To try ASD child on gluten free diet?

[Toglutenornot]

After much reading, I’m thinking about trying my ASD DD4 on a gluten free diet. We already know since she was a baby that she has a dairy allergy (causes severe eczema, diarrhoea), and now I’m wondering if gluten has a negative effect on her too.
She’s an ok eater so don’t think it will be too difficult to swap gluten free stuff in.

Would love to hear other’s experiences of trying this and how it affected your ASD DC?

I doubt it will make any difference. I have three autistic children, one has coeliac diease. Gluten free diet does not make him any less autistic!

Isn’t the ASD leaky gut gluten “link” traceable to the Andrew Wakefield shite?

If you're Autistic.. then you're Autistic .. that's it.
No diet will help.
ASD kids have limited food anyhow usually beige .
I have three ASD Grandsons. They only have on average 6 safe foods.. taking any away would be worse.
What are you hoping to achieve by this?

Gluten should only be removed on diagnosis of an intolerance. Please ensure you are reading peer reviewed respected sources. Unfortunately there is pure lies, conjecture and nonsense wrote.

No diet will help autism. What are you thinking?!

I have 2 ND kids, one is coeliac. I'm scared to test the other as his diet is so restricted, but I'll have to do it soon (very recent diagnosis for his sister).
I'm not sure what cutting gluten out of your autistic child's diet will achieve, if there aren't reasons for you to do so.

What sort of negative effect do you think gluten may be having?
Have you discussed it with a GP?
The general advice is to not remove gluten prior to testing, because you have to be eating gluten to be tested. If gluten is having a negative impact, symptoms will be far worse when gluten is re-introduced.

Have you tried any GF food? Most of it is nothing like the 'normal' food it is trying to replace, and is 3 times the price.

Another one with coeliac disease and autism - my child is still autistic on a gluten free diet.
And on a practical level - at that age it is hard to explain why they can't eat what their classmates / friends are eating. And school are unlikely to agree unless is it medically indicated. And parties are hard...

Gluten and lactose free does seem to help some ASD children's bowel & skin irritations as it does with non ASD children with same intolerance.

I imagine you shouldn't remove any food group from a child's diet without an allergy and even then I'd be speaking to a doctor about it.
Autism isn't curable and definitely isn't cause by something you eat.

Thanks for all your responses.
Sorry, to clarify, I’m not trying to make her less autistic/cure her autism, absolutely not. I’m fully aware autism is something you are born with and she is a wonderful girl.
She is verbal but only to make her needs/wants known, she does not respond to questions and does not engage with anyone outside of making needs known. So most days I feel quite heartbroken that my child ignores me 80% of the time.
What I’d read about and spoken to other parents of autistic DC is that for some autistic DC gluten can cause excessive brain fog, so by removing it they can become more aware/engaged which in turn helps their language develop. Obviously all ND children are different like all NT children are different, so it won’t make any difference to lots of children, I was just wanting to hear any experiences of people who had tried it.

Definitely don’t without talking to a specialist, was in getting a scope recently and the specialist said gluten free only helps coeliacs. He said he’d love to advertise it because too many people are just choosing to cut it but it means they’re losing out on foods that their gut might need

The UK official body does not agree. The study referenced as raising the possibility is tiny and old this indicates it isn't successful as any studies would be highly publicized if there was a correlation.

I would recommend speaking to reputable medical personnel the risk of placebo and viewed changes by care givers is huge and impacts heavily on the quality of the research.

https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/professional-practice/gluten-casein-free#:~:text=There%20is%20not%20enough%20evidence,diet%20is%20not%20without%20risk.

The National Autistic Society advises against this.

There is some correlation between ASD and coeliac disease. And gluten can cause neurological symptoms (brain fog) in coeliacs. But without any other symptoms of coeliac disease, it is unlikely to be causing this.

On the other hand, reducing gluten is easy to achieve - cutting it out completely is much harder. You could try reducing gluten at home quite easily - it is not a food group in itself and you can manage perfectly well without gluten from a nutritional point of view - I just wouldn't from a social point of view unless I had to!

So you have nothing to lose by trying it - but it is unlikely to achieve much!

But the way you diagnose an intolerance IS to remove gluten for a few months and see if things improve.

OP absolutely try a gluten free diet and see if that helps gut issues. I wish I had tried it earlier! I was misled by someone, thinking that a negative test for coeliac meant that gluten is ok. But actually gluten intolerance doesn’t show up in blood tests the only way you find out is to remove it.

The gut/brain link is slowly becoming more mainstream, but I think it’ll be a few more years before there’s enough evidence for medical bodies to take it on board.

I'm autistic and find that low carbing or keto really helps me to manage anxiety and sensory issues, with noticeable improvement. I have autistic friends who have reported the same.
I haven’t tried this with my autistic son though as any messing around with his diet leads to him restricting more food.

@Ellysetta the main distinction is under and following medical advice and supervision.

Without it is not recommended by any professionals.

No diet will help autism

If gluten is causing issues that lead to sensory overwhelm, of course it will help to cut it out.

Gluten intolerance can be really quite insidious - it's not always a stomach upset easily linked to consuming bread etc. It could be getting really exhausted, or brain fog, or your body simply feeling 'wrong' which is hard to deal with if you have sensory issues.

It's not that gluten stops somebody being autistic!

As some people have mentioned above, a whole food, and/or low carb diet can help with a whole host of issues.
For more info, watch this by Georgia Ede, she summarises the research that has been done on the links, and benefits.

I can't talk about the ASD side as I have no experience but my daughter with many food allergies can struggle with amount of gluten in a modern diet. Our dietitian said this is quite common.

We made three swaps - pasta we preferred the brown rice pasta from Sainsbury's as it was closer in texture to regular pasta than the lentil and buckwheat pastas. We swapped cous cous too quinoa or similar grains and we reduced the amount of Weetabix she had using cornflakes or rice Krispies more.

I would keep a food diary and look for signs that they might be struggling with gluten for my daughter it was painful wind that she struggled to pass. My daughter had developmental delays at 4 months due to her allergies not being treated. The paediatrician thinks she just couldn't focus on the rest of the world whilst in discomfort. If you are looking at this from a digestive point of view I would find where you main sources of gluten are and find some simple swaps to reduce rather than eliminate gluten and see how you go.

What I’d read about and spoken to other parents of autistic DC is that for some autistic DC gluten can cause excessive brain fog, so by removing it they can become more aware/engaged which in turn helps their language develop

You have this all muddled or have misinterpreted something. Whether autistic or not, the brain fog aspect is caused by coeliac disease. So if a child has autism and coeliac disease, then yes, removing gluten addresses the coeliac, resultant brain fog and may get positive results as you explain. Exactly the same for a child without autism with coeliac. However, if a child does not have coeliac, then autism or no autism, no amount of restricting their diet is going to effect anything.

So, it really boils down to whether your child, who happens to have autism is also coeliac or not. Are they? If they have symptoms they need a test and you can’t remove gluten prior to testing or it defeats the point. If they are not coeliac, no amount of dietary change re gluten is going to change anything so don’t impose an unnecessary gluten free diet on them.