Getting Your Kid on a Gluten-Free Casein-Free Diet [Paperback]

Susan Lord (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 15, 2009 | ISBN-10: 1843109093 | ISBN-13: 978-1843109099

Gluten-free casein-free diets are widely used to improve cognitive function, speech patterns, behavior, and general well-being in children on the autistic spectrum. Written by a registered dietitian and mother of a child who is thriving on a gluten-free casein-free diet, this practical guide covers everything from how to get your child on the diet, to daily meal plans, recipes and handy shopping lists. Susan Lord offers sound nutritional advice on how to implement the diet correctly, without harming your child by omitting major nutrient groups.Whether you are a parent or care-giver, this book will make removing gluten and casein from an autistic child's diet simple and stress-free. The easy-to-follow meal plans, complete with delicious recipes and ingredient lists, will guide you with confidence in providing a nutritionally-balanced diet for your child, as well as healthy meals the whole family will enjoy.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Susan Lord is a registered dietitian with the American Dietetic Association. Her daughter was diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder at the age of five and has been on a gluten-free, casein-free diet for almost nine years. Her diagnosis now falls into the more general category of 'cognitive disability'. Susan lives in the Washington D.C. area with her husband and two daughters.

Product Details

• Paperback: 191 pages
• Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Pub (February 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1843109093
• ISBN-13: 978-1843109099
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #321,160 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Underwhelmed. Best Fit for One Type of Reader Only., May 12, 2009

By 

christinemm - The Thinking Mother (Houston Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Getting Your Kid on a Gluten-Free Casein-Free Diet (Paperback)

(What's this?)

Author Susan Lord is a registered dietician who used a gluten-free casein free (GFCF) diet on her daughter after she obtaining an Autism Spectrum diagnosis. Her daughter had improvement after the GFCF diet began. This book seeks to help and encourage parents in their effort to implement a GFCF diet with their children.

Some parents look to begin a GFCF diet after an Autism Spectrum diagnosis is made on their children and some may use the GFCF diet after a diagnosis of food allergies or food insensitivities to gluten (wheat) or casein (cow milk protein). I've had one child on a GFCF diet at age three and I know it is no easy task and that the idea of a diet that eliminates these major food staples of the Standard American Diet is overwhelming and challenging.

If you are a parent who wants to start their child on a GFCF diet and have ALREADY made that decision this book might help you. If you are looking for reasons why a GFCF diet may work or be a good idea, that information is not in this book.

If you feel overwhelmed at the idea of beginning a GFCF diet and just want to be told what to do including given menu plans for two weeks and recipes for those dishes, this book is for you. If you have already read other books and materials about food options for a GFCF diet and starting to use food substitutions I feel this book may be too simple or too basic for you.

If your child is already on a GFCF diet and you have managed to come up with menus and have learned new dishes to make from scratch at home this book may be of little or no use to you.

The book jumps right in with menu plans and dishes. A major issue I have with this book is that many of the dishes my children would never eat, not my picky eater child who was on a restricted diet in the past and not even my not-picky eater child. These dishes are flavorful, perhaps too flavorfully potent for young children, such as curry chicken, pad thai shrimp, and scallops with ginger. There are only two salad dressings for garden salads given, just one example of the low number of recipes in this book.

Only after the menu is laid out does the author discuss picky eaters and frankly I found the tone demeaning to the parent, basically blaming the parent for the child's pickiness. What bothers me the most is the total absence of addressing a real issue that some children have, that some suffer with texture sensitivity oral issues, which can and does account for some children being `picky eaters'. Given the fact that a number of children with Autism also have sensory issues (including undiagnosed oral sensitivities but diagnosed with touch or hearing sensitivities), the fact that the author ignores this is bothersome and disappointing to me. Also the ideas to entice kids to eat foods they hate by cutting them into special shapes or letting the kids give the foods silly names is ridiculous and ineffective when applied to children over age five.

If you exclude some of these dishes due to a child refusing to eat foods with strong flavors, refusing to eat soup, or refusing to eat green leafy vegetables you are down to a very limited menu plan, making this book nearly useless. Perhaps parents would be better off with the more numerous recipes in the cookbook for parents making substitutions as necessary to be GFCF with DECEPTIVELY DELICIOUS by Jessica Seinfeld, a book that hides nutritious foods inside of common family foods. There is nothing special about a number of these recipes which are just your basic cooking entrees from scratch menus whose ingredients don't contain gluten or casein. The truth is that many GFCF entrees and side dishes can be made using a regular "cooking from scratch" cookbook.

I was also disappointed with the recommendation to replace cow milk products with soy products for two reasons. First, children with food sensitivities, food allergies and leaky gut (all things that children with an Autism diagnosis may have), can easily start to negatively react to soy if it is eaten regularly such as replacing cow milk cheese with soy cheese and replacing cow milk with soy milk and cow milk cream cheese with soy cream cheese. This happened with my own child so I know it does happen with some children. Second, eating soy regularly is beginning to be questioned as I learned after reading the book THE HIDDEN DANGERS OF SOY by Dianne Gregg in which she reports that children are being diagnosed with hypothyroid and high cholesterol as well as having early onset of puberty due to the fact that soy acts as a phyto-estrogen on the body. Being that I'm more open to eating whole foods in as close to their natural state as possible I myself tend to make foods from scratch and avoid the cow milk substitutes completely rather than replace a processed and factory prepared cow milk food product with a processed and factory prepared soy cow milk imitation food item.

The best parts of the book are the lists of processed foods that contain gluten and casein and the shopping list of GFCF foods. Also wonderful is the table in the appendix of vitamins and minerals explaining what they do and how they benefit the human body.

To sum it up this book is best for a reader who already decided to put their child on a GFCF diet and doesn't need any of the `why's' given to them. This book is best for non-picky eater children who do not have taste or texture oral sensitivities to food. This book is best if you want to be told what to do right now to quickly get up and running with a GFCF diet and if the idea of reading one, two or more separate books on the topics overwhelms you. This book is best for a newbie overwhelmed parent who doesn't like to read much or go find the best source for GF baking recipes or other recipes and wants all the info in one short book.

Parents who have already investigated the GFCF diets, already have some recipes, already have their child on the GFCF diet, already own one or more cookbooks with GFCF recipes, and already have food lists will not need to read this book.

I'm rating this 3 stars which in Amazon's definition is "It's Okay" for the multiple reasons explained in my review. If it were longer and had more recipes I'd bring my rating to the 4 star = "I Like It" Amazon definition.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No nonsense guide to starting out, July 11, 2010

By 

C. Keeney (Magnet, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Getting Your Kid on a Gluten-Free Casein-Free Diet (Paperback)

(What's this?)

This should be the book that you get when you start either a gluten free, casein free diet, whether you are adult or child.

She also talks about what you do when there are kid parties at school, etc, and also talks about how you get the strange stares and criticisms about eating such a weird diet... The book is an easy read and gives "simple" ideas on what to eat so that you or your kid can eat as normally as possible and not feel deprived. It's a simple book designed to take an overwhelming life change and make it simpler.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Underwhelming, June 18, 2010

By 

E. Branchflower "CadeRidge" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Getting Your Kid on a Gluten-Free Casein-Free Diet (Paperback)

I'm always looking for good books and different recipes for GFCF foods. But I was underwhelmed with recipes such as Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich - Use gluten free bread, peanut butter and jelly, and Garlic Bread - Use GF bread, GFCF free butter like substance and garlic powder. Really, I couldn't have figured those out on my own.