Nourishing Hope for Autism: Nutrition and Diet Guide for Healing Our Children [Perfect Paperback]

I can't recommend the work of Julie Mathews enough. My son doesn't have autism, but he has sensory processing disorder. This causes extreme mood swings among other symptoms such as head banging, aggression and fight, flight, freeze reactions when he's overstimulated. We have tried a lot of different approaches, but by far changes to my son's diet has made the biggest difference for him. My son was eating a healthy diet, and was also GFDF before we read this book, but he was still having seemingly sporadic behavioral symptoms - as well as rashes that I couldn't make sense of. When we started a diet called GAPS (Gut and Psychology Syndrome) we saw a dramatic, night and day difference within the first week of starting the strict elimination stage of this diet. As we reintroduced foods in different stages of the GAPS diet, symptoms (and rashes) returned with each attempt. The GAPS book didn't have an explanation of this. However, Nourishing Hope explains what my son was reacting to and why. By making dietary changes recommended in Julie's book, we were able to have consistent reduction in my son's symptoms. By reducing salicylates, and making other dietary changes she recommends (such as understanding amines and glutamate), we were able to move modify the GAPS diet in a way that worked best for my son's biochemistry. Eventually we were able to remove all medication and see our son thrive. I was surprised to see my own health problems improve with these dietary changes as well. It also resulted in a reduction in asthma and stuttering in my other child.

Best book on nutrition and Autism, but not Holistic or user friendly even for a practitioner like myself. You have to read the whole book, its not designed to be a look up symptoms and find possible solutions kind of book. I did not read the whole book and so it was not until I listened to the Autism Summit that I got the clue that a low Salicylates Phenol diet would be useful for a particular child is was working with. Hyperactive aggressive, irritable, lover certain fods and hot body temp as shown by red cheeks was the tip off. A search of the index of the book was necessary to find where in the book the indicators for a low salicylates / phenols.diet was. This child had not responded to a gluten milk free diet.DETOXIFICATION is mentioned on 30 different pages as shown by the index.Important sources of toxins are discussed. . But there is not lot of information as to how to get them out of the body. Saunas are not mentioned or discussed. So this is not a comprehensive book on what nees to be done for the Autistic child. I had one seriously autistic child go into 95% remission on an Aluminum detox.No mention of Jin Shin Jyutsu acupressure or other body work and Autism. This book is primarily about nutrition. It needs a updated edition because we know a lot now 10 years after this book was published. So if This book doesnt help then look to online summits for newer information.MERCURY or other toxic metals an issue? Get Dr Bock MD's Book "Healing the new Childhood Epidemics" in which he discusses how a child has to be prepared to tolerate the toxic chelation therapies (intravenous, oral or suppository administered Pharmaceutical drugs).

Bought this on the request of my wife, but as I'm doing research on the side, I'm finding that there is very little scientific evidence to support many of the diet claims in this book (and others). A healthy diet is always a good thing, but don't get your hopes too high on some of these diets. According to the author, many of the diets were helpful for 55% or so of the parents who tried them, Well, that's no better than a placebo, because that means that about half did improve and half didn't! So, just be careful and do research outside of this book - and consider the source, too. AutismOne, for example, has a slick website, does shows all over the country and is still promoting anti-vaccination despite the fact that dozens of scientific studies have been done by groups all over the world and none of them have been able to find ANY links between vaccinations and autism. Denmark, for example, banned any form of mercury in vaccinations years before the US did and the rate of autism continued to rise as before the ban. The same thing happened in other developed countries when they removed the vaccine preservatives containing mercury. If there was any correlation, autism rates should have dropped, but they didn't. Also, there is about 9 times more mercury in a tuna fish sandwich than there is in all of a child's vaccinations COMBINED.Anyway, so I commend the author for putting this information together, but question the validity of that information. I also speak somewhat from experience, as my son is high functioning autistic (though not Asperger's) and has steadily, slowly, and amazingly improved since we put him in a ABA certified private school (Thanks, McKay Scholarship!) and yet we have never altered his diet in any way, shape or form.

If you are questioning things get this book. She is so thorough with her research and explains everything to a T. Very helpful book has saved me hours of online research.

Nourishing Hope is the most comprehensive guide to the complex neurological disorder which is autism that I have ever read. I have been and continue recommending this book to the countless families touched by autism that I have worked with over the past 10 years as their "go-to guide"--a work that can be trusted to provide answers and complete and detailed explanations regarding the many origins, treatments, diets and biomedical approaches related to autism. This is a must-read for all families affected by autism and those working alongside them in support. I myself have seen great change and even recovery in children affected by autism in my work with a prominent neurodevelopmental pediatrician using biomedical approaches such as the ones mentioned in Nourishing Hope. The many interventions that are so clearly laid out and explained in detail in this book have great potential to change lives. This book is priceless for autism families, and is worth far above the cost for the many times it will be referenced over time!

Wonderful, fantastic book! I can't thank the author enough!!

This is an excellent book to read if you are doing biomedical interventions with an autistic child .The science is very complicated but it does explain fairly well the different dietary and nutritional interventions that can be done.as well as nutritional supplements that can be given.It gives a lot of detailed information about the permitted foods for various dietary interventions like the specific carbohydrate diet fenigold diet , low oxalate diet etc.It is a very measured book that is full of common sense. It helps clarify a lot of dietary issues that surround autism and I wish I had found it a few years ago

I learned SO MUCH about healing the body and mind healing asd , adhd. How important REAL food is as well and supplementation . a WONDERFUL book.

Excellent Book

Great book with valuable information. Was disappointed that it was not brand new and was a well loved copy complete with highlighted text.