Remember my post about DS1 regressing really badly and speculating that something got into his diet...

[kitegirl]

He is on a gluten free diet which has, literally, changed him. He started speaking more, made eye contact, less tantrums, stopped pooing his pants, made massive progress on his ABA programme - then three weeks ago, almost overnight, he regressed. No eye contact at all. Stopped speaking completely. Stopped eating (has survived on a few peas, chocolate petit filous, and a few cups of milk for the past two weeks), was always tired (we have had to wake him up at 8.30am every morning), lots of stimming, completely spaced out. Thought it was something he ate in a restaurant and was ranting to everyone about idiot chef. Hasn't really got better so couldn't figure out what was going on. A bug?

Three weeks ago I started giving him Smarties as a reward for doing a wee/poo in a potty. Easy to dispense, could do choices ('do you want the green or the orange Smartie?'). On Wednesday morning I happened to check the label. Wheat flour. So, about 12 times a day I have been giving him wheat. No more Smarties, and two days later we have superb eye contact, he is speaking, smiling, pooing in the potty, started eating normally again. Yesterday with one of his tutors he ACTUALLY SAID 'WHAT'S THIS?' - his first question.

I feel like a f*cking idiot.... note to self, CHECK THE DAMN LABELS!!!

Aw kitegirl, dont beat yourself up about it, you were dealing with a time which is very stressful-potty training, with kids who are NT-never mind children with SN.

Well done you for getting him potty trained!!!!!

So glad you found out what it was.

I'm not fussy about the sweets DS1 eats but I've always avoided Smarties - they send him absolutely loopy (and he's the more or less NT one). I ate a tube at Christmas and felt awful for 24 hrs afterwards - had a really racing heartbeat.

There is a gluten-free version of Smarties, can't remember what they're called, but lots of ABA families use them so should be easy to track down.

You can buy the gf/cf free smarties in most health shops. I think they are called whizzers. I quite like them, sort of like a dark choc smartie