46. Why You Should Run Labs for Your Autistic Child
In today's episode, Brittyn covers why running nutritional labs could be a great tool to uncover more about your child's health to help them feel their best and detect any underlying nutritional deficiencies, gut imbalances, or food sensitivities. She also touches on which labs your pediatrician could order versus which you may need to order separately.
Brittyn is also hosting a Labs Workshop inside of her membership, the Nourishing Autism Collective on March 14! You can join and RSVP at https://www.nourishingautism.co.
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TRANSCRIPT
Hi, I'm Brittyn, a Registered Dietitian and autism sibling. I have a passion for helping parents of neurodivergent kids navigate nutrition and wellness for their child, one small step at a time. Here we'll explore practical nutrition tips, learn from top autism experts, break down the newest research, and share inspirational stories that will empower you to utilize nutrition to help your child feel their best and thrive.
Listen in while picking kids up from school, sitting in a therapy waiting room, taking a quick walk or wherever you find yourself, looking for some inspiration and a friend to guide you along this journey. This is Nourishing Autism.
Brittyn: [00:00:00] What I love about Nutrition Labs is that they can serve as your child's voice. Now, some kids can't explain that they're not feeling well. They can't explain that they're feeling really fatigued, or they have migraines, and that's the reason why they're head banging on the floor. They can't always tell us,
even for children who are speaking now, children who are not yet speaking, the way that they communicate with us is through their behavior. So labs can give us a voice for your child to say, okay, this is out of range. This is something that we can adjust, whether it's through their diet or supplements or a medication to help them feel better.
Unfortunately, some kids just don't know what it feels like to feel good, or they don't know how to explain that they're not feeling well outside of just their behavior.
Brittyn: Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Nourishing Autism [00:01:00] Podcast. I'm Brittyn Coleman, the Autism Dietitian. Today we are diving into labs, and this is a really common question. I have people asking me about labs in my dms all the time on Instagram, so I'm excited to share a little bit more about labs as a whole and why they could be extremely beneficial for your child on the autism spectrum.
So when people think about labs, oftentimes they're like, okay, well I'll just ask my pediatrician to run some just standard labs for autism. Now, the thing that is, makes it a little bit more difficult. There's no just standard labs for autism, and in fact, typically your pediatrician isn't trained. In autism specifically.
I know that many may be, but more often than not, they don't have the unique experience for autism or that specific training unless there are a developmental pediatrician and autism is. In their training. So what I see a lot of times is that parents are like, I wanna run labs for my child. [00:02:00] And they get the pushback from their pediatrician.
That's not necessary, and that's the end of it. Well, it may be necessary, but they're not the expert when it comes to nutrition. And oftentimes with these labs we can look in at general Health. But we can also look deeper into their nutritional status. Now, the reason why your pediatrician might say, well, those aren't necessary is that they're probably thinking about some basic panels that look at kidney function and liver function, and their white blood cells and red blood cells, and for any healthy child.
Those should be within the normal range. Those are not the labs that I'm talking about. Those labs are called comprehensive metabolic panels and complete blood counts. That's not what we're talking about though. It can be still beneficial if you're gonna go ahead and do labs to go ahead and check those out as well.
'cause they're really standard. What I'm talking about is deeper. This isn't an official division of labs, [00:03:00] but I tend to think of them in two different categories. We have our basic labs and that's where this comprehensive metabolic panel or. CMP or complete blood count CBC fit in.
These are just your standard labs. Now, maybe your Dr. May also order like a vitamin D or an iron. So we're thinking just the standard labs that can be done at your pediatrician's office. Now, usually the labs that are the most beneficial for kids on the autism spectrum cannot be run through your pediatrician.
We call these more functional. Labs and these labs are taking a look into what's going on in your child's gut, what's going on with their nutritional status as a whole, and maybe what's going on with food sensitivities. Now your pediatrician can draw for food allergies, but I see more often than not kids on the spectrum have food sensitivities that [00:04:00] would not show up on an allergy panel.
Your physician is only going to be able to order the food allergy panel, not a food sensitivity panel, so it gets really confusing. Now, these functional lab panels, there are three that I really prefer.
I think that they are a great way to lay the groundwork for kids on the spectrum. The reason why I am looking into labs, A, it can be. Something that is holding your child back from reaching their full potential. If we don't understand what's going on underneath, your child could have a big nutrient deficiency.
