PecanBread.com - Treating Autism with the Specific Carbohydrate Diet

Patricia ,who started the yahoo group Recovered Kids,said the following on post 5261 of Recovered Kids.

Yes,The dairy-free version of the SCD diet was a miracle for both my kids. It recovered my daughter and saved my NT son from wasting away.

Patricia

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Alison Bucci wrote this post,#123, on SCDietkids --- In SCDietkids@y..., alibucci@a... wrote:

I am Mom to Peter, age 6, ASD/IBD. He went on the GF/CF diet 2 years ago with very good results both in stools and a lifting of "brain fog". A month later, the diarrhea returned so we eliminated corn, and the good stools returned. The next month it was soy and the diarrhea returned. And so on...

I read Breaking the Vicious Cycle about 3 months ago, and it made alot of sense to me. Obviously, carbs we're a problem for Peter. He was eating a TON of potatoes and rice (the addiction thing is always a red flag). Most importantly, SCD is a diet which has healed thousands of adults with IBD, and I felt that I had to do something about the GI issues before he developed full blown Crohns or Colitis or whatever. I was going for relief from the diarrhea and any improvement in the autism would be a bonus. Let's face it, Autistic children with chronic diarrhea or constipation have undiagnosed IBD. It made sense to me to try a diet which has worked for this condition.

Unfortunately, we couldn't do the intro diet because my son won't eat soup and I was not willing to introduce yogurt due to caesin. First we removed potatoes, rice, and sugar. I reworked recipes to use the almond flour and honey (the baking is a new learning curve for me ). I'm not sure if we're 100% legal due to the supplements which I haven't checked.

Our results have been great, and he will be on this for a long time. We immediately saw big improvements in eye contact, initiating language, and social engagement. No other intervention has helped in these areas. For the first month, his stools were horrible (yellow and loose), but this has resolved and we are back to good most of the time. I definitely think there was a die off of some of the critters and I am really glad we stuck with it.

Another thing to consider is that SCD is a healthier diet than GF/CF IMO. I was never comfortable with all that rice. Almond flour is very healthy. I plan on introducing the yogurt in a few months because I feel it will aid in the healing of his gut.

Alison

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Jay is the moderator of the yahoo group autism_iron.She has also been a help to the parents on our list . -- In SCDietkids@y..., "jkrishnaa" wrote:

I am Jay, mom to 4.7 year old boy in the spectrum. I have been doing SCD (YES, with the yogurt) since April this year. Elaine was on the SCDlist at that time and she helped me a lot also. I proposed to start an SCDgroup for our kids at that time with the help of Elaine and Jen Young. But didn't think Jen was that interested and I didn't know any new SCD parent except some who had already been doing the diet. Anyway, I dropped the idea.

My son has tolerated the yogurt very well and we are vegetarians also and this had made it even tougher. I could isolate the REAL food allergies that my son had only on SCD. The very next day after starting SCD, my son became more alert and everybody could tell the difference. After 3 weeks on SCD, I also did the GSE/No Fenol combo and I don't know what helped more but my son's incredible eyecontact is back and here to stay. We did an OAT test after 4 weeks on SCD and saw that his clostridium level had gone from 8.5 to 4.2 , 0-0.9 being normal. Our DAN doc DR. Green was surprised to see the results and started giving me ideas on what culture I could use to make yogurt. He was the same person who freaked out when I first told him about yogurt. Also, when I brought SCD up on Phoenixkids (another group mostly talks about GFCF) not many were enthusiastic including Dr. Green who said what WILL you feed the kids. Anyway, it was nice to see that he was recommending this diet to his patients later.

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Here is the story of Colin Young as told by his mother,Jen Young.It is one of over 010 reviews of "Breaking the Vicious Cycle"on Amazon Reviewer: Jennifer Young from Fairfax, VA USA

How can I find words to describe the miracle that is this diet? Following it has given me back my son in a way I never dreamed possible. Elaine's diet has cured my son's autism and his three year struggle with GI troubles.

My son Colin, age 4 ? , has struggled with GI troubles since 11 months old. He had the ROTAvirus, chronic diarrhea,and was constantly on steroids (for asthma) and antibiotics (for ear and lung infections). By age two-and-a-half he was having night terrors every night. By age three, he was labeled "failure to thrive" due to his low weight and height.He was also diagnosed as having developmental delays (Pervasive Development Disorder, ie Autism). He was behind in speech and motor skills...he banged his head and stopped looking at me. My son slipped away from me!

