Trick-or-Treating, Food Allergies and Autism

First of all I want you to know that there is no wrong answer as to whether or not your child with food allergies or Autism should or should not trick-or-treat. I am simply sharing what we do. My hope is that this will help those that are new to the worlds of food allergies and autism.

We trick or treat. My boys LOVE Halloween and everything that goes with it. Neither one can have any dairy. My Autistic son can’t have any gluten either.

Regarding food allergies: Because I don’t want my children to be with out great memories of the holidays, we trick-or-treat. What I do is I make sure that I have a stash of candy my boys can have. I usually let them have a piece or two before trick-or-treating and take at least one piece with me. This way they will be less tempted to eat any of the candy they get before we get home. In general we don’t worry about what is being given out. We go just for the fun and experience of trick-or-treating. When we get home, I take their bags before they even have a chance to look in them. At this point they usually want to eat some candy so we give them candy that we have stashed for them. I sort through their bags and remove the candy that they can’t have. Usually I end up removing about 90% of my son’s candy. Never fear my stash contains all of his favorites. I generally pick a few of the “bad” candies for myself and send the rest to work with my husband the next day.

Regarding Autism and the Holidays: Permit me to give a little bit of background. My oldest son is Autistic and has been on a gluten and dairy free diet since he was 3. He is now 7 1/2. He didn’t always get Halloween and he didn’t always like everything that went along with it. Any holiday or family gatherings back then were hard on him and us. However, we like doing things for the holidays with family. We enjoy decorating the house and all the trimmings that go along with holidays and family. Luckily both sides of our family are very supportive. Over the years I have watched my son grow from a boy that hated large gatherings to a boy who now chooses to participate most of the time. Little by little he has overcome some of his issues and sensitivities and come to seek and look forward to holidays and large gatherings.

I do as much as I can to prepare my son for what to expect for certain events. Halloween for example, I would check out Halloween stories starting some time in September and read them to my boys. I choose all kinds of Halloween books from silly stories to some that are more factual. Books that talk about pumpkins and picking pumpkins were always in the mix. By reading him stories about parties and pumpkin picking and trick-or-treating I was preparing him for what to expect. It wasn’t long before he got excited about going trick-or-treating. I used those books like social stories for my son. I did the same thing with other holidays. I still do but now it is mostly out of habit.

My advice is to not give up. Introduce your child to events a little at a time. Full immersion all at once isn’t going to go well. While starting out, forgo holiday parties….for now. There is a lot of excitement that leads up to any holiday and that alone can be overwhelming. Instead focus on smaller events like pumpkin picking. Have your own little holiday party with only your own family or 1 your very best friends. Keep it small and keep it simple. Party games and crafts are usually too much for my son to participate in so I let him know that he can join if he wants to. I also let him know that he can go find a quiet place if he needs it. My son has always been able to seek out a room or go out into the backyard during parties. It is very helpful and has allowed him to choose how much he wants to participate. Over the years he has chosen to spend more time at the actual party and less time off on his own. I believe that exposure is key. Allow your child to experience things and understand that if things get to be too much, even when they have a quiet place, you may have to leave. It is ok. There have been many times when we didn’t have the option of leaving a holiday gathering. Generally we offer something to redirect his focus. Something he loved enough that he could focus through his inner turmoil and redirect his attention. Another thing we have done is go for a walk to allow him to relax.

Katrina

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Where do you start?

Here is the advice I gave our Early Interventionist. This diet is intimidating at first and some or all of these suggestions are helpful when starting out. Give yourself some time to get use to reading labels and finding the choices that are out there. You don't have to do it all at once. It took us about 6 months from the time we started removing dairy till we went totally dairy and gluten free. We still saw success. Just start somewhere. I suggest you visit www.allergygrocer.com. They have an advanced search that allows you to mark the allergy you want to avoid (for example you can check off, gluten, wheat, and dairy (or any of the others they have listed) and it will bring up all the products they sell that fit those criteria. Look for the kinds of foods you want. Make a list and see what your local stores can provide. It was nice to be armed with that list of what is out there for any given type of product. I was pleased to find that my local health food store had most of what I wanted to try. If you can't get it at your store, ask them if they can order it. Some times they will start stocking it since they know a customer is interested. Be aware that even items in the gluten free section of your store may contain dairy so you still have to read labels. However, I have found that many products that are gluten free and labeled as such will also plainly state if their products contain dairy.

#1: Start with one thing at a time. For example a big thing for us was how much Cow's Milk our son was drinking. We are talking 3-4 gallons a week! Start there. There is no reason that your child has to have a Milk Substitute as long as he or she is getting enough calcium (if concerned check with their Dr for advice, we did). If he or she does not like rice or soy milk try having them drink calcium fortified juice or look for a calcium supplement (that is dairy free). My son hated soy milk when we tried switching him to it. He liked the taste of cows milk and it does not taste the same. However a few months later he tried it again and found he liked it. We even found chocolate syrup so he can have chocolate milk or hot chocolate (or as he calls it "warm chocolate milk") At some point you will want to try soy or rice milk for cooking/baking (some people are also sensitive to soy so maybe going to rice milk may be better). Just be sure to read the label because not all soy and rice milks are gluten and dairy free. Some contain barley, which contains gluten, and some have casein or whey in them, which are dairy proteins.

