Customer Reviews
Questions answered!!! 
2008-03-01
I believe any parent with a child diagnosed with Autism, ASD, PDD, allergies and bowel disease should invest their time and money in reading this book. Reading this book validated what I had suspected with my child. Karyn Seroussi filled in the blanks. I feel empowered. Yes, it is difficult to accept her suggestions to a restricted diet for some. It is selfish to not at least try the diet because it is inconvenient.
I have been preparing special meals for my daughter since she was able to eat solid foods because she has severe food allergies to milk, soy, all nuts and eggs. My pediatrician took it even further and tested for food sensitivities (IgG; Elisa testing) and discovered a list of food intolerances. Same ped checked her titers for MMR and discovered they were through the roof. My baby's system was overloaded with vaccines. I was fortunate to have an open-minded pediatrician on my daughter's side. She has been on a specialized diet removing the additional 23 harmful foods (IgG) for one year now and she has improved tremendously. Especially removing the apples and tomatoes from her diet. However, it wasn't until reading this book did I understand the reason for her improvement. I even took it further and removed the last phenol from her diet.....BANANAS. She no longer has hours of inconsolable crying. Her GI physician wanted to put her on Prevacid and all along it was bananas. Needless to say I didn't start her on Prevacid. She recently started Nystatin and after the initial die-off of yeast, the haze has lifted. For the first time since she was 3 months old, she's now 5 years old, she laughed when we tickled her. I didn't understand the effect of yeast until reading this book. At least I was already on the right path. MOM'S KNOW........
This is a wonderfully written story of ups, downs and eventually ups. It will not be the answer to everyone's situation. Although I highly recommend reading the book if only to better understand and answer your own questions.
~ From a parent of a non-Autistic child but instead with a child with diagnosed with PDD, LGS, asthma and severe food allergies.
Excellent Book! 2007-10-22
This book is wonderfully written! You will learn so much. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has or suspects their child has autism!
An excellent overview - reads like a suspense story 2007-10-01
This book combines the rare qualities of being as compelling as a mystery story, well researched and thoroughly informative. Step by step, we follow the author's voyage of discovery, from despair to triumph, while we learn how to explore the same opportunities for our children.
This information was extremely valuable for my son, and a life-changing experience for the entire family.
Another book I didn't understand 
2007-09-26
This is just another book that I didn't understand. I read part of it and just gave up. Trying to unravel this book was crazy. I have a child with autism and have NEVER really done any research. I just don't think that way. I am more of a follower than a leader. I usually listen to what others are doing and try that. If I hear about something else I try that instead. I haven't found the right fit yet. But maybe someday I will.
Give it a try before you give up 2007-09-19
I have purchased this book 4 times, giving it away to parents that has children with ADD and Autism. My 2 year old grand son was diagnosed with Autism 6 years ago. No speech, no eye contact, totally zoned out. I bought a copy after seeing the author being interviewed on TV, my daughter
decided to give this method a try. We made contact with parents with that had childern with the same problem on the internet.
This book explains how ADA and Autism has run rampt in the past 10 years. The story of a mother that wouldn't give up on her son with Autism. My grandson 8 years old is going to regular school (2nd grade)now, with a high grades. He did spend a year in special Ed, in a pre-kindergarden class and then started regular kindergarden the following year.
The down side to this method used in this book is you have to follow the No Casein, No Gluten, 100% with no slip-ups. This is a website for this diet, a list of company's and products for casein and gluten free foods.
www.gfcfdiet.com
The Truth Has Been Revealed! 
2007-05-13
When their nineteen-month-old son, Miles, was diagnosed with autism, Karyn Seroussi, a writer, and her husband, a scientist, fought back with the only weapons at their disposal: love and research. Consulting medical papers, surfacing the Web, and networking with other parents, they traced the onset of their child's problems to an immune system breakdown that coincided with his vaccinations. As a result, his digestive system was unable to break down certain proteins, which in turn led to abnormal brain development. So Karyn and her husband got to work -- Karyn implementing their program at home while her husband tested his theories at the scientific lab where he worked.
Unraveling the Mystery of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder is an inspiring and suspenseful chronicle of how one couple empowered themselves to challenge the medical establishment that promised no hope -- and found a cure for their child.
