 year old son with autism. Thank you to

all who I've communicated with up to now. After Elaine's book, this list is

wonderful.

In brief: From birth to about 6 years old, our son had continual loose, runny,

mucousy stools. At that point, without any changes that we remember occurred,

his stool became much more normal. He rarely experiences loose stool.

He, like many children with autism, had recurrent ear infections as a

baby/young child and I shudder to think how many antibiotic prescriptions we

filled. At one point, when he was about 3-4 years old, he was on a prophylactic

antibiotic for over 10 weeks - straight.

He hasn't taken an antibiotic for over 10 years.

Fast forward to present day - while they continue to be normal in form, he is

more on the constipated side - having a BM every 2-3 days. He's hesitant to go

for a variety of reasons: I'm sure it's been painful at times and he remembers

that and also he has difficulty leaving a preferred activity to do anything else

- showers, dinner, using the toilet. We're in a continual state of negotiations

with our son. And he's very good at the art of negotiations.

His diet has always been varied, eating a good deal of fruits and vegetables,

both cooked and raw, along with his true favorites: pastas, breads and cheeses.

He has always had very disturbed sleep. Going to bed easily (and often early)

but will almost always awaken during the night. Often several times, and

sometimes for the entire night.

He is very verbal, can be very engaging and social but also prone to extreme

moodiness and sometimes aggression. While he is now in the throes of puberty, he

has always been moody.

He has some self- stimulatory behaviors: likes to pace and talk to himself.

Flip through books, over and over.

Recently, but prior to beginning (finally) the SCD for him, we (finally) caved

in and tried a variety of medications to help with issues from sleep to

behavior. In short, it was a long, unsuccessful ride and the side effects didn't

justify the small benefits. Most made him very activated.

Fast forward to the present: He has fully accepted the diet and the foods he

can and cannot eat. We're amazed at how smooth the transition went. We had a few

false starts but then began again with 2 days of the intro diet and are now

making a variety of foods although I haven't been too creative but I'll get

there.

We just began probiotics from Kirkman along with a magnesium supplement. I

bought DMG and Vitamin C but I'm waiting to begin those as I'd like to observe

any positive/negative side effects. All SCD legal. We also purchased a SCD legal

multi-vitamin from Freeda and have been giving that to him, daily, as well.

Here's my question(s): We really feel we observed a less moody, better

sleeping child in the 48-72 hours on the diet. During those few days, he had a

fully formed BM everyday and slept quite well. But since then, nothing. Zip.

Back to 3-4 days of waiting between BMs. Still moody, very poor sleep. Not

moodier than normal, just himself.

He also just came down with a awful cough/cold - green, runny nose that I

haven't seen in years. I'd like to think that maybe he's experiencing some

die-off but our daughter also has the same cold, although not as severe. (she's

not on the diet).

I'm sure taking away all of the sugar, flour and much of the dairy is helping

him tremendously, as it would anyone, but we're a bit disillusioned we haven't

seen any true improvement yet. We know it's still quite early but a little

positive " bump " would go far to keep us on track.

Any thoughts/comments would be appreciated. Thanks so much.

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