Everyone had answers for us...the mainstream doctors (neurologists) wanted to give him drugs. The GI doctors thought Colin had "autistic" diarrhea and wouldn't help us. They wouldn't even do a colonoscopy on a child who had struggle with a GI disorder for years.

The alternative doctors told us to cut out gluten and milk and use high dosages of vitamins. Stopping gluten stopped his night terrors--but his chronic diarrhea and delays continued. In fact, as I became a "gluten-free" cook and branched out to new starches, Colin's symptoms got worse.

When my son was labeled as having "high functioning autism" at age 3 1/2, God told me to "put Colin first." So I quit my job to save my son. I decided that instead of listening to "experts" in autism, I would listen to my son. I knew he had answers inside him so I studied him.

I always knew Colin had a problem with food. His bizarre food cravings as a toddler-milk, cheese, and bread-had been replaced with a craving for gluten free waffles, potatoes, and basically all starches and complex sugars. Some said he was allergic to these foods. But, I knew it was impossible for him to have 30+ allergies. I also knew if food was the problem-somehow it was the answer too.

I concluded that my son was not autistic, but instead a boy with celiac disease or some other GI disorder. Then,thanks to a former co-worker, who was a Celiac not cured by gluten-free living, I found Elaine's book.

Within months on Elaine's diet, my son's stools were normal for the first time in his life! Then, he started doing complex pretend play, looking at us, and advancing in ALL AREAS OF DEVELOPMENT. He played with toys appropriately. He voiced his wants, needs, and questions. Oh-the glorious why questions! He started asking me questions about God,about life, about the seasons...and about why his tummy had always been sick. His teachers were amazed. Our family was amazed. We know this diet saved him. We watched it happen before our eyes. No drugs. No expensive behavioral therapies. Just diet.

I say don't give up. When Colin couldn't digest the fruits and veggies, we cooked them. When he couldn't eat the almond flour-we gave him squash and banana for carbs until he was ready for the nut flours. We didn't do the yoghurt described in the book at first-as Colin gets asthma when he drinks milk. Then, we started using goat's milk yoghurt instead so he could get the good bacteria he needed to heal. If you truly want to get well, there is always a way. But you have to have faith and be patient.

Today, my son is the picture of health. He has gained 8 pounds and five inches in less than a year! He has a healthy glow. He has normal bowel movements. He has a wonderful appetite too. And now-he has caught up in almost all areas. He has friends! Next year he will be going to a regular preschool. Some doctors and others ask us now if we have "switched" children.

All this through food.

The other day I told my son that I was going to help a friend of his start this diet. I was explaining about the yoghurt, almond flour, etc. He said, "Mom, thank you," and threw his arms around me. I said, "For what?" "For me Mom. Thank you for IN. Thank you for making my tummy better."

Even Colin knows the power of this diet.

God bless Elaine for fighting for us all and for helping me save my son!

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Marisol writes about her daughter and SCD inpost#77 of SCDietkids.Marisol has been a great help to parents on this list

After exactly three weeks on the diet my daughter's stools normalized completely for the first time since she was 15 months old; she's now 8. Recently, she's been on the diet since December, she's made tremendous gains which credit dually to SCD and chelation. A couple months into the diet she became more interactive with ther sister and her language expression improved. As far as implementing the diet goes: Anna, at that point was sooooooo used to me messing with her eating options that she essentially had a here-we-go-again attitude about it. And, either she hasn't figured out how to complain that she can't have what others can have, or she feels better on the diet so doesn't complain about her restrictions.

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Linda Carlton is one of the parent representative on the DAN doctors list.She is also the moderator of autism challenge,a yahoo group.

