A family living with autism

I am a mother of three children. I began taking my oldest son for evaluations at the University of Iowa hospitals and clinics when he was five years old. They immediately started him on medication and said he had adhd. His impulsiveness was out of control, he obsessed about things and kept doing the same behavior over and over again. I was at wits end. No one would give me any support. I didn't know where to turn, or what to do. He was hospitalized for a week or two every year, but nothing ever got done. They treated him like a guinea pig and started him on all of these horrible medications. I was fed up, I backed him off the medication by cutting down the doses every four or five days until I had him off of everything. He did not act any different without any medication than he did with all of them. I did some research and decided to try food allergy testing. I was amazed. He came up with several things that he was allergic too, most of all, dairy, tomatoes and flour. I immediately tried a gluten free diet, almost like an Atkins low carb diet and took away dairy and tomatoes. It was incredible. The difference in his behaviors were amazing, a night and day difference. Although it did not cure him, it helped greatly. He was finally diagnosed five years ago with Infantile Autism, Peraphelia disorder and adhd (along with more) Everyone that I talk to, I encourage them to look into food allergies and try to change diet before starting medications.