Milk Consumption among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders from Mumbai City

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Sakshi Patil¹, Aditi Goyal², Bharti Shah³, Aparna Thorat⁴, Shobha Udipi⁵, Rama Vaidya⁶, and Ashok D.B. Vaidya⁷ (Department of Food Science and Nutrition, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai, Maharashtra¹,³,⁴ and Medical Research Centre Kasturba Health Society, Mumbai, Maharashtra²,⁵,⁶,⁷)

To study whether milk is restricted/ excluded from diets of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) children in Mumbai and whether GFCF (gluten-free casein-free) diet is adhered to. Information regarding dietary restrictions, milk consumption, adherence to the GFCF diet, and gastrointestinal distress symptoms was obtained from parents of 50 ASD children. Mean age of children was 9.5 years and mean age at diagnosis was 3.1 years. Almost all parents considered milk healthy. Only nine parents were concerned about its purity and one parent considered it a causative factor. All children had consumed milk before ASD diagnosis, and 40 children continued to consume milk post-diagnosis without any adverse effects. 25% of parents were only aware of A1/A2 milk, but most did not know much. Fourteen parents had attempted the GFCF diet and 8 opined that it had benefitted their children. For many children, sugar was restricted to reduce hyperactivity. These findings indicate that milk is not restricted in the diets of ASD children, by parents or physicians. Parents who included milk did not observe worsening of symptoms. Since some studies have implicated the need to exclude milk from ASD children’s diets, further studies are warranted, especially among Indian children.