Diet and autism

[Sumy]

Did a diary free or gluten free help your autistic child?
My child doesn’t have food issues but has spots since one years old, he is 2.7 now and doctors just say it’s eczema but I’m thinking might be linked.

What is the science behind a known brain wiring effect being affected by food? Don’t get me wrong, a healthy diet is great but excluding food groups seems a really odd thing to think may affect autism?

(Skin issues, yes possibly, but autism?).

There is increasing evidence that gut and brain are surprisingly closely linked so I don't think it's unreasonable to wonder about diet. It has been known for quite some time that ASD and Inflammatory Bowel Disease have more than a coincidental correlation for example. This isn't to say that we can attribute autism to a particular type of diet or food intolerance but it's an area of growing interest and I reckon it's certainly not ridiculous to look at diet in case it helps.

I wouldn't remove a food group. Instead, if you want to try dietary changes, I would focus on increasing the amount of foods that support good gut bacteria: probiotic yoghurts, whole-grains, oily fish etc. and avoid foods that are definitely known to aggravate the gut - the group with the most scientific evidence being gums like carageenan, guar, xantham etc.

My eldest dc was helped massively by a cf/gf diet. She had quite a few tests to see whether a dietary change might help, and it was suggested it would, so we trialled it. Her gut health improved loads, as well as other noticeable effects.

she went cf/gf at 2.5ish and is now 18, and eats a normal diet with a dietary supplement to help support her digestive issues. She was cf/gf until she was 12 or so.

Thank You Really x

Thank You did she have autism or speech delay?

Yes please @ElfDragon I’m also looking into this as my DD is non verbal
OP, I hope things are improving for you and your family

Thank You Aswan, he is doing amazingly x