Help—My Child Was Just Diagnosed With Autism: What Do I Do Now?

Introduction to Autism and Hope 0:00

Welcome to the Get to The Root podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Paula Kruppstadt. Today, I'll be joined by Catherine Salah. We're going to be talking about something that can be very heart rending and it has to do with your child has just been diagnosed with autism. Some of the emotions that go through your mind are disbelief, denial, and shock. Join us as we discuss actionable steps to move your child forward that you have within your own power. I'm welcoming today Catherine Salah. She is a certified nutrition consultant who's been on the Hope for Healing team since when, Catherine?

What year did you join me? I believe 2017. Wow, we've seen a lot of water under the bridge and we have some beautiful stories and some hope that we want to infuse parents with. So this is such a frustrating thing that both you and I have heard over and over again. And I think that this theme that parents have is, what did I do wrong? And when they leave their pediatric neurologist or their developmental pediatrician, what they're told is applied behavioral analysis, which is ABA therapy, and then speech therapy occupational therapy physical therapy making sure their child doesn't have seizures.

some genetic testing, not what we do here at Hope for Healing, but to rule out certain genetic deletions or additions that are associated with autism, and then maybe testing the mom and the dad and child for whole exomes. These are the only words of encouragement. It's not really encouraging. Here's your diagnosis, live with it. There's no hope infused with and no guidance given for the future. So Catherine, I just wanted to start parsing through with you some of the things that we want to encourage parents with.

And I thought we would start with what's in their power. So let's talk a little bit about where you would. If you were seeing a parent that was presenting to hope for healing. And of course we're going to get into the fact that, yes, we recommend our Wellness Blueprint, but what if people can't afford that and they just want to start somewhere? What are things that we can teach them and tell them that are evidence-based that can drive down inflammation? So what about diet, about what they consume and what the drink and eat, Catherine, are some big needle movers and why?

I think that is What we can control as parents in a situation like this is that we control what we purchase and bring into our home for nutrition. So realizing that our bodies were created to absorb nutrients and nutrients come from real food.

Food Choices and Inflammation 2:56

food that has been grown from the ground or the tree or an animal, not the processed foods that we find on the shelves. And so I think that's the first start is reading labels. If a label is ingredients that you cannot find naturally in your home, in the pantry, like, you know, if you can't find monosodium glutamate growing on a tree, anything that's natural, then put it back on the shelf and go towards something that is natural. You know a apple or a pear or, iceberg lettuce even, something natural and stick with.

beef and not the processed lunchables. And so that's what we can control. So I think that the thing is, you know, when parents are told you need to do the therapies and that it puts the control in someone else's hands because you're trusting someone. But what you can take back is I'm going to choose to put real food in my home and in And that is a wealth of power, I think. It's something that we can own. Okay. I love that. And one of the things I want to do is just discuss what we hear all the time.

Well, my child is really, really picky. The only thing that they'll eat are goldfish, chocolate milk, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. and maybe something else. How, what are some of the, I'll just say as a general pediatrician is that when a child goes through feeding therapy, it's what you offer them. Talk a little bit about addiction. What do some of these foods have that are addictive, and what do they do to the brain and the body? Yeah, that's a tough subject because we're afraid the child is going to starve if they don't eat.

But like take goldfish, for instance, it has glutamic acid preservatives in it, does to the brain is put more excitatory glutamate neurotransmitter on a brain that's already inflamed. And so you're going to have more behavioral upsets, more hyperactivity, So, it creates an excited cell, and what does that mean for your cells? It wants more. It want more, so giving foods like goldfish and those Cheez-It crackers and even some peanut butters that just don't say peanuts on the label, that has all of the other additives, your body, cells are going to crave it because it wants that excitability, but it's a natural And it's doing more harm than good.

And so it is going to be a job to get your child to not crave that anymore. So that's the hard part. Unnatural what you said. I think, you know, and this is something that now that we're hearing nationwide that were trying to change the foods that Monosodium glutamate, and it hides in food with yeast extract, yeast hydroxylate. Do you know some of the other names? Autolized yeast, anything hydrolyzed. So these words that we can't pronounce or spell or understand what they are just need to be put back on the shelf or in the refrigerator, I mean, the refrigerated section.

