We were in a grocery line, and this lady mentioned that whatever her autistic son ate effected him. I agreed and told her about my nine-year-old, Cameron and milk.
Cam, like all my other sons, was born healthy and normal. He met his milestones on time. At a year old he was a walking and talking machine.
At 13 months he received the MMR shot. Within two days Cam had lost all motion and speech. He was a blob of tissue. It took him three weeks to start moving. He had to relearn how to sit, crawl, and walk. It took him three months before he started babbling. He had to relearn how to talk.
My world had been shattered, but agony was waiting around the corner.
Within the next several months Cam developed a liking for banging his head against things. My husband and I noticed that, if we tried to stop Cam, he would only scream and hit his head harder. He was self-abusive. We tried many tactics to get him to stop, to no avail.
Our walls had dents from him. By 18 months he preferred to hit his head on tile and concrete floors. Non-stop head banging. I put a bike helmet on his head for protection.
One day I found Cam jumping from his bed and slamming his head on the floor. I had to pin him down to stop him. After a few minutes, he looked at me, as if just noticing my arrival in the room. He exclaimed, “My head hurts.” I had seen a change in him in those few minutes. He really didn’t seem to register pain while he was hitting his head. Strange. Of course, we had talked with doctors, but no one could give us any answers.
I researched remedies for this behavior, and I discovered many theories. The easiest one was removing all milk from his diet. I was willing to try this, and it was something I could do NOW.
Cam stopped consuming milk. Within 48 hours, he had stopped all head-banging. It was actually quite funny to see Cam start his habit. He struck his head once, and as he was about to hit again, he’d stop and rub his head. It took a couple days for this habit to completely stop.
I told the pediatrician, and he actually listened to me. His response was, “It’s hard to argue with those results.”
Evidently, milk has a protein called casein. Cam can not digest it. When enough of these undigested proteins accumulate in his brain, it has an effect similar to an opiate. Consequently, if Cam drinks milk or ice cream, it’s like giving him opium. No wonder he couldn’t feel pain. Some autistic kids have this problem.
Not every body needs milk.
photo credit: Rich Anderson
sherylscript 
I have read about this effect…sobering, to say the least. I am still researching the digestive connection to autism. So hard to modify a diet when the kid is 15 though!
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Hi Sheila-
I deleted my own response. Can you say techno retard? Oh well. Gluten has the same effect. I'll probably write about that soon. Gluten is more destructive and takes much longer to leave the body. Feel free to share what you find.
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