Gluten-Free-Diet Options To Help Our Children ImproveJust before age 3 I put our son on a gluten-free-diet. I later removed the casein from his diet as well. Gluten is a protein in wheat. Casein is a protein in dairy. Our son craved milk. I limited his consumption of milk to a half gallon of milk a day. Milk calmed him, made him happy and unfortunately it drugged him. I remember talking to his doctor about how much milk he drank. The doctor was not concerned. My instincts told me something was wrong. I came home from the doctors office and sat our son on the kitchen floor. I put a straw in a brand new gallon of milk and sat it in front of him. I wanted to know when he would say he had enough milk. To my complete amazement, Zack drank the entire gallon of milk in 20 minutes. Then he got up and went to the refridgerator and said, "more". Needless to say that was the last day he had milk! I did my research and came across Lisa Lewis's book Special Diets For Special Kids. She explained that there is a protein in milk called casein. Casein is not digested well by our children. In a nutshell the casein leaks out of the gut and swells our childrens brains. Our children get a euphoric feeling and get high. They then become addicted and she likens the addition to one as strong as heroin. Most of our children have very limited foods that they like to eat. Alot of their food choices include gluten. Gluten is a protein that is found in wheat. A protein that is not diagested by most of our children as well. A gluten-free-diet often produces improvements in our children pretty quickly. Many of us parents have found that when we removed gluten and casein from our childrens food choices we saw improvements in behavior, language, eye contact, sleep and learning began to emerge. Many foods are labeled today that they are gluten free or casein free. Sometimes you will see it written GF/CF for short. Some people see changes in their children in a week. Others say it takes a couple of months before their children are able to rid their bodies of the unwanted proteins on a gluten-free-diet. I take my sons food choices a little bit farther than just removing gluten and casein. I implement the Body Ecology Diet by Donna Gates. These foods are aimed at changing the enviroment of my sons gut. Since he is proned to yeast infections, these chosen foods help me to restore my sons digestive tract, immune system, cleanse his body, balance the internal chemistry in him and reestablish his inner ecosystem. Her book is worth reading if you are willing to tow the line with food. Culture vegtables, food combining and coconut keifer are staples in these food choices. Many moms are having success with Elaine Gottschall's Specific Carbohydrate Diet. We did this diet on our son and the foods are very tasty and good! Unfortunately the honey in these receipes fed the yeast in our son. These receipes go beyond removing gluten and casein and helps our children to correct the imbalances that they have in their intestinal tracks. If you chose to make any changes in your childs food choices there is a book to teach you about how to do it. Each one also has an online support group to help you get started and stay on track. Receipes that are tried and true for our picky eaters are readily available. Lists are available to help you grocery shop and learn how to eat out in restaurants. I strongly encourage you to get your child eating foods that are healthy and healing. The effort that it takes is far outweighed by the benefits to be gained. I found the hardest part of any diet I tried on our son was the the first two months as I had to learn what I did not yet know! If you haven't started a restricted diet for your child, a gluten-free-diet is a very good place to start.
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