I'm reading a fantastic book right now, Special Needs Kids Eat Right. I was putting off reading it because I thought that surely it was going to be 300 pages on how my kids needs to eat more veggies. It's not. I'm not sure if you've kept up with the news, or if you even care, but there are a ton of parents out there that are recovering their children from Autism. This book details this process they are using. This soon will be the process that we are using to try to help Connor. I have hope in Fish Oil, but since he has all of the symptoms of Candida yeast overgrowth... what if it's that? It is possible that he has too much yeast in his body, from Colic as a baby which caused Leaky Gut Syndrome which was exacerbated by antibiotic usage, (heavy antibiotic usage from ear infections) causing a cycle of complete yeast overgrowth.
Connor eats plenty of veggies and even takes fish oil without complaint. Tristan on the other hand exists primarily on carbs, specifically crackers, chips and cereals. Tristan actually randomly breaks out in yeast infections. Behind the ears, on his mouth. His last one appeared right after Halloween. There's the sugar link. What I'm saying is this. It is entirely possible that both of my children are so yeasty that it's affecting their health. In Connor's case it could be affecting his focus, attention and memory.
Ok, so you are on board with this, now what do you do?
You find a peditrician to prescribe an anti fungal like Diflucan or something. If you listen closely here, you can hear peditricians hysterically laughing at this. Because you'll probably never find one that will prescribe this, unless you can land a DAN doctor somewhere in the area. What then? You starve the yeast while supplementing with probiotics. Starve the yeast... that sounds easy, right? Sure. If you don't mind going gluten free, malt and vinegar free and sugar free. For me that would be hard. For Connor, it would be so incredibily difficult. Or would it? Is is worth not eating a cupcake for three months to be able to focus again? To not be shuned by other children and to be able to make friends? If you ask him now, he'd say no. Ask him twenty years from now and he'd probably have a different answer.
Are we going to try it? I think so. Maybe first of the year. In the meantime I'm going to start weaning him off of the gluten. Study up on what I need to do, get the hang of administering probiotics and maybe get a small bank loan since it's crazy expensive to eat gluten free. Is this crazy? Sound off for me here people. All lurkers are welcome to comment.
3 comments:
I can't imagine going yeast free because it would be so hard, espcially with kids, but I can believe that it would help. I have a friend in Houston who has been on a yeast free diet for a while for herself for yeast symptoms and another one who has a son on the autism spectrum who has him on dairy and gluten free diet. I've dabbled in sugar free/low carb myself and with the kids and it's hard, but I think worth it in the long run. You may be able to see improvements just with a short elimination phase and then be able to allow small quantities of certain things.
There are a ton of great, tasty recipes out there for these special diets. You can find new things that you love that are healthier for you. It can get expensive, but I think it is worth it in so many ways. Like you said, Connor may not be able to see the benefits now, but he will thank you later.
I think its great that you are trying new things to help Conner and Tristan both. I hope you find something out.
Oh, and I have another friend whose children eat an otherwise normal diet, but they completely avoid artificial coloring of any kind. She says this has had a major impact on their focus and control. So, you may just start small with a few ingredients that you want to eliminate and see if it makes a difference.
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