Nutrition for Autism Spectrum Disorder (whether labeled or not):
My heart goes out to parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Between difficulties at school and daycare, picky eating, overall poor social communication, developmental delay, underneath most of this is inflammation (Sandin 2014). Whether your child has been medically diagnosed based on their behavioral patterns or not… If you want to help your child, read on.
ASD is increasing from 14.6 per 1,000 children aged 8 years, higher in boys (23.6 per 1,000) than girls (5.3 per 1,000) with costs of care exceeding $17,000 annually not including lost work hours (Christensen 2016) to an estimated 1 in 68 children in 2019.
ASD is a massive concern and is thought to arise from interactions between epigenetic influences, genetic predisposition, and one or more inflammatory triggers. Education and behavioral interventions are helpful. Music (Sharda 2018), peer relationships (Thiermann-Bourque 2018), and other social skills training (White 2013) improve behavioral patterns.
ASD is because your child is inflamed: Why?
No behavioral intervention will work without addressing the nutritional and inflammatory components.
Your child only knows how to cry, become angry, not sleep or oversleep, or otherwise protest when they do not feel well. This is how they communicate because they don’t yet know how to describe what is happening.
A “picky eater”? Possibly your child’s gut is imbalanced—it’s common. Possibly, because your child is not getting enough calcium, vitamins D, E, iron, zinc, or fibers they’ve further imbalanced their gut microbiome (likes starch—cereal, breads, pastas… not willing to eat vegetables—it’s a texture thing). They cannot poop easily, and everything hurts.
Should we cave in or cook lovingly?
An interesting bit: A study of ASD compared with the same number of normally developing children (58 each group) showed that parents thought their ASD children were unwilling to eat a greater variety of foods. The children (when presented with those foods cooked lovingly by parents) were willing to eat more vegetables and other foods outside their comfort zone, especially when siblings and parents expressed joy in the meal (Bandini 2011).
Unfortunately, school lunches and our societal tendency toward processed foods cause inadequate consumption of five or more nutrients. In addition to fiber, nutrient inadequacy includes vitamin D, vitamin E, and calcium. Inadequate intakes of vitamin D and calcium were more frequent for children with ASDs compared with typically developing children. Insufficient Vitamin D, E and too many omega-6 fats from seed oils and grain-fed/grain finished animals create the inflammatory fire that is causing your child to feel unwell.
Aware parents restrict gluten and casein (grain-free and dairy-free diets) does this help?
Yes.
It’s not enough.
Sugar.
In addition to removing cereal grains, dairy, and food dyes/additives… sugar is public enemy #1 and is never more an enemy than with ASD children.
Few parents hear how sugar; cane, corn, and agave imbalance the gut microbiome—the very system needed to calm ASD (Rinninella 2019). We attend birthday parties and sporting events where cupcakes and cookies are the reward. We celebrate with pizza and pasta. These habits make behavior from inflammation worse.
What’s the best diet?
Plenty of whole foods—if it has a label, it isn’t food! Start by creating food with all your love and express your enjoyment in doing so.
Sorry: If you are in “grab and go” mode this will not help your child. Not trying to be mean; they need genuine building blocks and our commercial food is selling junk.
We all need a unique plan and no two people or children are the same. ASD typically has these deficiencies; here’s where you get the nutrients from real food:
Key nutrients for ASD and what foods to emphasize:
Vitamin A: Liver, shrimp, eggs, salmon, sardines, chicken, turkey, sweet potatoes, carrots, spinach, kale and other greens, winter squash, romaine and other lettuce, bok choy, peppers.
B Vitamins: beef, seafood, poultry, eggs. You cannot get B12 from a completely plant-based diet (vegan or vegetarian) and you MUST have B12 to produce energy. The balance of B vitamins are found in nutritional yeast, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, beans, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, asparagus.
Probiotic foods: Mix up a variety with my recipes at www.OurNutritionKitchen.com. Bef ore taking a probiotic supplement, please make sure the strains are specific to your needs.
Vitamin D: Fish oil—let me help you select the right DHA/EPA ratio and a source that screens for mercury, lead, PCBs and other contaminants.
CoEnzymeQ10: An important energy production nutrient found in liver, beef, cold water fish, chicken, eggs, sesame seeds, pistachio nuts, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, even strawberries.
Glutathione: Whey protein or home-made bone broth. Very important to put out the inflammation fires and heal/seal the leaky gut.
Fibers: think plants. All roots and shoots but not so many seeds. You will not heal ASD without restoring gut health. Bone broth and fibers are key.
I hope this is helpful. Schedule an appointment to design nutritional support while you take steps to create or reinforce your healthy home diet and lifestyle.
Hugs!
Marie
Christensen D. L., Baio J., Van Naarden B. K., Bilder D., Charles J., … Yeargin-Allsopp, M. (2016). Prevalence and Characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder Among Children Aged 8 Years–Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 11 Sites, United States, 2012. MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report, 67(45), 1279 Retrieved https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6290808/
Rinninella, E., Cintoni, M., Raoul, P., Lopetuso, L. R., Scaldaferri, F., Pulcini, G., … Mele, M. C. (2019). Food Components and Dietary Habits: Keys for a Healthy Gut Microbiota Composition. Nutrients, 11(10). Retrieved https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31591348
Sandin, S., Lichtenstein, P., Kuja-Halkola, R., Larsson, H., Hultman, C. M., & Reichenberg, A. (2014). The familial risk of autism. Journal of the American Medical Association JAMA, 311(17), 1770–1777. Retrieved https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4381277/
White, S. W., Ollendick, T., Albano, A. M., Oswald, D., Johnson, C., Southam-Gerow, M. A., … Scahill, L. (2013). Randomized controlled trial: Multimodal Anxiety and Social Skill Intervention for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 43(2), 382–394. Retrieved https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3494811/
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