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Autism and SCD |
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This article was taken from Breaking The Vicious Cycle with permission of the author Pam Ferro President of the Gottschall Center for Autism in Massachusetts.
Pamela Ferro, a registered nurse in private practice in Massachusetts, specializes in the treatment of children diagnosed with Autisim Spectrum Disorder (ASD). She is also the aren’t of a child with autism. In treating over 300 children with ASD, she reports that at least 90% of these children present severe gastrointestinal problems that were unrecognized and, therefore, untreated. Her clinical experience shows that many fo the behavioral symptoms associated with autism can be traced to an injured intestine. The Specific Carbohydrate Diet addresses the vicious cycle of malabsorption, maldigestion, inflammation, and food allergies seen in children with autism. Once healthy digestion begins, many children with autism demonstrate remarkable improvements in bowel function, language eye contact, self-stimulatory behavior, anxiety, and mood. Ms. Ferro has developed a modified version of the Specific Carbohydrate Diet that eliminates the use of dairy for three to six months. As the child’s behavior becomes stabilized, parents can slowly reintroduce dairy and evaluate whether or not it can be tolerated.
Note: The Specific Carbohydrate Diet was designed to treat bowel disorders and not specifically for ASD. Dairy is allowed on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet in the form of butter, certain cheeses and homemade yogurt. It not only adds variety to the diet, but homemade yogurt provides one of the best vehicles to introduce healthy bacteria into the bowel.
The Specific Carboydrate Diet has entered the world of autism through “the back door” – the intestinal tract. And what may have first appeared to be ‘the back door,” via the digestive system, is rapidly becoming one of the most scientifically researched areas in determining what may be one of the underlying causes of many autism spectrum disorder. Because the Specific Carbohydrate Diet’s goal is to heal the intestinal tract and to rid it of bacterial and fungal overgrowth, it is proving to be a very successful dietary intervention in treating many autistic children and leading them back to a life of normalcy.
When implementing the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, it is important to remember that during the first week to ten days, profound changes are occurring in the digestive tract: the hundreds of different families of microorganisms are changing their metabolic functions due to the lack of nutrients to which they have been accustomed and of which they are now being deprived. Some children may do well even during the first week. But others will go through a period of adjustment which some refer to as “detoxification.” It will be helpful during this period to find support from the many other parents who have been through this change. Going to the websites (listed in our links section) can give you this support.
It is especially important that you read the information on these websites relating to the introduction of dairy products. A decision can then be made if the Specific Carbohydrate Diet should be implemented with or without dairy.
http://www.pecanbread.com
http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info The ONLY official SCD website
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