Special care for the special child

Autism spectrum disorder is a group of disabilities that affect the communication, behaviour and social interaction and interests that is common among children. Boys are more affected with this condition than girls, as stated by WebMD. Early diagnosis is imperative, as it may help a child suffering from autism to improve his or her social life and language skills.
Signs and symptoms of autism spectrum disorder
Signs and symptoms of autism spectrum disorder include difficulty with eye contact, facial expressions, body posture and other ways of communicating without words, and a lack of interest in being a part of others' achievements.
Common symptoms of autism
Common symptoms of autism include significant problems with social interactions and relationships; difficulty in verbal and nonverbal communication, and limited interest in activities and play.
Causes
No single cause has been established, although genetic and environmental factors are implicated. There is growing evidence that nutritional therapy can really make a big difference to children with autism.
Diet and nutrition for autistic children
There is growing evidence that nutritional therapy can really make a big difference to children with autism. Many are found with severely disrupted digestion, so restoring balance in the gut is a key focus for nutritional therapy.
Also important is balancing blood sugar, checking for brain-polluting heavy metals, excluding food additives, identifying food allergies and possible nutrient deficiencies, and ensuring an optimal intake of essential fats.
Balance blood sugar
*    For autistic children who show signs of hyperactivity, improving blood sugar balance is a must.
*    Dietary studies consistently reveal that hyperactive children eat more sugar than other children. Other research has confirmed that the problem is not sugar itself but the forms it comes in, the absence of a well-balanced diet overall and abnormal glucose metabolism.
*    In any case, when a child is regularly snacking on refined carbohydrates, sweets, chocolate, fizzy drinks, juices and little or no fibre to slow the glucose absorption, the levels of glucose in their blood will seesaw continually and trigger wild fluctuations in their levels of activity, concentration, focus and behaviour. These, of course, will not help any child's brain function.
Increase omega 3 fats
An Omega 3 fat is essential fats. It's very important nutrients for autistic children.  Deficiencies in essential fats are common in people with autism.
Research by Dr Gordon Bell at University of Stirling has shown that some autistic children have an enzymatic defect that removes essential fats from brain cell membranes more quickly than it should. This means that an autistic child is likely to need a higher intake of essential fats than the average.
And it has been found that supplementing EPA, which can slow the activity of the defective enzyme, has clinically improved behavior, mood, imagination, spontaneous speech, sleep patterns and focus of autistic children.
Improve digestion
Broad-spectrum antibiotics kill good as well as bad bacteria in the gut, and this may be why autistic children commonly have bowel irregularities.
So, if your child has autism, restoring a healthy gut is vital. You can start simply, by supplementing digestive enzymes, and giving probiotics to restore the balance of gut bacteria. Both measures help heal the digestive tract and promote normal absorption, and have produced positive clinical results in autistic children.

Increase vitamins and minerals:
Vitamins and minerals are very important for every human being. It's called micronutrients, which is need in a small amount but it's a valuable nutrient for us.
We have known since the 1970s that a nutritional approach can help autism. Vitamin B6, C and magnesium supplements significantly improved symptoms in autistic children. In one of early studies back in 1978, 12 out of 16 autistic children improved, and then regressed when the vitamins were swapped for placebos.
Avoid food allergies
One of the most significant contributing factors in autism appears to be undesirable foods and chemicals that often reach the brain via the bloodstream because of faulty digestion and absorption. Much of the impetus for recognizing the importance of dietary intervention has come from parents who've noticed vast improvements in their children after changing their diets.
A gluten-free diet for autism
The benefit of a gluten-free/casein-free diet is based on the theory that children with autism may have an allergy or high sensitivity to foods containing gluten or casein. Children with autism, according to the theory, process peptides and proteins in foods containing gluten and case in differently than other people do.
Hypothetically, this difference in processing may exacerbate autistic symptoms. Some believe that the brain treats these proteins like false opiate-like chemicals. The reaction to these chemicals, they say, leads a child to act in a certain way. The idea behind the use of the diet is to reduce symptoms and improve social and cognitive behaviors and speech.
Every autistic child's have their own right to get proper nutrition from us. So we should know the right way to give proper nutrition for autism children. That's why first of all we need true knowledge about their Diet, than we really do better for them.