I will now tell you how we discovered the GFCF diet and how it impacted upon my son.

When my son was an infant we discovered right away that he did not do well on milk so under our pediatrician's guidance we had switched him early on to rice milk which he drinks to this day.  When he was nearly four he was diagnosed with autism and I quickly found support groups on-line for both emotional support and information.  The GFCF diet was discussed a lot between my friends and they had been implementing this diet with their children and noticing good results especially in terms of better behavior.  I was very resistant and skeptical of the whole idea. 

But at the same time my son was experiencing chronic loose bowels which were green in color.  I was having a horrible time getting him to be toilet trained because of this issue.  Add to this, he also had eczema, a skin condition where the skin becomes inflamed, dry, cracking, oozing, and sometimes bleeding.  My son's skin condition was so bad that he had it on most of his body and his skin would literally weep.  He would itch until his skin became raw.  On occasion he would also break out in hives.  I knew something was causing all these symptoms but what?

I went to our son's pediatrician for answers.  Our dear doctor was not much help.  He would tell me that the green poop issue was due to my son's developmental delays.  I didn't understand the logic in this and kept pestering the doctor.  After some months of being told that these symptoms were normal I broke down and told the doctor that if we didn't get some help that I was going to give him a diaper full of the green diarrhea and put it on his desk!  My son was nearly five and was still not potty trained due to this issue. 

So we were sent to see a gastrointestinologist, a doctor specializing in the treatment of stomach and intestine issues.  It was quite an interesting appointment.  I made the mistake of offering up the guess that perhaps the GFCF diet might help my son.  My friends were pointing me in this direction, that gluten might be the reason for my son's symptoms.  The doctor, staunchly traditional, accused me of seeking miracle cures from him for my son's autism.  I told him that the only cure I wanted was to help my son not have green diarrhea for the rest of his life.  I was livid.  I had not mentioned anything about curing autism.  It had never even entered my mind.  I wondered if we would have been treated this way if my son did not have autism.  I was told that a gluten-free diet would not help my son and was sent home with no help whatsoever. 

I angrily called our pediatrician.  He then sent us to an allergist.  And lo and behold guess what they found?  They did the skin prick test and all these bumps raised on my son's small back, signs of sensitivities and possibly allergies to certain food substances.  Wheat was one of them.  I wanted to go back to that arrogant gastro doctor and tell him, "I TOLD YOU SO!" but I didn't.  I simply began the process of eliminating gluten from my son's diet.  The hives went away.  The eczema faded.  And most importantly my son finally had solid normal colored stool and I could finally have some success at potty training him.