Food Issues

A friend of mine said:
My son has had problems with eating his whole life. I've resorted to all kinds of tricks and wiles to get him to eat, and it's still an ongoing struggle.

I replied:
If I recall right you have a child with Asperger's. Autism (which Asperger's is related to) is often associated with food allergies. The food issues may be physical in origin.

Can you tell me more about food allergies? I just recently talked to someone about this possibly being a problem for my son. I've never seen him react to any particular food, which is why I never strongly considered it before this. I had him tested once, but it was a nutritionist who did muscle testing and didn't find anything, and I don't know how accurate that alone is as a diagnostic tool.

Food issues are a lot broader than just allergies. It can be really complicated. In Emp's case, he and I have a genetic disorder that causes us to be unable to properly digest our food without a prescription 'medication' (enzymes, actually). We were not diagnosed until 2 years ago. He had diarrhea a lot until he got proper treatment and he rarely drinks milk.

My other son is lactose intolerant and both boys are allergic to raspberries. Allergy to 'red fruits' runs in my family, everything from strawberries to tomatoes to, well, raspberries. lol. My kids are not severely allergic to raspberries and so it was not immediately obvious. My second child did not get any hives the first time he was exposed. He simply screamed and cried all night for no apparent reason.

Autistic kids have been known to have very strange reactions to common foods -- as if it were some kind of hallucinogen. Some families with autistic kids have seen dramatic near 'cures' from removing things like milk and wheat from the child's diet. Often, the child craves the thing that he is having a bad reaction to, kind of like an 'addiction'.

Emp is never allowed to have things rich in caffeine (he is a bounce off the walls insomniac -- you can probably relate, lol) and he has to seriously limit the dairy products he consumes (due to lactose intolerance). I also limit the amount of sugar he consumes.

I know that, for me, very fatty foods can make me really sluggish, sugary foods can cause my blood sugar to plummet and leads to nightmares in the middle of the night if eaten late in the day, and I have more cramps and such with my period if eat too much red meat and 'rich' foods.

You don't have to break out in hives or have what a doctor would classify as 'allergic' reaction for foods to really have an effect on a child's mood, how well he feels, his energy levels (including being too 'manic'), etc. Some kids also react to little things, like the DYE in certain foods.

A child can have blood sugar issues, like hypoglycemia, which would never show up from a test for allergies but can require a very strict diet to control. In fact, strict diet and high doses of vitamins is the only effective treatment that I know of (I have not researched it recently but I wrote a paper on it in high school in my efforts to find some relief for my nightmarish problems).

I also have to be careful about yeast. I have to seriously limit foods with yeast in them and I rarely eat store-bought bread. I do okay if something is fresh out of the oven. I cannot tell you why it makes such a difference.

Foods with yeast in them include pizza, many cheeses, pickles, many kinds of crackers, and, well, if you figure out what is a problem for your kid you have to diligently read labels. You might be shocked at how many brands of crackers contain some kind of sugar. Sugar is a big offender for me so I kind of have my short list of 'safe' foods and I don't get adventurous unless I am feeling really secure and energetic and like I can do the research and take the risk of possibly not reacting well.

I get more yeast infections when I eat too much food that contains yeast. Yeast infections in the mom during pregnancy are associated with autism, and it fits my experience: I had severe and chronic yeast infections in my teens that didn't get cured until some time during my pregnancy with Emp. Having him forced me to radically 'clean up' my diet to a degree that would seem nuts to the average person. So, by the time I had his brother, I had far fewer problems with yeast infections. I had one with my second pregnancy, but it was really minor compared to what I had with my first pregnancy. And my second child's issues are much, much milder than Emp's.

Wow. This is very interesting. I've been just really watching my son lately, trying to see if there are any subtle changes after he eats certain things and I think I need to do more of it. I think sugar is definitely a culprit. He starts acting kind of nuts after sugar sometimes.

If sugar is a big issue, how quickly it digests can be a significant factor. Liquid sugar is the absolute worst. I only drink diet sodas because of that (and Emp only drinks diet sprite). The waiters sometimes think I am nuts when I order a desert that is not too 'offensive' (like cheese cake, which is rich and has protein so the sugar is not overwhelming) and a diet coke. lol. But, for me, the form of the sugar, the proportion relative to other ingredients, the source of the sugar (brown sugar or sugar from sugar beats can be less problematic for some people than white cane sugar, for example -- there are several different sweeteners and you need to learn the names of all of them to read labels and screen foods for sugar content), etc all influence how badly or how tolerably I react. Now that my genetic disorder is being treated, I have a lot more tolerance for sugar, although I still have to be more careful than a 'normal' person.

I'll have to look at milk too, though I really hope he's not intolerant since it is one of the few proteins I can get down him early in the day.

