A new study showing that children with autism do well on a gluten-free, casein-free (GFCF) diet adds weight to the view of many parents that their children’s gut issues need to be taken more seriously.
Many parents have long reported a good response when foods containing gluten and casein were removed from their autistic child’s diet. However, the practice often received an unsympathetic response from doctors.
This new medical research provides an endorsement for parents in introducing their child to a GFCF diet.
The study, by researchers at Penn State College of Medicine in the US, is the first to draw on data from parents and to document the effectiveness of the diet on children diagnosed with ASD.
The team asked 387 parents and carers of children with ASD to complete a 90-item online survey about their children’s gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, food allergy diagnoses and suspected food sensitivities, as well as their children’s adherence to a GFCF diet.
The Penn study follows a body of research showing that autism is linked to GI problems such as gut pain and diarrhoea. Several studies have also hinted at changes in gut bacteria in the faeces of children with autism.
In January, researchers from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University found that microorganisms in the gut of autistic children are different from those found in other children. They are yet to determine whether these gut differences are a cause or an effect of autism.
Parents in the Penn study noted improved GI symptoms in their children, as well as improvements in their child’s social behaviour, eye contact, language, attention span, requesting behaviour, engagement and social responsiveness when they were strict followers of a GFCF diet.
For years parents of autistic children who removed such foods reported discernible progress and claimed their children were more responsive to other therapies they introduced.
Penny Sharpe, mother to nine-year-old Ben, who has been on the diet for six years, said: “My boy has done very well on this diet, but my doctor told me off about putting him on it. Today, six years on, he is the picture of health and is a lot calmer and more focused with this diet than without it.”
She added: “We parents need our children to be checked for gut issues and food intolerances once they are diagnosed. We should not have to find it all out on our own.”
Christine Pennesi, lead researcher of the Penn team, whose results appear in the journal Nutritional Neuroscience this month, pointed to research showing that children with ASD commonly have GI symptoms. She said: “Notably, a greater proportion of our study population reported GI and allergy symptoms than what is seen in the general population.
“Some experts have suggested that gluten-and casein-derived peptides cause an immune response in children with ASD, and others have proposed that the peptides could trigger GI symptoms and behavioural problems.”
Laura Cousino Klein, associate professor of behavioural health and immune development, who co-authored the study, confirmed that a GFCF diet was effective in improving autistic children’s behaviour and physiological symptoms. This was especially so for those children who present with GI and allergy symptoms.
According to the researchers, some of the parents who filled out the surveys had eliminated only gluten or only casein from their child’s diet. The survey results indicate that parents who completely eliminated both gluten and casein saw the most benefit.
According to Klein, autism may be more than a neurological disease – it may involve the GI tract and the immune system.
She said: “There are strong connections between the immune system and the brain, which are mediated through multiple physiological symptoms.
“A majority of the pain receptors in the body are located in the gut, so by adhering to a gluten-free, casein-free diet, you’re reducing inflammation and discomfort that may alter brain processing, making the body more receptive to ASD therapies.”
Published: 6 March 2012
