How the GAPS Diet reversed symptoms of autism in just two years in a young girl who is no longer on the spectrum and living a normal childhood.
I knew my daughter Hannah had autism when she was only 12 months old although she wasn’t professionally diagnosed until age 4.
Now at 6 years old, after being on the GAPS Diet for 2 1/2 years, Hannah no longer carries an autism diagnosis and the progress she has made has been nothing short of life changing.
What’s more, Hannah has successfully transitioned off of GAPS in recent months and is now eating a normal traditional diet which includes grains and starches – with no regression or recurrence of symptoms!
For those of you new to GAPS, it stands for Gut and Psychology Syndrome. GAPS is a temporary diet that was designed by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride MD to reverse autism in her own son. GAPS works to heal the gut lining, rebalance intestinal flora, and help with nutrient absorption.
In a nutshell, the GAPS Diet cuts out grains, sugar, and starch, and adds in foods rich in probiotics, healthy fats, and amino acids needed to heal and seal the gut wall. Once the gut lining is healed, many chronic health problems magically go away- things from autoimmune diseases to behavior problems to eczema.
Yes, even autism!
Hannah’s Story of Reversing Autism
I had been keeping an eye on Hannah’s development from 4 months old when she wasn’t making eye contact, rolling over, or interested in anything other than nursing, I knew something was up, but it was right near her 1st birthday that I looked up the diagnostic criteria for autism, and realized that yes, she most likely did qualify as autistic, though most professionals won’t diagnose it until 3 years. It wasn’t until she was 4 that she received a formal diagnosis from a professional, but I knew I needed to start intervention as soon as possible in order to give her the greatest chance for a full recovery.
I started by keeping her on a Weston A. Price Traditional Diet of all organic, nutrient dense foods as she was weaning, but when I didn’t see improvement with that we tried the gluten free casein free diet, which helped her ability to learn temporarily. After awhile, however, she lapsed back into ‘autism land’.
As a desperate young mom with an autistic toddler, and now her infant baby brother, I continued to search for ways to help my child. Googling ‘what to do when the gluten free casein free diet stops working autism’ brought up the GAPS Diet – this was 2009 when GAPS was just beginning to be known across the internet.
It took me a few months to work up the motivation to place my small child on such a restrictive diet, but the waking up every 2 hours all night every night, her not making progress in speech or occupational therapy because she was unable to learn, and wanting so desperately to improve her quality of life pushed me to give GAPS a try. Just after Hannah’s 3rd birthday I said we would only try GAPS for 30 days. And I tried it with her, to make sure I felt okay on such a different diet than typical Americans eat.
Starting GAPS
We started GAPS with the intro diet in November 2009. I saw such great progress with her (and myself- GAPS cleared up a dairy allergy that I’d had since childhood, in just 6 weeks of the intro diet!) that I committed to keep going.
She was able to learn again, and seemed to be starved for GAPS food; she was actually eating more than I was as a lactating mother!
Continuing GAPS as it was needed
We continued GAPS for 2-1/2 years, working to heal the gut lining. Hannah’s digestion improved, and she started eating less after having been on the diet for a few weeks- her body was so starved for nutrients at first that she would eat everything in sight, but slowed back down to a typical toddler amount after a few weeks on GAPS.
The most exciting part of Hannah’s improvement on GAPS was that she was once again able to learn. She started making progress in speech, occupational, and physical therapies. She took an interest in other children, was sleeping well at night, and was happier during the day. GAPS gave her quality of life so much improvement, that there was no question that we had to continue the diet as long as it helped her.
As we continued, I got better at cooking GAPS food. In the beginning we ate vegetable soup, cooked chicken, hamburgers, and scrambled eggs nearly every day. GAPS forced me to be more creative with the allowed GAPS food, and I was able to expand to very enjoyable meals!
Hannah knew her diet was different, but she was content with her food. Other parents would look on at me jealously as she gobbled up eggs, meat, fruit, and veggies. The diet took effort to continue with, but once we had been on it about 6 months it just became routine.
Transitioning off the GAPS diet after 2 years
GAPS is intended to be a temporary diet, so after Hannah had been on it and doing well for 2 years, I started trying some foods that weren’t GAPS legal about once a month. We started with potatoes, popcorn, and whole raw milk and she did well. We continued introducing new non-GAPS foods and watched carefully for any reactions (wheat was the last thing we introduced). If her gut wasn’t healed enough to tolerate a food I saw reactions in the form of skin rashes, night terrors, or loss of eye contact- every person’s reactions would be different though.