Some really wonderful things are beginning to happen here, and since most of the members don't know about Forrest, he is completely non-verbal. His autism started suddenly after his HepB vaccination, but he had been on antibiotics during the time he had that shot. He was only seven months old at the time, so he was unable to develop language, he even lost the babbling that he was doing at the time. Over the years we have tried many therapies, many diets, all kinds of supplements, treatments of all sorts. We have got him to say a few one time words, we figure he said about 20 total words up until the age of eight. Then we started him on the Bodybio diet, and he started talking for us then, within six months, he could say some short sentences, or even ask a short question, we lost everything when we tried to detox him with DMSA for heavy metal toxicity, all the tests really showed were that he had an increase in aluminum and antimony, nothing that suggested mercury. The SCDiet sparked my interest, so much so that I was willing to give it a short term try out, just to see what would happen. When I learned that I would not have to compromise the diet that he was on (the bodybio), I became even more interested, because we were still seeing some progress, despite what the DMSA drug had done to him. And we had been having so many problems with getting him to eat the foods on the bodybio diet, that sometimes it just felt hopeless. However, when we started restricting his potatoes, rice, bread, and noodles, he started eating lots of bananas, we then started him on a yogurt it wasn't SCDiet legal, but we were working toward those goals. Now we have him on a homemade SCDiet legal yogurt, and kefir from the actual grains made with half and half cow's milk. His supplement list is of these, bodybio oil, prometol, mastic gum, nat-stim, and cal/mag butyrate. Last night he said 'Momma', he is going to be 11 years old soon, and I have only heard him call me Momma four times in those years.

I cannot hardly believe how simple all this has been, and now he is talking. He was jumping up and down on his bed last night, because I put him in there early to settle down to sleep, and it was so funny he was saying bad!, bad! bad! over and over, it is nothing short of a miracle! It sure feels like one! Now what to feed him!! He picked at the pizza, he wasn't too happy about that, and mostly he had just yogurt, kefir, and bananas yesterday, but I can hold out a little longer to see if he can heal some more. This is so exciting, and it was so simple! Best, Linda

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Ricci is the moderator of ABMD a yahoo group where ASD biomedical issues are discussed.There are many doctors on that list. --- In abmd@y..., Ricci wrote:

I can't say with certainty why this diet works, but my guess is that it is a combination of the fact that so many of our children lack the enzymes to efficiently digest sugars (supported by published data), the imbalance of healthy flora in the gut, and variety of other factors that varies from child to child. The bottom line for us is that we saw some improvements upon removing gluten and dairy from Robert's diet, but nothing compared to what other parents reported for their children. When we implemented the SC Diet, we began to see the kinds of leaps in progress that we have not seen with anything else other than secretin and the addition of an air cleaner to our home.

I highly recommend you try the diet and see for yourself if it is right for your daughter. Having been at this for awhile now, I can tell you that I am less concerned with the reasons why things work, and I am just grateful that there are safe, non-invasive interventions that improve the quality of my son's life, which directly improves the lives of everyone in my family.

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[from private email with permission]

Yes we did, but after many weeks of terrible diarrhea, crying, tantrums and irritable behaviour. I posted on this a while back and I am sure that our problems were because our little boy is sensitive to some of the foods normally included in the diet (for example eggs). Once we sorted that aspect out by eliminating the "problem foods" he settled down and is now doing well. Also when we started the diet we had a candida albicans problem in his gut rated at a 3+ on a scale on 1-4. So in other words a fairly bad candida problem. Within a couple of months of starting the diet, the candida was down to 1, which is rated as normal. I should qualify this by saying we also used olive leaf extract and probiotics at the same time so I can't say 100% that the diet was entirely responsible for our success. Although I am sure it was a big part of the equation. I am not sure how you are rating success in your survey, but I would say yes in the longer term the diet was successful and I do believe it is the best approach to diet for ASD children. We have only been following the diet for a few months so it is too early to tell what other improvements we might see. Best Wishes Alison Morrison

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Susan writes about a relative that is on the diet.The child consumes forbidden food and has made no progress. I wish so much the parents would join the list so we could help them.

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My son, James, is 5 and a half, and autistic. Various dietary measures helped, but it is only since going SCD since last October, that his stools were finally the right colour, and usually pretty firm and predictable. We believe his autism was caused by the combo of antibiotics before and post MMR.

I read a post on recoveredkids about the scd and joined their list to learn more. Although it was helpful, as was the BTVC book, I had to leave that list due to volume of mail. I am also on enzymesandautism, and that is where I read about this new list. The question of probiotics and the yogurt has remained an issue, as James seems better kept dairy free at present, and also still has candida, according to a recent test. I keep wondering if any goat's milk product would be okay, and would like to hear from other parents regarding this. When James began this diet, he had been on candida specific transfer factor for a couple of weeks, but it was within a day or two of removing the last potato that he finally produced a firm brown stool. Also within two weeks he correctly used the toilet for this, and also began to understand counting. Also, when starting the diet, his longest utterances would typically be 3-6 words. This, 10 months later, has increased to around 12-13 words, in little sentences. We did change to a more VB approach in our home program last September, but even his pronunciation is clearing, and I credit bio-med / diet for this. James is still low salycilate, virtually no sugar, and low phenol, so although the SCD has helped, his food list is still very restricted. We know he has high lead levels, and the candida at present, but we hope to address both with the help of a DAN doc we are seeing next month in the USA. We have not found a UK doc who can sufficiently address his needs yet. We have tried! My little boy is an absolute star, and works harder than any other 5 year old I know, just to keep up and make sense of the world, and to communicate the simplest things....................

