Initializing

Starting another blog. Maybe a good idea? I'm having a hard time finding the information I want about GFCF diets for kids on the autism spectrum, (well, hard for the digital age where I'm spoiled by instant information on everything) so maybe blogging about our experiences with Autism Spectrum Disorder will help. Help with the diet, the whole experience, maybe my limited sanity? 

So many difficult things about The Diet. Sam has a pretty limited range of foods as it is, so taking out an entire food group and our main staple from a second complicates things even more. Before the question was "is he getting enough nutrition?" Now it's "is he avoiding this loooong list of forbidden foods and getting enough nutrition? And is this huge, heavy burden of a special diet making enough difference to be worth it?"

On top of that, there's the questionable science of the whole idea. A recent review of the research showed no good evidence of improvement from a GFCF diet (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/24789114/), but simultaneously concluded that there hasn't been much good research on the question yet. So we tried it just in case and (spoiler alert!) we're pretty sure that it is improving things. Placebo effect? On one level I don't care if it's placebo or real, anything for the desperate, but on another level I have to investigate and examine.