23. "It's A Marathon Not a Sprint" with my Client Brittany Collins, DO

Feb 18

In this episode Brittyn speaks with one of her past clients, Brittany, who opens up about her nutrition journey for her son Shepard. Brittany is a physician herself and dug into the research on nutrition for autism and shares her experience working with Brittyn.

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IN THIS EPISODE

Brittany, a former client, shares how she navigated her son’s Autism diagnosis.
Nutrition interventions that had a positive impact on Brittany’s son, Shepard.
Brittany shares her advice on how to approach treatment options.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to the Nourishing Autism Podcast where you take a deep dive into the research on autism and dietary changes, nutrition supplements, and lifestyle modifications. Every week, we break down nutrition topics and an easy-to-understand way for you to feel less overwhelmed and feel confident on your nutrition journey with autism.

"It's A Marathon Not a Race" with my Client Brittany Collins, DO

[00:00:00]

Brittyn: Hi everyone and welcome to the Nourishing Autism podcast. I'm Brittyn Coleman, the Autism Dietitian and today I have a really special guest. One of my past clients named Brittany, who is sharing about her nutrition journey for her son Shepard. She is a physician herself and dug into the research on nutrition for autism and that's when she found me and we instantly hit it off and began working together for her son Shepherd and he made some really awesome gains by changing his diet and adding targeted supplements. In this interview, we talk about my past online course and about private coaching, two [00:01:00] things that I actually no longer offer. However, I took the best of both and created my group coaching program called Nourishing Autism. So if you're interested in my program, you can visit my website, linked in the show notes to learn more and get on the wait list. Apologies ahead of time on the sound quality the internet was not being our friend that day so that being said I hope you enjoyed this interview, I know it will leave you feeling inspired and motivated.

Today. I'm so excited to have one of my longer-term clients, Brittany, here with me and sharing a little bit about her journey with nutrition and autism. Thanks Brittany for being here.

Brittany: You're welcome. I'm so excited to be on.

Brittyn: Awesome. So what I'm going to have you start with, tell a little bit about yourself. I know you're super close to me now in Colorado. But share a little bit about yourself and then we're going to talk all about Shepard.

Brittany: Yeah. So Like you said, we live in Colorado and we're so excited to finally be able to meet Brittyn in person at some point here in the next few months. [00:02:00] But I'm a physician myself. I'm an anesthesiologist and I have three boys. Shepherd is my middle child. He just turned four about a month ago and he is my son that has been diagnosed with Autism. So yeah, we're just crazy busy life right now with boys.

Brittyn: I can’t believe he's four. That's crazy to believe,

Brittany: I know, I can't either.

Brittyn: I think he was two. He was two when we started working together or maybe he was about to turn three.

Brittany: Yes. Yep, exactly. Shepherd got his diagnosis about a little over two and a half years old. And that was obviously when I started doing a bunch of research on Autism in general and led me to you.

Brittyn: Yes.

Brittany: And then we started working together right before he turned three.

Brittyn: So was nutrition something that you dug into yourself or did anyone ever mention that to you while you were in that diagnostic period?

Brittany:

Yeah. So[00:03:00] no, it was never brought up to me by any people that were first involved in his diagnosis. Which was fine because I, being a physician myself, I've always kind of been the person that wants to do my own research. So I just started to dive deep into Autism and not being a pediatric specialist myself or ever having, you know, an older child with Autism.

We really don't learn much about Autism and med school. The pediatricians do obviously, and their residencies and then they can do fellowships, so they know a lot more about it, but myself, I didn't. So I wanted to learn all about it. That being said. Yeah, So that being said, I started to look into the nutrition aspects of it because I already have this background interest in like overall wellness and health.

I had just been into that, I guess nutrition and supplements, and that kind of overall wellness prior to Shep's diagnosis. So I did automatically start [00:04:00] to look into nutrition and supplements for him in regards to Autism. And that's what led me to you. And I found you on Instagram.

Brittyn: Instagram. That's great. So many of you find me on Instagram, probably 95% of my clients find me there, which is so fun. And so when did you decide that you wanted to try out nutrition? So he was diagnosed when he was about two and a half. How soon after that, did you decide to try out nutrition?

