February 12, 2024 • 23 mins
When Lori Knowles' son, Daniel, was diagnosed with autism, she found herself at a crossroads that many parents know all too well—the search for answers when the experts seem out of reach. Lori's relentless pursuit of knowledge led her to explore the uncharted terrain of biomedical treatments and dietary changes, which resulted in Daniel's extraordinary recovery. In our latest episode, we're honored to share Lori's empowering narrative, from the initial struggles of Daniel's diagnosis to the founding of New Beginnings Nutritionals, a beacon of hope for families seeking similar solace. Listen as Lori recounts the pivotal shifts in Daniel's health following the removal of gluten and dairy from his diet, and learn how carefully chosen nutritional supplements played an integral role in his journey to wellness.
For those grappling with the complexities of autism, especially the gastrointestinal battles that often accompany it, Lori provides a roadmap brimming with insights. Our discussion navigates the significance of high-dose B vitamins, digestive enzymes, and the customization of care plans for each child with autism. Lori's advice to parents centers on harnessing hope and the relentless pursuit of progress, no matter how incremental it may seem. Join us as we uncover the power of a mother's love, the resilience that turns research into recovery, and the heartfelt encouragement Lori extends to all who walk this path. Her expertise is not just a light at the end of the tunnel—it's a guide through the darkness, illuminating each step with practical, life-altering strategies.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (00:00):
Hello listeners, thank you so much for joining
us today.
I have an amazing guest with me.
I'm gonna be interviewing MissLaurie Knowles.
She is simply amazing.
She's a parent of a child whoused to have autism.
She runs an amazing companycalled New Beginnings, and I
know there's a longer list toall that she is, so I'm gonna
(00:21):
let her introduce herself.
So welcome to the show, missLaurie Knowles.
Lori Knowles (00:26):
Thank, you so much for having me.
It's good to be here.
I always love talking aboutthis subject and my claim to
fame is I'm a mom who had achild who was diagnosed with
autism and nowadays that 135kids are being diagnosed with
autism.
So there's a lot of moms thatare having to deal with this.
(00:47):
And then in the binary, verydifficult row and when you're
told that your child has autism,your world just crumbles around
you.
And this was my fourth child,my other three child, other
three first three children weretypical.
And Daniel, just he was likefor it.
(01:07):
He was a surprise.
I was 39 when I had him and hejust around 14, 15 months.
Just lost language, fine andlarge motor delays, just
repetitive behaviors.
And I ended up diagnosing himmyself on the internet Because
(01:29):
when I took him to pediatriciansthey kept just singing oh,
he'll help grow it, it's no,it's not a big deal.
And so I realized that that'swhere he was most likely and I
just had to.
Really, I remember beingdepressed for a couple of weeks
and then I picked myself up andsaid I'm going to take this
negative energy and I'm gonnaput it into everything that I
(01:52):
can do to help my son and I'mnot gonna accept anybody telling
me that there's nothing I cando.
Just put him in some behavioralprograms and just accept who he
is from now on.
And of course I accepted who hewas.
Why did I love him?
But he was obviously not doingwell medically.
(02:13):
He had skin rashes all over hisface, he had very, very pale
skin, he had big circles underhis eyes, he cried constantly.
He was not a happy child.
Something was going onunderneath and so I decided at
that point I was going to dowhatever I could to figure out
(02:34):
what to do to help them.
And I just delved in andstarted reading books and
getting online and doing parentchat groups and went to
conferences.
And that's what started mywhole journey.
And then, after a few yearswith that, I ended up meeting
and going to a conference andhearing Dr William Shaw, who's a
(02:55):
pioneer in this field.
He was one of the firstscientists, researchers, who
wrote a book on treating autismthrough biomedical treatment,
which means dealing withunderlying causes.
So I read that book and it justchanged my life.
I mean I, oh my gosh, it justlit a fire under me and I went
(03:16):
okay, now I know what to lookfor and what to access.
It was so excellent.
And then I went to a conferenceand I met him and I convinced
him to hire me and so I startedworking with him when he was
owner and lab director of GreatPlains Laboratory.
And then he asked me to start acompany for him called New
Beginnings Nutritionals, and westarted out being a company that
(03:41):
provided like qualitynutritional supplements
specifically designed for kidson spectrum.
So I've been doing that forover 20 years and my son is now
25 and he's recovered and it'sbeen an amazing journey and I
love what I do and I love usingmy experience and knowledge to
help with their parents, and Iwork with physicians as well who
(04:04):
are trying to treat theirpatients and need some support.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (04:09):
So yes, oh, my goodness, that's so wonderful.
So let's go back to when youfirst read the book by Dr Shaw
and you realized well, this hasanswers.
So where did you start?
Can you walk us through likethings that you did?
Lori Knowles (04:27):
Absolutely.