Your child could have an imbalance of gut bacteria. Now, this doesn't mean that all children do, but. It can be really beneficial to dig deeper, especially if your child is having a particular [00:05:00] symptom that is either getting worse or is disrupting their day-to-day activities. Honestly, this can also be something that you do, even if there's not one particular thing that you can point to, but you're saying, you know, I feel like my child could feel better.
I feel like my child's diet isn't 100% of what it could be, and there's a possibility that they're missing nutrients or maybe they're bowel movements don't look as good as I wish they would. They're not as regular as they could be. Again, you can do these as a part of your wellness routine.
There doesn't have to be a huge reason as to why you're doing these. It can just be a really great way to check in on your child's nutritional status. I want to also think about something called the Root Cause approach. Now what the root cause approach is basically that we are looking at a symptom, let's [00:06:00] say, and instead of just saying, oh, let's just throw some X, Y, Z on top of it , we dig deeper into what actually is causing this symptom.
So I'm gonna give the example of constipation. If your child is constipated, that is really common in autism. And unfortunately a lot of physicians, just say, well, it's really common in autism. MiraLax for the rest of their life or however long. And yes, MiraLax is going to help them have easier bowel movements, but at the root of it, what is causing the constipation?
Just because something is common doesn't mean that it's normal or to be expected. We can dig deeper and understand, okay, is there a nutritional reason for this? Is there an imbalance in the gut? Is there a food sensitivity? What is going on underneath? What I also love about Nutrition Labs is that they can serve as your child's voice. Now, some kids can't explain that they're not feeling well. They can't explain that they're [00:07:00] feeling really fatigued, or they have migraines, and that's the reason why they're head banging on the floor. They can't always tell us,
even for children who are speaking now, children who are not yet speaking, the way that they communicate with us is through their behavior. So labs can give us a voice for your child to say, okay, this is out of range. This is something that we can adjust, whether it's through their diet or supplements or a medication to help them feel better.
Unfortunately, some kids just don't know what it feels like to feel good, or they don't know how to explain that they're not feeling well outside of just their behavior.
So labs can be a really great way to dig a little deeper and help give your child a voice from these lab results. There are particular labs that I prefer and some that I prefer.
You start with before you just do. All of the labs that you possibly can. [00:08:00] I also want you to make sure that you are ordering labs from someone who's going to be able to guide you through them in a way that's really intuitive, in a way that they completely understand these lab results forward and backward so that they can give you the correct information.
We don't want just someone ordering these labs for you because you requested them. Not having the guidance after you get the results back. So some pediatricians will say, well, I don't know how to read this panel, but I will order it for you because you know you've made a good case. Now that's great, but I wanna make sure that you are having somebody help you interpret these labs so that you can put into action the nutrition changes or whatever it might mean.
To help resolve this panel. Oftentimes, when you just look at a panel, if you're not well versed in it and you're not trained in this, it can be really overwhelming and unfortunately, the wrong action can be made. That's not gonna help you get to the result that you want to see, which is helping your child [00:09:00] feel better. Now when I'm recommending labs, there are so many that you could go for. What I see for autism is that some of the most important ones lie in. Nutrient deficiencies. So we're doing a full vitamin and mineral panel looking at all of our vitamins, all of our minerals, our omega threes and sixes and nines to get a full idea of their nutritional status.
We also will look at a comprehensive stool analysis. So you take a stool sample, you look deeper into what bacteria is there, what bacteria is not there, is there inflammation? Is there fat in the stool, which could tell us they don't digest their food very well. Is there blood in the stool telling us that maybe they struggle with chronic constipation, or that they have a food allergy that's causing a lot of agitation in the gut?
Could there be a yeast overgrowth? Could there be all of these different things? It's really interesting to look into the gut. Now, if you listen to my first episode from season two, you learn just how important the gut is for [00:10:00] autism. So this stool panel can really give you so much information and actionable steps, but you do need someone to help you interpret this fully.
Lastly, food sensitivity testing can be especially helpful. However, all of these food sensitivity tests that you might see online? Unfortunately, I don't trust 99% of them. The only test that I actually trust is called the mediator release test, and that is a panel from Oxford Biomedical Labs and it measures the amount of inflammation from that food protein.