Brittany: So pretty immediately we went to, you know, which I think you hear a lot, the gluten-free, casein-free or dairy-free diet for him. One of the reasons I did that is I personally was gluten-free, dairy-free well, casein-free at that time because I was nursing my newborn, who was two months old and he had colitis, he had blood in his stool. And so usually that's dairy and when you're nursing. So I was already, I had just gone gluten-free dairy-free [00:05:00] so for me to make those changes in Shep's diet, I thought, you know, it's easy. We can just, we can just try it. I also had always had concerns from when he was an infant about him having some type of sensitivity to dairy. So he didn't drink milk, but we were still giving him yogurt products and cheese occasionally. So we just made the full switch immediately at that point, because I was interested in kind of the anti-inflammatory approach to Autism at that point.

Brittyn: Definitely. Were you able to make that switch to gluten and dairy free quickly? Or did it take you some time to transition for him?

Brittany: You know, we were able to do it pretty quickly. He wasn't eating. You know, there's a lot of gluten-free substitutes now for bread and things like that so we did that. And then, like I said, he wasn't drinking milk it was just pretty much the cheese and yogurt we had to eliminate. And so it wasn't too hard for us.

Brittyn: Yeah, that's great. A lot of times, you know, especially for kids who are really limited in their diet, I'll have us go graduallybecause it's[00:06:00] you know, taking out all of that so quickly when kids only have, you know, a few different foods, which I know isn't Shepherd, but a lot of times I'll have people move slower than that. But it's great to hear when people are able to make that transition really quickly because you can see benefits even sooner. And I know you saw benefits after going gluten-free for a little bit as well. Gluten & dairy-free.

Brittany: Yeah. Yeah, and we did. Shepherd had always had actually loose stools. I mean, almost frank diarrhea, to be honest. And you know, we had given fiber supplements, all those things in the past before his Autism diagnosis. And nothing's really helped a lot, but going dairy free seemed to help fairly quickly.

I mean, it took probably a month or so like to really see some improvements, but I felt like that was pretty fast. And so we kept on that and then I found you and then kind of moved into more research into the nutrition side of it from all the stuff you were providing.

Brittyn: Yeah, definitely. Well, that's great to hear and you're right. I mean, it can take four to six weeks at [00:07:00] the minimum to start seeing big progress with diet. A lot of people don't realize that and they want to see overnight changes. I wish it worked that way.

Brittany: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I know it's hard. It's hard to be patient in this process, I think. But I think the thing that kept us going was hearing stories from your other clients talking to you, and really like, you helped to almost point out our little wins that you kind of glance over sometimes as a parent.

And you're like, oh wait, yeah, he is doing really great with that. And so it was nice to have that support system from you and your programs and then the individual one-on-one that we had done because you just, you don't get that from the traditional medicine side of it right now. Like I like the pediatrician had never mentioned any dietary changes, the fellowship trained, but you know, pediatrician, developmental paeds, you know, they said, you know, a lot of people try this and they seem to do okay on it, but they weren't necessarily recommending [00:08:00] any of it.

Brittyn: Right, exactly. Which makes sense. You know, I'm sure they got very little nutrition. I mean, most get about one to two hours of nutrition education in med school and so lot of times don't have the experience, which makes sense, you know, if, if it's

Brittany: Totally. Yeah.

Brittyn: But it would make it so much easier even I'm, I'm glad they mentioned that much to you.

A lot of times, I don't even see that mentioned. And even just that little glimpse of what it could be like, sometimes it's planting the seed for someone to go down their own nutrition journey, which is great. So before you started working to meet with me, I know you had reached out and I wasn't taking clients on at the time.

So you tried out my program, which has now transitioned into a completely different program. So the program that you had been in, I actually don't even run anymore. It's transitioned into my, like, my group programs that are a little bit more supportive, but it's kind of like a glorified online course that you attend. And then we moved into the private [00:09:00] coaching at the beginning of 2021. So I remembered you started some supplements while you were doing the online course. And specifically, I remember you had a lot of success with sulforaphane, the broccoli extract supplement. Would you mind sharing a little bit about that?

Brittany: Yes. And I truly think that obviously along with everything else, but that was one of the big hitters with Shepherd. And this is and obviously you talk about it. You have some great information on it, on your website and the Autism Nutrition Library. But sulforaphane, as you know, has found been researched at a decent amount in Autism and it was shown to decrease behaviors in males with Autism don't quote me on this age range. It was, it was older than Shepard. I think it was like maybe like teens. But there is, it's just a great molecule all around in general because I mean, even people [00:10:00] that are not Autistic, I think should be on it. But we started that supplement on Shepherd and we noticed drastic changes in his behavior.