So a common frustration that I hear all the time and something that it's just a frustration. Parents say, I have older children or I'm not sure my husband will agree to this or, you know, it is usually mom. Mom is searching, but I am not going to stereotype. I mean, have so many moms and dads that come and say we're going do whatever we need to do and food is medicine. Yes, it is. So MSG, what about a few other things? Dyes? Sugar. Sugar, yes. And dyes, of course. So when we talk about sugar, what kind of sugars would you say are okay?

Well, I would say, of course, fruit. That's like God's dessert that's natural and wonderful, but maybe a non-processed, an organic sugar nonprocess. What is it called? I don't even, coconut sugar is acceptable. I'm not sure what the non process sugar's called. You're hitting on some great stuff, the coconut. Maple syrup is wonderful. Black strap molasses, is it? Yeah, I don't buy that. I do maple syrup and I coconut sugar and honey. That's what the staples in my home to sweeten things. The black strap glasses are very good and that's rich in iron as well.

I'd like to also add to that date sugar. So in the Hope for Healing Amazon cart we have a couple of products by the Date Lady. The Date lady has some excellent naturally sweet things that are used You know, if you're going to down the road be giving some nutrients to your children, but also just this naturally occurring sugar from dates that are very complex. So I love that. We've talked about preservatives, things that you cannot pronounce, sugar, dye, die. So we know that FDNC red has been removed from a lot of things.

So let's talk about some of the common things that dyes are put into that kids like to eat and drink.

Sugar, Dyes, and Dairy Triggers 8:49

Oh, goodness. Gatorade. Yes, Gaterade, another one is Capri Sun drinks. and the fruit gushers and fruit strips. So a lot of times, and this is something that I learned from a parent, is you can do a fruit infusion. Meaning, if your child is still drinking from the sippy cup, you could take a slice of an apple, yes it will turn brown, or you take some fruit and put it into the sippy cup. Now it might plug the hole where they're trying to drink, but it'll give them a little naturally occurring fructose from the fruit.

That's a good idea. Also just blending some fruit in the blender and then putting it in ice cubes and make little popsicles out of it. Yes, you know, that's a good idea to put a little bit of honey in it So these are ways that a parent can start right now To give their child more nutrients and take out what my five-year-old grandson calls poison. Oh He has a lot of food sensitivities and allergies and he says, Mom, is that poison? No. And so it's really, he knows that he'll get really itchy or he will have start diarrhea and those kinds of things.

Now, I think that's the hope, that if you do the hard work for the next two to three weeks to rid their body of the addictive behavior of wanting it so badly, it takes about two or three week to get that out of their system. If you the do hardwork then, your child will feel better and they will be able to associate that, oh, they feel with these foods and not with thes, the get over the child's addiction, the body's, addiction to those foods. I like how your grandson has now associated that when I eat this poison, I break out and I feel yucky.

So I don't want to eat any poison. Right. Diarrhea, itching, that kind of a thing. Plus just going crazy. He's in kindergarten and he said, This ex-little girl throws chairs across the room and then his mom asks, what do you do? We all line up outside and I'm going, this poor child has profound brain inflammation. Yes. So when you think of... I am sorry I interrupted you there. No, I just said yes. I was agreeing with you. Now let's take the deep dive because we know that making these changes, and this is power that you have as parents, let us take a deep-dive into cow, sheep, goat, dairy.

That's a hard one to grasp because we've been educated that they're so good for us and we need it for protein and vitamin D and calcium. But it blocks the folate receptor. I'll let you talk about that. And it also binds to the calcium in the animal milks. bind to our opioid receptor, upregulate it and create casein morphine. And so it is addictive. It is comfort food, makes us feel good. But in the end, it creates inflammation. So I've witnessed time and time again with our parents who come here for their child's genetics.

that when they see in the genetics that this is not good for them and they remove it, the testimonies of the change in behavior, The thing that I hear is the reports from the teachers. Wow, what did you do? Because now your child is able to sit still and focus and hear directions and follow through. And even how they interact with their classmates is so much better. And they're like, we removed dairy. Yes. So one of the illustrations that I use is that babies drink milk and when you're older, you move to meat.