Here are the explanations and treatments they so carefully researched and discovered, a wealth of crucial tools and hands-on information that can help other parents reverse the effects of autism and PDD, including step-by-step instructions for the removal of dairy and gluten from the diet, special recipes, and an explanation of the roles of the key players in autism research.
This book is changing our lives 2007-04-13
We are still in the process of moving towards some serious dieting changes based on the information from this book. Our son is an extremely high functioning 8 yr old and we wonder now if he is so high functioning because he eats so little of anything, along with the many forms of therapy he has had over the years. It was a bit surreal to read this mother's descriptions of her child's behaviors before she knew he was autistic... such identical experiences that no one has ever mentioned to me before or even asked me about (doctor's obviously don't even know them!) The comparisons to her husband were also far too familiar. Don't just sit around and wait until you can get your child in for the various therapies being sought... while you wait or do them as well, read this book and others so you feel empowered to try things on your own. Everything single extra therapy we've done (in addition to having a fabulously supportive and effective school district) has helped and we hope this might be the next big step for our son.
A must read for anyone with a child with an ASD or knows one! 2007-03-06
I cannot say enough great things about this book. I initially read it because my best friend's son was diagnosed with autism 4 years ago and I wanted to gain insight into what she had been going through with him. She had implemented the GFCF diet, among other things and saw amazing improvement with him.
Little did I know that my second daughter was about to be diagnosed as being on the spectrum as well. I immediately put her on the GFCF diet (she was only 16 months). I had incredible help from my best friend with implementing the diet and my husband had been gluten free for a couple of years already. And my older daughter and I were already dairy-free. So, even though initially the diet was overwhelming, once I let go of my preconceived notions of what children need to eat (like milk and wheat bread) and how hard it would be, I was surprised to see how easy it became. Yes the food is more expensive and yes it is limiting at times. But would I trade my daughter being able to talk and be a normal child for some macaroni and cheese? No way!
If you look hard enough, there are tons of GFCF foods out there. Amazon.com even has a grocery store now and it is super easy to get great foods for cheap. Plus, you can use digestive enzymes from Houston Nutraceuticals to help if the child needs to eat gluten or casein.
If your child is diagnosed with an ASD, PLEASE give the diet a real try. Expect to be overwhelmed at first, but know that it will get easier eventually and it is the best thing for your child. We eat to live, not live to eat.
And please read this book if you have an autistic child or you know one. It will give you such incredible insight into what the parents are going through and if caught early enough, autism is completely treatable and curable.
My daughter (now 2 and a half) shows almost no symptoms of being on the spectrum. She's just slightly more hyper than other kids. But I'll take that any day as opposed to where she could be.
Super informative book! 2007-01-18
Of all the autism books I have read, this is one of the best yet! Packed full of helpful information. Great story and lots of ideas for parents/caregivers to try.
This book was the first step to our son's recovery 2006-09-02
Two days after my son was diagnosed with autism, I dragged my mom to the library to see if I could find out what in the world this meant to us. One of the first books that we stumbled on was this book by Karyn Seroussi. After reading several excerpts about her son to my husband, we agreed that we saw a lot of parallels in our own son. By the end of the weekend, we decided to take a leap of faith and implement the GFCF diet that Ms. Seroussi described.
Within one week, our son made eye contact with us for the first time in as long as we could remember, pointed at us in turn and said "Mom" and "Dad". It has been a bumpy road, but we have never looked back from that point on.
Ultimately, we have had to eliminate a lot more than just casein and gluten from his diet (based on IgG bloodwork and charting reactions to everything!) We have been on a more healing diet (Specific Carbohydrate Diet - See Breaking the Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschall) for more than a year. The diet (and therapies and biomedical treatments) has been extremely challenging, but it has been worth every effort. Two and a hal years later, nobody would suspect that he once was labelled "Autistic".
Unfortunately, autistic behaviors are the result of many totally different underlying medical conditions. Diet has been a huge key to our son's recovery, but that's not the answer for everyone. Until the medical profession opens their eyes to this reality and helps us really dig in to find answers, it is up to us parents to try anything we can to allow our children reach their potential. I encourage you to read EVERYTHING you can to help your child! I pray that something you find will resonate with you the way this book did with us.
