I'm not an original cook. Heck, I'm not even a cook! But after 3 years on the gluten-free, casein-free diet for my 7 yr old who has autism, I had to get a little creative. And a lot repetitive - at first.
Being on the GFCF+ diet is a double edged sword - it's fantastic that it works (and that others noticed that it does), but at the same time, it's a pain in the behind trying to avoid A LOT of the foods that would have been convenient to make or buy. A catatonic autistic kid or go on a special diet? It's not even a question.
When we first went on "the" diet, I didn't tell anyone. My son was in preschool with a behaviorist/shadow when we started - I had to tell her since my then 4yr old didn't understand what he was supposed to avoid. She didn't tell the teacher of our little experiment. Not more than a week later, J's preschool teacher came up to me and asked if we were doing something different. "What do you mean by different?" I asked, trying to be coy. She reported that J is much more "here" - he's listening, participating and much more aware of his peers and surroundings. I was completely floored. I thought, "Whaaat?! What the heck does that mean?!" So I ran to my pediatrician's office, telling her what's happened. Medically speaking, the diet doesn't make any sense. And that was that.
But we still couldn't argue with the results so we shouldered on. Closer to J's birthday, I discovered an allergy sensitive baker about 15 miles from my place. YAY! Forget baking this shtuff - I'm buying it! What? You also have GFCF pizza?! Give me two! Unfortunately, after taking two bites of the pizza, J slowly made his way to the couch, laid down, got red in the face and broke out in hives. We immediately gave him allergy medicine, and drove him to urgent care, where he proceeded to throw up on the doctor. The doctor was stoic about the whole thing, bless him. "Well, don't need to give him anything since he probably feels better after that. Might want to have an allergy test though, just in case."
My pediatrician finally gave in to an allergy test. Apparently, there are levels of allergic... reaction?! I didn't really understand. Still don't. I thought it was either you were allergic or not. The list was long, but the highest level that J had was four. Six, she said, would have been anaphylactic. Then I started to remember an incident when he was 18 mos old, when he broke out in hives in the middle of the night, for apparently no reason. He was introduced to fake eggs (Egg Beaters, in this case) that day, but neither my pediatrician, or the doctor in the ER thought that was the cause. "It's freakin' FAKE eggs! Who's allergic to that?! And besides, that was 7pm - it's now midnight!" (They didn't quite say it that way, but I was hysterical so I imagined them reacting to my hysteria in like.)
The "allergy-free" pizza had millet and cashew - either or both would have been the culprit but my pediatrician and I agreed to stay away from ALL kinds of nuts, just in case. Still hysterical, I stayed away from EVERYTHING on that list from level 1 to 4. But my pediatrician said that the test can have a false-positive result. Jonas may or may not be allergic to these foods. We even called Kel's cousin, a Harvard professor and pediatric allergist (who could be more expert than that?!), who gave us the same answer - if he doesn't show the typical allergy symptoms (being catatonic, by itself, is NOT an allergic reaction), then it's not an allergy despite what the results say. Anything less than level 6 is non-issue.
While going gluten-free, casein-free, everything else-free, may not be for EVERY autistic person, it worked for us. Don't get me wrong - Jonas is still autistic, I don't think any diet on its own will "cure" or "recover" a child from autism, despite what some hard-core proponents say. But I'm happy to hear those "recovery" stories - it certainly gives one hope. And going gluten-free, casein-free MAY be part of the bigger picture... but since we're not there yet, we don't know.
In the meantime, here's the original recipe for Stir Fried Ginger Beef by Elise Bauer (LOVE her food blog!). http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/stir_fry_ginger_beef/
My substitutions? Coconut Secrets' Coconut Aminos (http://www.coconutsecret.com/aminos2.html) for soy sauce, agave (or maple syrup) for honey, potato or tapioca starch for cornstarch, and light olive oil for peanut oil. Everything else was safe! (I added thinly sliced zucchini since I didn't want it to spoil, and yellow onions because I like them.)
To all GFCF-ers... may the force be with you.
