Regimens: Restrictive Diets May Not Be Appropriate for Children With Autism

Regimens: Restrictive Diets May Not Be Appropriate for Children With Autism

July 28th, 2009 by Valerie Chavez

Many parents of autistic
children have put their children on strict gluten-free or dairy-free
diets, convinced that gastrointestinal problems are an underlying cause
of the disorder. But a new study suggests the complicated food regimens
may not be warranted.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic
reviewed the medical records of over 100 autistic children over an
18-year period and compared them to more than 200 children without the
disorder. The scientists found no differences in the overall frequency
of gastrointestinal problems reported by the two groups, though the
autistic children suffered more frequently from bouts of constipation and were more likely to be picky eaters who had difficulty gaining weight.

The
study, published on Monday in the journal Pediatrics, is the first to
look at the incidence of gastrointestinal problems in an autistic
population, according to the paper’s first author, Dr. Samar H.
Ibrahim, a pediatric gastroenterologist at the Mayo Clinic. She
suggested that autistic children should only be put on restrictive
wheat-free or dairy-free diets after having appropriate diagnostic
tests done.

“There is actually no trial that has proven so far that a gluten-free and casein-free diet improves autism,” she said. “The diets are not easy to follow and can sometimes cause nutritional deficiencies.”

The
study found that the vast majority of both autistic and non-autistic
children suffered from bouts of common gastrointestinal problems like
constipation, diarrhea, abdominal bloating,
reflux or vomitin.g Feeding issues and picky eating were also common.
Some 77 percent of autistic children and 72 percent of non-autistic
children were affected by one or more of these complaints over the
18-year period.

About 34 percent of the autistic children were
affected by constipation, compared to 17.6 percent of the comparison
group, while 24.5 percent of the autistic children had feeding issues
and were selective in their eating, compared with only 16 percent of
the non-autistic group.

But very few of the autistic children had a specific diagnosis of a gastrointestinal disease. Only one autistic child had Crohn’s disease, and one had intestinal disaccharidase deficiency and lacked enzymes necessary to digest certain carbohydrates. None suffered from celiac disease, which some reports have linked to autism.

Two of the non-autistic children in the comparison group suffered from lactose intolerance, and one had a milk allergy.

Dr. Ibrahim suggested that the loss of appetite
and difficulty gaining weight in autistic children may be related to
the use of stimulant medications, which are often prescribed for the
condition, and that the constipation may be due to children not
consuming enough fiber or drinking enough water.

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  • stefanie

    i dont understand why a parent would put a child on that dite if they didnt have that dise that make use aliger to weat an glutin

    30 months ago

  • nathaniel

    ih i nathaniel, i haves autism, aspergers pdd-nos. i just now b haveing copmlicashuns with teh autism,likes direah constiption and all tat oter stuff, milk and weat i think is makeing me sick to my daddy has celiak disese so inot no

    30 months ago

  • Marie

    It seems a lot of parents are opting for the gluten free / casin free diets because of all the hype on curing children with the diets due to the hypothesis that the child is suffering from autism from a leaky gut syndrome.  So many parents become deaply attached to the progress of their efforts that they have a difficult time maintaining an unbiased perspective when evaluating the effectiveness of the diet.  I personally have received numerous recommendations to put my child on this diet.  I have not chosen to do so after reading several research articles and books by professionals investigating the issue. 

    30 months ago

  • Adam

    We also tried this diet with our son how was diagnosed with PDD-NOS.  Like Marie above said, we were willing to try anything we could to help our son.  We listened to both sides nay-sayers & advocates( Jenny McCarthy being one of the biggest). We stayed true to it for 3 months... NOTHING BUT GF/CF DIET.  Our son at the same time was & still is getting ABA & early intervention thearpy which is helping his speach,motor skills,PECs communication is a huge tool!!  So we decided to slowly introduce a regular diet to see if he lost any thing he has gained. The result was NO he did not.. We felt real limited with this diet and he didn't like alot of the options. It seemed all he would like was pasta & sauce... So anyway my experience was that it didn't matter in our case. 

