Whenever I read about the hassles involved in eating gluten and dairy free I read about the actual purchase, preparation and management of the food. That, honestly, was one of the smaller hurdles in my mind.

The larger hurdles were in dealing with doctors and schools and friends and family. It was waiting for months to see what the diet would do. It was dealing with the unrelenting medical and peer pressure to feed your child “normal” food. It was wondering if this was even going to work or if you were screaming at someone about cross contamination for no reason.

I know that I got antifungals strictly because the doctor did not want to deal with me. She stared at me as if perhaps, I had left my tinfoil hat at home today.

People, some of whom are doctors, will tell you that there is no scientific evidence that this diet works and that research has not shown it to be helpful. Then they try to tell you that milk is necessary, and wheat has fiber.

This makes me wonder if they forgot their tinfoil hats.

If we need milk how do you explain 1 billion people in China when most of who do not drink milk? Or in Africa where there is virtually no dairy. Wheat does not grow well in hot swampy climates, yet humans are from hot climates. And how exactly does bean based bread have LESS fiber than wheat bread?

And about that evidence, its preliminary but it exists. The New York Times has been carrying stories almost every Sunday about the mounting evidence that a lot of autism is autoimmune and that diet is linked to autoimmunity.

They have not, however, had any stories about the protective features of tinfoil hats.

Years ago there was very little evidence that a reduced-fat, reduced-salt mostly vegan diet helped heart disease either. Caldwell Esseltyn was “fringe”.

There are multiple links to scientific research supporting the role of the gluten and dairy free diet on this site, but if you want to know that it has worked for other moms, you need look no further than the rest of the blogosphere.

Here are a few other moms whose children got better, if not totally cured, on the diet
http://www.lexieskitchen.com/hello/
http://www.glutenanddairyfree.com/ourstories.html
http://www.jessicasglutendairyfreekitchen.com/?page_id=233

And I have met several others who do not blog. This is not a coincidence. This is real.

You are not alone.
And you do not need a tinfoil hat.