You Can Lead an Autistic to Food, But You Can't Make Him Eat...

Hi Danny,
I'm copying and pasting your email to my autism blog. I never heard of Sprue... I assume it's a gluten allergy.

Many people have told me my son's autism was due to the immunology shots he got as a baby/toddler. I was guilt stricken and in horrible emotional pain for a long time thinking that I had held my baby still for the shots that made him autistic. Although I know I can't be held accountable, but it doesn't change a mother's feelings if she thinks she did ANYTHING to hurt her baby.

Several people have told me about gluten and all I have to do is change his diet to cure him. Anyone who wants to change my son's diet has to live in my house and let me leave the state while they try to change his diet. He eats: Eggo Homestyle Waffles (you have to take scissors and trim the edges, if the waffles aren't perfectly round, they can't be eaten), Louis Rich Turkey Bacon, Skippy Low Fat Smooth Peanut Butter (eaten with a spoon, but ONLY from a NEW JAR each time), Original Pringles (but not any broken ones), McDonalds Chicken MeNuggets (only the round ones), caffeine free coke, whole milk, sometimes Minute Maid strained orange juice. That's the whole list. He's never had a piece of fruit or vegetable since I stopped bottle feeding him when he was six (I used to mix strained fruits and veggies in his formula). I give him vitamins to fill the gap. Once I made him eat one little raisin. He gagged until he vomited on the floor. He was crying and got hysterical at being forced to eat the raisin. He was nonverbal the whole next day. That was the last time I tried to change his diet. Now I just suggest and hope...

If the MD community had expanded the diagnostic parameters to include PDD on the spectrum, that sure explains a lot....
There's a great site Autism Society of America, best info I think. I have to put their link on my blog.

It has been one long difficult haul with an autistic child.... I can't tell you how many people try to tell me how to handle him and how I need to impose more discipline on him, etc.

I was seeing a man briefly until I had him to the house for lasagna. We both love games so we were playing Monopoly. Jacob wanted to "play" and I explained that he doesn't know or care about the rules, he just likes to roll the dice and move the little car around a few laps and then he wanders away. We just give him a turn and let him move the car. The guy looks at Jake and says,"Well I'm not gonna baby you like your mother. If you wanna play this game, you have to play it right."

He got the lasagna, but nothing else, the relationship lasted about another 30 seconds after he said that to Jake. Jake was in tears and agitated. I sent the guy out and spent the rest of the night consoling a 12 year old boy who just wanted to play his version of monopoly for five minutes. Once he was calm, we played his version of Monopoly, because autistics always have to complete the cycle or task. We took turns, he moved the car, I moved the dog. Since the car made it around the board first, I announced him as the winner (he always wins..) and he was just fine the rest of the night...
Sally