In June we traveled to California for my little brother’s wedding. She had been transitioning off GAPS for 6 months by then, so I decided to just let go and see if she could eat what everyone else was eating. She did great! No reactions to the food at all. We were officially and successfully done with our GAPS and food allergy journey!
No longer Autistic!
Though Hannah still has some learning disabilities (I believe this is from the long time that her brain was bombarded with toxins pre-GAPS, and we’re trying other therapies to continue to help with this), she just was tested this fall and no longer meets the criteria needed for an autism diagnosis.
She has benefited so much from the GAPS diet, and has come so far from the 12 month old who would just fuss or stare off into space all day. She is toilet trained, loves interacting with peers, talks, learns new things, makes great eye contact, and is getting much better at accepting changes to her routine.
We still eat mostly GAPS at home, since it is such a nutrient dense diet that our whole family thrives on. But being off GAPS means that I don’t have to stress when we’re out and we can just eat what everyone else is eating.
The GAPS diet has been amazing for our family, I am so thankful that Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride wrote the GAPS book in time to help Hannah. I’m also thankful it’s not a diet we have to be on for life, but it was so worth it to stick with it for the couple years we needed to be on it.
About Cara
I’m Cara, and I write at Health, Home, and Happiness. Because I was so overwhelmed when starting the GAPS Diet, I put together some resources to help others who want to do GAPS.
I have GAPS friendly meal plans (full GAPS), a book that helps you get through the more strict Introduction Diet, and even a guide to help you stock your freezer with GAPS friendly foods.
More Information on the GAPS Diet
GAPS Diet: Heal Your Autoimmune Disease Now
Overwhelmed by the GAPS Diet? Help Has Arrived
How to Speed Healing and Shorten Time on the GAPS Diet
The Five Most Common GAPS Diet Mistakes
GAPS Diet Heals Ulcerative Colitis
5 Steps to Healing IBS Naturally
FPIES: Resolving the “Other” Food Allergy
Chronic Stomach Pain and Bloating Gone!
diet that is 😀
hurray for GAPS!
I’m so glad that there are great moms like y’all who look beyond the standard medical box and find ways to improve your children’s health. You’re an inspiration and I tip my hat to you.
Rachel it never goes away, you are right but my son is as close to neurologically typical as he can be. Autism is also in our family and our diagnosis was ASD not Asperger’s. Saying that a diagnosis can’t be true just because you didn’t get the same results is a bit premature. All of us that are familiar with the spectrum know how vast it is and we also know how differently if affects every child. This diet does work, incredibly well.
How amazing! My heart breaks for the parents of and kids with autism who just don’t know about GAPS! How many kids could be healed if the info was out there?!
Even worse are those who know there is a diet that could help their child but refuse to put forth the effort to do it!
For some of us it is not about the effort required, but rather the obstacles that seem insurmountable. My son is 9 and is not autistic but has unexplained developmental delays and spectrum issues. I have wondered if GAPS may help him. I’ve kept a folder in my email just for GAPS info. But I am scared. For starters, I have tried lots of other natural tactics such as digestive enzymes, supplements, etc. and none of them did anything for him. Also, we are a family of 6, all the other kids are teenagers. How can I possibly get them to buy into GAPS? There is no way I could feed my son differently than everyone else. He is extremely food focused and stubborn. Getting him to give up all his favorite foods would be a HUGE struggle. Everyday. We also live with my dad who already (innocently enough) sabotages our efforts to eat traditional foods by buying my son tater tots, McDonald’s, etc. I would love to try GAPS but I just don’t know how it is possible and I do not want to get my hopes up and then fail, which seems most likely. Maybe it could help him, maybe it wouldn’t I don’t know. It is not callousness that causes me to not try GAPS, in fact it breaks my heart.
Lisa, it is really hard, this is why I push parents of little ones so hard to try while they’re little. Could you do it for just 7 days over a break or something? Most people see results by the 4th day. If you see results, it’s easier to convince people to continue on.
