Autism

[NFrawRUNNER]

I am curious if any of you have had positive results with cilantro for helping with autism? I am intrigued by the qigong.com website and stumbled across the link by chance....

http://qigong.com/autism.htm

[rawpriestess]

WOW, how marvelous, I know we have some people here with beautiful children with Autism, they will be so thankful for this information.

Thanks for sharing this.

[Helen Of Tennessee]

What a great website. Although I don't have any children or grandchildren with autisim, I did find a lot of other information on that website that was a great interest to me. i.e. the section on Phytochemicals . . . very interesting!!!!

I do know a few people who have children with autisum. I will forward this website to them.

Thanks so much for sharing!

[NFrawRUNNER]

I am going to research it more this summer. I am a special education teacher and work with autistic, etc... children! I am very intrigued!
Di

[NuttyRawMom]

I realise this post is a bit older, since I am new, I would like to add a thought here. For anyone with a child with any type of behavioral disorder, such as ADD/ADHD, PDD, ODD, Autism, etc....you should look up the information on Dr. Feingold and their diet program. (Can I post the website here?) He was an MD, an allergist, who created this elimination diet based on his theory that all the artificial colorings, flavorings, and preservatives, and even some natural foods (mostly fruits!) with salicylates (natural compounds found in the foods) affect these children. Unfortunately, instead of eliminating bad foods entirely, they are focused on finding the processed foods that do not contain these harmful chemicals. They provide a list of foods that are acceptable. So, for those whose children are not yet raw, and especially whose kids still eat SAD, this info could prove useful.

We have used this with our 6 yr son with amazing results. He has never been diagnosed as we have not taken him to a dr. for our concerns, yet we believe he struggles with ADHD. When deciding to go back on raw (high raw for the kids), we decided to give him anything (even those fruits not acceptable in stage one of the diet) as long as it is raw. I am thinking of going back now and eliminating those again (although I wonder what he could eat then!) and seeing if we see another step in improvement. I feel like we have hit a plateau. See, once you eliminate everything and see results, you can start adding back in, one at a time, the natural foods to look for the behavioral reactions. Never add back the artificial stuff. I jumped the gun and decided to go high raw and hope the benefits from that would outweigh any effects we might see from the natural foods being eliminated!

We can see within the day when he accidentally has something he shouldn't. Truly amazing!

[Mary]

Hi all...

Both of my children have autism - my older son is 11 with high-functioning autism, and my younger son is 9 with severe autism. My older son eats healthier than my younger son, but both need to lose weight and I'd like both of them to eat more raw foods.

But first, on the cilantro topic - I'm on several autism email groups, and from time to time, cilantro comes up as a treatment. Some people have attempted to use cilantro as a natural chelator to remove mercury and other heavy metals from the body, but it's actual effectiveness is unknown.

According to a very highly-regarded autism specialist in the US, Dr. Amy Holmes: "Cilantro. Untested. A few reports that it MAY cross the blood-brain barrier and chelate mercury, but no data. Please bear in mind that no one knows what the ingredient in cilantro is that MAY do this. Is every cilantro equal? Who knows? I don't see how one could possibly be even somewhat sure that you are keeping a relatively steady blood level of THE INGREDIENT when we don't know what THE INGREDIENT is or if all cilantro has the same amount of it. And if anything in mercury chelation is more important, I can't think of it."

We are chelating my younger son, who tested extremely high for mercury and lead, with DMSA. As much as I wish there were an effective natural alternative out there to use, there isn't one, and my son's health dictates that we remove the toxins as quickly and safely as possible. So far, the results we are getting are very good - we've been chelating for 6 months now. For more information, please visit www.generationrescue.org.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions regarding chelation or other biomedical treatments for autism, as I'd be happy to help.

I would really like to hear from other parents of children with autism as to any success with increasing raw food intake. My younger son has multiple food allergies/intolerances, and doesn't tolerate certain textures of food. The only raw foods he eats are grapes and apples. I've tried carrot sticks, smoothies, and other raw treats, but he refuses them. I'd love to hear from other parents, because I know changing to a raw food lifestyle would be very healing for my boys.

Thanks!

Mary
Folsom, CA