Taking wheat out of my kids diet

Question
Hi:

I have two children-my oldest, who is 3 1/2, has had purple circles under his eyes since he was a few months old (and nursing), has always had loose stools and has some borderline Autism spectrum issues.  My 22 month old has a growth hormone deficiency and severe, global developmental delays and failure to thrive(and ironically, is chronically constipated and has excellent social skills).  We have ruled out celiac disease, however, I am suspect that maybe there is a food allergy.  I wish to start by taking wheat out of their diets for a few months to see how they do, but...urgh....ALL they will eat are noodles, crackers, breads, bagels, etc.  How in the world do I phase out the one thing they will consistently eat? And how do I replace those calories? Both are very thin, but the baby is severely underweight-Any suggestions?  
Thanks
Jodi

Answer
Dear Jodi,

You have a your work cut out for you, alright! With an  borderline Autistic Spectrum child myself (socially apt with global developmental delays, underweight as a toddler,with what I would class a Non-Verbal Learning Disability), I can empathise. There is an increase in the notion that Autistic Spectrum disorder brings with it its own spectrum of food intolerance. Most common is a type of intolerance to gluten (a grain protein, predominantly but not only ruling out wheat products) and casein (a milk protein). Otherwise there may be more modified types of hyperglycemia (any carbohydrate intake can bring on). You describe symptoms in your 3 1/2 yr old which fit the full casein/gluten intolerance, which means just eliminating wheat will not do the trick. Have you thought about checking this out with a (hospital) specialist/dietician?
If you need to go all the way, it is not as hard as it used to be with lots of gluten free products quite readily available, both at supermarkets and healthfood stores. Rice noodles or "gnocchi" pasta shells (made of potato) are no problem, to begin with, but you can also get gluten free pastas. Rice and ricecrackers should be easy to get your youngsters to enjoy with jam or sesame paste toppings - or there are many different flavoured ones, but if you get the red light for casein, start educating yourself on labels (youl'd be surprised how much milk derivatives end up in the strangest places). You might have to consider taking up baking, since gluten free flour is not so hard to find.

You will have to prepare yourself for a detox period when your kids will go haywire and may even eat carpet or washing-up liquid to get their "fix". But once you become convinced that gluten (or any other trigger) is the cause of their impaired health, or behavioural problems and learning difficulties, you will become motivated enough to rethink meals and shopping lists. There are pleny of websites out there with people who have had to prepare gluten free meals for kids, try looking under Aspergers and gluten or casein intolerance (even if your child does not have full-blown Aspergers- that's where a lot of practical advice for all us mums can be found these days!). The good news is that in a fair amount of the less seriously intolerant cases  you can reintroduce some low gluten products after a year or so. Make sure you train up their tastebus as much as possible in the meantime so they can more easily leave out foods at certain periods in their lives without becoming undernourished. In my experience, organic food is the most flavoursome and interestingly textured for young children. It will be hard already for the 3 1/2 but give it a go and try to have faith that high quality (bio-dynamic) food gives them a lot of life-force where the calories might have to take a second place.
All the very best,
Love Evelyn.

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