A New Nutrition Program 
for a family member . . . ideas to cope

My daughter with FASD struggles to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Her physical processing system was compromised with alcohol while she was still in her mother's womb and it has never been able to regain reasonable normalcy.

• Her body reacts strongly when she eats foods that are difficult for her to digest or process. 

• Her head throbs when she eats certain foods. 

• Her behavior with impulsivity and frustration escalates when she eats others. 

Don't despair – you will learn to manage.

I found that the most difficult piece of managing this new diet was the hidden GOTCHA's….So here are some homemade…and good tasting replacements. You may find you will need to adjust the amounts for your own taste but we offer a beginning. Liz and I work on recipes for our chemistry classes....If you come to dinner you may eat a sterilization experiment or enjoy an experiment in coagulation or separation.  We pick our favorite foods things and adapt recipes from there.

We focused on the following strategy to survive.

1. What foods could Liz eat and NOT react to?

2. What were her favorite foods?

3. How could we use the foods she could eat and create the foods she loves?

Get down to the basics - Baby Steps to Change
Basic Changes - Food | Basic Changes - Cleaning | Basic Changes -Art Supplies

Don't be afraid of trying new things some of the replacement food is much better than what we were used to. Some of it our dog wouldn't even eat. Don't be discouraged everyone's tastes are different. 

• We experimented with favorite recipes from other cultures and had excellent results. Trying African, Middle East, Central American and Asian recipes.

• We've found the Almond Cheddar Cheese a good substitute for those who desire cheese and can't tolerate either dairy or soy. 

• We've discovered that sheep cheese and products seem to pose no problem, but cow products do. 

• We found the Pecan Rice or Tapioca Bread is great to fill your desire for bread. 

• We've discovered Blue Popcorn and Blue Cornmeal are a great replacement for white corn products.

• I've learned to grind grains which surprised me in not being as difficult or messy as I imagined.

• We have tried and tested soy substitute products and older grain products such as kamut, spelt and teff. And we discovered that after being without wheat for a year, she can eat spelt or kamut baked bread without getting headaches

We've enjoyed and been frustrated on our adventure in trying to balance our complex family nutrition issues. Take this on as an adventure….it makes it a lot more fun and eventually all this new stuff will seem like you've always done it this way! 

We found that by choosing our FAVORITE family foods and adapting those recipes first, it made this diet and life style a whole lot easier. I've included some of our family favorites maybe they are yours too.  

We discovered in our process that as we eliminated some foods we could add back in and eat others we previously couldn't tolerate. We also learned that if she remains on a personalized healthy diet we can rotate forbidden foods every four days - in other words special occasions seem to still allow some special treats. If we eat a forbidden special treat we have a selection of enzymes that help her body digest and process the food with limited negative affects. This has been a long journey but our results are nothing short of amazing. 

Links that may help you: We found accurate information to help us develop a solid diet plan and we worked with a certified clinical nutritionist. Her are some diet plans for you to research:

1. Gluten free diet Gluten is the protein part of wheat, rye, barley, oats, and other related grains. Some people cannot tolerate gluten when it comes in contact with the small intestine. This condition is known as celiac disease (sometimes called non-tropical sprue or gluten sensitive enteropathy). There is also evidence that a skin disorder called dermatitis herpetiformis is associated with gluten intolerance. Click for more information and diet ideas.

2. Lactose Intolerance Lactose is the simple sugar found in milk and milk products. It can also be found in a variety of other foods and even as a filler in some pills and capsules. The enzyme lactase, present in the lining of the small intestine, splits lactose into two simple sugars. These simple sugars can then be absorbed by the body and used as nourishment. Click for more information and diet ideas.

3. The Effects of Diet

4. Autism and Dietary Intervention