I would love to help him get to the stage where he could also enjoy a few edible 'treats', instead of always just sticking to meat, veg and water! It would also be easier if his 3 older sisters did not always have to hide any treats they are enjoying! Enzymes help, but not with sugar, and the houston enzymes are out for present due to the rice bran base.............so no-fenol is out, and we have to still restrict further to avoid phenols. I hope to learn more from this list about how to help my son. Julie Ross, Scotland.

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Just wanted to let everyone know that Hunter seems to be finally overcoming his regression. For those of you who don't know Hunter(almost 5), when we began chelation with DMSA only he had some dramatic improvements. When we eventually added ALA and TouefF, he had a huge regression that has lasted close to a year. I've had reports from school for the last 3 weeks that he's improving again and seems to be getting back to pre-regression. He's excelling again in his ABA programs and appears to be able to read since he does amazingly well with matching words to objects. Although we haven't been strictly SCD, we have done extremely low carb with him with only the occasional piece of rice bread or a few french fries. We have started Brainchild vitamins/minerals and they seem to be really helping although he's a bit hyperactive. I'm going to go buy some Kefir which was suggested by Linda. I still feel that the homemade yogurt is very important although I've been chicken to try it. He's started pointing also which we've been working on for 2 years now. Let's pray that the improvements continue.

Jo Piker Representative for Unlocking Autism in South Carolina

www.unlockingautism.org **********************************************************************

This was posted in the phoenixkids yahoogroup and reposted with permission

This is my first post. I have read your messages and learned so much from all of you. Thank you. I will make this brief.... My son is Andrew (9,not sure where he falls on ASD, Crohn's, Profoundly Mentally Retarded) These are some of the official diagnoses.I have learned not to let the title dictate his ability. I just call him our wonderboy.

We moved to Oregon(for my husband's new job) from Chicago last June. In Chicago we saw 2 different GI's MULTIPLE TIMES for his chronic diarrhea for 4 years.(15-20 Diapers a day) We had every test in the book. Including a celiac panel where 2/3 tests came back positive. (I was never informed about these results. I was told that "everything looks fine and they just couldn't figure out why my little guy stooled so much" I found out about these test results when I requested my medical records and I made a "Life Line" for Doc Green. At the age of 8 Drewie weighed 34lbs. I never knew or heard anything about Gluten. We had tried high fiber diets and low fiber diets. After our move, we met Keli and another mom and they hooked us up with Doc Green. They educated us about the diet and the supplements. I went to FEAT in Sacramento and DAN! in San Diego. Drewie has been GFCF since Aug 10th. We had GREAT results. After the diet he only had 8-10 Diapers a day and not so runny. Drewie started to look AT us instead of at our hair. He slowly started to interact more with us. He actually turned a radio on! We tried antifungals(for his yeast problem)but he couldn't tolerate them. He ended up with a "crohn's flare-up" and was hospitalized.

Doc Green mailed the book Breaking the Vicious cycle to me. On Oct 10th we started Diet #2. We followed the book/diet 100%. 2 weeks ago we saw our new GI for an upper and lower scope(he has developed some fissures and fistulas) He did some biopsies and found NO YEAST. The other great news was that his ulcers in his digestive tract are gone. There is only a small area of inflammation. We are so thankful for Doc Green's advice and the book. Drewie now weighs 40 lbs. He looks so much healthier.His hair is shiny and not brittle. He plays with toys. He seeks our attention. He gives hugs. He poops 3-6 times a day. We are still working on the poop thing but we are thrilled with where we are right now. My husband and I agree that Andrew would not be alive today if we had not started the diets. SO a BIG Thank you to Keli and Doc Green and all of you who have helped us so much.

Beth Hauser!

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--- In [email protected], "brianangela2001" wrote:

I have been lurking on this board for over a year, posting only a couple of times. I've noticed several comments about the GFCF folks and just felt the need to post, but not be inflammatory. I hope our story will encourage a spirit of understanding.