First thing I did is theytalked about diet and that was
kind of freaky because me, likemost parents know whether they
have a child with autism andthey're super picky eaters and
some of them only eat two orthree things and they're not
healthy eaters and it's justhard to open up their diet to
(04:48):
other things.
And what I learned was thatthese foods, specifically wheat
and dairy there's proteins inthem, One that's called gluten,
inside of wheat and casein andphyto dairy.
They actually have an opiateeffect on the children and what
that means is that they can'tdigest them well and they're
(05:10):
partially digested.
These proteins gluten andcasein don't break down all the
way and they leave a moleculethat looks a lot like morphine.
It's called casomorphine andgliodorphate.
And when these children eatthese foods, they act like
(05:30):
they're on drugs.
They're spacey.
My son had his glazed look inhis eyes.
He didn't notice hissurrounding.
Another key thing isinsensitivity to pain.
So, when you're on a morphinedrug, it's for pain, right.
So they fall down, they hurtthemselves.
You expect them to startscreaming and they don't.
That's another sign of that.
(05:51):
Another sign is that they onlywant to eat those foods and no
other foods.
And why is that?
Because a drug addict onlywants his six.
He stops caring aboutvegetables and fruits and they
just want the good feeling.
And when they are sleepingthrough the night and they
haven't had a chance to eatdairy and glue and get that fix
(06:15):
again, they get miserable andunhappy.
So he would wake up crying untilhe would eat in the morning and
even after naps.
That would be the scenario, andso I had to do something about
that.
So I said, okay, I'm going tochange his diet.
And so I did it all the wrongway.
I just decided not to feed himgluten and dairy, but I hadn't
(06:36):
done the planning and I hadn'tgone out and bought all the
foods and looked at what allthat was out there.
Now, 25 years ago, we didn'thave as many good many healthy
gluten dairy options that we, sofor some.
I remember how to panic attackwas then, but then I started
figuring it out, and once wewent off gluten and dairy for
(06:59):
two weeks he started talking insentences, both sentences where
he just would have one word hereand there and most of each
other.
You know, I went in there onemorning and I looked in his crib
and he looked and he goes mommy, go kill those with daddy.
And I went, what you know?
So it just something cleared upin his brain.
(07:23):
He started noticing things andthat was the first thing I did.
And people will say to me andI've done a lot of things to get
him where he's at, but they'llsay to me what was the most most
effective treatment you did?
And for me it was, for me andmy son Daniel, it was the GFCF
diet.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (07:43):
Okay, so can you tell us what the GFCF diet?
Oh, what's he just prescribedbefore people who don't know?
Breed, dairy break Right.
Lori Knowles (07:53):
And again, the thing that I have to tell your
listeners is that, as a mom andany mom and I give in talks at
autism conferences to parentsfor many years and I'll look at
them and I'll go how many of youafraid?
You know, how many of you areafraid that if you take these
two foods away and this ispredominantly all that your
(08:16):
child eats that they're going tostart to death and they all,
just you know, we're like, yeah,that's the issue, but then all
of us who end up doing it, thereality is, food is no longer an
addictive thing.
They start eating becausethey're hungry, and so what I
(08:36):
recommend to parents is startwith one thing start with dairy
first, because that's a lot ofdairy substitutes easier to do,
and go slow with that, becausethe children will start feeling
bad, just like when you take adrug addict off of heroin right.
If you do it, suddenly they havewithdrawal effects.
(08:58):
Well, our kids have withdrawaleffects too.
And parents will say I took amother of wheat and dairy and he
started having horriblebehaviors so I stopped it
immediately and let's not begood for them.
And I said, uh-uh, that's agood sign, right, how to use
that?
Their body's withdrawing on it.
You can be gentle with them andyou can take them off of the
(09:18):
dairy and even like mixing themilk with the.
You know, half and half, andthen less milk and less milk and
more.
I recommend coconut.
It's one of the healthiestmilks that are out there.
But there's almond and there'syeah, oh, there's a whole bunch
of ones out there that are good,and I think you know I have had
good luck with coconut as well,and then you can use it in the
(09:40):
cooking and everything else, notthat hard.
But once you go dairy-free,then you start finding
substitutes, and so Daniel lovesspaghetti.
So what did I do?
I went to the health food storeand I found a really good
rice-based spaghetti and,believe it or not, it tasted
fairly similar and with thesauce on it, he didn't even
notice.
So I was like bingo.
(10:00):
I have one meal that I can do,you know.
And then I took all his favoritefoods and I tried to find
substitutes for them.
And the thing that was hard forthem is that they don't like
change especially children onthe spectrum but you and they
feel like they've lost allcontrol.
So what worked for me is thatwhen I was trying to, first of
(10:21):
all, sometimes they stoppedeating for two or three days
because they're mad, right,they're just, they're showing
their own.
They will not die as long asyou get lots of liquid in them.
