Why did I start my son on the GFCF diet? Part 1

The story is long, so I will break it up into parts and start at the beginning.

My guy was first identified with "autistic tendencies" in July 2002. I was 28 and pregnant with my third child, another son. My husband was home with L. for the early intervention evaluation and called me at work and asked if I was sitting down. That was about as devastating a blow as a mother can get. Honest to God, I saw my son's life flash before my eyes. I saw him in high school with a girlfriend, I saw him playing football. I saw him graduating college. I saw his wedding and my grandchildren. Then I cried.

I turned to the internet for some quick knowledge and books. I first read "Let Me Hear Your Voice" by Catherine Maurice and became obsessed with Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). I bought a very large book of ABA lessons called Behavioral Intervention for Children with Autism. L.'s home-based teacher also used these lessons. When my baby went down for naps, L. and I sat down for ABA.

While I definitely saw gradual progress, ABA did not seem to have the same magic as it had for Catherine Maurice's children. I sought more answers from the internet. I found there was a lot of buzz about gluten and casein, whatever those were. In all honesty, I thought it sounded like a bunch of hooey. I thought these people were grasping at straws, that if there was an answer such as this, the mainstream medical community would be on board and offering it to me.

I talked with my husband about what I was reading and we both agreed that this GFCF diet thing was too weird, too hard, and not worth it. I dismissed it and I was not afraid to say so on the Yahoo message boards I belonged to. I didn't think there was any possible way I'd be able to get my child to adhere to this kind of diet and thought it was way too hard for us to accomplish.

Then one day someone started attacking me through email.

Stay tuned for Part 2...