Feeding a Kid

I doubt if any mothers in history have been as concerned about nutrition as the current crop. We hear about it before we're even pregnant, warned that certain deficiencies in Moms lead to birth defects. Doctors give us pre-natal vitamins when we're expecting. Then scary news stories get us to read labels on everything we feed our babies. Is it any wonder that people would try to blame diet for autism?

In some autism circles, you don't even need to use full names for special diets -- quick references with initials tell all about restricting this or that in the diet. Gluten and casein lead the list. Add in gastrointestinal problems (not demonstrated with hard science by the way, but certainly observed by many of us with a spectrum kid) and it's amazing we have anything left to feed our kids.

I think I understand why Moms feel this way. Food on the groceries shelves seem to be less about what comes out of the field and more about what can be poured out of the chemical vat. And that, I think, may be more the problem then certain categories of food.

In general, both of my fellas seem to do better if I eliminate the colors and additives. If a grocery selection has a huge list of ingredients, items that I can't pronounce, or certain red-flag words (like hydrogenated fats), I don't buy it. We mostly eat what I make from scratch so I know what's going into my kids.

When eliminating wheat, I wonder if some Moms feel like they're seeing problems with the way flour is  processed in this country rather than the gluten? Most mass-produced flour is bleached and artificially "aged". Either of these chemical processes potentially could cause difficulty. I use flour from a regional company that uses neither of these processes.

We limit dairy because we have a known casein allergy coming down from my husband's side of the family. Even there, I wonder if some of the modern processing might be cause the problems? It's worth exploring to get the good "stuff" in milk back in my kids again.