They can water and they'regoing to fry.
They eventually get hungry andthey'll start eating, and so I
would give him choices thatwould come.
(10:41):
They would say you can have himwith this, and then I would
eventually know that he had achoice.
He would choose one of the otherones, and then and then he
started doing that and that'show we got him into eating more
and more things.
So we found out the ones thatworked and eventually it just
became our routine and so,anyway, that was huge and I
(11:04):
really encourage parents to doit, if they haven't, and because
I told myself my kid keepseating these foods, it's harming
him, it's harming his brain andit's keeping him from learning
in school.
There's brain fog, it'saffecting the gut, the GI tract
negatively.
(11:24):
Those obiots are going into thebrain, affecting the language
of what he started being able tounderstand and speak for the
first time.
So that was just so important.
So I said to myself mom, thesefoods are poison for him, I
can't give them.
And it gave me the courage togo out there and really do my
(11:46):
research and do the cooking andspend the time to get him eating
these foods, the right foods,and getting the bad food out of
his diet.
And it was miraculous.
I mean, the teachers were likewhat's going on?
What are you doing with them?
No, it's a different child.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (12:01):
So oh, wow, that is so wonderful.
I love how you made the pointof counteracting the thoughts
that moms have Like, oh, he'snot gonna eat this, they don't
like it.
We don't wanna force them andwe don't want to make them more
unhappy than they are already.
But if you remember, moms anddads, that the foods are poison
(12:23):
and you definitely don't wannabe giving your kids poison, then
it helps.
Lori Knowles (12:26):
No, that's right you know for the whole you go
through.
It may be a hard, few weeks,couple months, but it's you're
talking about the rest of theirlife, right and for ability to
learn and a brain fog lifted up.
You started noticing, youstarted talking, you started
interacting.
If we had not removed that food, those foods, from his diet, he
never would have done thosethings.
(12:47):
So it was worth those panicattacks that I was having.
It was worth the stress.
But nowadays there are so manygood gluten free options out
there and so many good dairyfree options that you can buy
coconut yogurt, you know.
You can buy chicken nuggets.
That you know.
And I also recommend nowknowing what I now know is that
(13:09):
organic if you get only for itor your child on the spectrum,
do organic, because they spraythem spoons that aren't organic
with chemicals that pretty muchdestroy the good bacteria around
your energy eye tract.
So it is just do organicwhenever you can, especially
with those foods that are knownto be the most full of, you know
(13:32):
, chemicals.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (13:33):
Yes, absolutely.
That's such an important pointand I always point out to
parents make sure you're readingthe labels.
Even with the gluten free andthe dairy free, read the labels.
If you still have more than 10ingredients, you can't
understand half of them.
You probably shouldn't beeating it still.
So we're trying as much aspossible to go towards whole
foods, which means shop in theoutside of the supermarket where
(13:58):
there's like the fruits and theveggies are, because it's
better for your child to eat anorange than to drink the juice.
Right, because you're right.
Lori Knowles (14:06):
The sugar, and so I focused on healthy meat and
vegetables and I had to really.
So I did some other tests.
See, we thought it was a glutencase and three diet, but my son
, dana, was full of yeast, twoor three harmful yeast strains,
as well as two or three harmfulbacteria strains.
Hins tests on his GI tractshowed what a mess he was, and
(14:32):
so we had to start working onthat his gut.
So we had to start chilling thebad and putting in the good,
and so we were using differentmedications and herbal
treatments that were supplementsto help heal the bad stuff, and
we were doing probiotics, whichis the good bacteria, it's
what's found in yogurt, but ifthey need a lot stronger ones
(14:55):
that are in pill form.
So we started doing that andthat was a really, and I took a
while because Daniel it'sinteresting Daniel used to be
constipated constantly and shehad a big one, yes, but when we
removed wheat and dairy, theconstipation completely went
(15:17):
away, because the opiates attachto the receptors in the gut and
slow down the motility.
When you take pain relievers,painkillers, opiates, what do
you do?
You get constipated, and that'swhat happened.
He ended up going fromconstipation to diarrhea.
(15:37):
He took probably a year easy,with a lot of treatments to work
on his GI tract to get hisbowel movement stormals.
If your child doesn't have abowel movement, that's normal.
That's an indicator of theirshell.
I always ask parents how's thispoop?
They look at me like what?
No, I got no, I know how yourpoop is I get the look.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (16:01):
I actually take two drawing pictures.
Does it look big?
Does it look skinny?
No, the little little pains.
Lori Knowles (16:07):
Are they gooey?
Do they smell horrible?
All of that is important.
Then the last piece, thatreally we did a lot more of the
things.
But the other thing I want totalk about is a nutritional
supplement, end of it.
They are so starving theirbrains are starving because of
how they eat and also thingsthat are in their GI tract are
(16:27):
not always absorbing well, thatthey need the extra nutritional
support.
