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OPEN LETTER TO MOTHERS
OF AUTISTIC CHILDREN

Please read this letter and the information contained in this web page very carefully.

As you may know there are autistic children currently following the Special Foods Diet dietary intervention program who have experienced almost miraculous improvements (disappearance of symptoms related to autism). Although many autistic children experience food-related problems, not all do. To determine whether there is a good possibility that similar improvement may occur for your child, please carefully evaluate the following information and advice.

Prior to now, have you been aware of food-related problems in your child? This would include, but would not be limited to, food allergies such as food-related asthma or rashes, etc., food intolerance, food addictions, food sensitivities, food rituals, food aversions such as being a very picky eater, or experiencing moderate to severe dietary limitations that are self-imposed. If your answer is ‘yes’ to one or more of these questions, then food allergies, intolerances or sensitivities are more likely to be an underlying cause of autism-related symptoms in your child. It is our experience that having a history of food-related problems is one of the most important indicators that food allergies, intolerances or sensitivities may be an underlying cause of autism-related symptoms.

Has your child been diagnosed as gluten or casein intolerant?Much of the recent interest in the Special Foods Diet dietary intervention program has come from parents of autistic children who have been diagnosed as gluten and/or casein intolerant. Several of the most spectacular breakthroughs have occurred to children who had already been placed on a gluten-free/casein-free diet for substantial periods of time. Certainly if your child has received a diagnosis of gluten or casein intolerance you should provide your child with a gluten-free diet and casein-free diet; however, food sensitivities that express themselves in severe symptoms, such as would be the case for autism, rarely are limited only to a relative few food categories, such as gluten and casein. We strongly encourage you to determine the full extent of relief and improvement your child can achieve through dietary intervention. It is essential to avoid not only gluten and casein containing foods but also every single other problem food in your child's diet. This is now possible with the Special Foods Diet.

Are you willing to make major changes in your child’s diet? The best, quickest, and easiest way to find out just how much of your child’s problems are related to food allergies, sensitivities or intolerances, is to temporarily (we recommend five weeks) place your child on a diet of unusual foods and uncommon foods that your child has never eaten before – the Special Foods Diet. After the five-week period you will have a very good idea of just how many of your child’s problems are food-related. If after five weeks without a slip-up you notice no appreciable change in your child’s condition, then you may be able to reasonably conclude that this is not the answer for your child.

We strongly recommend that you use the Special Foods! Diet for the following reasons:

The best reason is stated above -- this is a way to quickly find out the benefits (in terms of improvement of symptoms) you are likely to obtain by making major dietary changes. After five weeks you will be able to decide whether the improvement is worth the effort in your case.
It is difficult to determine all of the foods that cause adverse effects in a child. The problem with existing food tests is the occurrence of numerous false positive and false negative results. Also some symptoms are subtle and the effects are difficult to discern. For these reasons, one cannot know the complete set of problem foods for a child.
A diet of unusual and uncommon foods is much more likely to be free of problem foods and all of the associated symptoms. This is because, in general, an individual will not react immediately to a new food, even if the person could eventually become allergic to that food, it usually takes a while for a reaction to begin to occur. By carefully rotating foods, by optimizing caloric intake and by balancing carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, emerging new sensitivities can be avoided. In addition the carbohydrates that are the mainstay of the diet are exotic roots that have been found to be the most well tolerated foods in the world; these are the foods most likely to cause no symptoms at all.
The Special Foods Diet will temporarily eliminate some foods that are eventually found to be just fine in order to eliminate virtually all problem foods and obtain an all-important zero-symptom baseline for a child. This zero-symptom baseline represents not only the absence of and complete relief from all physical problems associated with foods the child has been eating, but also will represent the complete elimination of all food-direct effects on autistic behaviors. This is generally achieved in the first 5-7 weeks of the diet. When the zero symptom baseline is achieved, the importance of dietary intervention to a child's autistic state can be assessed. At the end of the initial 5-week period, common foods can be carefully reintroduced one at a time. In this way it will be possible to determine those common foods that also cause no symptoms and add them back into the diet.
The alternative, eliminating a few foods from a regular diet, is generally confusing and frustrating. This is due to the fact that with this approach, problem foods remain in the diet. It is virtually impossible to determine the additional problem foods that should be removed, so problem foods remain in the diet. On diets such as this, there is generally a partial improvement in symptoms; this partial improvement is real. However, over time, the improvement does not last. The foods causing minor or subtle symptoms are invariably eaten more frequently because they have replaced the eliminated foods, and due to the increased frequency of consumption the child becomes more sensitive and the symptoms intensify. Then a new set of foods is generally eliminated; again, for the above reasons, the child becomes more sensitive and the symptoms intensify. This roller coaster cycle of improvement and decline is heartbreaking to parents, especially when they realize that because of their well-intentioned efforts, the child has become more sensitive than he or she was when they began.
When a diet includes both new well-tolerated foods and problem foods, an individual is much more likely to develop sensitivities to the new foods. The best way to guard against developing sensitivities to new foods is to include only well-tolerated foods in the diet, to optimize calories and nutrition and to rotate foods. By following this approach the risk of developing new food sensitivities can be greatly reduced.

We strongly recommend the Special Foods Diet as the best, fastest, easiest, and cheapest way to know the improvement possible in your child from food-related changes in diet. To place your child on this diet, please contact Special Foods immediately (703) 644-0991. To locate a physician who recommends this method, please contact us.