I would probably agree with this. That's why I say start with *basic* Feingold and just remove the horrible stuff (preservatives, dyes).. But don't go full Feingold if you are planning to do GFCF.

It probably is an IgG test.. I know Great Plains Labs offers a dried blood spot IgG test.. https://www.healthlinkpartners.com/testkits/product_info.php?cPath=1&products_id=64 That might be what she is sending you.. I would ask her to be sure.

I wonder if your P5P has magnesium in it? Ours does.. I don't know a lot about this issue. I don't think any of my kids have an issue with phenols that I have noticed. But I do hear it is a very common problem and frequently discussed on the GFCFKids yahoo group that I mentioned in my above post. The digestive enzyme that we use contains Xylanase, which takes care of phenols from certain fruits and vegetables. http://www.houston-enzymes.com/store/product.php?c=1&p=4 . It's broad spectrum so it also takes care of casein, gluten, soy, and lactose.. I keep it in my purse for when we have to eat out.. Just in case of cross contamination of gluten or if we get something with butter or a soy ingredient, etc.

This is very interesting, Amy, and really is very evident that each ASD kid is unique in every way.. What sort of fruit juices set him off? I wonder if he has a PST (phenol sulfur transferase) defect? http://www.allnaturaladvantage.com.au/Phenol%20Sensitivity.htm

Yes, basic Feingold is a good place to start.. But many don't see the *amazing* changes until gluten is removed. My 8yr old Aspie daughter was down to eating nothing but crackers and milk before we removed gluten and dairy. She severely self-limited her diet. She would puke and gag on anything else. And her behavior was a mess. And her OCD was severe and debilitating. She was constantly stimming and throwing tantrums.. It was truly a desperate situation, which is why we dove in to the diet changes when we did. It was VERY difficult at first.. We had a lot of tantrums and rages in the first week. My oldest daughter was also in a tizzy over it. But it was the best thing we EVER did and I would do it again in a heartbeat.. We have pretty much ZERO behavior issues today and my kids are off all meds and we do not deal with OCD barely at all anymore.. Though much of the autistic traits are definitely still there (social issues, black & white thinking, literal interpretations, obsessive interests, awkwardness, repetitive movements, learning issues, immaturity).. But honestly.. When I really fine tune diet to NO starches, NO sugars, No soy, and NO dairy (we are ALWAYS 100% gluten free).. Then we really don't see too much of those either.. But it's really difficult to get to that point. Progress, not perfection.. right? I would start with removing dyes, preservatives, refined sugar, etc.. And then move on to dairy free.. Then to gluten free.. We also had to remove soy for my 8yr old. After we removed soy, the aggression, dark circles under her eyes, stimming, and bedwetting went away completely. We also did IgG food allergy testing to confirm these food sensitivities.. gluten, dairy, and soy all came up as highly sensitive for her. My other kids tested sensitive to gluten and dairy only. They do fine with soy (though we still limit it as I believe it is very unhealthy). My son was started on dietary interventions very early and he is my only child not on the spectrum today.. though he was diagnosed on the spectrum at age 2 by a child psychologist.. That label was later removed after dietary interventions had been in place for over a year. My daughters still test on the spectrum, but they have improved more than I ever dreamed possible. Dietary changes will not help all cases of autism/Asperger's. But many kids do benefit from it. You might want to join a support group to learn more about diet changes.. One I really like is http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/GFCFKids/ . Books I like are.. The Autism & ADHD Diet by Barrie Silberberg.. And The Kid-Friendly ADHD & Autism Cookbook

Welcome back to homeschooling! We're neighbors (in OK) and I have 3 Aspie daughters.. I like the idea of easing in slowly.. start with the basics for the first month or so and then slowly add in more things.. My girls do well with unit studies.. We have math issues here too.. Especially with my 1st and 3rd daughters. It's never-ending! My oldest works about 1 1/2 years behind her peers in math and she still has trouble.. She's a whiz with words though, of course. :)

My 8yr old Aspie daughter began reading fluently within 6 weeks of vision therapy, after struggling for so long. You can usually get a free abbreviated evaluation from a vision therapist.. Just call them and ask.. We are paying out of pocket too, but it's very much worth it. My daughter also has 20/20..

I've heard good things about the Masgutova method, but I don't know much about it. Another option is the CareCredit card. We are paying out of pocket for vision therapy, but we use the CareCredit card to help with most of it. They have special no financing deals if you pay your balance within a year (offered only at certain doctor's offices) and some places offer a 48-month plan that is good.. They also have a 6-month no financing plan. I would look into it. We are only paying about $60 a month for VT when we would otherwise be paying $125 a week!!