Going on a good multivitaminthat's designed for autism I'm
sorry, but a dummy vitamin atyour grocery store is not going
to do it.
They need higher doses.
They need higher doses of Bvitamins.
They need 15 milligrams of B6,not one which you find in a
(16:51):
gummy vitamin.
Their brains need it.
You have to find a really goodsupplement regimen for them,
eating with the multivitamin.
Often digestive enzymes arereally helpful for them.
That was a huge thing for myson digestive enzymes.
He started gaining weight andthat color and his skin came
back really made a difference.
(17:13):
That was one of my favoritesfor him.
You need to get the testing doneand then you need to give them
the supplements and they startto get better, one at a time.
But it takes a mom that isgoing to do it, no matter how
hard it is, and is going tostick with it and do what a
doctor tells them to do.
They go to a state, find adoctor like you.
(17:34):
They are so less becauseregular pediatricians don't know
this out there and they willsay stay away from this, this is
not true.
The gluten and dairy is goodfor your child.
They don't know.
They don't know when they thinkthey do, and that's just sad
part and they're pushing parentsaway from getting real help
(17:54):
from their child.
You got to find a doctor likeyou who's self-indulgent and
done and is doing the researchand knows the research.
And then you listen to them andeven if it's hard, you do it
and make sure your family aroundyou makes sure you have it in
your IEP that they can't eatthese foods because they will be
sabotaged at school.
(18:15):
We'll be given it to by theteacher, the substitute, the
aide to next to them, put it inthe IEP and you have to make
sure grandma and grandpa or onboard too, all right, you give
them a talking to.
No, I know you feel bad thatpoor Johnny doesn't get to have
cookies all the time.
You know it's just.
(18:36):
You have to be 100%.
You have to do this becausethis is what got my son Daniel
recovered, and he is 25 today.
He graduated from college.
Took me nine years of intensetreatment doing this, staying on
top of him, nine years, for meto finally realize he's
(18:58):
recovered.
He actually had NIH take awayhis diagnosis.
He was in a study in NIH andthey said this child is no
longer on the spectrum and hegraduated from KU.
He works in IT, he lives on hisown, but it took a mom being
serious, and you've seen it inyour practice too.
Right, the moms that are onboard are the ones that get the
(19:21):
best results and nobody canpromise that every kid's gonna
happen.
It's gonna be a Daniel, right.
But, unless you go and you doeverything and you look under
every single rock, looking forwhatever issue that your child
may have and every child withautism is different, Some with
more issues, some with less.
But you've got to go after themand you have to be patient and
(19:43):
you have to stick with it.
Then you start peeling thelayers of the onion off that are
causing the autistic symptomsand they get better and better
and sometimes you can get aDaniel and you have to have that
help, but being absolutelypersistent as a parent and
that's the key.
That's the key With the doctor.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (20:07):
My goodness, I don't think I have anything else
.
That was, oh my goodness,parents.
I hope you can hear Miss Lori'sheart.
She's a mommy, she's done itand, yes, it took nine years,
but it happened.
And so that's the first thing Ialways tell parents yes, you
have this diagnosis.
That sounds devastating, butthere is hope.
(20:30):
We just need to start somewhere.
There is hope.
Don't give up hope, and so Ihope that all of you listeners
wow, this has been so wonderful.
Thank you so much, miss Lori,for caring Daniel's story And-.
Lori Knowles (20:43):
Can I say one more thing real quick?
Yeah, if you go to my websitethe website, as I said I run a
nutritional supplement companyfor children and we have a lot
of supplements specifically forautism and it's it's wwwnbnuscom
.
If you go there and look underthe resources tab, you can see
(21:05):
me giving a presentation ofeverything I did for my son to
help him recover from autism.
It's under resources and it'scalled a compelling story of
recovery.
So that would be a good placeto look at to see everything I
did, because we just talkedabout a few today.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (21:22):
Wonderful.
Yes, we will definitely sharethat to everyone.
We'll have that on the podcastdescription.
Thank you so much.
And yes, you mentioned youdidn't mention the name of your
company New beginningsnutritionals, new beginnings
nutritionals, nbnuscom.
Lori Knowles (21:39):
We are you and again, I answer parent questions
directly.
If you email us and ask aquestion, I will get back to you
.
We are all about helping.
It's not about making money andselling.
It's about supporting andhand-holding and helping parents
find hope for their children.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (22:00):
That's what it's about.
Yes, absolutely, and I canattest to that.
I've been using new beginningsfor my patients and it's been so
helpful to them.
And yes, I called your officeand you spoke to me.
Like and most a lot ofcompanies you call, you may not
speak to the owner right or thehigher-ups, so I was really
thankful and you agreed to comeon the podcast.
(22:22):
So thank you so much forsharing your story and for
sharing how parents can get moreinformation about how to help
their children.
