If I said what's your name, he would say, 'Name.' He was clearly autistic.' Sarah Scheflin, Evan's speech therapist, said, 'When we first met, would flap his hands, he would zone out. Not only that, his eye contact was then on.'įrom that initial breakthrough, progress slowly but steadily continued. 'He said to me, 'I want to go swimming.' My kid was only saying one word things. 'As the weeks went on, I noticed my kid coming out of this cloud,' she said. McCarthy immediately started Evan on the diet and said she was astounded by the changes she saw in her son. Kartzinel said that for autistic children, gluten and dairy act as a morphine-like substance they react by becoming either lethargic or giddy after consuming these products. Jerry Kartzinel, the father of an autistic son himself, who specializes in treating autistic children. Though mainstream doctors are skeptical, McCarthy found an ally in pediatrician Dr.

She discovered that many parents of autistic children believe that the proteins in wheat and dairy wreak havoc on their children's' brains. McCarthy began to learn about the theory held by some parents of autistic children that a gluten-free, casein-free diet was very helpful for their children. 'Autism is reversible? How can that be?' she recalled thinking. Desperate for help, McCarthy turned to the Internet and soon discovered a controversial Web site offering a possible solution. Evan was often raging out of control and her marriage was slowly falling apart. McCarthy didn't know anything about autism, and just after receiving the news, she had to rush to New York to promote her book 'Baby Laughs.' She had to try to act bubbly and happy while she was secretly living a private hell. Her maternal instinct told her that something was still wrong.Īngry and skeptical of the medical advice she had been given, McCarthy went to a second neurologist who gave her an earth-shattering new diagnosis: Her son has autism. After a few days of multiple seizures, doctors concluded that Evan had epilepsy, but McCarthy was not convinced. McCarthy rushed 2-year-old Evan to the hospital.

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