Customer Reviews

Unraveling the Mystery of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder: A Mother's Story of Research & Recovery

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an very useful book for all parents of PDD and ASD kids, and contains some of the best and most readable discussion of dietary intervention I have seen. The GFCF diet has been enormously helpful to my son, and this book would have been wonderful to have when I was first trying to figure it out. But it makes me crazy that Seroussi attributes all of her son's recovery to diet and completely dismisses the huge number of therapy hours that her county and/or school district provided to her child; and I also feel that Seroussi comes outrageously close to implying that the recovery of Catherine Maurice's children was spontaneous. Buy this book, and also buy books about therapy and special education, and buckle down to a lot of work, and a lot of love. -Sara from Colorado, the Land of Almost-No-Help.

At a time when not many books on the subject were out there (now there seems to be too many to choose from :)), this one by far could have saved me months in research. She tells the story from a very personal perspective being brutally honest, yet packed with facts, data, etc. Oh yeah and she makes the mysterious scientific stuff understandable. It's been four (seems like 20) years since my family entered this strange new place where it seems all of the rules are backward, conventional medicine has given up long ago and you struggle with what is right or what could help and no one can really tell you for sure...

I laughed, I cried, but best of all for the first time in a long while I had hope. I loved this book and I hope one day to be able to leave it on the shelf of 'remember when...'

A little over a year ago my son was diagnosed with autism at 2 1/2 years old. He would not make eye contact, had basically no language, slept about four hours a night and would not really interact with others. I came across the name of this book in an article on MSNBC. I am a physician and was initially doubtful, but we didn't have much to lose. We started the GF/CF diet, and after 2 difficult weeks my son began his return to us. We have used several other biological interventions and extensive behavioral therapy. My son now plays with friends and family, SLEEPS, stims very little, and enjoys preschool. His remaining isssue is expressive language and that is improving daily.

If you are a parent, relative, friend, caretaker or therapist working with a child diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, you owe it to your child to at least find out more about biological interventions, and this book is a great place to start.

Thank you Karyn Seroussi.

This book is one of 3 that changed our family's life. (Facing autism which made us know in our hearts the diagnosis was right & William shaw's book which details more of the science of this stuff are the other two.)I believe that there are many reasons children are on the autistic spectrum and that this book will only help some.

Our son now 4 1/2 was diagnosed with PDD NOS within days of turning 3. We saw some familiarities with the medical issues in this book and thought it worth looking into. (relux, ear infections, persistently loose stools, Milk obsession, food intolerances affecting behaviour in a cousin, bad reaction to vaccin in a normal sibling).

Wanting to be more scientific than 'try it and see' we had a number of tests done over the following 6 months. Sure enough the results were consistent with the theories: food sensitivities, enormous yeast& bacteria overgrowth, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, amino acid imbalances. I cried for a week when I realised the 'lifestyle change' the diet would mean (just coping with life seemed such hard work). But I can honestly say that it doesn't seem that onerous now and it wasn't nearly as difficult as I first feared.

We made the changes progressively - Dietary eliminations. Vitamin & mineral supplementation. Probiotics, antifungals.We saw improvements in 'behaviour'and what convinced us that these were real and not just wishful thinking was that they were accompanied by other changes:
*At 3 1/4 you could have called our son's name from 2 ft away, all day and unless you were touching him or in his face he didn't know it. After 3 days CFGF he suddenly responded to his name from 20 ft away from then on he would look up/around when his name was called. Having woken up 5 times a night EVERY night for months beforehand our son slept through and in the last 18 months he has woken up in the night on only 3 separate occaisions (wet bed/ fell out). I don't need to tell anyone going through this kind of sleep deprivation themselves what a difference that made.
*When we treated the yeasts and bacteria we saw a change in attention span, eye contact and a spontaneous desire to talk to US. This coincided with his first(that I could remember) "beautifully" formed poops. I can't imagine how we'd have managed potty training without this change). Post treatment tests showed great improvement in results. We have had recently had confirmation of this when our suspicions of a problem this summer (poor attention span, weak eye contact, less complex speech) led us to test again and following alarming results we treated the yeasts again and Wow, what a difference.
We think we have seen improvements from supplementation changes but the more gradual changes are possibly due to other reasons. We are great fans also of his wonderful ABA and AVB therapy he has received in the last year. We are still making changes but it certainly seems that the more normal his body chemistry is the more normal he seems. We believe the changes we've made have helped him be able learn from his excellent teachers.