Is there any?
Is that one last thing you'dlike to share with the parents?
One last takeaway Just don'tlose hope.
Lori Knowles (22:36):
Don't lose hope and stay away from negative
people and do your research,because there's a lot of things
out there and new things comingevery day that are making a
difference.
So, no matter what age it isthat you're starting this with
your child, go in and getstarted, because even it's just
(22:56):
one thing at a time, it's betterthan doing nothing.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (22:58):
Yes, absolutely right.
So thank you again, Ms Laurie.
My pleasure, Good to have you.
Thanks for inviting me.
All right, I cheer and untilthe next episode.
Thank you everyone forlistening.
Hello listeners, thank you so much for joining
us today.
I have an amazing guest with me.
I'm gonna be interviewing MissLaurie Knowles.
She is simply amazing.
She's a parent of a child whoused to have autism.
She runs an amazing companycalled New Beginnings, and I
know there's a longer list toall that she is, so I'm gonna
(00:21):
let her introduce herself.
So welcome to the show, missLaurie Knowles.
Lori Knowles (00:26):
Thank, you so much for having me.
It's good to be here.
I always love talking aboutthis subject and my claim to
fame is I'm a mom who had achild who was diagnosed with
autism and nowadays that 135kids are being diagnosed with
autism.
So there's a lot of moms thatare having to deal with this.
(00:47):
And then in the binary, verydifficult row and when you're
told that your child has autism,your world just crumbles around
you.
And this was my fourth child,my other three child, other
three first three children weretypical.
And Daniel, just he was likefor it.
(01:07):
He was a surprise.
I was 39 when I had him and hejust around 14, 15 months.
Just lost language, fine andlarge motor delays, just
repetitive behaviors.
And I ended up diagnosing himmyself on the internet Because
(01:29):
when I took him to pediatriciansthey kept just singing oh,
he'll help grow it, it's no,it's not a big deal.
And so I realized that that'swhere he was most likely and I
just had to.
Really, I remember beingdepressed for a couple of weeks
and then I picked myself up andsaid I'm going to take this
negative energy and I'm gonnaput it into everything that I
(01:52):
can do to help my son and I'mnot gonna accept anybody telling
me that there's nothing I cando.
Just put him in some behavioralprograms and just accept who he
is from now on.
And of course I accepted who hewas.
Why did I love him?
But he was obviously not doingwell medically.
(02:13):
He had skin rashes all over hisface, he had very, very pale
skin, he had big circles underhis eyes, he cried constantly.
He was not a happy child.
Something was going onunderneath and so I decided at
that point I was going to dowhatever I could to figure out
(02:34):
what to do to help them.
And I just delved in andstarted reading books and
getting online and doing parentchat groups and went to
conferences.
And that's what started mywhole journey.
And then, after a few yearswith that, I ended up meeting
and going to a conference andhearing Dr William Shaw, who's a
(02:55):
pioneer in this field.
He was one of the firstscientists, researchers, who
wrote a book on treating autismthrough biomedical treatment,
which means dealing withunderlying causes.
So I read that book and it justchanged my life.
I mean I, oh my gosh, it justlit a fire under me and I went
(03:16):
okay, now I know what to lookfor and what to access.
It was so excellent.
And then I went to a conferenceand I met him and I convinced
him to hire me and so I startedworking with him when he was
owner and lab director of GreatPlains Laboratory.
And then he asked me to start acompany for him called New
Beginnings Nutritionals, and westarted out being a company that
(03:41):
provided like qualitynutritional supplements
specifically designed for kidson spectrum.
So I've been doing that forover 20 years and my son is now
25 and he's recovered and it'sbeen an amazing journey and I
love what I do and I love usingmy experience and knowledge to
help with their parents, and Iwork with physicians as well who
(04:04):
are trying to treat theirpatients and need some support.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (04:09):
So yes, oh, my goodness, that's so wonderful.
So let's go back to when youfirst read the book by Dr Shaw
and you realized well, this hasanswers.
So where did you start?
Can you walk us through likethings that you did?
Lori Knowles (04:27):
Absolutely.
First thing I did is theytalked about diet and that was
kind of freaky because me, likemost parents know whether they
have a child with autism andthey're super picky eaters and
some of them only eat two orthree things and they're not
healthy eaters and it's justhard to open up their diet to
(04:48):
other things.
And what I learned was thatthese foods, specifically wheat
and dairy there's proteins inthem, One that's called gluten,
inside of wheat and casein andphyto dairy.
They actually have an opiateeffect on the children and what
that means is that they can'tdigest them well and they're
(05:10):
partially digested.
These proteins gluten andcasein don't break down all the
way and they leave a moleculethat looks a lot like morphine.
It's called casomorphine andgliodorphate.
And when these children eatthese foods, they act like
(05:30):
they're on drugs.
