myself. I was desperate and tried the diet. It took out many of the things he loved and foods that I would later find he was addicted to. It was a diet of bland fruits and rice. I had to check every packet as he couldn’t have any additives. It was at this point I discovered that I had unknowingly been feeding my family MSG. It was actually listed on the packets as numbers 631. Some of our foods also contained other flavor enhancers with numbers from 620 – 640. These flavor enhancers had similar, if not worse, side effects as MSG. I was shocked to find they were in foods we ate almost every day … in our pasta sauce, crackers, soy sauce, and in foods labelled … contains no msg. I also read about another problem additive, sulphur dioxide. It is used to preserve freshness and color. It had a large list of side effects including coughs, decreased immunity, hyperactivity, mood swings, irritability, toileting issues, sleep disturbances, and so much more. I found this additive in all our dried fruits, such as the apricots, prunes, and even in our dried coconut. Along with another additive linked to behavioral issues, nitrates, it was also in our corned beef, luncheon and ham, yoghurts, and juice. All the foods Ethan had been eating, apart from fresh fruit, contained artificial additives. I had always avoided buying any bright colored foods that contained artificial colors. They weren’t allowed colored ice blocks or fizzy drinks. I felt really upset. I couldn’t understand why all these additives, with so many side effects, were banned in some other countries but were happily added to our foods and all without a health warning. It was easier to just avoid anything from a packet for the elimination diet. So we started a bland diet of what felt like almost nothing, and within three days, Ethan’s tantrums stopped. If I had asked him to do something before, like go to the toilet, it would have taken an hour of crying, screaming, and timeouts. Then all of a sudden, I asked and he did it … “Ohhh, o.k.” he said. Jeremy came home and could not believe this was our son … amazing. So for a couple of weeks or so during the month of March, life was nice … most of the time anyway. Sometimes we got lazy … or bored and hungry with this bland diet and slipped up, a takeaway meal here and there, sausages for tea … but we soon noticed we paid for it with his behavior. Ethan would be hyperactive again half-way through a snack and two days of irritability and tantrums. After a couple of weeks of this bland diet, we started to add things back in, but to our disappointment, he reacted to almost everything, and his reactions were quite immediate. He began to feel like he was intolerant to more foods than he could eat. It really felt like he couldn’t eat anything. We had a vine covered in organic black grapes, and one day Ethan and his sister snuck down to the vine and ate handfuls. After a few minutes, Ethan was behaving like he had taken an illegal drug. I felt upset that I was replacing his apples, berries and pineapple with sugar alternatives just to keep our family life settled...It didn’t make sense. I found a food intolerance website and forum and chatted with other mums about their children’s food intolerances. I hoped to find an answer … This was when I realized that everyone seemed to be taking away things from their children’s diets. Things that we should be able to eat. Things that are actually really good for us. I made a suggestion about fish oil and using calming herbs, such as chamomile and lavender, with some of the mothers whose children were hyperactive and could not sleep. The replies were astounding … fish oil contained amines and could not be tolerated by many of the children, and essential oils contained salicylates, so they were out too. That is when I thought this is not right! How can our children grow and function in society without the nutrients that fresh fruits and vegetables give us? I still didn’t have the answer, especially since these fresh foods were causing Ethan to react like he had taken an illegal drug, and we were avoiding them like the plague. I knew I had to find the answer soon, as I feared Ethan would soon become low in essential vitamins and minerals on this current diet. One Saturday I spent the morning selling my skincare products at the local market … I had left a settled boy, but when Jeremy and the kids came to pick me up that afternoon, Ethan was out of control. He could not get out the car. He was too hyper, and when the stall holder next to me put her head through his open window to say hello, he was crazy silly, making noises and would not speak to her or answer her questions about what his name was. I was really embarrassed and went home to watch Ethan motor around the lounge not being able to stay still. After quizzing Jeremy on the day’s diet, I found he had been given a honey sandwich (Honey and raisins are high in salicylates.), and I would later find out that the raisins also contained an artificial preservative that can affect children’s behavior (not listed on the packet of course). Ethan couldn’t have anything with salicylates, or he would be wild crazy all day and then grumpy the next. Salicylates are a natural chemical produced by fruits, vegetables, and herbs to protect it from diseases or being eaten by insects. In a healthy person, the digestive system eliminates these from our body, but in an unhealthy digestive system, they are absorbed into the bloodstream. They cross the blood brain barrier and cause a multitude of issues. Over the next few weeks, he seemed to be intolerant to things that we thought he did not react to before … either that or something to do with the act of eating triggered him to become hyperactive and spastic.
During my search for answers, I read many forums for parents dealing with children with special needs and children with food sensitivities. And the two were so closely linked. Being a teacher, I had worked with children with autism and had read many posts from mothers with children with Asperger’s. I knew Ethan didn’t have severe autism. He was very verbal … sometimes nonstop verbal. He would talk all day, and he had a high intelligence. So I think because Asperger’s was part of the autistic spectrum, I dismissed it so many times … until it was staring me in the face. The first thing that got my attention was the talk about their poor gross motor skills and lack of social skills, but I also thought “Hey this disorder sounds serious and wouldn’t someone have told me that my son has Asperger’s by now?” Then, I got chatting to a mother who had a son with Asperger’s. She was offering advice about food sensitivities, and as we emailed, I was astounded how closely her son’s symptoms were to Ethan’s. He had limited interests and severe tantrums, and with this new word “Asperger’s,” I was on a mission to find out everything I could about it. Google was fairly helpful but a lot of the stories were severe and just didn’t fit Ethan’s symptoms. Life was beginning to become hard work every day … and then in May, the school announced they were beginning rehearsals for the school production.