My 4yo daughter was born screaming and didn't stop until she was two. She NEVER slept and had rashes and diahrea. We started dietary interventions for her and nursing mommy (me) at three months. By the time she was 10 mos, we were GFCF. We noticed some improvement, but not a lot, but we continued thinking we needed more time. When she was 26 mos, we discoverd Feingold. I immediately removed all significant salicylates, phenols, and benzoates. Two nights later, she slept through the night. Finally, my little girl became manageable, but the diahrrea and rashes continued. Over the next two years, we continued to remove more and more from her diet. Additionally, on her third birthday, we added enzymes. We started slow, staying GFCF, and worked our way up. Eventually, we were up to 3 capsules of Zyme, 3 of Pep, and 1 of NF with a pizza. We saw no behavior regression, but the bowel and skin issues got worse, not better. We went back to GFCF for our main diet, with some infractions. Still nothing. Through all of this, my daughter's behavior was "okay," but not great. She was still hyper, unable to make good eye contact, and didn't always sleep well. She was also high-strung and temper tantrums were common. We also took other supplements. No vaccines after a bad reaction at two months.

Anyway, I found out about the Specific Carbohydrate diet two months ago (www.breakingtheviciouscycle.org) and recognized my daughter's symptoms. We started and the results have been wonderful. It seems her bowels have been damaged to the point they needed an easy to digest diet to heal. Skin and bowels are clearing up, behavior and sleep are great. I'm discovering a new little girl!

My one-year-old is also responding well to this diet. She was on the same track as big sister. This is not an advertisment for the diet we are on. Nor is it a slam against the enzymes, because we use them daily (sometimes hourly) and are soooo thankful for them. We are able to eat goat yogurt, broccoli, squash, and more because of the enzymes. I wouldn't be without them. I just wanted to present another viewpoint about diets. We all have to do what works best for our children. For us, a regular diet with enzymes wasn't it, and neither was GFCF. Hope this is beneficial to someone. Thanks for listening.

--- In [email protected], JULIETARABOCHIA@A... wrote:

Elaine,

My 4 yr old ASD son was born with thrush, and both the boys' first yrs of life consisted of back to back ear and respiratory infections, and very poor health. Both of their gut dysbiosis show high yeast and c difficile markers, and the microbiology showed almost no good bacteria, the "bad guys" and yeast. We've been through every kind of antifungal/ antiparasite med on the market, everytime to get to a worse place after the treatment concludes. I have to say since starting the diet, they have been so healthy, and have gotten over their first 2 colds rather quickly & without the nebulizer breathing treatments, yeah. They have nice flat tummy's most of the time, I don't hear the loud tummy rumbles, and D has subsided for the most part, and we're going poo on the potty after 1 year of training!!! woo hoo! We've made such awesome social gains, and is much more able to concentrate when his tummy is feeling better. Yeast is the only challenge we still have (itchy bottoms after having honey or too many pears or bananas in a day).

Thanks Elaine for all you've done for our boys, and the wellness of our family. You are doing a great thing that's helping many young and old have a better way of life.

Bless you, Julie

To: [email protected] From: "Patrick I. Lecky" Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2002 17:54:55 -0500 Subject: Re: [ElainesChildren] Autistic boy

Hi Allison:

Thanks for responding. YES! we've noticed the same improvements in Cammy's speech within a week! He's much clearer, he repeats words after hearing them only once, etc.

His stools are also now formed and not mushy and not smelly as before. It's amazing.

The yogurt seems to be doing the most good. What foods do you believe really helped.

Patrick

From: Allison Houston To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, December 22, 2002 5:50 PM

Hi Patrick,

My autistic son has only been on the diet for 2 months, so I cannot say that he is "recovered". However, when we started SCD Malcolm's only words were "please, thank you, cookie". Within 3 weeks Malcolm had developed functional speech. "I want a cookie, It's time to go home, "Let's go brush teeth, I want to stay here" kinds of sentences. This last couple of weeks his diction has improved immensely, and he can now repeat new words and phrases after hearing it just once or twice, with good ennunciation. So, I can't give you a long term story - yet. However, we have seen very significant improvement in a very short time. Hope that helps, Allison

----- Original Message ----- Flag Message - Mark as Unread ] To: [email protected] From: "sharon_atyh " Date: Mon, 16 Dec 2002 15:02:40 -0000 Subject: [SCDietkids] Re: Digest Number 134

Hi Julie

I'm glad to be here too, thanks. And glad Owen has started the SCD. We've see some interesting things so far. He's been alert, it's hard to explain....sort of wide awake, but not giggly. The best thing though is he's toilet trained himself - day and night - something we've been struggling with forever. Hooray!