When he first got diagnosed, I would say at his quote unquote "worst" when he was about two and a half exactly. It almost seems like he was locked in and it was obviously disheartening because Shepherd was a toddler who was, you know, talking, he was a little bit delayed in some motor milestones and some verbal milestones, but he was, he was saying words to us, and then he regressed right around two years old.

And so at two and a half, he was non-verbal really not was almost like pacing, very like fixated on things on not a lot of social interaction with us. So we started that supplement and he just made leaps and bounds that and gluten and dairy free where the first things we did and he just kind of came back alive almost.

He started interacting more with us. The [00:11:00] eye contact was back and just seemed to more focused, not in his head as much. And we still have him on it, yeah.

We just, I, I love that supplement. The pathways involved with helping with detox pathways, which have, you know, when you talk about have been shown to be altered in people that have Autism and it's just, I just think it's a really great molecule.

Brittyn: Yeah, same. It was so exciting to be able to watch that because there is plenty of research on it, which is super exciting. But also just me that in real time and see how well Shepherd did with it. So would you say that's one of the most impactful dietary changes that you've made for him? Okay. Yeah.

Brittany: Yes.. A hundred percent that in addition to when we went through our one-on-one and we you know, you do a full evaluate, like nutritional evaluation and everything, and some things came out of that I was [00:12:00] shocked and so happy that we did two of the big things was the food sensitivity panel that really changed some other dietary or had some other dietary changes with Shepherd.

And then the iron deficiency, we would have never known that Shepherd was iron deficient.

And this has been huge because we started him on iron supplementation under your guidance and then followed up with labs with our our pediatrician and he was still iron deficient and so we've continued.

The iron will be at almost a year now you know, under physician guidance at this point. But it's just such an important, obviously mineral. I mean, I couldn't believe he was iron deficient and we would've never tested him. You know, there was no reason necessarily to test him. So the pediatrician had no indication to test him otherwise.

Brittyn: Right. It was so interesting.

Brittany: I'm really glad the big one. Yeah.

Brittyn: Yeah. He had some of the most textbook signs of it. Once we started down that path, like the [00:13:00] little, the spoon shaped nails and which I know improved greatly when you started that supplement but so easy to overlook some of those symptoms, but once we started fixating on that, it just seemed it all of this just all fell into place, which sometimes deficiencies are hidden. You don't notice, but for him, it just made so much more sense. We were able to put that all together which was so interesting to see those like textbook site symptoms of iron deficiency. So interesting. So when we were...

Brittany: It was crazy cause I was seeing it, but I didn't put two and two together. And then after you got the diagnosis, you're like, oh, Yep. Made so much sense. Yeah.

Brittyn: And the last question I was going to ask you were just the overall positive benefits that you saw was Shepherd after we really nailed down his diet.

Brittany: Yes. Shepard has just blossomed in to this sweet little boy. Since the dietary changes and the supplements we've started with [00:14:00] him, he really came out of his shell. Like I kind of alluded to before and and his little personality, he came back. We still took a while for him to start speaking words again, but he did start speaking words again. I would still consider him more on the non-verbal side, but he does say some words. And we also implemented a AAC device which is an augmented assistant communication device with his specifically that app.

And we've been working with the speech pathologist on that as well. And I've combined with the nutrition and supplements he has just grown so much. Verbal skills are improving. He interacts with his brothers more, his peers in preschool. He plays with us he's playful and he's funny, fascinating test boundaries.

He is just, he's just a joy to be around. You know, obviously we still have the different challenges that Autism brings. We're still working on potty training and that's taking a [00:15:00] lot longer than it is compared to his older brother did obviously. And I would say the one thing we did not made great progress on is expanding his food.

That has probably been the hardest dietary change cause trying to expand his or food preferences. So we are still working on that , but luckily I think we're getting enough balance diet from the foods he does eat that I think were are doing okay.

Brittyn: Yeah. Yeah. And it's, you know, there's like a few different processes that we go through taking out the foods that they're sensitive to, which sometimes limits them down. And then from there trying to expand. So it definitely is a long-term journey. So I'm excited for you , you all, when you are able to, you know, start expanding and you've made so many other dietary changes.