#2: What I did next was to start choosing products that were dairy free. Read all labels always. I suggest you visit http://www.gfcfdiet.com/. They have a shopping guide that you can buy that will include a little card to take with you shopping. It lists all the ingredients you should look out for and avoid. There are many ingredients on that last that I didn't think of myself to look out for. In the beginning this is a must because the list is long. I now pretty much know what to look out for and don't need the card as much.
-note: Also stay away from products that say "produced on equipment that produces dairy, wheat or says may contain trace amounts... At least at first, later when you are fulling gluten and dairy free, you may find that trying one of these has no effect. My son on the other hand cannot tolerate even trace amounts and will effect him for 3 days (dairy) up to 2 weeks (gluten).

#3: Now lets think about gluten. If you went to http://www.gfcfdiet.com/ and ordered the shopping guide you are already armed with a list of ingredients to avoid. Switch to rice pasta. I have listed our favorite brand, look under products under the "lists" coll um on the right side of my blog. There you will find all our favorite products.
-you can find gluten free alternatives some times in a specialty isle of your grocery store (more and more this isle is increasing but largely depends on your demographics (will it sell in their store). Specialty stores that are known as either "Health Food" or "Whole Food" stores will have many options available for gluten and dairy free items.

#4: Buy plain potato or corn chips. Popcorn that does not contain natural or artificial butter flavor. Stay away from crackers, cookies, pretzels as most of the ones you get from a regular grocery store will not be gluten and dairy free.

#5: Stop buying traditional breads, flour tortillas.
-buy corn tortillas (most of them are gluten free and some even go as far as to label them as such) Check out the selection of gluten free breads (sometimes you will find them in the freezer section). Yes I have a strong opinion that fresh gluten free bread is far better than anything you can buy. However, it is nice to have the option of just buying bread to make sandwiches. The bagels I have found are good, a bit on the expensive side (see my recipe under "breads"). What you decide will largely depend on your life style.

There are more things to avoid than I have mentioned here but this is a good start. Armed with a list of ingredients to avoid, you will be able to cut out the rest if you read every label of everything you buy. Be aware of candy, sauces, and everything that passes the lips (including tooth paste).

Remember that you can do any of these things in any sort of order depending on what suits you. Over all what I suggest is starting with one major group of foods. Dairy is quicker to leave the body than gluten. We saw results with dairy with in a week, for some people it may be up to 3 months for the full effect. For gluten, we saw that the results were less dramatic but it showed up as better behaviors (less tantrums less sensory issues) and that our son didn't have diarrhea all the time. The effects of gluten slowly emerged over about a month but it could be up to 3 months to see the full effect. Keep up the diet it isn't easy but it is worth it in the end. Truly. We have seen great strides taken by our son. The decrease in sensory issues alone is well worth it. Think about it this way. If your child is always dealing with sensory issues (noise levels, how his/her clothes feel, smells, tastes, etc) then it leaves little room for them to concentrate on other things. This will effect how they function in school, shopping, parties, holidays and every other aspect of their lives. Sensory issues are limiting factors. What keeps me going even now, when I would love to just give it all up for the ease of being able to just buy what ever, make what ever, eat at fast food or any restaurant, is that I know my son is better for it. His quality of life is better for it. Not to mention our lives is that much easier with out fighting tantrums to get dressed in the morning, brushing his teeth, eat at the table with us, join in on parties or family get gatherings and so much more. For us the big thing is it took the fight out of most things. Now most of the "fight" we get is fairly normal age-related behaviors. In the end it is easier for me to worry about what he is eating than the dealing with the stress that tantrums in the middle of a store, at home, or anywhere else, can cause on a regular basis. I am well aware that not everyone has such great success as we have enjoyed, but many people see improvements non-the-less. I offer you support. Feel free to leave a comment to contact me.

For those who are new to Guten/Dairy Free

My son's Early Interventionist called me the other day. It has been over 3 years since she worked with my son when he was 2 1/2 till he turned 3. About once a year or so she calls me because she has a family that are just starting out on this diet. She always thinks of me and how much help I could be to them. She calls because she wants to know if it is ok for them to call me. I always have said yes, of course, but so far I have not gotten calls from any of them. It is hard to take a leap and ask some one you don't know for help. Where do you start? Since I recently started this blog, I told her to refer people to it. I hope it will be easier for them to come to my blog than it has been for them to call me.

My son's preschool teacher has also encouraged me to write a book of all the recipes of things I make for my son. She feels that there are so many people that would benefit from it. I hope so. I have not written a cook book but I let her know I was writing this blog. My hope is that it helps.

I am open to receiving comments and welcome them. If I can answer questions that you have I will or I will work to point you in the right direction. Heck, I am the kind of person that if I don't know the answer, you can be sure that I will be looking it up. Because at that point I will want to know for myself.