Are you thinking of Fragile X syndrome?

She sounds a lot like my oldest daughter. Poor math performance, visual-spatial issues, poor handwriting... She is 14 now and still has to use a keyboard for almost all her written assignments (except for fill-in-the-blank worksheet type stuff).. She can't effectively write with a pencil. It's too much for her to organize her thoughts, focus on pencil grip, AND write neatly. With her laptop, her fingers just FLY and she can spit out any assignment in no time flat. My daughter has not been officially diagnosed with dysgraphia, but I think she does have it. She did do some OT when she was very young (age 4) for fine motor delay and sensory issues.. Way before she was diagnosed with anything. Now, as a teen, she has found reasons to write and she also draws A LOT.. Her handwriting has improved immensely just in the past year or so. But she still could not ever in a million years handwrite an essay in 20 minutes (for the SAT). If you suspect your dd has this issue, I would make sure she is evaluated and diagnosed (if necessary) with something that reflects a fine motor issue or disorder of written expression if you plan for her to take the SAT or other tests. She may need accommodations.

Oh my! Those doctors continue to impress me.. :glare: The coconut sugar looks exactly like brown sugar if you get the right kind.. You could definitely use it instead. I use this kind.. The reason for using coconut sugar instead of refined sugar is because it won't feed any mycotoxins (yeast/candida) that have probably taken up residence in the gut. Stevia is another good sugar alternative that won't feed yeast.. However, it has a deplorable aftertaste. Coconut sugar is yummy! The same with starches.. Don't allow too many starches. As for the fruit.. It's fine as long as they are not eating a lot of it every day. Some would say it's not good, but I say as long as it doesn't have gluten, casein, soy, or refined sugar.. It's okay in moderation. But that's just me in my house with my picky eaters. Sometimes you just have to give them the lesser of two evils. Especially when transitioning over to the GFCF diet and it seems there isn't much left for them to eat! Yes, that's what I would focus on for now. You can always add more things in later as you see fit.. I forgot to mention one other product that I love.. I use this to coat our chicken for frying.. It's soooo good! My kids beg for fried chicken.. You can find it in just about any health food store.

I agree that meds should be used when all else fails.. We turned to meds for severe OCD out of desperation. It was either meds or I die because I couldn't live another day with two daughters having constant OCD rituals.. And they were probably more miserable than I was. That said, both girls are off meds today because of diet change and supplements. And both are doing very well. When there is a need for dietary intervention, definitely go that route first. Especially if you have evidence like the OP has (FTT after introducing oatmeal and problems ever since).

Add vitamin D and probiotics for now. Use Culturelle for Kids as it is dairy free. Continue with the GFCF diet until you are 100% there for at least 2 months before deciding whether or not it is beneficial. Keep sugar to a minimum. Use coconut sugar for baking cookies and such. If any of your children have hyperactivity, aggressive tendencies, dark circles under the eyes.. Then remove soy too to see if there is improvement. Many of these kids also can't tolerate soy if they have a hard time with gluten and casein. My 8yr old can't, but my other kids do fine with small amounts of soy. Google the dangers of soy for more info. Definitely do not turn to soy to fill the gluten/dairy void. But small amounts as ingredients in cookies, etc. may be okay if your ds can tolerate. My daughter can't. She reacts in the same way as she does with gluten. Only one of my four children had bowel issues before we went GFCF. Most of the other symptoms were behavioral/neurological. Products we like: Enjoy Life products (chocolates, cookies) Udi's breads, muffins, pizza crusts, cookies Quinoa pasta for spaghetti, etc. (Quinoa is a high protein "super food" grain). The pasta tastes the same as regular pasta. Applegate farms turkey bacons, hamburger patties, hot dogs Panda Puffs Cereal Koala Krisp Cereal Eventually you will want to add more supplements if you stay on the diet long term. Things like Calcium, etc. Please let us know how it goes. ETA: for his attention issues, make sure you have a high EPA fish oil.. Later, you can try adding P-5-P and some other things, but you will want to see how he does on 100% GFCF before adding anything else so you can see if it's working.

I couldn't believe it! We sat down to read her phonics book yesterday and she flew through the sentences!!! She has never done this.. I am AMAZED and sooooo HAPPY!!!! She is finally over this huge hurdle.. She will be 9 years old in May.. Thanks OhE for convincing me to go into VT!!!!!! :party:

Interesting! Thank you!

