A Gluten-Free Diet Does Not Seem to Improve Autism Spectrum Disorders

There's a major flaw with this study: the researchers who did this study excluded autistic children with celiac disease, autistic children with wheat allergy, and autistic children with "presence of disease influencing behavior, feeding, or growth," which would of course include non-celiac gluten intolerance.

In other words, they deliberately excluded all the autistic children who would benefit from a gluten-free diet, and then concluded, INCORRECTLY, that autistic children don't benefit from a gluten-free diet.

This is especially disturbing because it's a major step backwards to the days when parents were told "your autistic child doesn't REALLY have intestinal problems, he's just acting like that because that's what children with autism do."

Some children with autism benefit from a gluten-free diet.  Some don't.  Why is there an effort to turn it into a yes-or-no question for all children with autism?

Our son used to act 'high' all the time and smelled of bile all the time because he would regurgitate his food (like Mac and cheese) because his gut, according to the doctor, turned gluten into an opioid.

We put him on the gluten-free diet and saw no results after 6 months. We decided to persist. After 9 months, we thought we saw

Continued:

We thought we saw some small changes.

It took the FULL YEAR of doing the gluten-free diet before we saw an entirely new boy.

They did not run the study long enough.

I did not read this full study, but unless the children were placed room and monitored by study staff 24 hours a day,  there is no way they can determine whether or not the children were actually gluten free.  Dietary studies, even if randomized, are notorious for collected false information because participants choose not to report accurately.  

I just had a cousin who participated in a university food study this year.    She cheated and told us she was not going to report the food she ate.  The rest of us were shocked and dismayed.   

As a celiac, I meet lots of people who think they are actually gluten free, but they make classic mistakes.  I went to Poland a few years ago.   There was very little awareness of celiac disease.  I am sure awareness is improving, and there were some gluten free foods available imported like Germany found in stores.  

Open Original Shared Link

I bet those kids still had access to gluten, most likely due to cross contamination.  It takes most celiacs up to a year to heal because the gluten free diet has a very steep learning curve!  

None of the participants were probably raised on a diet of GMOs either.