After posting about the Sleep Number Sleep-In Challenge the other day, I started thinking about the sleep problems we have experienced with our son and how grateful we are to have regular sleep now.
From the time our Little Guy was a baby, he would often have trouble sleeping unless I was holding him in an upright position against my chest. He also spent many nights with me rocking him in his infant car seat. When he did sleep in his crib, and later his toddler bed, he would often wake up crying and require a lot of effort on our part to help him get back to sleep. I later realized that he was experiencing a lot of gas and bloating and possibly some reflux.
Shortly after his diagnosis of autism at 33 months old, I heard about the gluten-free casein-free (GFCF) diet and became convinced that we should give it a trial run. We started by removing all dairy and within a few weeks realized that he was no longer waking up in pain during the night. 
In addition to the better sleep he was getting, we also noticed the complete absence of the cold-like symptoms he had shown most of the time since he was about 2 weeks old and the reduction of some sensory-seeking activities, such as spinning around for long periods of time. He also began looking at both people and objects more directly rather than by getting up close to them, squinting and looking at them out of the corner of his eye, which he had often done with his toys, the TV and even our faces.
Of course, the highlight of starting the diet for us was hearing him put two words together for the first time (and in a sentence to boot!) within 24 hours of going casein-free. It was a wonderful feeling to have a back-and-forth connection in a way we had not experienced before.
Since then, we have had other sleep issues, which I’ll share about more tomorrow, but if you are interested in more information on the GFCF Diet, check out my Autism Resources post on that topic. I also read a wonderful “getting started” article recently at type-a mom called GFCF 101: How To Transition to the GFCF Diet and Remain Sane While Doing It. If you try it, I’d love to hear how it works for you!
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No one…except a member of “The Club” can fully appreciate the effort it takes to help our kids.
I finally was tired of someone in the afterschool program complain about my son “never ceasing questions and inability to control his curiosity”. She hit me on a bad day…
I told her how j used to be…he used to be non-verbal, and if I had a choice between not being able to communicate or drive me crazy with questions…guess what I’d pick? And I can remember him laying under toys spinning wheels for hours. Now he gets out of his seat to explore toys. He could still be spinning wheels…so if I had to choose, guess what I’d pick?
She started to cry and so did I…but the light went off in her head. (This was the 2nd day of a week long summer camp that I was paying for.
His week amazingly turned around after that conversation, and the rest of the week was “GREAT”. Hmmmmm, wonder why? Maybe a little understanding of how far he’s come helped her view of him??
We have never tried the GFCF diet and my big question about it is how you do it with kids who are REALLY selective eaters. My son eats only a handful of things and we have been working on it for 2 1/2 years…I’d have no idea how to transition him over! Have you seen any resources for that type of situation?
Thanks for these post. We have tried everything lately and sometimes it work and sometimes it does not. Tonight I did some yoga moves with the girls before bedtime while I played soothing music. They loved it and went right to bed with no fussing.
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