We’re Going Gluten-Free and Casein-Free!
An update on my mail post: Still no mail delivery but I’ve discovered that a friend on campus is having the very same problem. Also, a friend with a Turkish partner who has “connections” is doing what he can to help me out. So hope remains that we might eventually see our missing stuff.
“We” is a bit of a mis-statement. EcoBabe is going GFCF. We are implementing the change.
EcoBabe has ongoing gastro-intestinal issues. I won’t be excessively graphic; I’ll just say that he’s got some persistent messy bowel issues that we’ve been unable to sort out or explain.
And there’s oodles of anecdotal evidence to suggest that a GFCF diet can help alleviate some of the symptoms of ASD.
So we’re giving it a go. We’re eliminating all dairy as well as rye, oats, wheat, and barley. The toughest part will be eliminating pasta, I think. EcoBabe is a big fan of pasta but we don’t have many options for replacing it. I did find some rice noodles at the supermarket which I hope he’ll enjoy in place of pasta.
Before we made the switch, EcoBabe was getting a lot of yogurt. We were leaning on yogurt to round out his diet because he doesn’t drink milk. But in researching the GFCF diet, I re-discovered what I already knew; non-dairy calcium sources provide calcium in forms readily taken up by the body. Yup, spinach is one of the very best usable calcium sources there is. And EcoBabe loves his spinach. 
I’m excitedly anticipating new recipes and new foods for EcoBabe. Our access to certain grains (quinoa, amaranth, etc) is very limited in Turkey so we’re working with what we’ve got. I’m tracking down recipes for gluten-free pasta and am eager to give pasta-making a go.
For his part, EcoBabe has been eagerly gobbling up his tofu and slurped up his soy milk with fervour this morning. Let’s hope the diet helps resolve some of his issues!
I know that some of you, dear readers, have children on GFCF diets. If you have any super recipes you’d like to share, I’d love to have them.
And many thanks to my friend T in Red Deer and cousin H in London who helped guide me onto the GFCF path!
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you might also want to make sure that he doesn’t have a yeast overgrowth. that can really contribute to problems with asd kids.
Also, if you haven’t heard of it yet, the book “special diets, special kids” is gfcf and has two volumes. Elaine Gottschall is another great resource. Her book is called “breaking the vicious cycle” and speaks a great deal about leaky gut syndrome. Her diet is the specific carbohydrate diet which goes a bit further than gfcf and might be worth trying as well. I know that it is effective with asd, as well as crohn’s, colitis and other forms of ibd. Continued good luck and success with whatever approaches you try!!