Your child's body. So a lot of the food sensitivity testing, and I actually have a past episode with Elisa Rocks. She's another dietician. All about if food sensitivity testing is actually accurate. That was toward the end of season one. But the I mediator release test, instead of just testing what antibodies you have in your blood to certain foods, the [00:11:00] incorrect way to test for food sensitivities, it actually looks at how you respond to those food proteins when they draw that blood, and then they introduce the protein and see how much inflammation your body puts.
Off. So it's a lot more complex with that. But for the sake of this podcast episode, that's a good way to explain it. Now, I could go on and on about all of these labs because there's important things for you to understand and important markers for you to take note of for autism. And while I don't have the time to do that here, nor would I be able to elaborate as much as I could. I'm actually hosting a labs workshop inside of my membership called the Nourishing Autism Collective, and I'm really, really excited about it.
And inside the Labs workshop, we are going to be breaking down the most common labs for autism, the ones that I typically recommend and the important markers that you should consider as well. Now, while we can't order these labs for you, I will be sharing details about how you might be able to locate a practitioner
to help you [00:12:00] order these labs and help you interpret them. Again, we wanna make sure that you have a practitioner that's going to be able to lead you through that process and not just leave you high and dry after getting your results back. It's really important that you can understand these. Now I know that some kids are not going to be able to do blood panels.
It can be really difficult in order to actually get a lab draw for some kids with sensory sensitivity. Now, some of the labs, they may be stool, they may be urine, so you may have some workaround certain. Labs, like a micronutrient panel to look at. All of your vitamins and minerals do need to be done through blood.
I do have tips on how to help children with sensory sensitivity to have a successful blood draw, and I'll be talking about some of that in the workshop as well.
Now there are also some basic labs that your pediatrician could order for you. Maybe you don't have access to order some of these functional labs, or maybe you do wanna go through insurance because a lot of those functional labs are going to be private pay. There are some labs that can be really beneficial that your doctor couldn't order [00:13:00] for you.
And I actually have a lab request form that you can fill out and check the boxes and hand it to your pediatrician. So that you can advocate even better for your child, and you can also find that inside of the Nourishing Autism Collective as well as the labs workshop. I will have that available for all attendees.
You can sign up and register for that through the link in the description below, or by going to nourishingautism.co. So again, a recap on why labs could be incredibly important. A, it could help you take a root cause approach, could help you dig deeper into what symptom your child is experiencing so that you can understand why they're experiencing that and resolve that root cause rather than putting a bandaid over it, we want to resolve the issue instead of just patching it up. Next, it can help give your child a voice. It can help you understand why they may be uncomfortable, why they're doing a particular behavior that might be communicating they don't feel well or they feel [00:14:00] fatigued or they're hurting, can help give them a voice whenever they're not able to explain that they don't feel well or that something is up.
And lastly, it's kind of a blueprint on how to take the approach that's going to help your child feel their best. It may help point you in the right direction of supplements or it might help point you in the right direction for a certain diet. Now you can make these changes with supplements and diets without doing labs, but labs can make the whole process be a lot more clear and expedited to help you get your child to feeling better, quicker. Again, I would love you to join us inside of the Nourishing Autism Collective for the lab workshop on March 14th. I cannot wait to run this. If you have any questions, feel free to DM me on Instagram and I would love to help you. Otherwise, I hope to see you inside of the Nourishing Autism collective.
I hope you learn something from this podcast episode and it's going to help you understand the importance of advocating for labs for your child on the [00:15:00] spectrum to help them feel their best and thrive.
I'll see you again next time.
Transcribed by Descript
About Brittyn Coleman, MS, RDN/LD
Brittyn Coleman, MS, RDN/LD, is a distinguished Registered Dietitian and Autism Nutrition Expert, known for her innovative, sensory-friendly feeding approach to nutrition for children on the autism spectrum. As the founder of the Nourishing Autism Collective, and as an autism sibling herself, Brittyn brings both professional expertise and personal understanding to her work. She empowers families with her expert guidance, helping children receive essential nutrients for optimal health and development. Her strategies are tailored to the unique dietary needs and sensory preferences of each child.
Brittyn's influence extends beyond her membership site through her active social media presence and her popular podcast, 'Nourishing Autism'. Her educational content on Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms has established her as a leading voice in autism nutrition, providing valuable resources, practical advice, and a supportive community for parents and professionals.
