Thinking About Biomedical Treatments For Autism Symptoms? Start Here Before Spending Thousands

When parents first discover there’s a biomedical approach to autism, it can feel incredibly overwhelming.

The moment you start researching, you’re met with recommendations for thousands of dollars in lab testing, long lists of supplements, private practitioners with year-long waitlists, and treatment protocols you’ve never heard of before. It can quickly feel like helping your child is going to cost a fortune.

That wasn’t where our journey started.

Our Story

When Zion experienced his regression, we were living overseas – far from Canada, far from our doctors, and far from the medical support system we trusted. We knew something had changed, but we didn’t know what to do next.

A close friend, who is both a Special Education Consultant and a Speech-Language Therapist, offered to assess him for us. What she told us was heartbreaking and scary. She believed Zion might be autistic.

We suddenly found ourselves in a place that many parents know all too well: scared, uncertain, and desperately searching for something – anything – we could do while we waited to get home and begin accessing professional support.

As we started reading about the biomedical approach to autism, one of the first changes we learned about was removing gluten from his diet. We decided it was something we could try right away.

Within a few weeks, we started noticing little glimmers of the old Zion returning. He began enjoying when I sang songs again. He started trying to copy the actions to familiar nursery rhymes.

It wasn’t everything. The words didn’t come back – not for a long time – but those tiny moments gave us hope. For the first time since his regression, it felt like we were moving in the right direction.

When we finally returned to Canada, we continued building from there. We gradually weaned Zion off cow’s milk and introduced homemade almond milk instead. As we continued making changes to support his physical health, we felt like we kept seeing more progress.

Want to learn how to make my 5-minute, chemical-free, preservative-free almond milk? Scroll to the bottom of the post for the recipe.

Where We Are Today

Today, Zion has also benefited from wonderful early intervention supports, including preschool, occupational therapy, and speech-language therapy. We are incredibly grateful for the dedicated team that has walked alongside our family. At the same time, our experience has led us to believe that the biomedical changes we made have also played a significant role in his progress. Every child is different, and no two autism journeys look exactly the same, but these are the steps that changed our family’s story.

This article isn’t about telling you what to do. It’s simply a guide to where many families begin, why these first steps are so commonly recommended within the biomedical community, and what I wish someone had told me when we were just getting started.

That doesn’t mean you’ll never spend money on your child’s health. We certainly have. Over the years, we’ve chosen to invest in testing, therapies, practitioners, and treatments that we felt were right for Zion, and many of those decisions have made a tremendous difference for our family. I wouldn’t change that path for a second.

But if I could go back to the very beginning, I’d realize that some of the most meaningful changes we made happened long before the expensive appointments (although many of those were highly worthwhile, too).

They started at home, by paying closer attention, and by making one thoughtful change at a time.

That’s what this article is about.

Before You Change Anything, Start Paying Attention

Before we talk about food, sleep, gut health, or anything else, I want to encourage you to do one thing first.

Slow down and observe.

I know that’s probably not the answer you were expecting. When your child is struggling, it’s natural to want to jump into action. You want to buy the supplement, remove the food, book the appointment, or start the protocol that everyone in the Facebook group is talking about.

I’ve been there.

But one of the biggest lessons our family has learned is that paying attention is often more valuable than rushing into the next thing.

Before you make any changes, ask yourself one simple question:

What problem am I trying to solve?

Maybe your child:

• wakes up several times every night.
• struggles with constipation.
• has frequent meltdowns.
• seems uncomfortable after eating.
• has eczema or ongoing skin issues.
• catches every illness that goes around.
• has very selective eating habits.
• seems tired all the time.
• struggles to focus.
• has lots of tummy aches.

The answer will be different for every child, and that’s exactly the point.

If you aren’t sure what you’re hoping to improve, it becomes almost impossible to know whether something is actually helping.

One mistake many of us make in the beginning is changing everything at once. We remove gluten, eliminate dairy, switch laundry detergents, order a handful of supplements, buy a probiotic, and throw out every artificial food dye in the pantry – all in the same week.

Then, a month later, our child starts sleeping better, making more eye contact, or having fewer meltdowns.

That’s wonderful! But what made the difference?

Was it one change? Three? All of them together? Or was it something completely unrelated?

When too many things change at once, it’s hard to learn what your child’s body is actually responding to.

That’s one of the reasons I became such a believer in keeping notes.

I use an observation journal. It’s simply a place to jot down things like sleep, bowel movements, meals, illnesses, behaviours, medications, supplements, and anything new we’ve introduced. Looking back over a few weeks often reveals patterns I never would have noticed otherwise.

You don’t need to write pages every day. Even a few simple notes can become incredibly valuable over time.

As you work through the ideas in this article, remember this: you don’t have to do everything.

Choose one place to begin and give it time. Pay attention. Then let your child – not the internet – help guide your next step.

Why So Many Families Start with Food

If you spend any time in biomedical autism communities, you’ll quickly notice that food comes up again and again.

Many biomedical practitioners encourage families to start by taking a closer look at diet because food has the potential to influence so many different parts of our health. Gut health, inflammation, nutrient intake, blood sugar, and digestive comfort are all common topics of conversation. Since many autistic children also experience digestive challenges or selective eating, food often becomes one of the first areas families choose to explore.

The biomedical approach doesn’t look at food simply as fuel. It asks a bigger question:

Could something my child is eating be making it harder for their body to function at its best?

