Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional New here. I think my 7 YO, PG son has Asperger's

In addition to red dye #40 my son is sensitive to something in Cheetos, so I try to keep him away from this stuff, especially when we go out somewhere. He usually checks food labels before eating anything, if he has the chance to.

I just found an interesting article at www.autism-in-the-christican-home.com/stimming.html about stimming. It says that it is commonly found in autism, but also found in other developmental disabilities.

I was surprised to see that tapping fingers is listed as an example of stimming. It also said that all of us engage in some of these behaviors occasionally, especially when we are stressed. I know this is true for me. My son pointed out that I often tapped the steering wheel when I am nervous about driving in traffic.

I have even done the "shaking my hands or flapping for whatever you want to call it" thing similar to what my son does, but only when I do something like walk into a spider web in the dark because that definitely activates my "fight or flight" response. My response is automatic and I am not thinking of how it looks to other people or anything else, so I think I can kind of understand how my son might be feeling when he occasionally does this--like when he was extremely nervous after looking at the stage in the huge university auditorium where he would soon be competing in the spelling bee. I felt like pacing the floor--another stimming behavior, accoring to the list.

When I told the OT about the stimming at the spelling bee she said he really needs to do something like running or push ups or something before he does something like this and it should help. Before the spelling bee all we did was stop by McDonald's where my son got a coke and sausage biscuit. The caffeine probably didn't help either.

I think a lot of people think that reading at 2 plus talking like an adult plus occasional stimming has to equal Asperger's.

It may not be a false negative in the strict sense, but an indication that your son has food sensitivities or intolerances rather than true food allergies which are IgE-mediated and can cause anaphylaxis. It is an important distinction because when sensitivities and intolerances are referred to as allergies, it becomes difficult to convince people that food allergies are a life-threatening condition. This is a subject near and dear to my heart since both my children have food-induced anaphylaxis.

Oh yes... the dreaded red food dye #40. We finally figured that one out when he was four and got a single, red, heart-shaped sucker after dinner on Valentine's day. (about the size of a quarter!) He changed from his normal, active self to this latte-fueled energizer bunny. It was serious like someone had given him a triple shot of espresso! He was chattering so fast that he stopped pausing between words to breathe and his sentences began to run together until they were jibberish. Then he started running laps around the dining room table. He could not stop moving. Four hours later, he was laying in bed, twitching at 11 pm, completely unable to get to sleep. He kept saying, "Mom, my head is spinning too fast!"

There is also a preservative in most processed food called BHT that my son reacts to in much the same way. That might be what is in the Cheetos?

I'm really curious about this stimming. (I've never heard of this before.) My son's teacher found that he had to have something in his pocket to fiddle with during the day to get rid of some of his nervous energy. I will have to read up on this. Thanks for the tip.

Just as peanut allergies are on the increase, I am hearing a lot about the red dye and also, now, the orange dye used for Cheetos, cheddar crackers, orange soda, etc.
I wonder if food sensitivities are on the increase or if we have better tools to measure them, thus the increase in diagnosing them.
I found out two years ago that I have a gluten intolerance. It is difficult to totally cut out gluten without spending a fortune at Whole Foods.
I also have a sensitivity to a natural preservative that is commonly used in foods. The thing that stinks is that since it is naturally occurring as opposed to synthetic, it can be grouped under natural flavors instead of being listed outright in the ingredients.
Concerning stimming and autism and the spectrum.....I think in the next 10 years or so, we are going to see a lot of nuerological explanations for spectrum type issues. As well as, many things such as empathy/lack there of, inability to read social cues/intuition, deja vu, and many others.. Referring back to the previous compensation discussion- I would guess there are adults out there who are mildly on the spectrum who don't have an official diagnosis and who have high compensating skills. I would guess there are a small number of people out there who intuitively compensate for atypical nuerology as well as physical impairment similar to what they would achieve in PT or OT. In mild cases anyway.
What do you think?

Interesting discussion. I have a friend with a 3.5 year old DD who currently has her on a gluten/dairy free diet (and yes - costs a fortune!) for borderline autistic behaviors. It's hard to say what is going on with her. She definitely prefers to play alone and have her own space. She seems probably at least MG. But she likes me a lot! It takes her a long time to get to trust people. My DD4 and her don't play together at all, and my DD really loves to play with other kids.

It's funny, my mom and I were just discussing this today. Why are so many more children being diagnosed with allergies today, and not just minor allergies, but life threatening ones? Maybe part of it is better diagnostic tools. I saw a story on the news of a child with a severe peanut allergy who jumped into a pool where someone else in the pool had eaten peanut butter at some point in the day and the allergic child immediately went into anaphylactic shock. The mom was trying to educate people on how serious these allergies can be. Cathy, I feel for you!!! I hope your kids aren't this allergic.

I hope so, too! Although, when DD was a toddler, another child used her tricycle after eating a granola bar. Then DD used it and she got hives up to her elbows on both arms.

We don't eat out anymore because DD had a reaction to some (supposedly peanut-free) Indian food. DD had hives for three days.

She wears her Epipen around her waist and eats at a peanut-free table at school. The whole thing absolutely scares me to death, especially when I can't seem to get through to her teachers. Just this week, DD brought home a goodie bag from her teacher. It had two mini candy bars in it labeled "May contain peanuts." To me, it might as well say "May contain cyanide!" So if I am a little touchy on the subject, I hope you will all understand

In the book that I mentioned earlier, Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnoses in Gifted Children and Adults, Dr. Webb has a Chapter entitled "Allergies, Asthma, and Reactive Hypoglycemia." (Chapter 8). Here is a quote from page 169:

"Rogers' analysis of data collected by Silverman on children with IQ scores above 160 revealed that 44% suffered from allergies, compared to 20% of the general population and that almost 10% suffered from asthma.

In our clinical experience, approximately 30% to 40% of highly gifted children suffer from allergies, usually to food of some type or to common chemicals. Silverman (2002) concluded from a 20-year clinical sample that the most frequently occurring allergies reported for gifted children were milk and milk products, sugar, corn, chocolate, caffeine, eggs, and red food dye."

I also found a link to an article in Living Without Magazine about corn allergy, if anyone is interested. It discussed allergy-induced autism.

http://www.livingwithout.com/features/vault_corncrazy.html

Oh yes! Completely! And we worry for your DD, too.

I think the hardest part is that allergic kids are out there in the world without you. I'm not a control freak (well, not entirely anyway... ), but that part of DS7's allergies to tree nuts filled me with dread. And all we can do is do our best to prepare them and hope that they remember to ask the right questions and accept only the right answers...even when faced with some yummy treat that they REALLY want.

*sigh*

So scary!

Sorry, but this is another example of what I am talking about. The top 8 food allergens are actually peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, soy and wheat. Things like sugar and caffeine are not proteins and cannot be true allergens. Certainly, people can have adverse reactions to these things. But lumping them together with true allergies makes very little scientific sense.