    30 months ago

  • Lilly

    My brother, who has never been diagnosed, but I believe he has Aspergers, was tested for celiac disease, and tested negative. His entire life, he has been plagued by stomach pain, and diarrhea, also problems with healing ,etc. He(at the age of 35) put himself on a gluten-free diet, and his problems disappeared. I put my son(who is 7) on a gluten-free diet about 1 1/2 months ago, and for the first time since he was breast-feeding, his stool is not tarry and no longer has a smell of rotting garbage. I would not have considered this for him if he didn't have CONSTANT;  not bouts of,  foul tarry stool. He has gained 3 lbs. in the last month, and his lucidity is so much greater, even his teacher noticed a difference between the end of the school period this past spring and the start of summer school. Gaining three lbs. is HUGE for him-he sometimes rarely gains a lb. a year, and still weighs less than his brother who will be 4 in two weeks.

    I think that each child is different, and really believe that there is a genetic link somewhere we haven't found yet that causes asd's. Is gluten-free right for every child? NO, but it does seem to work for mine. 

     also My son is not on any medication, and has never had a problem with constipation.

    30 months ago

  • Chels

    I have not experienced any benefit from the gluten free diet yet. I do have a great deal of digestive problems and haven't found anything to help it. I have a milk allergy and didn't drink milk or eat cheese until I was a teenager. Then I started taking this enzyme that is supposed to help me digest milk. I concluded that restricting my diet further would be dangerous since I am underweight and do have nutritional deficiencies. My sister has tried the GCF diet and it was difficult because she is so little and at risk of nutrirional deficiences. We concluded she is better off the diet for that reason. She did test allergic to gluten and soy as well as many other foods, but it just wasn't possible to eliminate all these foods. I have GERD from infancy (with projectile vommitting) as well as ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome and foul odors as well as diarreah and constipation. I believe that my body probably is missing some of the enzyme needed to digest casien and possibly other nutrients. I inject myself with B complex vitamins because I have an indetectable homocysteine level. My brother also has projectile vomitting and severe issues with his stomach, he tested negative for celiac disease and chrons and just about every other digestive disorder they could think of but tested allergic just like my sister to all these foods. I have never been allergy tested aside from the milk allergy since I don't have money for extra healthcare. But my brother wasn't able to keep up with the GCF diet even though he tested allergic and it would be quite difficult for me as well.

    I DO think there is something genetic at play here, although only my sister and me have ASDs. My sister PDD-NOS and me Autism.

    I am not doing GCF diet because of the greater risk of malnourishment.

    30 months ago

  • Lilly

    I am right there with you for the malnourishment, but my son was already only eating a few things anyways, and we have successfully replaced everything he would eat in gluten-free form (except "spaghettio's" because we can't find them in "O" form) He has actually started to eat a wider variety of foods since starting this diet. I think for him, he wasn't absorbing the nutrients from what he was eating because his gut couldn't process it with all the gluten he was eating, so even though we have cut out wheat, malt, etc. he is finally able to use the foods he is eating. I however am not cutting out casein, just the gluten-free seems to be working for him. I can't wait until his next Dr. appt so his pediatrician can see how much weight he has put on! It took us about 6 months to completely go Gluten-free, we just slowly replaced the things he would eat with gf options and waited until he was used to each before changing the next thing. He will actually eat pizza now, he used to just pull the pepperoni off and eat just that, now he devours the entire thing. I was skeptical about gf working, but I am so glad we tried it.

    As for the genetic component, I have SPD, I have twin cousins who are hfa, my brother(Aspergers) and my husband(Aspergers) no-one else on my husbands side, but genetics are sneaky and eventually everything comes to light.

    30 months ago

  • tnj03

    I have 3 children ages 8,6,and3. My oldest and youngest have ASD. I tried the gluten free diet for both. What I noticed is that for my son limiting his gluten makes a big difference in his behavior but for my daughter it didn't make any changes at all.

    30 months ago

  • Lizette

    Well I am for eating healthier. It is dumb to not see the the gut brain connection. All the flavor enhancers, artificial flavors, artificial colors are not only harmful to children with autism but to all of us these chemicals are not natural and therefor we cannot think that it will not harm our bodies in the long run. Just look at all of the others mental illness you see in our country versus people in a 3rd world country who do not eat any of the crap the US produces and I guarantee you will not find Autism and many other mental illness! Eating healthier is best for our children and for us too. Remember folks the medical community does not profit from a cure nor from letting parents believe we have the ability to hear our children. I will never doubt myself. God made in his image and therefore with the same ability to figure things our for us and our kids.

    30 months ago

  • Lizette

    And for the record and has made a big difference in my son. It takes time to heal their digestive tract.

    30 months ago

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