I am just exploring options for helping my son at this point - we don't have an official diagnosis, we have an appointment in Jan. Meanwhile it feels like a really long time.... SO feeling the need to do something I have been exploring a lot of the food related stuff -
My husband has some lactose intolerance and his sister is more servere in her allergy. Based on that theory and the fact that my son really dislikes milk, we are going to start with casein.
SO... does anyone know how long it takes to get out of the system? Any tips on getting school and the sitter thinking the right way? They are willing to help but I don't think they fully understand.
Casein is one of the quickest ones to be eliminated from the body, it should take about 2 weeks. It's really hard to get people to understand though, it's best to establish a policy that your child can only eat what you have sent. Casein can be hidden in lots of processed foods, you have to check ingredients carefully, and people can get really silly and confused about it too. I hope you find some success with this!
So after 2 weeks of no Casein at all, my son got a hold of some pizza. His body seriously reacted. So that apparently solves one question. We are going to keep working on that for now. I am really thankful that we tried to make some decisions. It has not done much for his attention span or sensory stuff, but I wonder if it will take time. Here's hoping.
Glad you are having some encouraging results. There are a lot of other diet changes you could try that might help with sensory stuff and attention span. Is he getting any food dyes or processed food? You could try to eliminate the dyes and cut out the processed stuff as much as possible, sticking to fresh meats, nuts, beans, fruits, veggies and whole grains. We do gluten free as well and that helps with both things for us and then subligual B-12 helps her with attention as well and we do a lot of cultured/fermented foods (particularly kombucha and sauerkraut because those are her favorites)which help a lot to make her feel calmer and less impulsive and less prone to meltdowns.
I am working on the food dyes - we eliminated most of the processed food in our lives when I started working on losing weight 18 months ago. THere are still some pre-packaged things he clings to but I am working on getting rid of those as well. The biggest one is the all important "fruit snack" but since there is a dye free alternative available I just have to convince him that they taste better than all the character snacks that he loves so much. Tell me more about B12 and what you do to increase that would you? He is on a multivitamin now.
They are kinda pricy but maybe you can kill two bird with one stone and get these instead of fruit snacks
http://www.amazon.com/Bags-RevitaPOP-Met...B002U2J3IG There is also a spray I've gotten from vitacost but I"m not finding it right now, it's gotta be the methyl kind or it won't have the focusing effect you are looking for. We've done a prescription nasal spray as well but it's got to be made at a compounding pharmacy and is quite expensive.