Now, there's different ways to pronounce these things. And let's face it, many cells in our bodies have opioid receptors. Now, you brought up something, Catherine, that this has all been in the news, and everyone thinks that there's magic bullets. Well, there are no magic bullet. Our bodies are these symphonies. And, let us face, when you have a child that is having global meltdowns and screaming and stimming, this movement, that's trying to create more dopamine and they look for reward-seeking behavior.

Those are called stereotypical movements. Now, if you've ever looked at the notes from your pediatric neurologist or your developmental pediatrician, every child that receives an ICD code designation of autistic disorder, they also receive a diagnosis of encephalopathy. And that means changes in the brain. We know there are changes. Now, when people come to us, we tease apart, do they have inflammation in their brain? And many, many times they do. And we teased that apart even more. And I know that there's good and there is bad things politically and from the Department of Health and Human Services.

But again, when we talk about cow's milk dairy, and I don't care what kind it is, A1, a2, also cheese. And eggs are not dairy. They're from chickens. So it's so confusing when things are sold together. Now, grass-fed butter. Those have fat in them. Fat doesn't tend to be a major problem, but for some children it is. So most of the time we say the fat's okay, But there's this confusing thing when people are drinking milk. There's protein and there's carbohydrates in milk and, there is fat. So, casein and whey, little miss Mary, oh, Little Miss Muppet sitting on her tuffet eating her curds and Whey.

make things that are very, very inflammatory cross the blood-brain barrier and bind to cerebral folate receptors. Everyone's heard all these things in the news about leukovorin, which is folinic acid, thinking that it's a magic bullet. But if you are consuming dairy, dairy will produce casomorphin and other things, folate-binding proteins or blocking antibodies that will block those cerebral foliate receptors. So we're going to encourage you as a family, there needs to be this united front. We don't want people to feel guilty, but it's like, okay, you and I know that in the past when we used to consume dairy, My story being almost 300 pounds, I think I peaked out at about 282. I had food addiction, and my taste buds have changed through the years.

But dairy was very addictive, but I also was sensitive to it. The food industry knows that that's why they put in Bluebell fat, the sugar, then the casein, keep you coming back, casing in way, you know, they want you to come back. So removing those things is very, very powerful. One piece I would like to offer to our audience is we have a hope for healing workbook. It's a curriculum that we carry here at the practice. It's available for purchase if you want to have some boots on the ground guidance on how do I do this layering these things in.

This is an excellent place to start. Now back to foods. the big one that people don't want to hear about and they're like, well, I don t even have a genetic vulnerability to gluten to develop celiac disease. Why is gluten, and I'll give you a hint, it makes gliadorphin or gliatomorphin. Can you talk a little bit about gluten and ways that, you know, nutritionally, if we remove gluten. And what does that look like? Where does gluten hide in all those things? Yeah. Well, gluten, the protein of, well, gliden is a protein, of gluten.

So the, protein in the breads and the wheat is highly inflammatory. And like she said, it does also bind to the opioid receptor and make the. glydemorphine, similar to the casomorphine. And so it's a little...it's addicting, you know, but it does cause inflammation in the body. Some people will see that they do not have the haplotype-glyden genes that make them more susceptible. But they may have a few T2 genes SNP, which makes the mucosal lining in that gut, and that lining that gene provides the enzymes and proteins to make the enzyme to digest those proteins.

And so it's more than just the gluten genes that create celiac. It's also you have to look at your gut making those enzymes. If we've been consuming gluten and dairy and processed foods, We've also eaten into damaged that gut lining so we don't have those enzymes anymore.

Gluten, Cross-Reactivity, and Gut Health 18:58

So there's a lot of factors why we should not be eating gluten. Another one is all of our crops in the United States have been sprayed with glyphosate, so Roundup, and other chemicals. And we're consuming these products and causing a chemical overload in our body, which affects the brain. the gluten, but also cross reactive plants as well and products. So what are some of, you know, a lot of times when people hear this, they're like, well, what's going to happen to my child's nutrition? And that's a very valid question.

Yes. There's an acronym called BROWS that stands for Barley, Rye, Oats, Wheat, I'd like to thank Fagran Genomics for sponsoring our podcast. Without knowing what your precision genetics are, you don't have a roadmap. So please log on to our website, schedule a welcome call. and see what the Wellness Blueprint can do for you. That's the premier and proprietary genetic panel that Fagran has allowed us to create. Those are grains that have gluten in them. And then when we talk about gluten cross-reactive foods, that's dairy.

corn, rice, millet, and yeast. And a lot of people say to me, well, what am I going to do for a carb? Well, if I had to, you know, What about rice? So what do you recommend when we talk about rights? Because first of all, nobody's perfect. Rome wasn't built in a day. How do we make those shifts? How can we get some carbs in these kiddos and adults and families? Yeah. So many cultures, their tradition is rice. I'm like, you know, Americans, it's mostly bread. But a lot of cultures it is, rice, that's their main staple.

If we were going to do a rice like a brown rice or jasmine or basmati, but make sure you rinse it well, make it organic, non-GMO and it rinsed. You want to rinse really well or soak it for 30 minutes or more. And then limit it. It doesn't need to be your everyday staple food. I would limit. But what my family uses and loves is quinoa. And we, my husband's Middle Eastern, we love grape leaves. Well, I've discovered I could make it instead of the rice with the quinoa and I have introduced it to his family, his extended family cousins at a family gathering and they couldn't tell that it was quinhoa.

And they came back and said, these are so good. What did you do? I don't feel bloated. I could eat like 20 of these and I feel great. Where with the other ones with rice, you can only eat five or six and you feel bloated. And so that was wonderful and no one knew the difference. So we also used quinoa for the salad. I'm going to draw a blank, but what is the Middle Eastern salad? Tabouleh. We use quinhoa instead of bulgur and it works great And I believe we use that instead of rice. I'm really glad you brought that up, Katherine.

So when we talk about cross-reactive, how would you explain that to someone? These parents who are sitting there, they've never heard about Cross-Reactivity. What does that mean? It's all about molecular mimicry and the proteins of the brows, like she said, the gluten in rice and millet and oats. and dairy, they all look very similar on the molecular level. And so the body can't tell, oh, this is gluten. This is rice. We're okay with rice and millet, but we're not okay. The body doesn't know. It just sees a molecule.

So it's called molecular mimicry. That's why it is just best to be grain-free. But there are wonderful grain free products like quinoa and amaryth flour and buckwheat, almond flour, cassava flour. And so there's options. We just haven't been taught those options or of educating ourselves. Yeah. I like another way to kind of explain molecular mimicry is that, and this is the same thing, that you're looking under a microscope and the body can't tell the difference between gluten from barley, rye, oats, wheat, spelt.

Now, if corn, you know, like pirate's booty is your kid's favorite snack, well, remember if it's organic and, 99% of the corn in the United States of America is genetically modified. That's why when you drive by a crop, they're all the same height. But if its organic, it is not necessarily recognized as a foreign substance to the body. So there's a little give here and there. You don't have to be crazy. I'd like to share a story of encouragement. I saw a little girl last week here in the clinic and her mom and dad became very intentional before they had their original appointment with me, like they have their meetings with our health coach and they received some guidelines on how to move forward.

But this Hope for Healing curriculum that we offer, the Hope For Healing workbook, really, They're not able at this point in time to join as far as a patient or do coaching or any of that. But this little girl's stimming and toe walking had decreased by 80%. Wow. by just removing the gluten and the dairy, and that's what mom and dad did. And it hasn't been easy. They would tell you it was not easy going back to those emotions. So, well, we're kind of wrapping up this portion. Think about removing these things from the diet of what you can't pronounce.

Yes, it means there's some more cooking involved. I know that. And we just have to adjust our lifestyles to that to give our children and ourselves nourishing and healthy food that's fresh. that include your extended family in these discussions, in the appointments, even if it's close friends that help you nanny, because you need a village. You need your team to understand the importance of getting on board with this diet. It is so hard. that you're doing all of this work at home, but then they go visit grandma and grandpa who don't understand because it's just not in their generation and their knowledge to understand.

They didn't have all these inflammatory things when they were growing and raising you. And so it was really hard. But if you get everyone a big meeting and let everyone maybe come, we welcome the whole family to our appointments, have the family read the workbook and just, you know, have your village on board with you. That would be so helpful. Sometimes it's not possible, but also moms and dads, you're not a short order cook. And so I encourage my parents, if this is the way one child needs to eat, then the whole family needs buy in.

Because for one, it is too hard. Your grocery bill is going to be way much more if you are doing things differently for everyone. Also, it's not fair for the child who feels like they're suffering eating these, having to eat different from the other children to feel different. You want them to know they are completely lovely and wonderful in their own way and we're just going to help them adjust how they feel. And so I just think the whole family should get on board and it is going be less stressful for everyone involved.

I really appreciate you bringing that up because there's this sense of deprivation. But it's all about your mindset. And it is like, I am creating for my child success. I'm creating, for myself, an environment where we are nourishing our children. Now, here's another thing. We have diagnosed children here at Hope for Healing as young as two and three years old with Hashimoto's thyroiditis, which is an autoimmune thyroid disease. And it's much more common in populations that tend to eat a lot of wheat-based tortillas.

It's so difficult talking to grandma and grandpa, but if you can get them on board to see, we're trying to put this autoimmune condition where you're starting to destroy the thyroid gland into remission by removing the gluten and the dairy. And we're trying to calm the entire brain and nervous system and start gut repair by removing inflammatory foods. And I like what you had to say about quinoa. Quinoas, you can actually soak it for two days and rinse it multiple times, like 48 hours. There are legumes and quinhoa, which is really a seed.

that has something in the coating called lectins. And lectines, if those lectans aren't broken down, they can cause a lot of gas and things like that. But if the gut isn't functioning well, you might need enzymes or those kinds of things. So we do have Dr. Paula's chewable enzymes, and we need to put that into our little show link there, but that's available. Soak that quinoa and that will be a very helpful thing.

Family Support and Emotional Healing 28:58

And I really love what you had to say too about your family being Mediterranean descent and eating a lot of hummus and rice that you've switched over to quinhoa. Can you speak a little bit more about why the gluten affects the thyroid. Yes. So it all has to do with the case of mistaken identity. If we look at thyroid tissue, it actually looks a lot like gliadin and casein. Casein and gliatin are the proteins in gluten-containing grains, barley rye, oats we'd spelled, and then milk. cow, sheep, or goat.

And cheeses are actually the worst because they have a higher content of casein. I'm not so sure about whey, but definitely caseine. They just are very, very inflammatory. At first, your child may seem happy and calm when they consume it, then they're going to crash and burn shortly thereafter. Yeah. That's fascinating. Yeah, for people that are members. So it's a case of mistaken identity. You build the antibodies to gluten or dairy, you attack the thyroid gland, and what we want to do is move that into remission.

But once you develop one autoimmune condition, the march continues. So as we kind of wrap up this portion of your child's been diagnosed with autism, what can I do? I am so concerned about what did I potentially to cause this? Before we lead into the emotional piece, I would like to just summarize removing dyes, removing things you cannot pronounce, for moving sugar, moving dairy and removing gluten. One little bit at a time and someone that that I just love and admire, she thought she was doing everything right.

She was making her own homemade bread in her home, her homemade yogurt with wheat germ and she wondered why her son was trying to run out of the home and escape and elope. But I want to encourage you that there's great hope. That person has gone into remission and he has to have a clean diet. He's actually graduated from high school and is in college now and it's taken a long time because autism is not just one thing. And then we've given you a few stories of hope and encouragement. We'll be interviewing some families that have been on this journey with us here at Hope for Healing to also kind of outline some of those other things.

Catherine, let's talk just a little bit about the emotions and guilt that parents feel when their child has been diagnosed with autism and a way to flip their thinking. Yes, I understand that feeling of guilt as a mom. My child was not diagnosed with autism, but with a profound learning disability that we, she was diagnosed when she 10. And so I immediately went into the guilt. So I understanding that. And I think it's important to process that, don't ignore that you feel guilty, process it. But then what's so important is to go out.

I'm so grateful I found out, I am so greatful that we now know, we have a name, a diagnosis to know what is going on inside this body. and then have hope because the body heals and it's designed to heal. We just need the knowledge to know what's the next step. And so I think it is very important that we take the positive look because Candice Peart is a neuroscientist that discovered in the in her work that emotions are their molecules and they bind to our peptide, their peptides, the neuropeptides.

So they're binding to are cellular receptors, they are binding in our organs and negative emotions take up two places on our cellular receptor. positive take on one. And so it takes really two positive reactions to make up for a negative reaction. So that's why we have to know that it's just, what do I need to bring hope into this and being grateful that you have knowledge and be in grateful. That there is hope. And so using the knowledge, seek it out. It will come to you as a parent. If you seek, it will.

