Gluten Free

I continued to research the connection between gluten and autism.  Gluten, otherwise known as wheat protein, is thought to cause or at least accentuate behaviors in autistic children.  Casein, or milk protein,  is also thought to be a culprit.  The reason behind this theory is both complicated and strangely simple at the same time.  Both gluten and casein  are "similar" in makeup to opiates.  Incomplete digestion of gluten and/or casein can, in theory, turn into opiate like substances.  In other words, some people think autistic children are being "drugged" by opiates.  Their brains are under attack by opiates.  The opiates are also addicting - making them want more and more of the exact thing that is poisoning them in the first place - gluten and/or casein.  Why certain children are more sensitive to this than others is not known.  It is thought that the overuse of antibiotics has some connection to the body's inability to break down gluten/casein completely thus causing the opiates to form.  Possibly antibiotics destroy the good bacteria in the gut, thus eliminating part of the digestion process.

It took quite a while for me to decide to have Grace go gluten free.  I was quite worried that she would starve to death.  After all, almost everything she would eat had gluten in it.  But the more I read about it the more I became convinced that she was, in fact, addicted to gluten and was a victim of this vicious cycle.  I talked to her about gluten and told her that she was going to stop eating things with gluten.  She was about 4 years old.  We went to Wild Oats (now called Whole Foods) and picked out a few things together that I thought she might be able to eat.  I just about swallowed my stomach when I realized that a bag of gluten free pancake mix cost $15, and a bag of gluten free cookies was $8.  We left the store $85 poorer with a single bag of groceries for one person but I was determined to make this work.

I was delighted to find that the pancake mix was absolutely delicious.  I mean seriously good.  Maybe even worth $15.  I even liked it.  Pamela's is the brand and it's the ONLY one that's any good in my opinion.  The other brands and items took some trial and error.  However the biggest surprise was this:  It was not difficult for Grace to go gluten free.  In fact, it was relatively easy.  After a couple of days of "detox" we noticed that she actually began to eat a little bit better than she had been before.  The best part was that we could no longer go and get McDonald's' chicken nuggets (they have gluten).  What a relief that was for me to simply be able to say "sorry Gracie those have gluten".  Grace's food choices were still very limited and she still was eating a completely different menu than the rest of the family, but for the first time in a long while I finally felt good about WHAT she was eating.  It was healthy food - finally.

Not to say, however, that going gluten free was easy.   I remember one time when we were having pizza delivered and I desperately wanted Grace to be able to eat pizza with everyone.  I called down to the pizza parlor and asked if they had gluten free dough.  Well of course they didn't, so I asked if I could bring them my own dough.  I'm not sure what kind of crazy person does this, but I got in my car and drove down to the pizza parlor.  I gave them the dough that I had made from scratch at home, along with some rice flour for them to use to roll it out in,  so that they could make Grace her own gluten free pizza at the parlor and then deliver it to our house.  As I drove back to the house I wondered if maybe I'd gone a bit insane.

Gluten free food is also very expensive.  I would go to Wild Oats twice a month and spend at least $100 each time.  I would also shop online.  I bought a bread machine and made Grace her own gluten free breads because I found that to be much less expensive and much better tasting than buying a $10 loaf of gluten free bread.  Gracie was worth every penny.

The best thing, however, about Grace going gluten free was that we immediately noticed an improvement in her behavior.  It was quite shocking.  We were not expecting a big improvement, but both Tim and I saw it.  She was less reactive.  She wasn't "cured" but it was a big step in the right direction.  We were thrilled.  Grace was happier and she was more confident.

Gracie was gluten free for about 1 year.  After about a year we slowly tried to reintroduce gluten.  We had tried several times before but the behaviors escalated again.  When we tried the last time she was fine.  The behaviors didn't seem to escalate.  From what I understand sometimes the gut can "heal" itself and rebuild it's supply of good bacteria enough so that it can once again digest gluten properly.  Today, although the OCD is a lifelong issue,  Grace seems to be able to handle gluten just fine.