anyone try the GFCF diet before going raw?

[Purl]

do you think it would be a gradual step towards raw for my little ones? Does it make sense to be M(meat)FGFCF? I just don't know what to feed them! Oh, I should mention that my 2 older ones have autism and my 2 younger ones appear to have food allergies of some kind. One of the younger has a chronic runny nose, and we treated him for a sinus infection, then for dust allergies with little to no results. I thought maybe MFGFCF might at least remove the worst "offenders" and that would give me time to move them to raw....or am I just a delusional mom who needs to get some more sleep...LOL! :p

[Revvell]

I haven't the foggiest idea what all those letters mean. Why don't you just give them raw? If you do a search here, there are a few moms who have children with autism and I, personally use to have food allergies and they cleared up with raw. Interesting how that happened.

I also don't know what you mean you don't know what to feed them. Food! Nature's bounty. Put some food in from of them, live, fresh, natural fruits, vegetables, nuts and sunflower and pumpkin seeds and let them at it. Children seem to have an instinct about what to eat ~ as long as it's available to them. Many seem to lean to more fruit than veggies yet, carrot and celery sticks are good munchy stuff.

btw> there's also a section here on feeding children. Have you browsed that yet? LOTS of info there.

Revvell

[Purl]

sorry Caesin free Gluten free-I was actully wondering if someone could compare how they felt, and how easy/difficult the eating plans are. If they thought it makes sense or not...I'm guessing "no"? LOL!

[Ariannah]

GFCF means "Gluten-free, casein-free".

It is used for autistic children.

The cool thing about raw is that it is by default gluten free and dairy free.

[Punky]

I would slowly change their diet like you are thinking; esp. the one's
with autism. It depends on the child of course and how picky they are.
What are there diets like now? A lot of variables....
When I use to be part of a GFCF autism board, many children
with autism are not very open to other *new* foods or changes, so use that as your guide to how much you can change & they can handle at one time. Also as a parent to a child with special needs do not overwelm yourself
or you might give up on it all.
Perhaps start with removing all casein, while at the same time introducing
many more raw fruits and veggies etc...than go on to gluten.
As you go on to learn more raw recipes, etc...than introduce them to your kids. Raw ice cream is a great sub for dairy ice-cream...so you'll be eliminating the dairy and adding in raw.
My advice of transitioning slowly might go against the grain of this raw board, because most
people on here are going raw and not dealing with kids with special needs.
But that's just my humble opinion.
Also there use to be a gfcf yahoo group which is a great source of
support for parents implimenting this kind of diet for children with special needs. Warning though, many parents on that board do the GFCF diet for
their children, but in my opinion still feed them too many junk and processed foods. I think *whole foods* with the least amount of processing is the best
obvously, and if raw all the better. So keep that in mind over there.

If your diet is pretty clean now you can proceed faster.
So there's a lot of variables to what your asking; hope I've helped in some way :confused:

[Punky]

GFCF means "Gluten-free, casein-free".

It is used for autistic children.

The cool thing about raw is that it is by default gluten free and dairy free.

yes raw is mostly gluten casein free! yay!
watch out for Nama Shoya though-gluten

[Ariannah]

ahh didn't dawn on me to think of nama shoyu, correct!!

I only eat fruits, nuts, greens, so all those things are of course, free of any nasty ingredients.

Yes, check ingredients in any additives you may be putting in recipes.

[Punky]

I thought maybe MFGFCF might at least remove the worst "offenders" and that would give me time to move them to raw....or am I just a delusional mom who needs to get some more sleep...LOL! :p

gfcf was a jumping board to raw for us;
I started there and proceeded...
actually it lead me here thru my obsessive research.
are your kids in school?

it will help get rid of the worse offenders but you'll have to go further
to see better results.

[Purl]

punky-thank you for the wealth of info you have shared. I got more info today, than web searches could get me in a month!
Yes-they are in school. Until this winter break they were eating school lunches-til I stopped in one day and caught one boy eating Reese Peanut Butter Puff Cereal with Strawberry Milk!!!! Oh, and his fruit???? Mushy grainy pears in corn syrup!!!! UGGGGHHH! They are going back on Tues-brown baggin' it the rest of the year!

[Dandelion Girl]

Purl, I teach special ed and have several autistic students. I have started giving them fruit for snacks instead of the usual snacks given at school and they love them. I can barely keep enough for them. Unfortunately, I don't think many of them have had fruit much. One of the students asked for the little ball things (grapes). He is not autistic and is very verbal so he would have known the name if he had them. I know it is very hard to get autistic children to change the way they eat. Sometimes as I'm sure you know it is the texture so maybe finding something with the same texture as foods they like will help. You are definitely right not to let them eat the school cafeteria lunches. They are really not good for the students. Where I am, they make the students get milk with each lunch and they have nothing fresh and lots of sugar and preservatives. I think you are doing great to try GFCF combined with raw. Raw would be best but with autistic kids, I know it can be really tough to even change a few foods. I think ice creams, smoothies, fruits, and puddings would be good things they might eat and transitioning slowly for autistic kids is probably the only way you will have success. It sounds like Punky can be a really good source of info and support. Also, if the teacher is giving them snacks in addition to the school lunches, she needs to be aware of your decisions with diet. Since you are sending lunches, you could send snacks too so that she won't give them something that they shouldn't have. Although, while transitioning, it might be good to give a little freedom in case the other children have something your child really wants and it might cause a meltdown if you child doesn't get it. That would be up to you depending on your child and you could ask the teacher to let you know if something like that happened so that you could see any results and make further decisions based on your child's needs. I would also think watching out for MSG would be a good thing to do during the transition. I think it is great you are willing to do this for your kids.

Punky, I think it is great that you have done this for your kids and are being supportive of other parents wanting to do the same for theirs. You can be a big inspiration to those who want to change their kid's diets, but get totally overwhelmed because autistic kids usually really don't like change.