Autism?

Many times I had told family and friends, “If I didn’t know better, I would say my daughter has autism.” By knowing better I mean: Her problems started too late (3.5), her speech is too good. (There was regression, but only I noticed it) She didn’t have any friends. She did not know how to play with friends. She would only do parallel play and then yell at the other kids. She did not like touch. She would not look at you. She would stare off into space. She was IQ smart. She had a phenomenal memory.
 
I kept saying it. “If I didn’t know better, I would say she has autism”. Everyone disagreed. One year ago – about the end of our first year at the Affinity center, our daughter started slipping away. Her mood was not stable, her ADD was not controlled. She spent 80% of the school day isolated out of choice. The medical doctor thought she was slipping into depression. But her Depakote level was maxed out. The school had tried everything. Again I brought up Autism. No one agreed.

That night my husband and I talked. I said, “Fine. She does not have autism. Let me try the GFCF diet with the kids and see what happens. It won’t hurt them, and we are running out of medical options.” He said, “OK”.