This is final instalment of a 3 part series on gluten and autism. You can read Part 1 and Part 2 first.

The first thing most parents of children on the spectrum say when I recommend removing gluten from the diet is that they can’t as that is all their child will eat.  That is usually confirmation enough for me that gluten needs to go!  Remember in Part 2 when I said the gluten forms opioid like compounds in the brain of children with autism.  What do we know about opioids?  They’re addictive.  So your child could literally be addicted to gluten!

The first thing you need to do is get educated.  In part one of this series, I explain all the foods where gluten can be found.  Make sure you are familiar with what is in and what is out.

Next, start to play around with some gluten-free foods.  Remember at this stage, we’re not trying to remove all grains, just gluten.  That means things like rice are still allowed, which opens a world of rice-based foods like noodles or rice cakes.  These are not fabulous foods, as they are purely refined carbohydrates, but this is a journey, and we are only on the first step – removing the gluten.

Now that you have figured out what gluten-free foods your child will eat, create a meal plan or download a ready made one from my website!.  Make sure you are never caught short having to give your child a gluten containing food.  Every time there is a slip up, you go back to the start of your trial, which can be really demoralising and difficult for you and your child.

Then hit the shops!  You may find you need to change how you shop and where you shop to get the specific foods you need.  Being gluten-free has become more manageable in the last 10 years, but it might still be worthwhile looking online or in health-food shops to find what you need.

Next comes the implementation step.  You can do it gradually, substituting one meal or snack at a time with a gluten-free alternative, or you can do it all at once.  Just remember that you might see withdrawal symptoms if you do it all at once.

Keep a diary. Remember to write down in detail what your child eats and what their symptoms are.  Start this a week in advance so you can make a comparison of before and afterwards.  The symptoms you keep track of will be specific to your child.  They could be related to behaviour, stimming, digestive issues or rashes.  Or it could be a combination of all of these!

One of the best-known diets for autism is gluten-free, but what does this mean, why does this work and how do I try it for my child?

In this post (Part 1), I will explain what a gluten-free diet entails.  Part 2 will explain why this is approach is worth trying and Part 3 will give you a framework to get started.

Part 1

Going gluten-free is the first step in changing the diet for your child with autism. It is usually done at the same time as removing dairy and soy.  This is often called a “Gluten-free, Casein-Free” (GFCF) diet (Casein is one of the proteins in dairy foods).

Various studies have shown that a GFCF diet leads to improvement in up to 80% of patients with autism.  The type of improvements were in behaviour, seizures, gross motor skills, social contact, eye contact, ritualistic behaviour, language and sleep.

It is up to parents if they want to remove gluten and dairy at the same time, or to do one at a time.  There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches.  Removing both at the same time is like ripping off a band-aid.  Difficult, but the transition is over quickly.  Removing one at a time is a more softly-softly approach, but it may be difficult to make any progress. On the plus-side, a gradual reduction will reduce any withdrawal symptoms for your child.

Going gluten-free means you need to avoid any products made from gluten-containing grains.  These grains are wheat, rye, barley, spelt, kamut and triticale. Oats are a bit of a grey area as, whilst they don’t contain gluten, they do contain a similar protein called avenin.  Some people who are sensitive to gluten are also sensitive to avenin, but even most coeliacs are ok with avenin.  The problem is that quite often oats get contaminated with wheat, rye etc. during processing.  You can buy certified gluten-free oats which have been processed in isolation from gluten-containing grains and tested to make sure they don’t contain gluten.  Bear in mind that these gluten-free oats may not be made in Australia.  My recommendation is generally to remove oats for a period of time, and then reintroduce standard Australian organic oats and watch for a reaction in your child.  The reaction could be digestive, but it could also be mood or behaviour related.

Foods that you may not realise are made from gluten-containing grains include couscous, semolina and bulgur (the main ingredient in tabouleh),

Gluten also hides in many processed foods likes some processed meats, or anywhere a filler is required. If you buy packaged food, you need to read the ingredient list (and the allergen declaration) very carefully.  Remember that wheat-free does not mean gluten-free.

If you think going gluten-free is worth a go, you should commit to doing it 100% for 6-12 weeks.  There is no point in doing it 95%, as even a small exposure to gluten will undo all your hard work.  You might start to see benefits within a few days, which will be very motivating to keep going, or it might take the full 12 weeks to see progress.

If you have a suspicion that your child might be coeliac, because of a family history or other symptom, it is a good idea to do some testing for this to start off, e.g. taking with a cheek swab to see if they carry the gene.

The benefits of removing gluten for children with autism are strong, but this doesn’t mean your child is coeliac, or allergic to gluten.  Don’t be put off giving this a go because you have tested your child and they have been classified as not allergic to gluten.  There is no nutrient in gluten that you can’t get from other foods, so there is literally nothing to lose.

One final word of warning – you can have a gluten-free diet made entirely of junk food.  This will not help your child’s gut or improve their symptoms.  It’s ok to use some gluten-free processed food in the transition, but try to move to a whole-foods, naturally gluten-free diet as soon as you can.