My daughter is Asperger's. We noticed oddities in behavior from shortly after birth, but didn't explore the idea of Asperger's until she was five. It should be noted that if you have a girl with Asperger's, you'll be unlikely to get a medical diagnosis of Asperger's, since 'the book' says only boys have Asperger's. As a result, our daughter was not eligible for the many educational programs afforded to an Asperger's diagnosis.
At 4 years old, we finally had allergy testing done, and she was allergic to most any food available. Expect to pay for that out of pocket. Insurance will generally not pay for it. For those of you that can't afford this test, the following will cover most of the allergens, (and solutions), that the test would tell you, so you can experiment with withdrawing these substances, and see what you get.
It turns out that Autism spectrum disorders are commonly paired with leaky gut syndrome. This allows large particles of food to enter the blood system, creating an immune reaction. The food allergies are the first place to start, and I can't stress enough that no other solution will deliver much result until food is first considered. As part of this also, there are emotional overloads, which anyone familiar with Autism knows as 'meltdowns'. These meltdowns can last 20 minutes to 3 hours, and any attempt at intervention seems to prolong it. Heavy duty impulsiveness and lack of empathy are also hallmarks. Getting overtired, or getting hungry, are also triggers.
In her case, her social/emotional age has trailed her physical age by about three years, and is pretty typical.
Things which were definite triggers were:
Chocolate: Induced psychosis. If she had ingested chocolate, we'd need to keep a physical hold on her, otherwise, she would suddenly dart away & start 'playing on the freeway'. There was no concept of danger, whatsoever. Upon seeing her first lake, (3 yrs old), she suddenly without warning charged directly into it as deep as she could get, then laid there face down, not moving, and making no attempt to breathe. In that instance she had a chocolate shake about an hour prior. It seemed to be an issue of 'Dutch cocoa' or 'processed with alkali'. Chocolate with 72% or higher cocoa content seemed to not create this problem, but that level of cocoa also went hand in hand with not having alkali content.
Red 40: Created out of control impulsiveness, and behavioral problems.
MSG: We never were real sure about this, though at times it was the only unknown quantity that could have been involved. Other times, known MSG carriers had no effect. It may be that higher concentrations of MSG are a trigger. Here in the US, MSG is hidden behind about 20 different names, and only rarely is it called MSG. Do your research on the names.
The allergy test didn't test any of the above, so it was only constant alertness that led us to these other allergens.
The main allergens with the highest allergic response were:
Grains, excluding rice and corn, and oats were much lower of an allergen.
All dairy.
Eggs.
Pineapple. (I've been told that an allergy to pineapple is also indicative of an allergy to latex.)
What could we even feed her? It was an awful position to be in.
We found egg-free bread with rice or corn as the grain, and though the corn was softer and more bread-like, we wouldn't use corn now.
We used rice milk, which also enabled rice and corn cereals, (without artificial colors). Soy milk did not provoke an allergic response, but we belatedly discovered that it mimics female hormones and discontinued use. She BTW had early onset of puberty at 9....
Corn and rice noodles would allow us to make casseroles and spaghetti, which would allow her a filling meal. The corn noodles fall apart readily if you overcook them, however.
Otherwise, we were doing contortions with meat and vegetables, since she didn't like either of them anymore than a typical child.
We also used DMG three times daily, which gave her a calmer and less impulsive demeanor, and a multi-vitamin without iron or copper, twice daily. Also, for a time we were giving her Evening Primrose capsules orally. I recall these being helpful, but can't recall why we stopped. It's recommended to do heavy metal detox using GLA, but we didn't, so I couldn't tell you if that helps.
Best books for guidance: Children With Starving Brains, (McCandless), and Parenting Your Asperger Child, (Sohn/Grayson).
We had warned the school with a complete list of allergens, and predictably, there was no way they could accomodate us, so we had to send lunches. Also, we had the school notify us as early as possible if there would be a party or treats being brought in. We kept cookies, and gluten free cupcakes & muffins in the freezer, so that when the school called we could have them there within minutes. The teachers were supplied with a stock of 'safe' candy, since that was a common reward in the classroom. The teachers had their own list of her allergens, and were to call us if she ingested chocolate or red 40, so we could bring her home. She was a danger to the other kids after having chocolate or red 40. We had to homeschool from mid-first grade until the last quarter of fifth grade, due to her behavioral problems, and hazing from other kids. Going back to public school *REALLY* demonstrated the incompetency of public schools. She's far, far ahead of her class, and now we're noticing a 'dumbing down' or regression of her skills.
In stable periods, we would try reintroduction of allergens, to see if they could be tolerated. (One at a time, for a week, or until symptoms showed up. Then waiting for another stable period to try something else.)
Eggs were the first to be permanently reintroduced, (at age 5), though they were our own; Store-bought eggs produced horrible reactions.
Grains were reintroduced, (at age 8).
Dairy, as white cheese, was reintroduced, (at age 7). That's when we discovered that annatto had a red 40 effect. (It's also in most ice cream.)
Milk was reintroduced, (at age 9). That's when we discovered vitamin A palmitate had a red 40 effect. (Whole 'Vitamin D' milk doesn't have it.) Ice cream was reintroduced about the same time, since we had found a brand without annatto. Milk is not a total success, as we believe it's the cause of light eczema on her arms and scalp.
Chocolate, of all sorts, was reintroduced, (at age 11), though overdoing it will still produce elevated behaviors, though not psychosis.
Red 40 was reintroduced, (also at age 11), though, again, overdoing it will produce elevated behaviors.
Note that the age is not an indicator of when a food may be reintroduced; It's the period of total abstinence that determines when something may be reintroduced, and it will vary with different kids. Some items may never be able to be reintroduced, though every successful reintroduction will make a big difference in meal, (and budget), planning.
Since age 5, she has been aware of foods to avoid, and remarkably, abided by that. If an adult tried to give her something that she couldn't have, she called them on it right away.
Now, at age 12 we have difficulty getting her to quit overdoing sugary garbage, and not reading labels on the 'in' candy, simply because of peer pressure as to what's 'cool'; That's certainly typical for her age, however. Meltdowns are fairly rare, though she tends to be loud and obtuse. She's immature for her age, but the age gap seems to be more about a year difference now, rather than three years. Being overly hungry or tired are still triggers, just as fully as ever.
As I said, she had 'differences' from birth. However, the MMR vaccine at age 3, (when she was still not talking), caused me to swear off vaccines permanently. Picture a wounded dog with it's tail between it's legs crawling off to lick it's wounds, and you have a picture of what it was like. It produced a withdrawal that I'm not sure has ever been totally overcome. I've always wondered since how much further ahead we would have been if she had never had that.
Speaking of talking, when she was four, and she was making barely intelligible 'Mom' & 'Dad' noises, we had our first complete sentence. It was in the middle of the Costco parking lot, on our way into the store. She yelled it out as clear as if she had been talking for years..... "Help, they're hurting me!" I was pretty sure that we'd be lynched before we made it into the store, but just lots of looks, and no rope being pulled out. We figured out later that she didn't like the lights & noise inside the store, and it probably was physically painful to her.
Hope this is helpful.
