When my son was almost two years old we found out he was gluten intolerant. Well it might be a little bit more than that. It’s an interesting story of how we found that out. It changed our world and steadied his young one.

His pediatrician noticed something about his behavior that we had been noticing, he stopped talking as much as he used to and was slow to respond when you called his name, among other things. We were stumped and just didn’t know what was happening. She suggested we have his hearing tested and see a specialist. We did both and there was nothing wrong with his hearing. We went to see the specialist and that was interesting to say the least. At the end of about one hour of talking to my husband and myself she declared “he is autistic.” That totally rocked my world. She gave us no idea of what to do next. I remember her saying he should not go to regular school. We were told about a special school by one of the persons that worked there. Which we totally ignored. He wasn’t even going to school yet as he was so young. My husband looked at me and said “he’s not autistic, there is something wrong, we just have to figure out what.”

I remember one of my cousins and her husband were visiting and I told them. They looked at each other and then at me and said “he’s not autistic, something might be wrong, and you need to find out what it is.” Their son, my little cousin is autistic.

The one response that stands out in my mind was calling my stepmom and she said, “there is nothing wrong with my grandson, he’s not autistic, the doctor doesn’t know what she is talking about, figure out what is wrong with him please.” That was the basic response from anybody we spoke to that knew him. I was at sea, what was I to do? I decided to do what I knew best, I started researching. It took me a little time, but I figured it out and it happened at about 2am one day. He was gluten intolerant. I woke up my husband to tell him and he said “you can cook, you will cook special for him.” That was a pivotal moment in my life. I was thinking if this had not happened to my son I would never realize how seriously food can impact your life.

I changed his diet and removed anything that had rice, oats, wheat and corn. I noticed that those things created problems for him. In no time we saw a difference. He was not autistic but the food he eat had his little brain in a cloud and he was so young he couldn’t explain. I have food allergies and knew what not to eat after much trial and error growing up, but nothing like this and I had never seen it happen to anybody else. Thank God for the internet. It is as I’ve always said the greatest invention since sliced bread. Which he can’t eat and bread is the favorite of his dad and sister. He has learnt what he can and can’t have. Poor baby had to learn early and he realized he didn’t like the strange feelings or the horrible belly aches.

In no time at all he was behaving like a regular little boy and we sent him off to regular school a little after he turned two. Fast forward four years and he’s in a great place, he can’t pronounce remember properly, but he has a fantastic sense of humor, he can identify and name with no problems every dinosaur ever created by God. He plays, climbs, hugs and give kisses. He gets great grades and participated in class and on the play field. He’s fine. I believe God was there as I prayed daily and he showed me the way. He made sure we didn’t take our kids for granted.

Let me know if you have ever had such a drastic response to food. What did you do? Who to tell this might help some of you to reevaluate your diet or someone you love. Just check as you might have to remove some things from your diet. If you have issues look at what you eat and remove what is not needed.