Gluten and lactose problems in autism?

Page 2 of 2 [ 23 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2

pawelk1986
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 2 Apr 2010
Age: 37
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,899
Location: Wroclaw, Poland

07 May 2021, 2:04 am

MrsPeel wrote:
Argh, I tried to start my 17yo daughter on the elimination diet - but getting her to stick to the right food is impossible.
She has zero impulse control, and seems to be addicted to processed junk.

Last night my son got given some cookies with various coloured icing on them. You know the artistic ones that are made to look like other things?
So I looked at the ingredients and there were 33 additive numbers in there. I'm not kidding.
Warned my daughter not to eat any, so what did she do?? :roll:

She spent the night at the hospital from the stomach pains :( :(
Yet still she doesn't want to eat natural food like vegetables.
What can you do??


Does she had any weight problem?

Maybe you should allow her to pick her own food?
Some people try even harder when something is banned.



badRobot
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 18 Jan 2011
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Posts: 824

07 May 2021, 5:12 am

MrsPeel wrote:
Argh, I tried to start my 17yo daughter on the elimination diet - but getting her to stick to the right food is impossible.
She has zero impulse control, and seems to be addicted to processed junk.

Last night my son got given some cookies with various coloured icing on them. You know the artistic ones that are made to look like other things?
So I looked at the ingredients and there were 33 additive numbers in there. I'm not kidding.
Warned my daughter not to eat any, so what did she do?? :roll:

She spent the night at the hospital from the stomach pains :( :(
Yet still she doesn't want to eat natural food like vegetables.
What can you do??


There are several important factors.

Some food (mostly high insulin index), makes you even more hungry couple hours later.
Some food associated with some habits, mostly snacks when you watch a movie or something.
Some food is straight up addiction and/or subconscious self-medication of depression.

Address each of those separately.

Make a list of her favorite foods and pick the ones with lowest insulin index.
Be more mindful about eating out of habit. Notice bad habits and try to replace with healthier options or change context to lower triggers.

Create more distractions and try to make her be more physically active, arrange fun activities outdoor, don't bring junk food.

Mindfulness is very important to connect the dots to make her brain see how bad/good food makes her feel bad/good later.

Ulysses pact is a great tool to overcome bad habits. Be mindful about food you bring home, don't buy groceries when you are hungry and embrace healthy lifestyle with your whole family to create environment. Trying to control your habits with sheer will power never works.



nick007
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 May 2010
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Posts: 27,059
Location: was Louisiana but now Vermont in the police state called USA

07 May 2021, 3:29 pm

MrsPeel wrote:
Argh, I tried to start my 17yo daughter on the elimination diet - but getting her to stick to the right food is impossible.
She has zero impulse control, and seems to be addicted to processed junk.

Last night my son got given some cookies with various coloured icing on them. You know the artistic ones that are made to look like other things?
So I looked at the ingredients and there were 33 additive numbers in there. I'm not kidding.
Warned my daughter not to eat any, so what did she do?? :roll:

She spent the night at the hospital from the stomach pains :( :(
Yet still she doesn't want to eat natural food like vegetables.
What can you do??
This may sound extreeme but if she's needing to go to the hospital fairly often it could be warranted. Maybe it would help for her to be admitted to the hospital for an extended stay like a couple weeks or months. The docs could enforce a restrictive diet on her better than you can at home & they could make modifications & preform tests before & after she eats different food to help figure out what is going on. Plus if she has an extreeme reaction she will already be in the hospital. It would be a major inconvience for all of you of corse but it'll probably be the safist option for her. It may be very expensive depending on the health care situation where you live & the kinda health insurance you have. The Covid situation would also be another potential factor. You mentioned she's 17 & while I don't know her plans for after turning 18 like if she's wanting to go off to college or move somewhere for employment(none of you may know rite now & that's understandable between the pandemic & her health issues) & it would.probably be best to try & get her stomach issues addressed before she moves out or gets a full-time job. The transition could be stressful & make her more likely to make a bad eating choice. Plus missing a lot of work or school cuz of health stuff could be problematic & frustrating for her. I really wish you guys the best of luck. Don't forget to take some time for yourself too. WP can be a good support system sometimes.