Lisa, did you ever try the gaps or any other diet? I read your response and it just broke my heart. It is so hard to change our families. I only have two small children and its hard enough. I can’t imagine with more, plus an autistic child plus an elderly family member at home… You must be worn out and stressed to the max. I will be praying for you since there is not much else I can do to help. One thing I will comment for you and others who are sad because they can’t persuade family members to change. I’ve been there! My husband has been a pizza and fast food addict since we met. He didn’t like sweets much but, I changed that and he became as addicted as I was. My husband has terrible migraines almost every day and I just knew it was connected to his bad diet. He knew it, too. No amount of talking him into a change ever made a difference. It wasn’t until I hit a low with my health and made radical changes of my own that he was “listening” though I didn’t have to say a word. Less than two months into my change he said he was inspired and made an about face in his diet and even started exercising again. It hasn’t cured his migraines but he is so much happier and healthier and they are much less frequent. Also during my journey a distant friend changed her family’s diet and they are doing so much better as well. Just this weekend my sister who is very overweight and on the brink of diabetes among other issues asked to borrow my “It Starts With Food” book. I never thought she would even consider making a change! Contrary to my nature I have never preached to her about this lifestyle and without realizing it the changes spoke for themselves. All my husband and I could talk about on the two hour drive home was how wise it is to “Be the change you want to see in the world.” I was thinking of no one but myself when I started by doing a whole30 and have benefitted enormously. But, it blesses me beyond words to see how it’s starting to help others as well. So, I would look inward and perhaps make all the health changes you can for yourself. I vary tee your family will be blessed as well. My prayer is that in time this will come to include not only your Autistic son but, your entire family. My heart goes out to you and I hope you’re buoyed up during this time of your life. I know that you are giving them all you can and that is just such a beautiful thing. â¤
My daughter was not sleeping as a baby, getting up every 2 hours was killing me, when a nurse suggested she may be getting up because of stomach aches, I took her to the doctor who practically laughed at me saying there is no way I could know an 8 month old was having stomach pains! She always had a mild rash on her back ( I was breast feeding) when I started her on solid food and goat milk the rash covered her entire back. Silly me went back to the doctor who had read in her file that she recently had antibiotics, should have read that she was prescribed antibiotics…he said it was just a bit of eczema and prescribed cortisone cream. Found another doctor who actually listened to what I was saying and made me stop dairy and gluten and the rash cleared considerably. Six months later I read about the GAPS diet and thought the same thing, how could I make my kid eat soup for 6 weeks and no fruit? Well, After seeing the GAPS nutritionist I decided 6 weeks was better than a lifetime of having to be careful so gave it a go, she wouldn’t touch the soup so I broke it down to broth, meat, veggies and eggs. After 8 months on GAPS, my 2 1/2 year old is thriving, she knew that this is what she needed and I don’t think that she is deprived because she cannot eat McDonald’s or other garbage instead she is learning to eat wholesome foods. Just bite the bullet, do it for your child, it is totally worth the pain!
Sarah, this is great. I’m sending to a friend who has a son with autism. Thanks!
Autism is an autoimmune disorder – different factors affect different people including digestion, toxins,poor metabolic rate and even emotional issues.Hannah’s was obviously brought on by a defective digestive system and an overload of resulting toxins affecting her brain function.There is no reason to doubt that fixing her digestion and detoxing her would cure her of the autism. I think her mother would know. Other people’s autism may have different factors involved and they may need different protocols. GAPS is not the only answer, but it brings about great improvement for most and there is no reason to doubt it can cure autism (just look at Dr. Natasha Campbell MacBride’s son who is now a teenager). I firmly believe that our bodies were created perfectly and any disorder, even genetic, has some cure, even if we have not discovered it yet.
Rachel. I ditto your response. But i have a son. Very well written.
I’m just starting GAPS and I am looking forward to reversing the effects a one time blast of mercury vapours had on my system; of which nearly did me in!
My son was diagnosed at 4 as well, he’s now 12 and when I tell people he has Autism, they are shocked! I didn’t know this diet had a name but we realized early in his life that sugar, dies, pesticides and grain were the culprits! They made him act as though he was a belligerent drunk! When we took these things out of his diet we saw him be more social, make more conversation and he stopped melting down. This diet really does work! He’s grown into an amazing and focused young man.
I don’t know how to tell this early but, my 5 week baby is fixated on christmas lights and will stare at them for long periods of time. He kind of looks at us but is especially interested in the lights. He also zones out. I guess my question is when it comes time to introduce him to foods what would help if he is indeed autistic? What would help to possibly reduce the symptoms? I unfortunately didn’t plan for this pregnancy because the last time I got pregnant was four years ago and that ended in miscarriage so I just thought after all those years that nothing was going to happen so I didn’t prepare for baby by eating a traditional diet. And whilst pregnant with him my diet wasn’t perfect. We couldn’t afford to buy the best foods I did drink a cup to two cups of raw milk a day and ate sauerkraut but these were the only two things I was able to stick with, that and raspberry leaf tea. So I feel terrible for possibly doing this to my baby because I was too poor to give him what his body needs. So please anything that I could do to help him not be autistic, the best foods to encourage, would like some advice of what could help our son.