None of us are morning people. I don't make a big breakfast and most Americans get plenty of protein. I don't fret about that. In fact, most Americans get so much protein that their body cannot even absorb it. If you are interested in knowing more about that, probably the best explanation of protein needs and how to meet them is in he book 'Diet for a Small Planet'. I try to make sure they gets carbs in the morning and feed them a 'real meal' as soon as they indicate real hunger.

Lactose intolerance is far more likely than a milk allergy. You can buy lactose-reduced milk or you can buy drops to reduce the lactose content in the milk (I used those when we had less money because it is a cheaper way to accomplish the same thing, lol). If lactose intolerance is the issue, cheese and yogurt might be tolerated better than milk because the lactose gets partially processed by making the milk into cheese or yogurt (not ALL cheeses -- some cheeses, particularly soft cheeses, can have very little processing of the lactose and be no better than milk).

He just hates eating early in the day - he doesn't get hungry until 2 or 3 in the afternoon and says he feels like he's being forced to eat. I've even tried letting him go, and eating when he's hungry, but he really doesn't do as well mentally or emotionally (surprise) when I do that.

I have been known to insist that they drink something in the morning, such as a carnation instant breakfast or fruit juice. I don't fret as much about eating early. You dehydrate in 2 to 3 days (as in you can DIE if you don't drink anything for 2 or 3 days) but it takes 2 to 3 weeks to starve. And hydration can significantly affect energy levels and brain functioning. See if focusing on hydration early in the day is as helpful as making him eat and perhaps less of a hassle -- not as objectionable to him.

I recently started doing an exercise program with all of us in the AM, hoping to get his metabolism going to he's hungrier. So far no change but we've only been doing it a few days.

My husband has spent 17 1/2 years in the army and is still a night owl. He is better about getting up early and doesn't sleep in as late on weekends as he did in his teens, but the effect of nearly 2 decades of 'training' has been pretty minimal. I would not be inclined to fight his metabolism. I would be inclined to figure out when his natural energy highs and lows are and work with them -- do the hard academic subjects during peaks, have down time during lows. Feed him really well when he is hungry and don't sweat it too much. When I was bed ridden for 3 months, my husband took me to a restaurant for dinner everyday. I hate a huge meal because that was just about all I ate for the day. If he gets enough, I wouldn't worry so much about WHEN he eats it. But I would insist on proper hydration. That can be more important than eating and most people aren't sufficiently aware of it.

My dad was not supposed to make it when he had colon cancer. One of the reasons he survived, they calculated how much fluid he needed everyday: Soups, milk, fruit juice, etc, all count. But sodas and coffee do NOT (nor does alcohol, but you probably aren't giving your kid martinis, lol). The caffeine in them is something that dehydrates you.

My husband trained military people at the National Training Center. The National Training Center is in the Mojave Desert, not too far south of Death Valley. They had a National Guard unit come in. They drank soda all day and beer at night and then left for the field. They had 168 heat casualties in one week.

And, one last anecdote, I took care of my sister after her mastectomy. I got two hours sleep the first night because of staying up and forcing her to eat and drink, but it broke her fever (I told her when we began that we could bring her temp down a whole degree by just giving her enough to drink) and she coughed up phlegm that was threatening to cause her post-surgery complications (like pneumonia). Drinking is more important than most folks realize.

How did you find out what your kids were sensitive to? You gave me some idea, but I'd love any additional specifics you can give me in that regard.

One way to check his reactions to food is to remove all suspected offenders and reintroduce them one at a time, at least a few days apart. Then you can have a pretty good idea if a specific food is the culprit. This is a technique used to isolate which foods are a problem for a kid and I am sure you can find a detailed description in a book on food allergies (I cannot recommend one, I haven't used this technique).

You could also keep a diary of what he eats, when he eats it, and how he behaves afterwards. You could quiz him about when he has tummy aches and stuff. Such a diary can help you pinpoint foods that may cause a delayed reaction. I have read where people used this technique and discovered that exactly 24 hours after eating a certain food, they had a bad reaction.

I was just observant and largely trusted the instincts of my kids concerning what they ate, but did try to influence them to eat more regularly and such. Emp was a few months old and breathing funny in his sleep and had a very slight rash. I think I took him to a doctor but I also made the connection to the raspberry juice he had been drinking for a few days. My younger son whigged out, I was already short of sleep and I didn't put it together until the next morning that there was raspberry juice in the mixed fruit juice he drank and that he might well be allergic because his brother was. If his older brother had not already been ID'd on that one, the lack of hives would have made it impossible to pinpoint so quickly. It would have taken repeat exposures for me to put 2 and 2 together.

Kids can get tummy aches and other sort of 'general' symptoms. If they are really against eating something, I don't make them. I assume there is a good reason for their aversion.

I hope that helps.

Thanks for these tips. I'm going to try some of them.

I am glad to have been of help. Drop me a note in a few weeks or months and let me know if it has gotten any better.

Michele