They're spacey.
My son had his glazed look inhis eyes.
He didn't notice hissurrounding.
Another key thing isinsensitivity to pain.
So, when you're on a morphinedrug, it's for pain, right.
So they fall down, they hurtthemselves.
You expect them to startscreaming and they don't.
That's another sign of that.
(05:51):
Another sign is that they onlywant to eat those foods and no
other foods.
And why is that?
Because a drug addict onlywants his six.
He stops caring aboutvegetables and fruits and they
just want the good feeling.
And when they are sleepingthrough the night and they
haven't had a chance to eatdairy and glue and get that fix
(06:15):
again, they get miserable andunhappy.
So he would wake up crying untilhe would eat in the morning and
even after naps.
That would be the scenario, andso I had to do something about
that.
So I said, okay, I'm going tochange his diet.
And so I did it all the wrongway.
I just decided not to feed himgluten and dairy, but I hadn't
(06:36):
done the planning and I hadn'tgone out and bought all the
foods and looked at what allthat was out there.
Now, 25 years ago, we didn'thave as many good many healthy
gluten dairy options that we, sofor some.
I remember how to panic attackwas then, but then I started
figuring it out, and once wewent off gluten and dairy for
(06:59):
two weeks he started talking insentences, both sentences where
he just would have one word hereand there and most of each
other.
You know, I went in there onemorning and I looked in his crib
and he looked and he goes mommy, go kill those with daddy.
And I went, what you know?
So it just something cleared upin his brain.
(07:23):
He started noticing things andthat was the first thing I did.
And people will say to me andI've done a lot of things to get
him where he's at, but they'llsay to me what was the most most
effective treatment you did?
And for me it was, for me andmy son Daniel, it was the GFCF
diet.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (07:43):
Okay, so can you tell us what the GFCF diet?
Oh, what's he just prescribedbefore people who don't know?
Breed, dairy break Right.
Lori Knowles (07:53):
And again, the thing that I have to tell your
listeners is that, as a mom andany mom and I give in talks at
autism conferences to parentsfor many years and I'll look at
them and I'll go how many of youafraid?
You know, how many of you areafraid that if you take these
two foods away and this ispredominantly all that your
(08:16):
child eats that they're going tostart to death and they all,
just you know, we're like, yeah,that's the issue, but then all
of us who end up doing it, thereality is, food is no longer an
addictive thing.
They start eating becausethey're hungry, and so what I
(08:36):
recommend to parents is startwith one thing start with dairy
first, because that's a lot ofdairy substitutes easier to do,
and go slow with that, becausethe children will start feeling
bad, just like when you take adrug addict off of heroin right.
If you do it, suddenly they havewithdrawal effects.
(08:58):
Well, our kids have withdrawaleffects too.
And parents will say I took amother of wheat and dairy and he
started having horriblebehaviors so I stopped it
immediately and let's not begood for them.
And I said, uh-uh, that's agood sign, right, how to use
that?
Their body's withdrawing on it.
You can be gentle with them andyou can take them off of the
(09:18):
dairy and even like mixing themilk with the.
You know, half and half, andthen less milk and less milk and
more.
I recommend coconut.
It's one of the healthiestmilks that are out there.
But there's almond and there'syeah, oh, there's a whole bunch
of ones out there that are good,and I think you know I have had
good luck with coconut as well,and then you can use it in the
(09:40):
cooking and everything else, notthat hard.
But once you go dairy-free,then you start finding
substitutes, and so Daniel lovesspaghetti.
So what did I do?
I went to the health food storeand I found a really good
rice-based spaghetti and,believe it or not, it tasted
fairly similar and with thesauce on it, he didn't even
notice.
So I was like bingo.
(10:00):
I have one meal that I can do,you know.
And then I took all his favoritefoods and I tried to find
substitutes for them.
And the thing that was hard forthem is that they don't like
change especially children onthe spectrum but you and they
feel like they've lost allcontrol.
So what worked for me is thatwhen I was trying to, first of
(10:21):
all, sometimes they stoppedeating for two or three days
because they're mad, right,they're just, they're showing
their own.
They will not die as long asyou get lots of liquid in them.
They can water and they'regoing to fry.
They eventually get hungry andthey'll start eating, and so I
would give him choices thatwould come.
(10:41):
They would say you can have himwith this, and then I would
eventually know that he had achoice.
He would choose one of the otherones, and then and then he
started doing that and that'show we got him into eating more
and more things.
So we found out the ones thatworked and eventually it just
became our routine and so,anyway, that was huge and I
(11:04):
really encourage parents to doit, if they haven't, and because
I told myself my kid keepseating these foods, it's harming
him, it's harming his brain andit's keeping him from learning
in school.
There's brain fog, it'saffecting the gut, the GI tract
negatively.
