This is the week

This is the week that the psychiatrist will be visiting my son's school to assess him and the school and I can't wait. I hope it will result in something getting done. Initially I thought the school was being helpful in trying to get my son assessed for an autistic spectrum disorder, but now it seems to me that really, they are not all that on top of things.

The past few weeks have been absolutely awful. My son has been tearful, angry, super belligerent and wanting to stay home most days. I've been faithfully told by friends daughters, (in his class and older ones) that my ds is constantly being picked on. This is causing his intense frustration as he desperately wants to fit in. Its also increasing his motor tics it seems, which is just placing him further apart from everyone else.

I found a recommendation for this book, Diet Intervention and Autism by Marilyn Le Breton, and have read through it this weekend. Its about implementing a gluten free and dairy free diet. This was hardly new to me as we were vegans for awhile, but never completely gluten free. I have noticed the difference in myself when I avoid eating bread, as my skin stays clear and I'm not bloated, sniffly and sluggish. I also find that when I do eat bread, I want to eat more and more. It makes perfect sense to me then, to extend the theories about food intolerences to behavior issues and autistic spectrum disorders. Even though I felt we were eating a healthy vegetarian diet, there's always more to learn and we still find ourselves in an food rut every now and again.

So this week, we are slowly changing our diet incorporating gluten-free bread for my son's lunches, as we can't just leave him without a sandwich, as that's all he'll eat - and gluten free pasta, another favourite dish. The dairy as well, will be replaced with soya. Like the author's son that's illustrated in the book, my son is addicted to yogurt and fromage frais. Its his morning breakfast ritual, his snacks, etc. So now its soy yogurt. We used to buy soy yogurt all the time, but then started with yogurt and fromage frais because it didn't seem to negatively effect him, and was cheaper-- considering how much he eats it! He's not much for cheese now, so that shouldn't be a problem.

I also realised that having switched brands of omega 3 supplements for him, the ASDA brand that I bought has aspartame in it, whereas Equazen did not. The book mentions aspartame as a trigger for allergies and I feel that it has been partly to blame for the horrible two weeks we've had, as that's how long he's been taking it. So no more of that ASDA brand, even though its considerably cheaper. I have been careful to avoid artificial sweeteners and colourings in the past, but somehow missed this one.