I want to put my son on Atkins

[Lia]

hi.. all... I am motivated to put my 17 year old son on Atkins.. he has autism.. very mild and a great kid.. he is 5' 6" and a whopping 234 lbs... he eats anything that is not nailed down.. which is great considering he only ate french fries for year and minimal other foods due to sensory issues. When he hit his teens he turned around and is a joy to watch him sample anything. now.. he is on lexapro and now geodon... an antipsychotic for mood swings and this has a slight gain in weight... I wonder if this will counter act atkins???????? geodon works like abilify and risperdal. except not as much of a weight gainer... thanks.. Lia

[pipee_pl]

i would do it- if only to see how is body reacts to the higher fat intake and if his appetite is decreased. Interesting- but definately eating less sugar and crap carbs should help any behaviour issues or any kind of difficulty concentrating that he may have- let us know how he does.

[steady as she goes]

that would be so great! I hope my nephew gets to the point where he'll try other things. he eats a lot, but not a huge variety.

from what I've read, eliminating gluten greatly helps autism symptoms as well. so atkins would be great for your boy!

[Lia]

hi.. gluten.. EXACTLY and the casein.... hmmm.... i have to wait until school is over... where I can watch him like a hawk...he loves bacon and eggs... celery .. cream cheese... lol...loves salads.... veggies.. this will be easy for him... Lia

[sadie147]

I saw Jenny McCarthy in an interview about her Autistic son where she had mentioned that she tried an elimination diet and found removing both dairy and wheat had improved his issues significantly.

Her book may be worth reading as well? Amazon.com: Louder Than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism: Jenny McCarthy: Books

[keriann_forgoodthistime]

I don't know anything about autism - but I HAVE read / heard a lot about how low carb diets have been what's always "prescribed" to kids that have epileptic seizures (look it up and you should find a lot of info) - and how, while i don't think it 'cures' their seizures it seriously helps. Now, again - not knowing anything about autism or epilepsy - i just know that what i've read is that low-carb diets ARE the healthy way to go for our bodies.

think about it as far as this goes..."low fat" diets were the RAGE in the 80's and from what i've read/heard - low fat diets can make you depressed...and well - after the low fat rage, all of a sudded we had an INFLUX of self-help/depression books...link there?
just an example of why bodies biologically need fat and NOT carbs.

plus - people lived for thousands of years without processed carbs and yet it wasn't until AFTER processed carbs and grains and oils and whatnot came into existence that we had more and more disabilities and heart disease and and other issues...that right there is something i keep thinking about and it seems to me that that's a VERY convincing reason to put ANYONE on a low-carb/high-fat/atkins-like diet.

so - after that little bit of info...i'm just saying that as far as our bodies go - biologically speaking - low carb diets are what our bodies were made to eat - so yes, I would definitely put your son on atkins.

[eclectikat]

Hi Lia, welcome to the boards. I hope you do follow through with changing your sons diet.

I worked as an autism specialist with Autistic Adults for 12 years. They all had varying degree's of autism from very mild to very severe. While I was never able to institute a low carb approach, I can tell you that there was an absolute corelation from ingesting high carb meals and behaviour outbursts. I knew then that feeding a high fiber high protien diet almost always guaranteed that the behaviour outbursts were minimized. I wish I had known then what i know now about a high fat approach... to quell cravings. Be sure that when you begin this way of eating with your son that you do not scrimp on the fat... good fats like butter and olive oil. His cravings initially will be difficult to manage... they are for everyone who does not have the issues of Autism to deal with. I cannot imagine how difficult it might be for him to deal with the induction blues.

I sure hope your son loses weight... but more importantly I bet you will see a HUGE difference in the difficulties he has due to his autism. I think you could bank on it! THAT alone is enough reason to change his diet. Not to mention he will lose weight if you do it properly!

Please keep us posted.

[Lia]

thank you so much.. I have to wait until school is over.. so I can watch him for the 1st two weeks... it is HARD.. he will be going to a summer camp and I will pack him lots of devil eggs.. tuna salad.. water... celery with cream cheese.. but they go out for pizza and the staff is not going to moniter him... he has a lot to loose... if I could just get 20 lbs off... we would be on our way... I am glad you posted on here...Lia

[Lia]

hi... it is called the ketogenic diet... something about putting the body into a fast for the first 48 hours.. does something to the brain... then.. high fat and proteins... something about ketosis has an anticonvulscent property to the brain... they use this diet where every single anti seizure med fails... later .. in the write up from johns hopkins.. they say .. many go off the strict keto gentic and do a modified atkins... so credit is given to atkins by johns hopkins.. Lia

[judyintn]

I recommend a book called "The Specific Carbohydrate Diet" by Elaine Gottschall. My husband has brain and neurological injury and eating by this book makes him feel more well and improves his behavior. I think the website is breakingtheviciouscycle.info and you can probably find the book used on amazon or ebay