(11:24):
Those obiots are going into thebrain, affecting the language
of what he started being able tounderstand and speak for the
first time.
So that was just so important.
So I said to myself mom, thesefoods are poison for him, I
can't give them.
And it gave me the courage togo out there and really do my
(11:46):
research and do the cooking andspend the time to get him eating
these foods, the right foods,and getting the bad food out of
his diet.
And it was miraculous.
I mean, the teachers were likewhat's going on?
What are you doing with them?
No, it's a different child.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (12:01):
So oh, wow, that is so wonderful.
I love how you made the pointof counteracting the thoughts
that moms have Like, oh, he'snot gonna eat this, they don't
like it.
We don't wanna force them andwe don't want to make them more
unhappy than they are already.
But if you remember, moms anddads, that the foods are poison
(12:23):
and you definitely don't wannabe giving your kids poison, then
it helps.
Lori Knowles (12:26):
No, that's right you know for the whole you go
through.
It may be a hard, few weeks,couple months, but it's you're
talking about the rest of theirlife, right and for ability to
learn and a brain fog lifted up.
You started noticing, youstarted talking, you started
interacting.
If we had not removed that food, those foods, from his diet, he
never would have done thosethings.
(12:47):
So it was worth those panicattacks that I was having.
It was worth the stress.
But nowadays there are so manygood gluten free options out
there and so many good dairyfree options that you can buy
coconut yogurt, you know.
You can buy chicken nuggets.
That you know.
And I also recommend nowknowing what I now know is that
(13:09):
organic if you get only for itor your child on the spectrum,
do organic, because they spraythem spoons that aren't organic
with chemicals that pretty muchdestroy the good bacteria around
your energy eye tract.
So it is just do organicwhenever you can, especially
with those foods that are knownto be the most full of, you know
(13:32):
, chemicals.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (13:33):
Yes, absolutely.
That's such an important pointand I always point out to
parents make sure you're readingthe labels.
Even with the gluten free andthe dairy free, read the labels.
If you still have more than 10ingredients, you can't
understand half of them.
You probably shouldn't beeating it still.
So we're trying as much aspossible to go towards whole
foods, which means shop in theoutside of the supermarket where
(13:58):
there's like the fruits and theveggies are, because it's
better for your child to eat anorange than to drink the juice.
Right, because you're right.
Lori Knowles (14:06):
The sugar, and so I focused on healthy meat and
vegetables and I had to really.
So I did some other tests.
See, we thought it was a glutencase and three diet, but my son
, dana, was full of yeast, twoor three harmful yeast strains,
as well as two or three harmfulbacteria strains.
Hins tests on his GI tractshowed what a mess he was, and
(14:32):
so we had to start working onthat his gut.
So we had to start chilling thebad and putting in the good,
and so we were using differentmedications and herbal
treatments that were supplementsto help heal the bad stuff, and
we were doing probiotics, whichis the good bacteria, it's
what's found in yogurt, but ifthey need a lot stronger ones
(14:55):
that are in pill form.
So we started doing that andthat was a really, and I took a
while because Daniel it'sinteresting Daniel used to be
constipated constantly and shehad a big one, yes, but when we
removed wheat and dairy, theconstipation completely went
(15:17):
away, because the opiates attachto the receptors in the gut and
slow down the motility.
When you take pain relievers,painkillers, opiates, what do
you do?
You get constipated, and that'swhat happened.
He ended up going fromconstipation to diarrhea.
(15:37):
He took probably a year easy,with a lot of treatments to work
on his GI tract to get hisbowel movement stormals.
If your child doesn't have abowel movement, that's normal.
That's an indicator of theirshell.
I always ask parents how's thispoop?
They look at me like what?
No, I got no, I know how yourpoop is I get the look.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (16:01):
I actually take two drawing pictures.
Does it look big?
Does it look skinny?
No, the little little pains.
Lori Knowles (16:07):
Are they gooey?
Do they smell horrible?
All of that is important.
Then the last piece, thatreally we did a lot more of the
things.
But the other thing I want totalk about is a nutritional
supplement, end of it.
They are so starving theirbrains are starving because of
how they eat and also thingsthat are in their GI tract are
(16:27):
not always absorbing well, thatthey need the extra nutritional
support.
Going on a good multivitaminthat's designed for autism I'm
sorry, but a dummy vitamin atyour grocery store is not going
to do it.
They need higher doses.
They need higher doses of Bvitamins.
They need 15 milligrams of B6,not one which you find in a
(16:51):
gummy vitamin.
Their brains need it.
You have to find a really goodsupplement regimen for them,
eating with the multivitamin.
Often digestive enzymes arereally helpful for them.
That was a huge thing for myson digestive enzymes.
He started gaining weight andthat color and his skin came
back really made a difference.
(17:13):
That was one of my favoritesfor him.
You need to get the testing doneand then you need to give them
the supplements and they startto get better, one at a time.
