Our Healing Journey Through ASD Part 3: The Feingold Diet
By Jill Hardina
Nicholas started getting EI (early intervention) when he was 2 1/2 years old after a few evaluations, denials, and finally, the help of the director of a program at a local college in which the speech pathology students worked with children. It’s important to note that the evaluation that secured the recommendation for speech was not conducted in the usual half-hour evaluation at home but in the home of an outside consultant. Because it lasted longer than the usual ones but not in the usual setting, she was able to see his behavior change. They still refused Occupational Therapy, even though he tripped over his own feet, bumped into walls, and bumped into me whenever we walked together.
They did give him a play-therapist; however, she decertified him when he turned three, claiming that he was better. As I learned, as was typical of many professionals in the field, she only knew what she had to know. At his last session, she saw him crawl up the stairs, to which she remarked, “You should have someone look at him.” She was a child psychologist!
He was already aging out of EI by the time he started, so I immediately started on the process for CPSE (Committee on Preschool Education). EI wanted to decertify him, so I spent extra time researching what was needed on my end. A workshop on the process, taught by an autism mom in my neighborhood, was helpful. I had his evaluation done at a well-respected school, during which he went berserk and thereby clinched their recommendation for a full-day, self-contained program. The EI case manager was dumbstruck when I told her the recommendation. In fact, there was dead silence on the phone.
I had been fortunate to meet another mother whose son was similar to Nicholas in energy and focus. In fact, the two of us spent much time together, running after the two boys. She was a nurse and, contrary to what I was seeing in other nurses, surprisingly open-minded. I learned much from her, including the possibility that the boys’ issues were vaccine-related as well as various treatments into which she was researching.
She informed me that the school was accepting positive titers in lieu of boosters. She also convinced me to go to a GI doctor for metabolic testing, but I admit that, even though I still have those testing records, I don’t remember them well. She also had her son on the Feingold Diet and shared the information with me. This was the information I had asked the pediatrician for the previous year but which she had refused to give me.
Dr. Ben Feingold was a pediatrician who found during the 1960’s that hyperactivity and children’s health were affected by certain food ingredients, including food dyes, food coloring, certain preservatives, and salicylates, which are found in some fruit and aspirin. At the time, my library didn’t have any information on this diet, although I did find the book a few years later at a book sale, “Why Your Child Is Hyperactive: The Bestselling Book on How ADHD is Caused by Artificial Food Flavors and Colors,” by Dr. Ben Feingold.
I set about reading ingredient labels, and to my surprise, I found that many of the products I was using contained dyes and preservatives prohibited by Feingold. Because Nicholas was so hyper and took so much of my time, as well as craving carbohydrates and being restricted from most fruits and vegetables, I was using a lot of packaged goods, all of which contained preservatives. Ironically, I had assumed that, if these preservatives were in everything, they could not possibly be the bad ones. I found food dye in three items that he had routinely: Gatorade, which had been prescribed as the “adult form” of Pedialyte for vomiting; Kellogg’s Nutra-Grain Fruit Filled Cereal Bars; and potato bread, which I used for French toast. I had always wondered what gave potato bread its yellow color. The brand of bread was not necessarily an indicator of the use of food dye. In fact, the national brands did contain it, while some of the store brands did not.
I then emptied out the cabinets and, as Feingold recommended, packed up all the boxes, tied them, and hid them. The day I did this, I put boxes of Jello, which I made occasionally, on the counter and busily set about cleaning. Nicholas had gotten quiet, so I went looking for him and, to my horror, found him sitting on the floor covered in Jello powder. Let’s just say that I learned very quickly that, yes, there is a connection between food coloring and hyperactivity.
It takes the body three days to clear out food coloring. I let Jello run its course and, meanwhile, stopped giving him those products that contained any food dyes. After three days, he had calmed down, stopped bedwetting, and showed remorse for the first time when I scolded him. From then on, the only time he wet the bed was when he accidentally ate something containing food dye.
It wasn’t easy to convince people how important this was, even when I had proof. Around Thanksgiving, I was informed by the social worker that his behavior had deteriorated. The preschool was willing to allow me to observe the class, and while there, I saw a stack of fruit punch cans. I asked when they had switched from juice to fruit punch and was told it was around Thanksgiving. I had my answer. For the next year, the only time he wet the bed or became aggressive was when he shoved a pink marshmallow Easter chick he brought home school in his mouth before I could grab it, and when the lady in the bakery gave him a cookie without asking me. I doubt they don’t ask for permission these days.
I’m not sure how the Feingold diet has evolved as they later branched out to include gluten and dairy sensitivities. At that time, in 2005, a yearly membership costing $85.00 would provide a shopping list of acceptable items. They made a disclaimer that companies would change their ingredients but that they would notify us with updates on the changes. After being on it for a year, fewer and fewer items that were not organic were on the list, so I decided to skip the membership and put the membership fee toward going organic.
Once again, a friend who was sharing my experiences was able to help more than the pediatricians. We didn’t stop there but continued to learn more about natural healing, which I will detail next time.