A couple of red flags, but nothing overly concerning from what you provided. It's not uncommon for things to start getting bad around age 8 or 9 in these kids though. I would tuck this issue into your pocket and pull it out next time you are in the states. Get an eval then if you can (assuming you will be back in the next 5 years sometime).

This was shared on one of my autism groups today so thought I would pass it along here. This chart outlines which treatments parents thought helped their child the most. Everything from meds to special diets are on here. https://www.getmeoutofautism.com/displaysite?urllink=http://www.autism.com/fam_ratingsbehaviorbiomedical.asp ETA: From what I gather, parents were able to choose more than one thing that helped their child. So I don't think that the "removed chocolate" part was done in isoloation. I think that was done in conjunction with removing other things.. And that was just one of the MANY interventions done so the parent checked that off on the checklist. How wonderful would it be if we could see such a great improvement based on removing chocolate alone?:lol:

What state are you in? Books by Jed Baker are good. You could also watch some tv shows together and talk about how the people are interacting.. Point out the good stuff you see and the bad. Then role play these skills. I've even looked for YouTube videos about body language to show to my teen as she has a difficult time regulating her body language and her facial expressions in most situations. I've also found books at the library on body language. We have to drive a good 40 minutes to get to social activities, social skills groups, and therapies. We live in a small farming town. We once drove an hour (one way) 3x per week for ABA therapy and social skills group!

I wanted to also mention that my 14yr old was recently evaluated again.. She has lost her ADHD diagnosis and her OCD diagnosis, though she does still have some anxiety. Her working memory is just fine now (it used to be almost non-existent). Her attention and impulsivity have improved as well. I was thrilled that she had improved so much! She still has Asperger's, but many of the co-morbids are gone or greatly improved now. She is very high-functioning as Aspies go and does quite well socially (for the most part). We also did an abbreviated re-evaluation of my 10yr old Aspie. She was found (by the same psychologist who originally diagnosed her) to be "unlikely" to have Asperger's. She does still have some social issues, auditory processing issues, hyper-focus issues, and slow processing speed, but they are mild. She hasn't officially lost her Asperger's diagnosis as this was an informal eval using the Asperger's Syndrome Diagnostic Scale (ASDS) only. But we did find that she has improved by leaps and bounds over the past 2 years in several areas. Our psych was highly impressed with this and even called me a few days later to ask for some dietary ideas that she could pass on to one of her patients who had similar symptoms (and had also tested as gluten intolerant). We also did an abbreviated re-evaluation of my 8yr old (by the same psych who diagnosed her) and her result was that she still has Asperger's, ADHD, & mild OCD. She was previously diagnosed with severe OCD and she also had severe behavior issues and high aggression tendencies.. We don't see any of the behavior issues now and her OCD is very mild (and comes and goes). Before, it was all severe and unbearable. She was a raging, aggressive, inconsolable mess who constantly did her OCD compulsions and stimming behaviors. Today, she is easygoing and eager to please with a very occassional "spat" that we have to work through. So she has improved a lot too, but she still has the original issues that she was first diagnosed with. So as we continue to see these improvements, I continue to do what I'm doing. I'm not convinced that my girls will recover from Asperger's completely.. but I do think they will improve enough to function in our world. Some of you may know that my youngest child (5yr old son) was on the spectrum at one time and is now considered recovered.. We started him on DAN protocol interventions when he was still very young (just before age 3) and he responded quickly. We had him re-evaluated again after interventions had been in place for over a year and the results were night and day. Completely neurotypical today at age 5 (though admittedly quirky). My girls did not respond as well as he did, but they did improve. I don't believe that all cases of autism and Asperger's are a result of dietary or biomedical dysfunction. Some kids are truly born with autistic brains. But in our case, there is definitely a correlation and I am thankful to have found this path. And believe it or not, my kids are glad too... They no longer have the bowel issues, the skin issues, the headaches, the "high speed brain" feeling, the brain fog issues, the forgetfulness, and the crippling anxiety. A couple of them have expressed to me that they are glad I found that they are gluten intolerant, etc. So I don't regret a bit of this! I hope this is helpful to someone out there!