All I keep wondering is why I delayed so long in removing those carbs....

The coconut lollies sound good

BW Sharon (in Guildford, UK)

----- Original Message ----- From: Alane Martinuzzi To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 10:35 PM Subject: [ElainesChildren] help with kid-friendly foods

To all of the experienced cooks and SCD experts, please help. I would appreciate any ideas on getting going on this diet. We started on Saturday. I tried the intro, but he wouldn't touch the chicken soup, or the yogurt, or any stewed fruit. I made hot wheels cars with the juice and gelatin, he wouldn't touch it either (except to drive them around the table). I cook chicken, which he usually loves, no go. He won't eat eggs, no matter how they are cooked. He hates honey, and the saccharin tastes horrible. I've tried the pancakes, no go. I made "pizza" with the crust in the book, homemade sauce and bacon, nope. I tried spagetti squash with homemade sauce, and little meatballs, nope. I've deep fried squash, zucchini, turnip (rutabaga?) and carrots into chips, nope. I've made 2 kinds of bread, 3 kinds of cookies, muffins, he won't touch any of it, except the peanut butter ones. I even rolled pretzels with the pizza crust recipe. The bread crumbles with or without toasting, and doesn't really have a bread taste, so he won't eat it. I've tried the yogurt plain, with honey, with stewed fruit, in smoothies. I've dripped it and added cinnamon, also tried it with garlic, as a sort of cream cheese, and mixed it with homemade ketchup as a dip, no way. All he has eaten in the last 6 days is bananas, apple slices, hamburgers, and peanut butter cookies. I'm getting desperate, here, and running out of ideas.

On the plus side, I had my bi-monthly meeting with the school, and they say a different child walked in on Monday, and they are so impressed with his progress since, they can't believe it is the same child. He is talkative, friendly, almost no aggression, smiling, hugging, happy and participating. I want to stick with this, but not at the risk of having him malnourished. His energy level is dropping fast. Any ideas you have would be most appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Alane

Alane's son had a relapse and the diet was temporarily discontinued. Months later,Alane found out why the diet was not working: the school bus driver was giving out snacks to the kids.Her son has now returned to the SCdiet.

To: [email protected] From: "Allison Houston" Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 15:04:22 -0500 Subject: Re: [ElainesChildren] brand new and desperately need helpful hints

Hi Janet, We have only been SCD for about a month, and I've only been using yogurt for a couple weeks. My 4 year old is autistic too, and yes, carbs were very big. What I did was to start intorducing the SCD baking and backing off on rice and potatoes while I was busy reading and researching. I had gone GFCF cold tyurkey back in the summer, and didn't want to do that again. Malcolm LOVES the muffins and cookies. He's slowing down on them now that I've introduced the yogurt. I'm using cow and haven't seen any bad reactions yet. (I'm just about through the third batch).

To me, SCD makes more sense than GFCF. If bowel issues are part of the problem, giving them the simplest foods possible are the way to go, I figure. Malcolm's language has come on a lot - some with removing the potatoes, rice and sugar, and even more so with adding the yogurt. One of these days I'll make a batch of goat just to compare, but so far I haven't seen any problems. Malcolm won't eat it from a bowl, so I mix in a little honey with the yogurt and give it to him in syringes. I'm up to 3 servings a day. His BM's changed colour immediately, and the texture is changing too. It's still mostly pasty, but I do get an occasional "trophy" as they say on this list.

My suggestion would be to go for it. It's a great diet. I am feeling wonderful on it too. i've got much more energy. I now find that if I eat sugar - I get ANGRY!

Good luck,
Allison

To: [email protected] From: "carolinemcgilluk" Add to Address Book Date: Thu, 17 Oct 2002 13:48:14 -0000 Subject: [SCDietkids] Re: SCD versus GFCF

Karen
I wanted to answer your post even though I don't think we fall into your category of "tried the GFCF and it didn't work". We have been gfcf for nearly 3 years now. Removing gluten was like a miracle for us because James literally began to talk and "woke up".

But the following 3 years has been like a roller coaster, mostly moving forward but with significant periods of regression. We have realised that his regression is almost always due to flare-ups in yeast or - more particularly for us - clostridia. And the periods of greatest gains have been when we have taken measures to deal with the gut bugs. For example we had an amazing positive response to enzymes when we started them and this I'm convinced was because they were helping keep yeast/bugs at bay.

