Two Takes on Salicylates from Parents (Premium)
We’ve included two interesting reports from parents about salicylates in diets provided by the Feingold Association. The first relates to a significant improvement in behavior in a teen with autism when he avoids salicylates in food and medicines.
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The second is a mom’s discovery that what she suspected was a salicylate was actually a reaction to herbicides, pesticides or fungicides on foods.
A thank you note from the mom of an autistic 13-year-old boy in the United Kingdom
I just want to say a big huge thank you to the Feingold program which 5-weeks in has transformed my autistic son to a calm person again after months of crippling anxiety and very hyperactive, agitated, uncooperative behavior. We were on the verge of a child psychiatrist prescribing Prozac for him, and I tried Feingold as a last resort, a desperate bid to help him.
Things are not perfect yet, but very much improved and we all feel he is now in a position to start to heal himself and recover from his school-induced depression and anxiety in his own time. “Feingold has been a revelation to me as we had always been super healthy, but I never considered his artificially colored striped toothpaste or salicylates.
He kept saying to me he felt terrible after eating, had hot hands and hot ears, itchy all over, excessive thirst. I googled the symptoms which flagged up aspirin/salicylate sensitivity which then nicely led me to Feingold. Thank you for the very important work you do.
Are you sure salicylates are the culprits?
Our Feingold webmaster Shula Edelkind found that salicylates were not to blame for the problems her daughter was experiencing. She writes, “My daughter had mouth sores as a child and when we went on Stage One of the diet they went away, but came back as soon as we reintroduced tomatoes and grapes.
Allergy tests came back negative so it apparently was not a real allergy. We assumed it was a sensitivity to the salicylate, but we finally figured out that it was not the food itself, but something on it. Was the culprit a pesticide, an herbicide, a fungicide? Who knows?
When we washed the food with HOT water and soap (or a veggie wash) then she didn’t get the sores. She was also okay when she ate organic fruits. She can tolerate ketchup or tomato sauce only if it is organic, and even today, she will get a mouth sore if she has a “regular” pizza. For her, the reaction is not immediate, but occurs two days later, every time. Had we not done Feingold, we would never have suspected the cause.
Printed with permission from the Feingold Association
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