Autism & Diet

During my Master’s program I did a project on diet and autism. I interviewed 10 parents of children with autism and was surprised that the belief of diet being beneficial is not overwhelming.  In fact, it seemed to be fifty fifty.  The parents I interviewed didn’t solely rely on medication to help their child.  Many have tried diets (Gluten Free/Casein Free, elimination diets, supplements and a Korean/Japanese based diet), they have done therapies including: behavior, speech, occupational, cranio-sacral, music, audio-integrative, play, enzyme, and auditory, Applied Behavior Analysis, and Floor time.  Therefore, those interviewed were willing to try alternatives to medical stances on autism.

Of the participants, sixty percent believed their child’s school would accommodate a special diet for their child if requested.  Perhaps this is reason enough that some parents would not be willing to partake in a diet.  If the school would not help, it could result in being pointless.  This raises another question in my mind as to whether or not school should be required to accommodate children’s dietary needs.  

There were many positive comments regarding diet in relation to autism.  One parent said they wish they knew of diets sooner as they assume it would have helped their child even more if they started it earlier.  Another parent said she will notice a change in autistic symptoms within hours if she doesn’t follow the diet.  The realization that autism is a “spectrum disease” was brought up and that diet may work for some and not for others.  The last comment that was positive was that of a mother of a 3 ½ year old with autism that has many allergies.  The diet is more intended to alleviate acid reflux symptoms rather than specific autistic symptoms.

Not every parent was convinced that diet is the way to go.  One parent feels it is enforcing a cure that is not proven to work and feels it is cruel to impose such dietary restrictions on her child.  Another parent is weary of diets because of a belief that it stems from parent desperations.  The belief that we are experimenting on autistic children discourages other parents, especially since there is a belief that diet connections with autism have not been proven by science as of yet.  Lastly, the try and fail issue is another reason parents think negatively of diet.

I truly expected to hear all the parents being in favor of diet.  So I was surprised to hear that it is not as favored as I expected after reading up on the may diet options out there.  Does anyone have further experience with any of these diets?