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Autism/GFCF Diet
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Question
Hello,
My 3 year old son was diagnosed last month with ASD, high functioning. We had him allergy tested and he did test positive for gluten allergy but not milk. We're working on getting him off the gluten but do you think it's necessary to eliminate the casein as well even if he's not allergic? Or will he only benefit if both are eliminated from his diet?
By the way, thank you for taking the time to answer questions. It's nice to get the perspective of someone who knows what my son is going through since he cannot tell us (he doesn't communicate with us very well yet).
-Susie
Hi Susie,
sorry for the delay. I'm just writing to say that I'll answer as soon as possible (most likely over the week-end). I'm not able to write much right now.
C.
Hi Susie
Thank you for the positive rating and again sorry for not replying sooner.
To be honest I don't know if your son will benefit from going casein free as well. He may not be allergic to milk but have an intolerance (which an allergy test will not show), which means eliminating casein/milk products will still help him. Unfortunately, the only way to know *is* eliminating milk for a while and see if he does better.
If he doesn't seem to react to milk I don't see why he shouldn't have milk. I believe the reason why it is often recommended you should go off both is that there are lots of people (autistic or not) who are allergic/intollerant to gluten AND milk(-protein) like myself.
Best wishes
C.
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Answers by Expert:
Celtica
Expertise
*DISCLAIMER*
Please note I am not a healthcare professional or a doctor.
I cannot provide a diagnosis or give any medical advice.
Therefore I cannot answer questions like "is my child autistic ?" other than by telling you to go and see a specialist
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Please be aware that if you are in the US it will usually take at least 24 hours until I can answer your question, as I'm in Europe and don't have access to my email during the day.
I also cannot answer questions concerning the US educational or law system (other than by looking up things on google, but that's probably not the expertise you need), as I'm not in the US.
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Please also be aware that I'm a person with autism. My answers may sometimes be very blunt and direct and I may tell you things you won't like to hear. Diplomacy is certainly not among my talents. I'm never being rude on purpose, and I always try not to hurt or offend people, but it has happened before and may happen again. It's NEVER on purpose. I just want to help.
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What I *can* do for you is gather information on any aspect of autism
and therapy of autism you're interested in and give you my personal oppinion about it (if you want to hear it) or, if it applies, tell you about my personal experience. I can answer all questions about what life is like for an autistic person.
I can also answer questions asked in German or French (but will have to answer in English to questions asked in French as my French is a bit rusty).
Ich beantworte gerne auch Fragen auf Deutsch.
Vous pouvez poser des questions en Francais, si cela ne vous dérange pas que je responds en anglais.
Experience
As I'm not doing well right now and am not in the shape of answering questions well - I recieved a few low ratings lately - I'll take a break from AllExperts for the next few weeks/until I'm doing better
I am an adult diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome/High Functioning Autism and ADD.
In the past years I have also read a lot about autism and its comorbid conditions and related subjects (as I am experiencing symptoms of most of these or know others who do) , so I have accumulated a lot of layman knowledge in this area
(AD(H)D, Tourette's Syndrome, OCD, sleep disorders, allergies, sensory integration dysfunction, learning difficulties, left/right-brain, giftedness, Irlen Syndrome, prism glasses, executive dysfunction (aka. "inertia"), "special" diets).
Education/Credentials
None in the field of autism, apart from being autistic myself !
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