_________________
"I don't have an anger problem, I have an idiot problem!"
~King Of The Hill


"Hear all, trust nothing"
~Ferengi Rule Of Acquisition #190
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Ru ... cquisition


pawelk1986
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 2 Apr 2010
Age: 37
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,899
Location: Wroclaw, Poland

07 May 2021, 3:45 pm

badRobot wrote:
MrsPeel wrote:
Argh, I tried to start my 17yo daughter on the elimination diet - but getting her to stick to the right food is impossible.
She has zero impulse control, and seems to be addicted to processed junk.

Last night my son got given some cookies with various coloured icing on them. You know the artistic ones that are made to look like other things?
So I looked at the ingredients and there were 33 additive numbers in there. I'm not kidding.
Warned my daughter not to eat any, so what did she do?? :roll:

She spent the night at the hospital from the stomach pains :( :(
Yet still she doesn't want to eat natural food like vegetables.
What can you do??


There are several important factors.

Some food (mostly high insulin index), makes you even more hungry couple hours later.
Some food associated with some habits, mostly snacks when you watch a movie or something.
Some food is straight up addiction and/or subconscious self-medication of depression.

Address each of those separately.

Make a list of her favorite foods and pick the ones with lowest insulin index.
Be more mindful about eating out of habit. Notice bad habits and try to replace with healthier options or change context to lower triggers.

Create more distractions and try to make her be more physically active, arrange fun activities outdoor, don't bring junk food.

Mindfulness is very important to connect the dots to make her brain see how bad/good food makes her feel bad/good later.

Ulysses pact is a great tool to overcome bad habits. Be mindful about food you bring home, don't buy groceries when you are hungry and embrace healthy lifestyle with your whole family to create environment. Trying to control your habits with sheer will power never works.



In my case, the doctor diagnosed insulin resistance, told me to lose weight and prescribed Metformax SR 500, I take 3 tablets in the evening at 21:00

The doctor (endocrinologist) said that if I do not start taking care of myself, at risk of type II diabetes, recently she said that the level of glycated haemoglobin and sugar levels have returned to normal and I am able to keep the weight, I used to be 130 kg, now the weight oscillates between 115 and 118 kg. still not good but better than it was, she said that when I run out of medications, so that I would not buy new ones, but waited 3 months, he made a glucose curve and came for a check-up in November, maybe it would be possible to stop taking the medications altogether.

She said I should be on a low glycemic diet for my whole life even after stopping the medication



MrsPeel
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 1 Oct 2017
Age: 52
Gender: Non-binary
Posts: 1,744
Location: Australia

09 May 2021, 7:43 am

In response to several posts above, many thanks for the support and suggestions for my daughter.
We had another hospital visit on Saturday, but this time it was a mental health crisis.
She's OK now, she has emotional regulation issues which means her mood fluctuates wildly sometimes. But luckily it tends to be transient.

Anyway, I did another big food shop today and now we only have the food she's allowed in the fridge. So less temptation. I made her gluten-free cookies as well, to try and make the transition easier.
She's actually pretty much on board with the idea of the diet, because she wants to get well.
It's just that she lacks impulse control so can't stick to it without a bit if help (aka supervision).

I'm very aware that at some point I need to work on reducing her sugar habit, but I figured that this was not the time to do it, as she's still adjusting to not having the usual bread and doughnuts and the like. Hence the gluten-free cookies.
Will probably wait a week or two for her to settle into the diet and then maybe work on reducing sugar intake.

Apologies for hijacking the thread to talk about my daughter's diet - but it is certainly nice to be able to vent about it somewhere!



badRobot
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 18 Jan 2011
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Posts: 824

09 May 2021, 8:21 am

MrsPeel wrote:
I'm very aware that at some point I need to work on reducing her sugar habit, but I figured that this was not the time to do it, as she's still adjusting to not having the usual bread and doughnuts and the like. Hence the gluten-free cookies.
Will probably wait a week or two for her to settle into the diet and then maybe work on reducing sugar intake.


I would recommend to quit sugar at the same time. Counterintuitively the whole diet would be much harder to comply when you still eat sugar. Carbs in bread and doughnuts are essentially sugar, digested as glucose, insulin spike is what makes you crave food couple hours later. It is much easier to quit completely. If she has major cravings, replace with sugar-free alternatives with artificial sweeteners.



kraftiekortie
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 4 Feb 2014
Gender: Male
Posts: 87,510
Location: Queens, NYC

10 May 2021, 1:57 pm

You're a fine mother, Mrs. Peel.

There's bad hijacking....and there's good hijacking :wink: