One of my godsons has Asperger’s syndrome. He’s 9 years old, just got his yellow belt in karate and can tell you every answer to just about every game show quiz on current television.

My other godson has Autism on the opposite end. He’s 5 years old, goes to school with the help of his helper dog and has recently started talking in sentences. The 5 year old also has multiple other health problems but he, like his brother, loves Nickelodeon and ice cream and looking at books like every little boy.

Their mother, my best friend, ran the suggestion of a gluten free diet for them after it had been mentioned to her several times by a group of women she keeps up with online. She has looked into it and is hesitant on several levels and I think should be rightly so.

Just off the cuff, my humble opinion is certainly we’re all free to try what we want with our own kids but at least ask a doctor first. If you feel like they’re giving you a brush off on something you feel strongly about, then for heaven’s sakes find someone else.  That said, the debate about GF and autism rages on. Autism Web reports that results are mixed and some groups like Defeat Autism Now! are looking more at the scientific proof that children with autism have digestive and absorption problems to begin with.

So what did I tell her? If it works, go with it but not because all the other mummys are doing it. With kids, unless everyone in the household is going to go gluten free (and sheesh, I’m 30 years old and it sucks that other people can eat their biscuits and crackers right in front of me), then I just can’t see it being reinforced for very long. I know my best friend and she’s about as likely to give that stuff up as my husband is.

Other points against would be that the food substitutes are expensive and cooking gluten free is time consuming. My friend is a wonderful cook but time isn’t always on her side. Since her kids don’t really have a lot of food problems, she’d probably be better off having a doctor do some rule out tests before throwing the cookies out the window.  And from my perspective what’s the biggest caveat of gluten free? Well what do we eat gluten the most in? Convenience foods. If you’ve got kids you know all those little debbie cakes you’ve put in their lunches and donuts you’ve let them grab at the gas station on the way to practise and cookies they probably ate too many of because dinner was late.

If you’ve got kids with autism you’ve already had to make lifestyle adjustments. Not overnight changes but serious adjustments. Living gluten free is another one. It’s learning to cook differently and pay attention to labels in a way you didn’t previously. If your child has digestive problems by all means try it out. But if not, it just might not be for you and rest assured, you’re still doing everything you can for your kid by just eating healthy.