So that's one, that's definitely one of those long-term goals. And in the meantime, we work on filling in those gaps with supplements while we expand. [00:16:00] So it's one of those. I think again, a lot of people want to see the overnight success with picky eating and it is a long-term journey. Not, there's no secret sauce on how to help them eat everything overnight. But I'm so excited for you on all the progress that you saw.

And you know, even without being able to expand his diet, which says a lot there too.

So the last thing I would love to ask you is what would you tell other parents who maybe just got a diagnosis or looking to start with nutrition and are feeling really overwhelmed? Is there any, anything that you would tell them or any advice that you'd give?

Brittany: Yeah. I think there's a couple of different things to look out when you first get that diagnosis. And I remember used at this and this was very, I don't know what I'm trying to say, but I needed to hear this at the time, because when you get that diagnosis, you want to do everything at once [00:17:00] and it is not, it's not a sprint.

And I was trying to be this parent. It seems like you're talking to a lot of parents that have kids with autism, but I think a lot of us try to do that sprint initially. It's a marathon and it's slow changes. Don't rush into everything right away but start doing the research. Nutrition-wise, I just love everything that you have put out. I think it's fantastic. Everything from just simple Instagram posts, you just start reading those, get some information from if you don't have a lot of background on nutrition, just getting basic informational background from your Instagram and then I loved doing the course you had before the one-on-one with you.

And you had told me to do that and we were waiting to do a one-on-one with you anyway. So I was like, okay, I'm going to do it. And that was just really great to lay the foundation for moving forward, with more changes. And as a parent, I think you need to understand the why behind the things you're doing for your [00:18:00] child, whether it's speech pathology, occupational therapy, you know, any of that, and nutrition included. So getting that why and the information from all the resources you have provided Brittyn is just such a good starting place. So I just recommend starting there and just small changes and go from there.

Brittyn: Well, thank you. And I completely agree. It's easy to want to do a sprint and try to do everything all at once, and then you burn out and it's like, what, where, where do you go from there after you've burned out?

So making it a sustainable change makes it, you know, where you're going to see these, this progress longterm, it's hard to slow down.

Brittany: I am very I'm type A control freak and so I just wanted to change everything right away. And it was like, no, this is a marathon. And you said that multiple times in that course we did and I was like, you're right. And, and so that was just reassuring to have someone on your side like that. And it sounds like now those courses you do [00:19:00] have community of other parents and sharing kind of the progress a little bit more than maybe our course did and I think that would just be fabulous to have, just to have that peer group there.

Brittyn: Yeah. It's so special to be with people who understand what you're going through and share those same goals.

So. Yeah, well, I am so grateful that you took the time to chat with me and I'm sure your journey is going to be so inspirational for other parents who are just feeling overwhelmed with getting started or feeling like they have to do everything all at once and just feeling completely overwhelmed. So you're an inspiration to us all and so is Shepherd and it's, you know, just, I'm grateful to have been part of your nutrition team, your care team.

Brittany: Thanks so much Brittyn. Yeah, it's truly been a great experience working with you and I love seeing everything you're doing and growing this community and getting information out there to parents.

Brittyn: Well, thanks Brittany.

Brittany: And we always, we always want to see more Barrett.[00:20:00]

Brittyn: He yes, he, I have to say whenever I show,Barrett on my Instagram, I get more interaction than I ever do with any other nutrition post so maybe I need to yeah just make a separate Barrett fan page.

Thanks, Brittany. I appreciate you so much.

Brittany: Thanks Brittyn!

[00:21:00]

ABOUT Brittyn Coleman, MS, RDN/LD, CLT

I’m a Registered Dietitian, Autism Nutrition Expert, and the Creator of the Autism Nutrition Library.

I work with parents of children with autism to optimize their child’s diet, supplements, and lifestyle based on their unique needs. I help expand accepted foods for picky eaters, improve digestion and gut health, find the root causes of many symptoms, and ultimately help them feel their best so that they can do their best and be their best.

Not only do I relate to families on a professional level, but also on a personal level. I have been a part of the autism community for over 20 years, as my younger brother was diagnosed on the spectrum at a young age.

I look forward to working with you to uncover the root cause of your child’s symptoms and help your child be the best version of themselves!