Our son is catching up fast. His communication skills are now only about 6 months behind (from being 'in the bottom 1 percent of children' at age 2 1/2) and people who don't know autistic spectrum disorders don't guess he's any other than a little behind in speech. He will be attending a normal kindergarten next year (no aide expected to be necessary) but continuing speech therapy probably.

It hasn't just saved our son. It's saved our sanity. Bringing up a son who had almost no ability to understand what was being said to him and was clearly so frustrated that he couldn't make his needs understood was like living on Mars. Between 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 the tantrums were explosive and could last hours despite all the very good advice we did get from the state early intervention program. The need for routines was all encompassing. This book enabled us to open a window in our son's mind that we and his teachers could pull him through. I worried if doing all this biomedical stuff would change his "personality". Didn't I love him as he was??. It's difficult to explain but he is still quite definitely the same person and fixing the problems feels a bit like putting on my glasses in the morning. I can seem 'him' clearly now.

When I first told friends and family about what we were doing they smiled sweetly but obviously thought I was nuts. Now the change in our son has been such that I can't count the number of times I've been told "you should write a book about this". I tell them I would......but there already IS one.

This book reads like a novel, with so much good information. I was blown away, and the price was so reasonable. This book is a must have, if you need information on Autism. Excellent!!!

I love this book! I went to the store to buy a different book about sensory integration dysfunction and I found this one and read it cover to cover in 24 hours. (I haven't opened the other one!!) The thing I love about this book is the variety and depth of information. My son is mildly autistic but he's already 6 years old. Thankfully, early intervention at age 2 helped is future. However, this book helped me explore more options to help him and me, especially with the diet. It was like the light went on when I read her story, finally figuring out why all these things were plaging him in the past and maybe for the future as well. I would recommend this book to every parent who has a child. My childs needs are no longer severe, but this book just opened my eyes to all of the options and possibilites there are for children. I teared up soooo many times reading about all of the strives that Miles made. I wish I would have read this book when my son was born in 1996. If all of the parents in this world were as ambitious to help their children as Karyn and her husband, the world would be a much better place. You have to be an advocate for your child, and this book is a prime example of this and so many other things!!

If you have a child with autism you owe it to them on checking out this "GFCF Diet" thing. I have a son with autism and it is hands down the best thing I have done for him (besides hours of ABA,VBA, Speech & OT and some biomed intervention) - the diet wins.
Not only is the the healthiest thing you can do, it is the cheapest thing you can do and something you have complete control over. The diet is truly about proper nutrition for children that have wounded guts (whether you think your child has a wounded gut or not - it is something to truly try.)
Doctors and others who say - a diet cannot help children with autism are 100% wrong. I have seen it with my own 2 eyes on my child and many others.
After starting the GFCF Diet my son -
- stopped self stim behavior
- slept thru the night for the first time in 2 years
- within 6 months had great stools for the first time in 2 years
- began to be much more connected
- all the other therapies were possible
- there is a lot more I could write here - but you are going to have to believe what I am typing... it truly makes a difference.

There is also alot of sound advice on other therapies and her journey. It has a happy ending to the story as well and that was worth it enough.

My son is now totally connected with us, doing amazing things and is in kindergarten.

What do you have to lose? It is just a book... it is just a diet. See what it can do for your child.

Karyn Seroussi is a gem and this book is something you need to read.

Karyn's book was one of the first I read after the confirmation of autism for my son. We had participated in the tests and investigations trying to isolate and identify the developmental delays in his growth. With this book I felt the kindred frustration trying to understand my child's problem, and anxiety over his future. More important than sympathetic experiences, she writes as a guide and a tutor for a parent's quest to help attack the problems and causes of autism.

This is a wonderful book, well-written, and an excellant introduction into many of the complicated and controversial issues associated with autism and the research identifying the possible causes of this spectrum of disorders.

I strongly recommend Karyn Seroussi's book for all parents facing the trials of raising a child diagnosed with autism.

I read this book in a day after getting it from the library. Because it was so good I ordered a copy from here. I use it as reference alot. Another one I suggest is Biological Treatments for Autism and PDD by William Shaw another must have.

As a special educator and behavioral therapist working with children who are affected by autism, I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the topic. It was recommended to me by the parent of a child I work with and I read it non-stop. Although I had known about the diet and knew a few children who were on it, I had not put much stock into dietary intervention, focusing primarily on behavioral therapy. I am now a firm believer in dietary intervention for anyone who is on the autistic spectrum. Even though it focuses heavily on the gluten/casein free diet, this book is well-written and encompasses all areas of autism. Perhaps the best aspect about it is that it gives hope to others that autism can be beaten.