a theory?

[Guest guest]

Hi again - you all may be getting to know me by now, I don't know. My name is

, though it always shows up as being from " " (my husband, our yahoo

acct is in his name and I have not bothered to create a new one, sorry). We

have 3 kids, our oldest, Luke, is the one we are mainly concerned about

regarding SCD. He is 5 years old, Asperger's, and has digestive issues

including regular bouts of diarrhea and gas pains. I have been gathering data,

supplies, and formulating my " plan " to start SCD next week, our Mom is even

coming this weekend to help me prepare some of the recipes. So I'm getting

excited! The science behind this diet is beyond any I've seen in other diet

recommendations we've tried. As I keep telling people, this seems to connect

all the " dots " of the other things we've tried here and there.

So, I hope you don't mind if I postulate a theory here. I've mentioned before

that Luke indeed has a " leaky gut " and as one result, he is extremely sensitive

to phenols/salicylates in foods. I use the term " salicylates " because there are

many types of phenols and Luke reacts most strongly to actual salicylates, which

are in artificial colors/flavors as well as many all natural foods. We are

hoping/praying that SCD will heal his gut and allow him to tolerate these, what

a lifesaver that would be! As it is now, if he consumes anything with cinnamon,

berries, honey, vanillin, and a whole list of other things, including most

MEDICINES, his reaction looks like this: he becomes VERY irritable, tantruming,

" stimmy " (spinning, repeating phrases, whipping toys and other items past his

eyes for visual stim, chewing things, picking things apart, etc), he slams his

body into a wall or a PERSON for that physical stimulation, he literally goes

around the house just destroying things, he won't obey as he usually does, he

yells/cries a lot, and he DOES NOT SLEEP. In addition to that, he is just SO

sad because he KNOWS he isn't " right " - he'll stand in front of me with his arms

in the air as though he wants to be held, but if I touch him he'll scream,

" Don't hold me!!!! " It's the worst situation you can imagine with your child,

just SO hard on him, on us, the other kids, the whole family - especially since

otherwise he is so sweet and personable and just has the regular " Aspie " issues.

Now, currently our only option is to avoid these things, but that is not any

kind of CURE, it is only a method of treating the symptoms. It has been my goal

and PRAYER to discover a way to CURE his gut so that he CAN have these things

and not react so badly. SCD seems to be that answer and you can bet we are

praying that it IS! Still, as we begin SCD, I plan to continue limiting the

phenolic/salicylate foods until his gut has had time to heal itself and is no

longer allowing those chemicals to pass into the bloodstream " unchecked " as they

are now, basically putting him on virtual " speed " . Once that time has passed, I

look forward to introducing honey and other things, as a test - and cannot wait

to see him tolerate them fine!!! You will be able to hear the screaming of glee

all the way from Charlotte, NC to wherever you happen to be, I'm SURE!!

Now... my POINT in going into all this, is that in all my reading here, I'm VERY

curious as to whether or not every situation that is currently being blamed on

" die off " in not actually an initial bad reaction to all the phenols/salicylates

used in this diet. I know that die-off is a very real issue, but from reading

Elaine's book, it does not seem that it should last as long or have as many

behavior-related problems as many of you have reported your children having. I

wonder if in some of these cases where these bad behaviors are lasting upwards

of 2 months, if you aren't seeing your child react to the almonds, honey, etc?

Maybe before SCD they did not get as many of these high-salicylate things? And

clearly all of them have SOME type of " leaky gut " or you would not be doing SCD

at all, so it makes sense that phenols/salicylates might prove to be an issue

for them, even if it hadn't been so severe before. Still, if these behaviors

began to improve after 2 or 3 months, that would say to ME that the gut has

begun healing from the SCD, the villi are doing their job again, and the

chemicals are no longer passing through and causing problems. Which is a huge

victory!!!! But maybe a plan would be to limit those foods initially, UNTIL

that healing has taken place, to avoid these months of bad behavior.

This is just my THEORY, understand, but I have unfortunately had to become

somewhat of a research analyst/microbiologist/chemist of my OWN, just to keep

Luke's digestion and behavior under control. And as I read Elaine's book and

looked at the diagrams and read your accounts here, it all just seems SO CLEAR

to me. I welcome any feedback, and wonder if in the future we might encourage

newbies experiencing behavior problems early on, to watch this problem of

phenols. If it is helpful, here are some lists we adhere to with Luke (see

links below), but believe me, I VERY MUCH look forward to tossing these to the

WIND once his gut is no longer leaky!!!!!!!!!!!! What an answer to prayer that

will be!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Take care all,

Luke (5), (3), (19 mos)

http://allergies.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.foodcanmakeyou\

ill.co.uk/library/articles/sal%5Ffood.htm

http://allergies.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zipworld\

..com.au%2F%7Eataraxy%2FSalic_03.txt

http://users.bigpond.net.au/allergydietitian/fi/sal.html