Autism & Diet

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I’ve been focused on Arizona’s diet since day one; long before the autism diagnosis was on the table. She had a rough start to life with myriad food allergies and our journey of eliminating foods began at the age of 3 months.

Certainly, food allergies mandated an obvious change in diet for Arizona. But when she was diagnosed with autism a few years later, I started hearing how biomedical interventions (food being one) could help eliminate symptoms of autism. Thus began my research into the world of food and autism, starting with recommendations from DAN docs, chats with other families who adhered to various diets, hours spent scouring the internet and reading lots of books.

Although Arizona is on a pretty strict diet due to both allergy and autism concerns, that doesn’t necessarily mean she’s eating HEALTHY all of the time. I know this needs to change, and I’m looking into some additional ways to finely tune what goes into her body.

Here are some of the books that guided me on Arizona’s diet journey :

1.  Healing the New Childhood Epidemics : Autism, ADHD, Asthma and Allergies, by Kenneth Bock, MD and Cameron Stauth

2.  Feeding the Brain : How Foods Affect Children, C. Keith Conners, Ph.D

3.  Food & Behavior : A Natural Connection, by Barbara Reed Stitt

What resources (website, books, articles) have you found to be helpful in managing your child’s diet?  Have you noticed any significant behavior in your child after changing their diet?