Now we are following the SCD with the exception that we are using quinoa flour to make pancakes because James always regresses when we try using the nut flours instead. We are continuing to see slow but steady improvements. James is now 4 1/2, started full-time regular school in September, and is doing extremely well (without needing a classroom aide).

So for us, the SCD is helping because it is the only dietary regime that tackles the gut bugs on an on-going basis. My personal feeling, FWIW, is that any autistic child with on-going gut bug problems, would be helped by either trying the SCD or, at a minimum, restricting the carbs and absolutely no sugar. By on-going gut bugs I mean that you treat them (maybe with diet, antifungals, probiotics etc) and they improve temporarily but always come back. This is the category that James falls into. I think this diet offers the only hope of keeping them away for good.

I'd be interested to know what was said on the other board - please let us know! I'd be especially interested to know if you do see a "yeast kids" pattern.
HTH
Caroline

Message 1571 of 1777

Msg # From: [email protected] Date: Mon Jan 13, 2003 11:57 am Subject: Re: [ElainesChildren] are you sure there's no 3 month flare?

I am new to this list, so I was unaware that ASD kids did not have a flare up. I have an exception though. I started my son, who was seven at the time, on the SCD on Nov. 1. He immediately started eating the new foods and loving everything. I could not fill him up, and am still having a problem getting him full! However, we were concerned that perhaps he was getting sick when we started seeing regressive behavior less than a week after starting the diet. For 2 months it was horrible. He lost all of his spontaneous requests, became completely prompt dependent for dressing, eating, in his aba programs, etc. Very weak sounding verbals. He would cry whenever his therapists, who he loves, would come to the house. Worst of all, he became severly impacted. The doctors actually thought we might have to resort to manual disimpaction. He was only going by means of an enema. However, I am thrilled to report that 2 months later we have him back and better than ever. He is so much more connected than he ever was before. We still have a long way to go with him, but I can only believe that this was due to the diet.

Julie A

Message 1576 of 1777

Msg # From: "[email protected]" Date: Mon Jan 13, 2003 3:03 pm Subject: Yoghurt and Progress Report

Hi to everyone,

I had a couple of yogurt questions but I did want you to know we have been< on the diet now 12 days and things in the last couple of days are starting to look really good. This week-end we had one emotional moment and that was it.Miles wanted to try to ride his bike (something that he hasn't wanted to do in over a year!) and he was throwing a football with his brother (again, a rather small but remarkable event. So so far so good.

And I feel better knowing that he is not eating 5 bowls of rice/cereal a day. I am wondering how quickly anyone noticed the hand flapping reducing/resolving. Still a big problem of ours.(My son is Non-verb= al learning disorder not austistic/PDD)

Message 1600 of 1777

Msg # From: [email protected] Date: Tue Jan 14, 2003 10:30 am Subject: my son's 2 wk report

Hi everyone!

Well, tomorrow will be 2 weeks on the diet and I just wanted to share with you how my son is doing, some questions I have, and a request for comments please. (Reminder - my son is ASD, 3yrs, possible celiac-and prior to SCD was GFCF for about 2.5 mo)

After about day 6 my son started having perfect poops everytime! yippee! He did have one mushy one after eating some papaya (accidentally) and this morning, part of it was mushy. I'm just expecting this to happen from time to time - am I right? Afterall, Rome wasn't built in a day - so I'm not expecting instant gratification.

I am noticing an increase in urination and a slight odor to it. What does this mean? He is eating more meats since starting this diet (not excessive though) and a little bit more phenol foods. Is the increase in urination just a temporary readjustment period for his body?

Also - his cheeks are a little bit redder. It comes and goes. His right cheek had "red flashes" even before we started the diet. I have a few thoughts on why his cheeks are redder now (and the patches, at times, are bigger than they were before):
1) Obvious thought - it's winter, heater is on - chapped skin. This past week was our first really cold week in Tennessee - that's when the cheeks got redder
2) I temporarily stopped all those supplements when I started the diet. I wanted to give the good food a chance and then re-evaluate all the supps and see which ones I felt like he really needs. It could be since he's off the cod liver oil.....
3) Are the cheeks red from detoxing?
4) It could be a food (maybe peanut butter or the watered down pineapple juice) - although, I've never noticed the cheeks getting red instantly after eating

Thanks in advance! And we (the whole family!) are really enjoying this diet. To me it really seems easier - just simple cooking and back to the basics!