For anyone new reading this thread, this is resurrected from about 2 months ago. So first, I want to say, that I have scratched most of my original plan in favor of vision therapy. My 8yr old is now doing vision therapy instead of my "Brain Gym" and we are seeing wonderful changes already (6 weeks in). As for the supplements.. Those we still do.. If I stop the supplements, I see a drastic change in behavior and attention. I have researched each and every supplement and they are all very safe when given in the lowest effective dose. Our doctor approves and oversees all of this. I highly suggest working with a good doctor to formulate a supplement plan for your child. I use P-5-P from Kirkman Labs.. We use a formula with magnesium in it.. Here is a search result for P-5-P at their site.. http://kirkmanlabs.com/SiteSearchResult.aspx?strSiteSearch=P-5-P If that link didn't work, just go to http://www.kirkmanlabs.com and search for P-5-P. You'll get a lot of products. Many prefer P-5-P to a B-complex. I also give Methyl B-12. I used to give M B-12 shots in my daughters bum cheek years ago (prescribed by our doctor back when she was first diagnosed and very unmanageable/lower functioning). After she improved, we went to a lozenge. I don't give Zinc by itself, though I probably should. I let them get it through their multi-vitamin and food sources as much as possible. Though my kids don't absorb very much from food due to compromised gut health. Hence the supplementation.

That's what I did.. I switched her to HWOT when her OT started using it. However, in the end, she graduated out of OT and I became frustrated with HWOT for its inability to be an "open and go" program. We stopped using it and went back to our other program. So if you anticipate a long haul in OT, then it might be worth buying.. My daughter was only in OT for 6 months (age 6).

It sounds like you wasted your time there.. You need to go back to your pediatrician and ask for a referral to a psychologist who can properly evaluate for Asperger's. Is it you who is moving to Oklahoma soon or is that someone else? If it's you, I know a great psych here who does very thorough (2 days) evaluations and then considers all information before diagnosing. As far as what Asperger's looks like at age 4.. They are all completely different.. Even with my three.. They all were doing completely different things at that age.. You really have to just look at the DSM-IV and see if you think he fits with the criteria for a diagnosis.. http://www.autreat.com/dsm4-aspergers.html . Some are hyperactive, some aren't.. Some are loud and boisterous.. Some are shy and quiet.. Some are sensitive to sound.. some aren't.. some are picky eaters, some aren't.. Some are aggressive, some aren't.. it really varies from kid to kid. Our psychologist uses the Asperger's Syndrome Diagnostic Scale (ASDS) as well as any information provided by the parents, teachers, etc. as well as IQ testing, achievement testing, personality tests, ADHD tests, etc. etc... You need an in-depth evaluation that includes all of these things before you can rule out Asperger's.

So apparently, Mr. Dave Angel received numerous complaints from parents (including me) about his recent newsletter which outlined his interview with "expert", Dr. Horowitz, who advocates sending Aspies to public school. Link to original thread In response to all the complaints, he has opened up a debate on his blog.. Asperger's Education Tips In a recent mass e-mailing, he said.. As you'll already know if you read my emails I recently raised quite a bit of controversy with a number of my newsletter subscribers. This followed an article that I put on the blog featuring Dr. Horowitz's views on Education and included his personal take on Home Schooling (which was that he didn't feel it to be a particularly good option for children with Aspergers). I had a number of emails from parents strongly advocating for Home Schooling as the best way forward, and safest place, for their own child and outlining some of the great achievements that home schooling has helped their child to reach. Please let me know your thoughts and experiences of your child's education; whatever the setting (be it home schooling, main stream school, special educational school, residential school, private school etc. I really would love to hear more on things like: Does it work for your child? What are the positives? What are the negatives? How is the acadmeic side, and how is the social side? Do you have a particular story to illustrate your point?

That's totally fine!! Don't get me wrong.. There are some great doctors out there.. I just have had bad experiences with them.. I was diagnosed with everything from "housewives syndrome" (for my rashes on my hands) to anorexia by mainstream medicine. The first naturopath I saw knew exactly what was wrong with me and actually gave me good advice. Never did I receive good advice from a mainstream doctor.. Just pills and creams and wrong diagnoses (I definitely was NOT anorexic!!). And the dermatologist we saw thinks my daughter's eczema was caused by irritation of clothing, etc.. I took away gluten and milk and the eczema went away. Mainstream really doesn't understand whole body health and how all the different systems relate to each other.. But there are a few good ones out there and I hope you get one.. Keep in mind too that taking away gluten is not considered "alternative".. It's a mainstream thing too.. They just tend to only run the tests on the more severe or obvious cases of Celiac, when in fact, there are millions walking around who would benefit from a gluten-free diet.

This is an awesome testimony!! I must say that it has been a similar experience for us with my oldest daughter.. I shudder to think how her social skills would be if we had her in ps all these years.. She does very well, socially, and I think that is mostly due to homeschooling. My middle two girls have more issues, socially.. But I think it could be much, much worse.