But it takes a mom that isgoing to do it, no matter how
hard it is, and is going tostick with it and do what a
doctor tells them to do.
They go to a state, find adoctor like you.
(17:34):
They are so less becauseregular pediatricians don't know
this out there and they willsay stay away from this, this is
not true.
The gluten and dairy is goodfor your child.
They don't know.
They don't know when they thinkthey do, and that's just sad
part and they're pushing parentsaway from getting real help
(17:54):
from their child.
You got to find a doctor likeyou who's self-indulgent and
done and is doing the researchand knows the research.
And then you listen to them andeven if it's hard, you do it
and make sure your family aroundyou makes sure you have it in
your IEP that they can't eatthese foods because they will be
sabotaged at school.
(18:15):
We'll be given it to by theteacher, the substitute, the
aide to next to them, put it inthe IEP and you have to make
sure grandma and grandpa or onboard too, all right, you give
them a talking to.
No, I know you feel bad thatpoor Johnny doesn't get to have
cookies all the time.
You know it's just.
(18:36):
You have to be 100%.
You have to do this becausethis is what got my son Daniel
recovered, and he is 25 today.
He graduated from college.
Took me nine years of intensetreatment doing this, staying on
top of him, nine years, for meto finally realize he's
(18:58):
recovered.
He actually had NIH take awayhis diagnosis.
He was in a study in NIH andthey said this child is no
longer on the spectrum and hegraduated from KU.
He works in IT, he lives on hisown, but it took a mom being
serious, and you've seen it inyour practice too.
Right, the moms that are onboard are the ones that get the
(19:21):
best results and nobody canpromise that every kid's gonna
happen.
It's gonna be a Daniel, right.
But, unless you go and you doeverything and you look under
every single rock, looking forwhatever issue that your child
may have and every child withautism is different, Some with
more issues, some with less.
But you've got to go after themand you have to be patient and
(19:43):
you have to stick with it.
Then you start peeling thelayers of the onion off that are
causing the autistic symptomsand they get better and better
and sometimes you can get aDaniel and you have to have that
help, but being absolutelypersistent as a parent and
that's the key.
That's the key With the doctor.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (20:07):
My goodness, I don't think I have anything else
.
That was, oh my goodness,parents.
I hope you can hear Miss Lori'sheart.
She's a mommy, she's done itand, yes, it took nine years,
but it happened.
And so that's the first thing Ialways tell parents yes, you
have this diagnosis.
That sounds devastating, butthere is hope.
(20:30):
We just need to start somewhere.
There is hope.
Don't give up hope, and so Ihope that all of you listeners
wow, this has been so wonderful.
Thank you so much, miss Lori,for caring Daniel's story And-.
Lori Knowles (20:43):
Can I say one more thing real quick?
Yeah, if you go to my websitethe website, as I said I run a
nutritional supplement companyfor children and we have a lot
of supplements specifically forautism and it's it's wwwnbnuscom
.
If you go there and look underthe resources tab, you can see
(21:05):
me giving a presentation ofeverything I did for my son to
help him recover from autism.
It's under resources and it'scalled a compelling story of
recovery.
So that would be a good placeto look at to see everything I
did, because we just talkedabout a few today.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (21:22):
Wonderful.
Yes, we will definitely sharethat to everyone.
We'll have that on the podcastdescription.
Thank you so much.
And yes, you mentioned youdidn't mention the name of your
company New beginningsnutritionals, new beginnings
nutritionals, nbnuscom.
Lori Knowles (21:39):
We are you and again, I answer parent questions
directly.
If you email us and ask aquestion, I will get back to you
.
We are all about helping.
It's not about making money andselling.
It's about supporting andhand-holding and helping parents
find hope for their children.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (22:00):
That's what it's about.
Yes, absolutely, and I canattest to that.
I've been using new beginningsfor my patients and it's been so
helpful to them.
And yes, I called your officeand you spoke to me.
Like and most a lot ofcompanies you call, you may not
speak to the owner right or thehigher-ups, so I was really
thankful and you agreed to comeon the podcast.
(22:22):
So thank you so much forsharing your story and for
sharing how parents can get moreinformation about how to help
their children.
Is there any?
Is that one last thing you'dlike to share with the parents?
One last takeaway Just don'tlose hope.
Lori Knowles (22:36):
Don't lose hope and stay away from negative
people and do your research,because there's a lot of things
out there and new things comingevery day that are making a
difference.
So, no matter what age it isthat you're starting this with
your child, go in and getstarted, because even it's just
(22:56):
one thing at a time, it's betterthan doing nothing.
Dr. Hokehe Eko (22:58):
Yes, absolutely right.
So thank you again, Ms Laurie.
My pleasure, Good to have you.
Thanks for inviting me.
All right, I cheer and untilthe next episode.
Thank you everyone forlistening.
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