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My 7-year old son, , has been gfcf for three months. He was

diagnosed pdd-nos at three. We have been involved in all sorts of

speech-language therapy since his original diagnosis.

We have seen improvements with the diet - I wish I had heard of it

sooner - I stumbled upon it in July. He all of a sudden has interest

in imaginary play, is no longer in pull-ups at night, and hits his 6-

year old brother less in frustration. He is a second grader in a

mainstream classroom. He gets OT and speech " resource " . He has

problems concentrating, keeping on task, behavioral, and interacting

with his peers. We do see a link between sugar consumption and

behavoral issues. He does well in math, spelling, reading (he taught

himself to read at four), but has difficulty comprehending and

expressing himself. All this is typical of his disorder.

My concern is that he had a very limited diet before the diet

(cereal, pb & j, pasta, milk, macaroni & cheese, fruit, no meat unless

you call McNuggets meat, ice cream, crackers, etc) and with the diet

is still very limited just different foods (gfcf waffles, peanut

butter on gfcf toast, corn pasta, chocolate soymilk, soybeans, fruit,

corn, soy ice cream, french toast made with gfcf bread). He eats a

lot of soy, corn, and peanut butter and I am concerned that he may be

allergic to these also, but if we removed these he would eat hardly

anything.

I talked with another parent in the area this week and she suggested

probiotics and ensymes. We tried the ensymes from the gfcf website

and they were so bitter we had to disguise them in foods and found he

didn't want the foods anymore because of the taste (and I tried them

and couldn't blame him).

I have read 's book and it seems like he may have yeast. After

he got out of the tub last week we noticed that his groin was all red

(he had also just recovered from a cold). It just made sense to us

that he has yeast.

Right now I am overwhelmed. I would like to do food testing so we

could know for sure what he is intolerant to. My mother is allergic

to wheat, milk, sugar, peanuts, and many other things (my brothers

and I probably have similar allergies). She had a lab in Texas do

the testing about six years ago. I am inclined to do the same.

However, if he is allergic to soy, corn, and peanut butter, we'd be

left with fruit, potato chips, and Mcs fries as the only foods

he'll eat. We tried the DariFree milk and he didn't like it. He

won't eat rice or potatoes other than those mentioned.

A lot of what the parent in the area said made sense. If we could do

the probiotics and he would start eating meat and vegetables, it

would be wonderful. The only vegetables he eats now are soybeans,

corn, and sometimes peas.

I am concerned about his weight. He is as skinny as a stick. He

weighs 52 pounds and is 52 inches tall (he was 90% in height and 75%

in weight a year ago, but hasn't gained any weight in almost two

years). His father was as skinny as a child, but ate a lot. We give

him a vitamin at night. I bought the gfcf raspberry vitamins and he

didn't like them. So we have been giving him Flintstones. As far as

I can tell they are gfcf.

I guess my question is what do I do and why. I'm inclined to try the

probiotics and ensymes. From what I see from other postings is to do

the probiotics first for a week and then the ensymes (any

recommendations as to ones that taste good). As I understand it this

is to get good bacteria in his stomach. Then she recommended that I

try grape seed oil extract to kill the yeast (I would try Nystatin

but my pediatrician is no help - " you can't believe much about what

you learn on the internet " and I am not sure he would prescribe it.).

We have heard about DAN doctors and the Pfifer clinic in Chicago.

Are these worth investigating? Or should we do the probotics and

ensymes and see how they work first?

Please forgive me for rambling, but I wanted to put in as much

information that might be relevant.

Thanks for any assistance.