Gfcf diet - does this work? Anyone heard of it?

There is information on diets on this site - just search for diet in the search box at the top of this page. GFCF doesn't have any supporters for ASD as i understand it.

i would agree with all that Azalea has said and the NAS info backs this up.

There are some popular diets for ASD - the American Feingold diet and there is an Australian food intolerance website that has its own theories. Neither of these have much peer reviewed evidence to back them up but that doesn't mean that they can't work. There is a saying in medicine that "absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence" which means that the lack of evidence doesn't always mean that the evidence isn't waiting to be found. 

In the meantime, your child needs a good balanced diet - protein, carbs, vitamins, roughage, fluids in a healthy balance. Getting a sensible mix into your child is not going to be easy by the sound of it but that has to be the priority - a poorly fed child is not going to perform at his best. ASD children are notoriously difficult feeders, there is advice on "dietary management"  here on this website - perhaps there is something useful for you there?

if you can get to that point then it won't hurt to do some exclusion tests to see if some food upsets him. this is not going to be a cure but there are lots of people who swear that this or that food makes a real difference. Also, don't use a diet that can't provide the essentials. 

Personally i suspect that there may be a link for some people's symptoms but i don't have proof so i think we have to cautious. I keep in mind what Mark Twain said : "a crank is a crank until he is proved right" The feingold diet and australian diets might be baloney or they might have a germ of truth in them. At the moment we really don't know.

There is information on diets on this site - just search for diet in the search box at the top of this page. GFCF doesn't have any supporters for ASD as i understand it.

i would agree with all that Azalea has said and the NAS info backs this up.

There are some popular diets for ASD - the American Feingold diet and there is an Australian food intolerance website that has its own theories. Neither of these have much peer reviewed evidence to back them up but that doesn't mean that they can't work. There is a saying in medicine that "absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence" which means that the lack of evidence doesn't always mean that the evidence isn't waiting to be found. 

In the meantime, your child needs a good balanced diet - protein, carbs, vitamins, roughage, fluids in a healthy balance. Getting a sensible mix into your child is not going to be easy by the sound of it but that has to be the priority - a poorly fed child is not going to perform at his best. ASD children are notoriously difficult feeders, there is advice on "dietary management"  here on this website - perhaps there is something useful for you there?

if you can get to that point then it won't hurt to do some exclusion tests to see if some food upsets him. this is not going to be a cure but there are lots of people who swear that this or that food makes a real difference. Also, don't use a diet that can't provide the essentials. 

Personally i suspect that there may be a link for some people's symptoms but i don't have proof so i think we have to cautious. I keep in mind what Mark Twain said : "a crank is a crank until he is proved right" The feingold diet and australian diets might be baloney or they might have a germ of truth in them. At the moment we really don't know.