Specific carbohydrate diet

[sue1957]

Hi

 

Anyone had any experience of the specific carbohydrate diet (SCD) for the gut problems associated with ASD? I found a website http://www.pecanbread.com

and an article at http://www.pecanbread.com/gottschall_veritas.pdf.

The reason I ask is that I recently had my son tested for food sensitivities, and he is sensitive to most of the "illegals" they talk about. Still giving it some thought at the moment.

 

Had myself tested this week -sensitive to wheat and sugar No surprise really. On day 2 of giving my system a "rest."

 

Sue

[call me jaded]

We are GFCF at home. We have had significant gains from this. I wonder if we would get more from SCD and it is on the list of things to consider, but as my son has a new school next week, amongst lots of other things, we won't start anytime soon.

 

There is a yahoo group called ANDI-ADI which Karyn Serroussi and Lisa Lewis belong to - which is ANDI's Advanced Dietary Intervention. You may have read 'Special Diets for Special Kids'?

 

Where did you have the tests done, Sue?

[sue1957]

Hi Jaded

 

A therapist I sometimes work with does food sensitivity testing. He rents my therapy room one day a week, he does days in different places in the South West, using MORA bioresonance testing. He uses the MORA machine with a probe that first tests one of the acupuncture points, then a vial with the test substance is put into the machine and readings taken. What happens to the acupuncture point reading tells how the body can cope with the substance. You can see the dials, and hear the probe so my son was interested in it and didn?t mind having it done.

 

We have come a long way with him anyway, using lots of other things. Removing fluoride was the major factor for us. He would no longer be classed as on the autistic spectrum, but is vulnerable to stress, which can lead to speech problems, insecurity and lowered immune function. Nothing major, and we know some of the triggers, but with one family tragedy we are looking ahead to puberty and beyond. He still has a �predisposition� so we are working to improve his overall health, so that he can handle change and stress better as he gets older. He is starting a new school in September, and his health and insecurity over the school holiday shows it!!

 

When it comes to food sensitivity testing, interpreting the results is the tricky thing. For example for me the milk in the test was UHT milk, which I am sensitive to. I was also sensitive to honey. To be sure I took in several products that we use at home which the therapist tested for us. I am fine with organic unhomogenized whole milk, and raw organic honey. Most of the other things didn?t surprise me, I had already suspected them anyway.

 

With the SCD route, I think from memory that people with severe problems may need to follow the diet for a couple of years in order to heal the gut. The fact that the SCD sites are mainly American may be a factor in that most of America has fluoridated water, which may be making problems worse in some cases. I?m not sure how much impact any environmental differences have. With my son I?m looking to give his system a rest from his �sensitive� foods, and then have him retested at 3 monthly intervals, gradually reintroducing things when I can. During that time I will be doing other things, and using supplements to help his gut heal and improve his immune function.

 

I won?t be starting it until after he has settled in at his new school. In the meantime I am picking out some of the recipes from the SCD sites and trying them out for all of us. The microwave SCD recipes will be a definite no no. Won?t have a microwave in the house after what I?ve read.

 

I am trying to completely avoid the things I have tested sensitive to, but its early days. But after going to the trouble to have the test done for me, I don?t think its fair to expect him to follow anything that drastic for 3 months that I am not prepared to do myself!

 

Thanks for the other info, I?ll check it out.

 

Sue

[natasha778]

Hi,

just joined this group and noticed this discussion on SCD. My son has been on Specific Carbohydrate Diet for about 6 weeks now and the results are AMAZING!!! - too many too list here, would take a book format to go into detail, but he is a changed child already. Lets just say his digestion has improved (no more indigested food in his nappies), his diarrhea is a thing of the past, his attitude to food has changed (no more overeating, no more cravings...) and his behaviour/symptoms are a LOT better. Even if he reaches a plateau soon, in other words if he stays at this level of improvement, I would say that this diet has definitely been worth the effort (and it is hard work) and would recommend it to everyone.

 

This diet is gluten free in itself - it was originally developed to help celiac patients - it does allow certain dairy products, but we have chosen not to include dairy, at least for a while, as our son has been GFCF for about 6 months and we know he does not tolerate casein well. As the gut is supposed to heal on SCDiet (and judging by external signs this is already happening in my son's case) we are planning to introduce the homemade goat yoghurt in the near future - goats milk has lot less casein than cows milk and lots of autistic kids supposedly tolerate it well. I would love to hear from anyone who has already tried this yoghurt.

 

For anyone who might be interested in trying this diet, detailed information is available on its official website www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info and the original book is available through amazon.co.uk, it is called Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Intestinal Health Through Diet, by

Elaine Gottschall. The latest edition of the book has a new chapter called "Autism Connection".

The website has lots of links to similar websites, like pecanbread.com (run by and for parents of autistic kids), with lots of receipes ideas etc.

 

My advice if you are still thinking of trying this diet is that you give yourself some time beforehand - spend a few weeks reading and researching Elaine's website and the book, locating suppliers, getting some kitchen equipment (like baking moulds, food processor etc) and definitely trying a few of the basic receipes before you introduce the diet 'for real'. This approach has saved me lots of stress. As I mentioned before, this diet is hard work in the beginnig, but it does get a lot easier. I would be glad to share my experience so far if you have more specific questions.

 

Good Luck!

 

 

P.S. you can hear the author speak on Defeat Autism Now conference of April this year - it can be downloaded for free from http://www.danwebcast.com/