In 2006, a one-year-old boy, Ethan, was diagnosed with Autism and he wouldn’t sleep more than 2 hours- day or night. After 20 months in a row of Ethan not sleeping, Ethan’s mom eliminated wheat and dairy from her son’s diet, within 3 days Ethan was sleeping through the night.
Sometimes after changing the diet, the gut-brain connection can improve. Many children with autism have a sensitivity to wheat because they have a higher level of antibodies that react to the gluten found in wheat, fighting it like it’s a foreign object in the body.
For additional research on the gluten-autism connection read: Wheat: A Missing Piece In the Autism Puzzle.
People often balk at the concept that a gluten-free diet may improve the condition of autistic children. For so many who have tried it, the proof is not in academic publications but in the (gluten-free) pudding. Nothing is more compelling than seeing improvement with your own eyes, not even a randomized, double-blinded clinical trial.