Tanya in Nashville, TN

From: "allison_lillies" Date: Fri Nov 15, 2002 6:11 pm Subject: Autism and SCD

I am a new member of the group and would appreciate some advice. My son is almost 3 and was diagnosed with autism a year ago. He has been gluten and casein free for the entire year with little benefit. I started him on SCD 2 weeks ago. During these 2 weeks his autistic symptoms have regressed and he is displaying behaviors that we haven't seen for at least 6 months. Have other autistic children regressed at the start of the diet? I don't know whether to wait it out or take him off the diet. I am very worried to see disturbing behaviors return. Any advice is welcome, Thank you, Allison.

Mimii:Was this a temporary yeast die off?Or is this situation one of the few cases where SCD is not the right diet?I tried to contact the parents and got no email reply.

Finally Allison returned to our list.I am quoting from a part of her letter (Message 8082 Tue Jun 3, 2003 3:08 am)

I tried the diet 6 months ago and saw a huge amount of regression in my son, so we came off it. I now realise I was making many mistakes, and really want to make it work this time.

Thank you
Allison.

From: [email protected] Date: Mon Dec 23, 2002 6:01 pm Subject: 1 year old need help

Ok all, I have taken my son off formula a few days ago and he was already gfcf. Btw he was on Neocate. Anyway I put him on scd diet and he has had NON STOP diarrhea for DAYS. I dont know if it is the diet or the fact that he has had so much malabsorption problems from day one and needed special formula but the only way i can firm up his stools and slow them down is to put starch back in his diet, like rice and potatoes. EVERYTHING else goes right threw him, he is not gaining weight. He looks terrible. Dr wants me to put him back on formula until we can figure out what is going on.

Crystal

Mimi:When Crystal asked for help we were short on help.It was Christmas and we were unable to give her the help she needed.I hope to contact her again.

I recently did an internet search for more reports about SCD and autism and found these reports.

From this website:

http://www.scdiet.org/6research/autism.htm

The following highlights some dialog between Elaine Gottschall and Dawn's regarding Dawn's success with the SCD and the success of her autistic daughter, Allie.

Dear Elaine,

Oh and I ate a ton of delicious food last night! We started with dry white wine, then Butternut Squash Soup w/ Pears, followed by a spinach salad (spinach, tomato, cheddar cheese, mushrooms, oil & lemon dressing), free range Cornish game hens stuffed with celery, raisins, apples, & carrots, and glazed with an apple sauce, then finally the peanut butter cake. Yum! Am I really the same person who was whining about missing my favorite foods 7 months ago? *grin*

[responding to Elaine's question about how Allie came to feel so much better]

I had written in about this before. She has been on SCD for 4 months now and has been declassified from her autism diagnosis. She is still a very spirited little girl, but all her autistic behaviors have disappeared. I am using the yogurt and cheeses with her. Her favorite treat is the orange juice/yogurt creamscicles! She has a couple of those a day. She alo loves the half & half yogurt mixed with apple butter.

Dawn UC 11 yrs, SCD 7 months - no meds
Allie cured autistic, SCD 4 months
*****************************************************************

I found another message from Patricia,the founder of the list RecoveredKids.Patricia was mentioned in part 1 of the parents report.Here she mentions another boy who did SCD.

Message 5451 of the yahoogroup RecoveredKids

From: MMous12905@a..
. Date: Wed Oct 3, 2001 1:40 pm
Subject: SCD - Colleen
Colleen,

I don't know if you will hear of many more success stories with this diet because hardly anyone is doing it. I only know of one other Mom, besides myself, and her son is recovered. Between the two of us, we've told hundreds of parents about this diet. It took a giant leap of faith to do this. I doubted myself big time.

Patricia

Aw, shucks, and here I thought I had a great idea. Of course, if Amazon would hurry up and send me my book....I just got a shipping confirmation email from them. In the meantime, I'm not sorry I started without it. Seth (5) is starting to use connecting words like "to" and "go", Tommy (2) is regaining words, and Gabby (4) is picking up one phrase a day. Yesterday she noticed that I was sad (her daddy has gone to Tenn. for six weeks with the Air Guard). She said, "What's wrong? It's okay, mommy," and patted my head. Wow! She also brings her little brother a tissue and says, "Wipe your nose," when he cries. All this in a week! She's never noticed how anyone else was acting around her, was too hyped up to respond, poor girl.

Autumn