Everything About a Healthy Diet Plan for Autistic Children

Are you concerned about the nutrition, growth, and development of your growing autistic child? Is your kid quite fuzzy and choosy while having meals? Are you facing difficulty in feeding your child a healthy diet? If you nodded along with a concern, you may find this blog quite helpful. Raising an autistic child is indeed challenging for parents. You may not only find communicating and training the kids for routine activities challenging but also find feeding them with a proper, nutritious diet a challenge. A healthy diet is crucial for both the physical and psychological growth and development of every kid and autistic kids are no exception. Moreover, autistic kids may also have digestive problems and other issues. So, caring for their health and well-being is crucial.

In the interest of encouraging autistic people’s acceptance, development, and progress, World Autism Awareness Day is celebrated every 2^nd of April annually worldwide. Every year, the United Nations develops a theme for the world to make an effort to help autistic individual’s lead better life. The current year, its theme is “Transforming the narrative: Contributions at home, at work, in the arts and in policymaking.” It focuses on the spread of awareness about autism and the acceptance, support, and motivation of autistic individuals in society and at work. It emphasizes the need to improve the quality of life of autistic individuals. And, when it comes to children with autism, we need to take more care of their nutritional needs, as health is the first step to leading a progressive life.

A healthy diet plan helps promote the growth and brain development of kids with autism. Autism coexists with other conditions, such as anxiety, gastrointestinal diseases, and sleeping disorders. Opting for a healthy diet plan and homeopathy for anxiety tailored to the needs of autistic kids can help them largely. Certified nutritionists and homeopaths can help you have a diet and homeopathic solutions to improve the overall growth, development, and health of these kids. So, you might be wondering what foods and nutrients should be an integral part of autistic diet recipes for kids, aren’t you? Find all about diet plans for autistic children below.

5 Best Foods That Can Help Autistic Kids Improve Their Health & Development

Here are some healthy foods that can help in the improvement of autistic children.

1. Probiotics

Autistic kids often suffer from digestive problems. Probiotics contain good bacteria that help improve gut microbiota, thereby improving gut health. Regular intake of probiotics can help the child to overcome digestive issues and pass stools smoothly. So, enrich your autistic child’s diet with fresh yoghurt, buttermilk, and fermented autistic diet recipes such as idli, dhokla, and dosa.

2. Vitamin B6 and Magnesium Food Sources

Foods with high vitamin B6 and magnesium content help kids with autism improve their speech and language. So, if you include food sources of these crucial nutrients in an autistic kid’s diet, the child is bound to experience its benefits. Peanuts, bananas, oats, fish, and soybeans are good sources of vitamin B6. Brown rice, almonds, cashews, pumpkin seeds, black beans, potato, dark chocolate, and spinach are rich in magnesium. The guidance of certified nutritionists can help you add these nutritious foods to your autistic child’s diet in optimum quantities.

3. Zinc Food Sources – Nuts, Seeds, Beans, and Shellfish

A high percentage of autistic kids suffer from a deficiency of zinc due to a restricted diet. Including foods rich in zinc in their diet can help improve their behaviour and minimize their picky eating nature. So, include foods, such as nuts, peas, cashews, almonds, beans, yoghurt, shellfish, cheese, and chickpeas, in your kid’s diet to support his behavioural and health improvement.

4. Vitamin C Food Sources

Vitamin C deficiency can be a concern in autistic kids presenting with symptoms, such as musculoskeletal pain. Adding vitamin C food sources to your kid’s healthy diet plan can help improve his health and relief immensely. Vitamin C neutralizes harmful oxidants. It also regenerates Vitamin E for reuse. The intake of vitamin C food sources helps improve sleep and gastrointestinal relief in autistic kids. Also, it helps promote the elimination of heavy metals. Vitamin C aids in loosening the stools in severely constipated kids, thereby promoting detoxification. So, incorporate in your child’s diet citrus fruits, such as oranges, papaya, tomato, potato, broccoli, spinach, lemon, and cranberry, among others.

Also, expecting mothers with a deficiency of vitamin C and zinc are found to have been linked to an increase in the risk of autism affecting the foetus. So, always enrich your diet with vitamin C and zinc food sources.

5. Vitamin D and Omega-3 Fatty Acid Food Sources

A diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids is effective in improving brain functioning and minimizing inflammation in autistic kids. Low consumption of fatty acids shares a link with autism symptoms. So, to eliminate the deficiency of omega-3 fatty acids, add fatty fish, such as salmon, tuna, trout, chia seeds, walnuts, and flax seeds to your child’s diet.

Also, vitamin D can help minimize inflammation and improve the core symptoms of autism in autistic kids. So, enrich your kid’s diet with fresh fatty fish, such as salmon, egg yolks, and mushrooms. Also, exposure to fresh morning sunlight helps your kid’s body make vitamin D. Children receive 80% of vitamin D via this easy, natural way. So, let your child spend some time in the early morning sunlight.

4 Foods to Avoid and Food Substitutes to Include in an Autistic Child’s Diet

While you plan a nutritious diet for the well-being of your autistic child, make sure that you avoid certain foods and add alternative healthy food options. Here’s a quick rundown of them.

1. Dairy

Casein, one of the prominent proteins present in dairy products, can worsen the symptoms of autism. Casein reacts with the stomach acid and generates exorphin. Exorphins when happen to bind to opioid receptor sites can make autistic kids suffer from symptoms, such as brain fog, numbness to pain, fuzziness, and difficulty concentrating.

Substitutes for Dairy: Prefer to include soy milk, almond milk, or cashew milk in place of dairy in the diet.

2. Gluten

Gluten is a protein found in certain foods; for instance, wheat, rye, and barley. The intake of gluten proteins can aggravate inflammation in the body, thereby making them produce antibodies against gluten. This may lead to an inflammatory reaction in the brain, thereby worsening the symptoms in autistic kids. So, prefer a gluten-free diet for autism patients.

Substitutes for Gluten: You may use millets, pulses, and lentils as substitutes for gluten.

3. Sugar

Cutting back on refined carbohydrates and sugar in autistic diet recipes can help minimize inflammation. Simultaneously, increasing the intake of healthy proteins can be healthy. Minimizing the intake of added sugar and refined carbs helps reduce impulsivity and improve the focus and judgement of autistic individuals.

Substitutes for Sugar: Include jaggery or brown sugar in the diet. Also, you may add probiotics.

4. Artificial Ingredients

Avoid adding preservatives, artificial flavours, artificial colours, and artificial sweeteners to the diet. They are unhealthy for autistic kids.

So, let’s spread the word about the role of diet in improving relief, health, and overall development of autistic kids this World Autism Awareness Day. A healthy diet plan will help maximum autistic sufferers soothe their discomforts and experience improved health and quality of life. Consulting certified nutritionists and homeopaths, such as health experts at Health Total, can help you receive a customized diet and homeopathy for anxiety for the best positive outcomes. Our integrated treatment approach comprising diet, homeopathy, and Ayurvedic solutions not only helps you overcome autism symptoms remarkably but also eliminates your nutritional deficiencies, boosts your immunity, and prevents or lowers potential health risks. So, hurry up, reach out to us at Health Total and enjoy improved health and quality of life with our personalized healthy diet plan.

Sign up for a FREE consultation with Health Total experts to get more tips for improving the health and well-being of autistic kids with the right dietary measures or managing any other health condition. Call toll-free at 1-800-833-171709 and Book Free Consultation!