A non-woo dietary practitioner or book suggestion?

[MareeyaDolores]

Posting for a (non-MNSN) school-gate friend who is convinced her dc has some link between severe dyslexia/ sensory processing difficulties and diet. Has quite a sensitive stomach but no obvious foods are connected.

She has tried already with a few Holland-and-Barrett supplements, and organic home-cooked food etc. The DC went GFCF briefly, but rebelled.

Is on benefits, so can't afford TH etc, but could save up for a one-off appointment with someone good. I think the GP would probably refer on the NHS eg dietician or gastroenterology, so I'm wary of sending her too far into the whole alternative-therapies thing in case it labels her as fad-diet-nutty-mum and closes down that route forever. On the other hand, is there anyone NHS who believes in dietary interventions anyway?

The Gastro Paed we saw at Chelsea and Westninster told us that he had seen enough cases where going GFCF has helped with constipation, communication etc so even though there might not be medical studies about this he would recommend it. So clearly there are some NHS people who believe in it. Similarly our NHS dietician has been very supportive with prescribing DF stuff etc.

Can she buy the book written by the TH guy and follow that rather than going to see him.

There is a nutritionist at this clinic www.sincerehealth.co.uk/index.html but I don't know if she would see patients without seeing the doctor.

Natasha Campbell mcbride's Gut and psychology syndrome diet.

I agree alwayslatefor work, the GAPS book, and Dr Bocks Healing the childhood epidemics - the 4 a's autism adhd allergies and asthma, brilliant book fully recommend it. GAP is essentially for healing a leaky gut which is often key but there can be other issues too so Dr Bock for an overview.

We saw a gastroenterologist (saw him privately but he is also an NHS consultant) who seemed to beive that it was worth trying GFCF for chronic diarrhoea (have been doing it for 3 weeks now with no noticable effect whatsoever, though).

thedudesmummy - it takes 6 months for gluten to leave the system ive read, and i think its 1 month for casein, worth a research

ooh, NHS gastro open-minded types sound good...
any chance of PM-ing me the names?

dev9aug, I'd thought of telling her to get the book, but she tends to get a bit carried away with new ideas... so was wary, perhaps best to have her see a doctor first, before the enthusiasm happens

nourishing and always,
will save your book suggestions too, thank you, they do look interesting

We looked into GAPS too, but it is just too scary, but I am building up the courage to start, I have given myself a deadline to start it which is end of this month so this is a timely reminder.

I will PM you the name of the paed now.

dev9aug GAPS is a serious pain in the ar5e, we did it for my son for 6 months as he had various symptoms - dark circles, mushy poo, bags under eyes, neuro sensory meltdown stuff. It was very hard, you have to change your whole kitchen, but it definitely did some good work. Eye bags and circles and poo improved. Neuro stuff did go away a bit on diet but since we stopped it that stuff came back. Have a feeling we need to do it again for longer :(

I know nourishing which is why we haven't done it yet. It is something I have been meaning to, but its just too scary. At the moment ds1 is having some stupid amounts of probiotics supplements you name it, but with no sign of his gut improving so we definitely need to give this a go.

Since you mention it, when you did GAPS, did you also go gluten free/dairy free because according to the book, you can have some stuff which has dairy in it or am I just reading it wrong.

We do TH and the diet side if it is really not too hard at all tbh.
The supplements will help too.
Vegepa (get mine from amazon) and mag and zinc.
The diet is really not a diet but more a healthy eating programme...kids should have treats and I think it's important not to be too prescriptive as - as the op found out - they rebel.
Basically you need to cut down on sugar, additives and junk.
Much more protein and cut down on carbs.
So for example, ds might have beans on toast for bfast, tomato soup and rolls for lunch and then roast potatoes, veg and chicken or fish for dinner.
Snacks would be homemade flapjacks, rice cakes etc. not sweets or chocolate.
We have also cut out milk as a drink and it's really helped him.
I also use GF pasta as we can't tell the difference.
He still eats ice cream as a treat and a very occasional McDonald's.
It's worth checking out "the brain food plan" by robin pauc which details the diet and has recipes in.
HTH x

optimum nutrition for your childs mind by patrick holford is quite mainstream and realistic

The gastro I saw told me that you can tell within 2 weeks whether there is going to be any point in sticking to the diet! There is a lot of conflicting info out there!

Wow, dudesmummy! I tried GFCF via the Sunderland lot, doing a urine test first to see if they thought it was worthwhile. It was them who told me 6 months to clear gluten from the system, but runny poo type problems may clear much quicker, more of a wheat intolerance thing, maybe? Casein clears in less than a month, they said. This was to see an improvement in concentration and behaviour. I'll google Sunderland lot for you.

www.espa-research.org.uk/

This is them. They used to be part of Sunderland University but separated off a few years ago.

dev - you start with the intro diet, then once symptoms have gone add in dairy one item at a time starting with ghee (clarified butter), moving through yoghurt etc, so you can, if tolerated have dairy on GAPS

We are currently doing GFCF which is a lot easier as you can have potatoes, rice, non gluten oats but no dairy, swings n roundabout i spose, not had as much effect as yet but earlyish days.

It depends on what the gut is dealing with - leaky gut, yeast overgrowth, parasites etc. The only real way to know is to have a nutritionist arrange a stool test, we're having the metametrix one which shows markers for everything gut related

I must say I think DS's behaviour has actually deteriorated during the time he has been on this diet (I dont blame the diet for that, he has also had some greater demands placed on him on his programme, but just saying that I cannot see ant improvement in any parameters!)

Withdrawal?

We did have a lot of extensive stool testing prior to starting the diet. Absolutely nothing abnormal found....

We tried GFCF more for the behavioural improvement, his gut seemed fine anyway. The urine test was looking for evidence of peptides from gluten and casein that, the theory goes, were converted to opium-like chemicals that crossed the blood-brain barrier, causing some of the behavioural problems. As it happens, DS2 showed no change in behaviour after 7 months so I abandoned the diet. I am still glad we tried it, though.

ds1's neurologist suggested GFCF diet, (ten years after we'd started ) so it's definitely pretty mainstream these days.

My DS2's paed was supportive when I mentioned GFCF and gave me the Sunderland contact details, 10 years ago, but I think she was pretty exceptional at the time. My DS2 is 13 now, similar age to your DS1, saintly?

Ooh, thank you everyone

Yes same age. Your paed was good. We were laughed at in 2002 by our then paed (current paed is fab).

Sorry, Mareeya, got a bit side tracked.

Yes, Saintly, felt really lucky with our paed. She's fab. Still DS's paed as she's also the epilepsy specialist and DS has had a couple of funny turns.