Reddit mentions of The Everything Guide to Cooking for Children with Autism: From everyday meals to holiday treats; how to prepare foods your child will love to eat (Everything (Parenting))

This is a pretty tricky and uncomfortable area for most in the US. (They are either on one side or the other with no middle ground and people who know nothing about it will have very strong opinions one way or another :) ) I think one of the kindest ways I ever read anyone bridging into the subject of possible gluten-intolerance/gut issues was in a GFCF cookbook, maybe this one though I'm not 100% sure it was that one. The authors basically said, "Autism is often only diagnosed as a psychological or psychiatric disorder and if underlying medical causes have not been investigated, well, you can't rule it out - so check for celiac disease" Additionally, researchers have found statistical links between maternal autoimmune disease and autism so they are looking at the possible autoimmune connection. Since there is no single test for autism, I think it's worth keeping an open mind to the possibility that researchers have not quite figured out a few medical causes of autism-like symptoms that might be helped by medical intervention. As far as putting that in front of partner's mom? Only if it happens to come up and only as sort of an "aside" comment. Like, "well, I've heard this info about the autoimmune connection and sometimes misdiagnosis and thought it was really interesting what researchers are finding these days & I would just be so glad if was any help to to you" or something. Maybe?

edit: At lunch I went double checking for some of the interesting research. Here's a nice little one about rates of abnormalities in intestinal barrier in autistics and first-degree relatives. Results "indicate that measuring IPT [intestinal permeability] could help to identify a subgroup of patients with autism who could benefit from a gluten-free diet." Note the word "subgroup" - very important for us all-or-nothing-americans to pay attention to. :) There's a pdf here that's an editorial not a peer reviewed bit of research and seems to be an overview of medical literature relevant to gastrointestinal disorders in autistic children.