Journal Says No Proof Special Diets Help Autistic Children

Although I recognize that special diets do not help every child who is living with Autism…. The experience we had with our own son was profound. We initially changed him to a cassein free diet and it was literally like someone turned on his light switch. In 2 days he was spitting out words he’d never said before. His eye contact came back and he became very affectionate…. All with in one week. He is now on a Gluten Free diet also and all of his digestive issues have resolved. I do not preach to other parents about our own personal methods but when you witness something so profound and so quick you can not help but want to share your story…. You can’t ignore that. I can’t look at another parent in the eye and not tell them what worked for our son. They are broken and desperate…. It would be irresponsible. Like I said, it may not help everyone but if one more parent can finally see their child smile at them, kiss them and call them mommy/daddy… Then it would be worth it. The doctors/professionals want us to believe in them but they need to believe in us as well.

great bit of news,
it gives us some hope mist our deteriorating healthcare system. did anyone listen to the healthcare debates. everything is controled by the phamacuticals and insurance companies. even some of our representatives in washington.

In our case of our daughter and autism,she was diagnosed not once but twice,for a second opinion. Ours started at 4 months old with seizures.At one period in time she was having as much as 2-5 seizures a day on 3 diferent anti-epileptic medications. While in the local childrens hospital in our town she was having a video EEG, they removed her meds to provoke a seizure, but she didnot seize. She sat up in the bed and started playing and talking. After returning her to her meds she started seizing and we stayed for 4 extra days. We have started with chiropractic and naturpathic dr’s and are now starting to make progress after stopping the meds. Now we are going to HEMISPHERICAL INTERGRATION THERAPY and making great progress. What we have learned as parents not DOCTORS that on the GF & Casein free diet our baby is progressing. She is making great eye contact as well as her mobility. She is still somewhat non verbal but can express her wants and desires. Thru detox and adding amino acid and vitamin regiment she is making faster progress. Go with your gut feeling and put it in the hands of GOD, you will see results. Our daughter will recover and live a normal life just like her big sister. Medication is not always the answer!

Remember, folks: the plural of anecdote is not evidence.
People like McCarthy are dangerous because they spread misinformation about critical health issues like childhood vaccination and because they propound crank theories with no scientific backing.
I understand that parents with autistic children are desperate for anything they can do to help their children. And it’s possible that many autistic children also have digestive disorders or intolerances that make them uncomfortable and add to the behavioral difficulties they face.
But correlation is not causation. Vaccines do not cause autism. Dairy and gluten do not cause autism. At some point, science is going to find out how to tread autism, but until then, we need to stop paying attention to idiots and cranks trying to capitalize on desperate parents’ pain.

Although this diet won’t cure autism, to say that it doesn’t help is a gross twisting of the facts. There is no good science in this study nor is there any in this article.

quoted from the above article
“The report from a panel of experts finds no scientific proof that digestive problems are more common in children with autism and no evidence that special diets work.”
Funny there is no evidence that special diets don’t work either. I often wonder why… These diets have been around long enough for a full blown clinical study to completed, yet nobody has done this. Why I ask? The answer is quite simple – there is no money to be made in precribing a diet – but if a drug existed that provided similar results you can bet that study would be fully funded and completed so these drug companies could capitalize on the 1 in 100 number floating around today.

“And until doctors start listening to our anecdotal evidence, which is this is working…”
The fact that Ms. McCarthy can say this without the slightest bit of irony tells me she has absolutely no idea what she’s talking about.
As best said by someone else, “The plural of anecdotal is anecdotals, not data.”
Leave the science to the scientist, not these frauds and charlatans like Ms. McCarthy and her ilk.

Dumb people believe dumb things.