Come to. You and once you get it, then have hope that this is knowing it's hard, but have. Hope it is doable and it. We can accomplish this. So the positive is so much. is so important to have positive emotions. I think even accepting your child for where they are now, but having hope and visualizing where the can be. When my daughter was diagnosed, I would every morning tell her on the way to school, you are intelligent, and I'd make her repeat that back to me three times. And then I found that she was writing it in her journal.

So she was crossing that right and left hemisphere in the handwriting, which I found interesting. They take it out of schools now, but she handwriting. I am intelligent. Line after line, page after page. And she couldn't pass the star test. fifth grade year, had to go into all kinds of tutoring and tutoring ever since she was in kindergarten, but at any rate had do some special tutoring all through junior high. Got her genetics done, filled in the gaps of the brain inflammation that allowed her body to detoxify and bringing in methylation.

So all these chemistry processes could function in her. And within three years she, and it was when she finally decided to give up gluten and dairy. We didn't have it in eating all of that, her friends and, you know, youth group, all that. But when she determined, I'm going to see what happens and don't have any of it for a month, she was so motivated and her grades skyrocketed. Her processing improved. And she now is in college, Dean's List, full ride, because you have full academic ride doing amazing.

So that's the hope. I share that hope because it makes me cry every time, but we have to know that our child is programmed naturally to heal. We just have to bring the foundation to allow them and the fertilizer to let them. Katherine, thanks so much for sharing that. And that's what we want to infuse our audience with that your child's been diagnosed with autism and you are not out there all alone that you have some power in your kitchen to change the trajectory of your Absolutely. As lots of people have been seeing this, that if you don't deal with the dysregulation of the nervous system, that it's extremely difficult to move forward.

And I think that that starts with parents. You need to start telling yourself the truth that I did the best that could with the knowledge that had and that this is my beautiful child and I'm going to give them what I can give to get better. Absolutely. Even if it is one small thing a day. anybody that's just a positive telling the child you are so amazing and beautiful in every way. Just that one small thing and then maybe tomorrow it's now I'm going to take the step of removing finding with gluten.

Maybe that is your step tomorrow or maybe next week, maybe for the next seven days it is encouraging your child. We're on a journey, we're not on sprint. It's a Journey. And I love that you mentioned health coaches before, because when you're going through this, you really need people in your camp to encourage you every day. Because it is hard to courage yourself when your having all these emotions come through. So we are here. Also with our health coaches, you know to kind of wrap it all up for this episode that your child's been diagnosed with autism and you have the power to make these changes This is a journey as Katherine brought forth I'd like to take this time to thank our sponsor because what we'd love here at hope for healing is what the grand genomics has brought us and The Wellness Blueprint is our proprietary panel.

There are lots of genetic companies out there. This is not about ancestry, this is about what diseases you or your child may have, but it's about systems. Our body is uniquely made. It's like a symphony. The wellness blueprint is what we highly recommend that that's where you start. That is a great place to start, that is available. Online it'll be in our show notes and I just want to encourage all of you and i want To thank legron for sponsoring us so don't give up start moving these poisons out of your child's diet out, of, your, child home and know that they're not going to starve to death.

And did I bring this up before? The Magic Pill is a documentary. I don't know if it's still on Amazon Prime or not, but it was about a little girl that was just, it is various families where they started to remove inflammatory foods. It was like living hell for three to five days and this little was throwing fits and angry. Then after she went through that and she was hungry, She ate and she was calm and he was eating chicken. She a broccoli It's like she hungry and the parents are like, oh my gosh what has happened now?

There are some extreme cases however You can change those taste buds over time and the draw goes away too. So you're just loving on your child and we wanted to give you those tools to make a difference. Yeah. Thank you. This is the Get to the Root podcast with Hope for Healing. I'm Dr. Paula Kruppstadt. Bye-bye. Thank you. Thanks for joining us at Get to the Root with Hope for Healing. If this episode helped you, follow and share it with someone who needs it and leave a review. It helps others find us too.

For a free consultation, visit our website at gettotheroot.com with a number two and schedule a welcome call. We'll see you soon.