My daughter is 15 and has high functioning Aspergers, ADHD and dyslexia. She gets very anxious at school and is on the brink of tears or crying several times a day due to overwhelm.
She also tolerates nothing to eat but dairy, sweats and white flour products. We try to be sure she gets some protein and have just about given up the fight for her to ear a vegetable or piece of fruit.
I've read a lot on diet and issues with dairy and gluten but she doesn't have any obvious signs that she is sensitive to these accept is it all she will eat.
Is this taste/texture sensitivity or food allergy?
Has anyone tried going dairy and gluten free for a gifted 2E child and noticed a benefit?
When it was possible to reduce my daughters dairy she benefitted greatly - with her it caused mucus buildup that affected her hearing and breathing (but she wasnt aware of it) which contributed greatly to her anxiety. But, it was a losing battle so I trialled her with phenergan instead .... 1 tablet at night made a HUGE difference - she was like a different person.
Unfortunately, by then she didnt trust ANY tablets so inspite of the benefits, getting her to take them was also just too much of a battle.
I hope that at least having had those positive experiences that she may explore them more for herself one day now she is an adult.
Have you thought about a visit to Dr. Leila Masson who is a paediatrician and public health specialist interested in disease prevention through healthy nutrition and life style. Dr. Masson provides biomedical treatment for children on the autistic spectrum, a wholistic approach to behaviour and learning challenges, as well as assessment and treatment of children with allergies and other paediatric health problems.
My son (gifted, ASD, etc) has been seeing Lelia for many years and is gluten free, reduced sugar and additive free. Going gluten free is very easy now with the wonderful range of products available - pizza, yummy bread, biscuits and cakes. Leila has made a HUGE impact on my son's behaviour and achievements in life. I highly recommend biomedical treatment - all of our behaviour IS linked to the foods we feed our bodies.
We are dairy, gluten and cane sugar free now for 4 years. It has been amazing. the change is wonderful for us. My youngset boy couldn't sleep, concentrate, keep still he was angry all the time and he had bowel issues. He is a much more settled boy now and sleeps well. I found the foods he was most sentive too were the ones he ate the most. Like a drug he needed more of it to feel good for a wile and then he would crash afterwards.
I spent quite a bit of time using the process of elimination. The doctors traditional prick test found nothing because it wasn"t an allergy but an intollerance to these foods. It has been hard work but worth it!
Wow - does dairy and gluten really affect our children so much?
I have a 6 year old 2E daughter that I home school. She is often angry and grumpy and has bowel issues too. It has never occurred to me that it might be food related! Has anyone else found cutting gluten and dairy out of the diet helps moods?
Sarah- yes yes yes check out this page of symptoms on Dr Rodney Ford's website.
http://www.drrodneyford.com/faq/symptoms.html
We have just come back from seeing him today. I always thought with coeliac disease and gluten intollerance they symptoms were mainly gut related, but my middlest daughter has just been diagnosed with it and her symptoms were solely behavioural! (plus a very positive blood test) so it was out of left field.
My other 2 daughters have been gluten free for 4 years and 1 year and both had gut issues (as well as the irritability and crankiness as well as the usual hyperactivity of gifted kids...well that is what I thought it was from.)
The improvements with them have been really good and we certainly know when they have had slip ups.
I have just been given a copy of 2 of Dr Fords books, maybe I should send them up to the NZAGC library!
Hi JanK
Thanks so much for your reccommendation of Dr Rodney Ford's website - it is extremely interesting. Herein starts our journey to become gluten and dairy free.
If you are concerned about diet and its effects on your childs health, learning or behaviour please consider contacting Dr Libby Weaver - she does phone consultaions too so you don't have to travel to see her. She is a nutritionist with a PhD in Biochemistry and an absolute whizz expert when it comes to tricky/ fussy eaters, intolerances and 'gut troubles'.
Google her contact details. I can't recommend her enough to anyone worried about eatting or food intolerances/allergies.
We took our daughter off gluten when she was five. (She has Aspergers, ADHD and mild anxiety).
She was already dairy-free as she has a serious dairy allergy, and we took gluten out with doctor's agreement because we have family history of celiac and colitis and she was having some symptoms.
Although we did it for other reasons we noticed a huge change in her. All the tension that we had got used to and didn't even realise was there to the extent it was just drained out of her body. The school also noticed the change and joked we had put her on valium because she was so much calmer and relaxed.
So if you even think it might help, do try cutting it out and stick to it.
Hi there, we also saw Dr Masson last year and tried the Gluten/Dairy free diet + mega supplements for our then 8yr old son (ADD,Gifted,Dyslexic). It had no impact on his learning or behaviour whatsoever, and in fact he lost weight and experienced very poor health for the duration of the diet (he's a skinny boy who isn't that interested in food). I'm sure it's effective for children with true allergies/sensitivities, but it's not for all. Good luck.
Hi. Have you read the book James' Gift. It written by a Wellington Man with a boy who is on the Autism Spectrum. He has a wonderful Chapter on Nutrition. Well worth reading as dietary changes made a big difference to his child's and his life.
