Nutritional Supplements For Autism

     In the April issue of Contemporary Pediatrics, there is an article written by Mary Beth Nierngarten (a native of my city, Saint Paul) called “Managing autism symptoms through nutrition”. The article points out that a high percentage of parents of autistic children use alternative medical supplements or nutritional manipulations such as modified diets.

     The diagnosis of autism is devastating to parents. What makes it especially difficult is the fact that physicians don’t have a “reason” or “cause” for autism and we also don’t have a “cure”. That results in desperation in the parents and leaves them susceptible to people who will offer “cures” that have no basis in fact.

    Ms. Niergarten’s article lists many of the alternative medicine supplements that parents use in the diets of their autistic children: Vitamin B6 - Magnesium, Vitamin C, Omega-3-fatty acids, cod liver oil and probiotics. It also mentions gluten-free diets, casein-free diets, high-fat/ low carbohydrate diets, and special carbohydrate diets (monosaccharides).  The article uses soft terminology like: “evidence to date does not confirm the rationale” and “evidence insufficient to support efficacy”. The reality is that none of these things have any real scientific evidence that shows that they are actually beneficial and some of the supplements are dangerous if given in high doses.

     There are also many “tests” offered online for “nutritional evaluation”, “allergy evaluation” and evaluation for nutritional deficiencies. As with the people selling supplements, the people who promote these tests are only taking advantage of the parents’ feelings of helplessness. A similar phony market exists for parents of children with Down’s syndrome.

     None of us has unlimited funds. The money spent on these unproven treatments could be better spent on the speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, special education and psychologic help that has been be proven to help autistic children.