The Efficacy of the Gluten-Free Casein-Free Diet for Moroccan Autistic Children

Abstract

The aims of this study are to verify the efficiency of gluten-free casein-free diet for children with autism spectrum disorder and to evaluate its impact on their nutritional profiles.30 children with autism spectrum disorder, between 6 and 12 years old, had been identified for the study. An analysis of biological matrixes was performed to detect the level of urinary peptides and essential elements. A gluten-free casein-free diet was administered for children with high urinary peptides level during one year, quarterly followed-up. The scale of autism was assessed by the “Childhood Autism Rating Scale” questionnaire. The findings, before the gluten-free casein-free diet, show that 20 children had high levels of urinary peptides and unnatural essential elements concentrations. At the end of the sixth diet month, the results show a large decrease in essential elements concentrations for the majority of children. After identifying these deficiencies, the diet was modified and fortified in a way that made it a supervised diet. We could, then, decrease the urinary peptides level for 40% of children, improve essential elements concentrations for 30% and decrease the autism severity for 30% of them. Our study has shown that only autistic children that present both very high urinary peptide and gastrointestinal problems respond positively to a gluten-free casein-free diet. This type of died should not therefore be systematic administered to all autistic children. On the other hand, the elimination diets run risk of having deficiencies which makes the supervision of a specialist required.