Diane! You are one of the most credible people in television, but this segment was awful! Has anyone on the panel from which the two new studies emerged been published on bowel disease in children with autism? Wouldn’t it have been more newsworthy to discuss any one of the relevant studies/researchers below, rather than elicit Jenny McCarthy’s opinion?
Balzola F, Daniela C, Repici A, Barbon A, Sapino A, Barbera C, Calvo PL, Gandione M, Rigardetto R, Rizzetto M. Autistic enterocolitis: confirmation of a new inflammatory bowel disease in an Italian cohort of patients. Gastroenterology 2005:128 (Suppl. 2);A-303
Balzola F et al. Autistic Enterocolitis in childhood: the early evidence of the later Crohn’s disease in autistic adulthood? Gastroenterology 2007;132:suppl 2, A 660.
Gonzalez L, Lopez K, Martınez M etal. Endoscopic and histological characteristics of the digestive mucosa in autistic children with gastrointestinal symptoms. Arch. Venezolanos Puericultura Y Pediatria 2006;69;19–25
Furlano R, Anthony A, Day R, Brown A, McGavery, Thomson M, et al. Quantitative immunohistochemistry shows colonic epithelial pathology and gd-T cell infiltration in autistic enterocolitis. J Pediatrics 2001;138:366-372
Torrente F, Machado N, Ashwood P, et al. Enteropathy with T cell infiltration and epithelial IgG deposition in autism. Molecular Psychiatry. 2002;7:375-382
Torrente F., Anthony A., Herushkel RB., M Thomson., Ashwood P., Murch SH. Focal-enhanced gastritis in regressive autism with features distinct from Crohn’s and helicobacter pylori gastritis. Am. J. Gastroenterol. 2004;598-605
Ashwood P, Murch SH, Anthony A, Pellicer AA, Torrente F, Thomson M, Walker-Smith JA, Wakefield AJ. Intestinal lymphocyte populations in children with regressive autism: Evidence for extensive mucosal immunopathology. J.Clin. Immunol. 2003;23:504-517
Ashwood P, Murch SH, Anthony A, Hayes C, Machado MP, Torrente F, Thomson MA, Heuschkel R, Wakefield AJ, Mucosal and peripheral blood lymphocyte cytokine profiles in children with regressive autism and gastrointestinal symptoms: Mucosal immune activation and reduced counter regulatory interleukin-10. Neuroimmunology. 2006;173;126–134
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Krigsman A, Boris M, Goldblatt A, Stott C. Clinical Presentation and Histologic Findings at Ileocolonoscopy in Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder and Chronic Gastrointestinal Symptoms. Autism Insights. 2009:1 1–11
Horvath K and Perman JA, Autistic disorder and gastrointestinal disease, Current Opinion in Pediatrics 2002;14:583–587.
Melmed RD, Schneider C, Fabes RA, et al.: Metabolic markers and gastrointestinal symptoms in children with autism and related disorders. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr 2000;31:S31–S32
[1]Horvath K, Papadimitriou JC, Rabsztyn A, Drachenberg C, Tildon JT. Gastrointestinal abnormalities in children with autistic disorder, J Pediatr. 1999;135:559-63.
[1]Sandler RH., Finegold SM., Bolte ER., Buchanan CP., Maxwell AP., Vaisansen M-L, Nelson MN, Wexler HM., Short-term benefit from oral vancomycin treatment of regressive-onset autism. J. Child Neurol. 2000;15:429-435
Parracho H., Bingham MO., Gibson GR., McCartney AL. Differences between the gut flora of children with autistic spectrum disorders and that of healthy children. Journal of Medical Microbiology. 2005;54:987-991
P-l-e-a-s-e… as a Mom of a child with autism (of whom the diets make a dramatic differenece in behaviors)lets give the fair balance of research discussion in an effort to find answers to help our 1 in 70 boys.

Applause @ Linda! Well said *and documented!* Your documentation also proves another valid point: Do you really think parents who implement this diet take only the word of Jenny McCarthy? As with all things with Autism, we go to the ends of the earth researching published research; asking our doctors and other parents; and observing the evidence we live with every day.
I’m constantly amazed at how individuals who have never personally experienced anyone with Autism (especially day to day) suddenly have all the answers and talk about us as *those frantic people begging for an answer* as if the immediate reversals we see with this diet are a fantasy.
What a terrible disservice ABC News provided with this story on both sides of the issue: misconstrued facts with little substance or rebuttal from a myriad of sources. It certainly makes you wonder what ABC’s real motiviation for such manipulative story would come from (especially on the heels of their equally irresponsibly\poorly written article on Kim Peek’s recent death).

I agree with all of the parents who have posted success with the GFCF diets…I am one of them. It was the most horrible day in my life when someone told me that my daughter might have neurological problems and might possibly be in the autistic spectrum. In the following days, I read so much that my eyes hurt– I was extremely scared. Then I read Jenny Mc Carthy’s book. I read it cover to cover in one night- crying and laughing all the way through. Her strength and very humanistic, hopeful approach with her son Evan put the wind in my sails to change. I faced the challenge head-on- despite the diet naysayers, despite friends and family thinking I was wrong. It may sound trite, but when I was tired and ready to give up I always pictured myself as Jenny and pressed on. The diet was a difficult transition, but we saw great results immediately. My sister, an autistic child specialist has also noticed dramatic results , both behaviorally and cognitively in my daughter and others just by following the diet for 2 months! What I learned is that when you are a parent and you see a problem, you have to try. You cannot stop trying until you find something that helps. Despite what scientists or doctors or anyone says. I hope you are reading this, Jenny, because you are not a bimbo to me- nor to the people who count. You are an incredibly strong woman and mother and you are a hero to those of us who don’t have the kind of celebrity to be heard like you do. Thank for all that you have done.

Our child had gi problems since one week of age but normal, by age 2 he was autistic. I had heard trying the diet was “Dangerous”. So I did lots of research before we tried it. Three weeks into the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, his speech and motor skills came back overnight. I noticed that my autoimmune symptoms were better on his diet and a year later I was diagnosed with Celiacs and Crohn’s disease. Those who are trying to maintain that the diets don’t help anyone are corrupt and have other motives. SOME OF THESE KIDS AND THIER PARENTS ARE GOING TO GET BETTER ON THE DIET. ANYONE WITH AUTISM, ADHD OR AUTOIMMUNITY should rule out dietary problems. The research is out there, they know people will just read a headline and not look any further. You owe it to yourself and you loved ones to dig further and get the facts.

My Grandson has autism and switching him to a casin free, gluten free diet made a world of difference. I do not think the medical profession has any interest in making someone well, or they would be all over the possibilities of health through diet. Obviously, the media is bought and sold down the river and does nothing to investigate a story!!