That doesn’t mean food is viewed as the cause of autism, nor does it mean changing a child’s diet will help every autistic child. Rather, it’s about recognizing that nutrition affects every system in the body. If improving a child’s overall health might also improve how they sleep, feel, learn, or regulate themselves, many families feel it’s a reasonable place to start.

One of the reasons food is often the first step is because it’s something parents can begin exploring at home. Unlike specialized testing or appointments with private practitioners, making thoughtful changes to your child’s diet usually doesn’t require a referral or thousands of dollars. It gives families an opportunity to observe how their own child responds before deciding whether they want to pursue additional interventions.

That doesn’t mean changing everything overnight.

In fact, one of the biggest lessons our family has learned is to make changes slowly whenever possible. When too many things change at once, it becomes almost impossible to know what’s actually helping. A gradual approach is often easier on your child and gives you a much clearer picture of how they’re responding.

One of the biggest dietary changes we eventually made involved dairy. It became a significant part of our family’s journey, and later in this article I’ll explain why so many biomedical practitioners focus on gluten and dairy as one of the most common places to begin.

For now, the takeaway is simple.

Food isn’t the answer for every child. But because it affects so many aspects of health, it’s one of the most accessible places to begin asking questions, making thoughtful changes, and learning what helps your own child thrive.

Sleep Matters More Than Most Parents Realize

If you ask a group of biomedical practitioners where they’d begin, there’s a good chance sleep would be near the top of the list.

That isn’t unique to autism, either. Sleep affects every part of our health. It’s when our brains and bodies have a chance to rest, repair, and prepare for the next day. When we’re not sleeping well, everything else tends to feel harder.

Sleep problems are also incredibly common in autistic children.

By the time Zion was about 9 or 10 months old, he was waking in the middle of the night and staying awake for two, three, sometimes even four hours. He wasn’t crying or asking for anything. He was just… awake. In fact, he often seemed happy.

At the time, I had no idea this could be related to autism. I figured we had a baby who didn’t sleep.

It wasn’t until I started talking to other autism parents that I realized how common our experience was. It seemed like almost every family had a story about a child who barely slept, woke over and over, or was ready to start the day before the sun came up.

Once I started learning about the biomedical approach, I noticed something interesting. Instead of asking how to get a child to sleep, many practitioners start asking why they’re awake. That’s a very different conversation.

One child may not be making enough melatonin at the right time. Another may have an iron deficiency that’s affecting sleep quality. Others may have nervous systems that seem to stay on high alert long after their bodies are exhausted. Some practitioners also look at inflammation, sensory differences, allergies, and other factors that could be making it harder for the body to settle into a deep, restorative sleep.

Every practitioner has their own approach, and the research is still catching up in many of these areas. But I appreciate the way biomedical practitioners think about sleep. They don’t usually stop at, “Your child isn’t sleeping,” and give you medicine. They keep asking questions.

That mindset ended up changing our family’s story.

A few months later, we started working with a chiropractor whose approach focused on supporting Zion’s nervous system and vagus nerve. Before that, he had spent years waking for hours every night. Today, he sleeps through the night.

I can’t tell you with 100% certainty that it made all the difference. We’ve been supporting Zion’s health in many ways. But what I do know is that our work supporting his nervous system seems to line up with most of his major milestone recoveries, and poor sleep is no longer something my family has to contend with.

If your child isn’t sleeping well, write it down. Pay attention to it. Talk about it. Ask questions. Keep looking for answers.

For years, I assumed poor sleep was just something we had to live with. I don’t believe that anymore. Maybe your child needs a better bedtime routine. Maybe there’s something else going on that’s worth investigating. You won’t know until you start asking questions.

Why the Gut Is at the Centre of the Biomedical Approach

If there’s one thing you’ll hear over and over again in the biomedical world, it’s this:

The gut and the brain are deeply connected.

This isn’t a new idea. Scientists have been studying the gut-brain axis for years. We now know that the digestive system communicates constantly with the brain through the nervous system, hormones, the immune system, and the trillions of microbes that live in our intestines.

The gut is involved in far more than digestion.

It helps regulate the immune system, absorbs the nutrients the brain depends on, produces many neurotransmitters and their building blocks, and plays an important role in keeping unwanted substances from passing into the bloodstream.

Biomedical practitioners believe that when these systems aren’t functioning well, the effects can reach far beyond the digestive tract.

That’s why gut health sits at the centre of the biomedical approach.

Many practitioners believe that intestinal permeability, often called “leaky gut,” inflammation, microbial imbalances, chronic constipation, food sensitivities, and poor nutrient absorption may all contribute to how some autistic children feel and function. From this perspective, improving gut health isn’t just about helping a child poop more regularly.

It’s about supporting the brain through the body.

That’s a very different way of thinking about autism.

Instead of asking only, “How do we reduce this behaviour?” biomedical practitioners often ask, “What could be happening inside the body that’s contributing to it?”

That doesn’t mean every autistic child has gut problems, and it doesn’t mean gut health explains autism on its own.

But it does explain why biomedical practitioners often begin there.

Their goal isn’t simply to improve digestion.

It’s to create a healthier internal environment that they believe may also support the nervous system, immune system, behaviour, sleep, learning, and overall development.

Why Biomedical Practitioners Care About Inflammation

One of the topics that comes up over and over again in the biomedical world is inflammation.

Not the kind of inflammation you can see after twisting your ankle or scraping your knee. Biomedical practitioners are talking about inflammation happening inside the body, and many believe it can play a much bigger role in a child’s health than most of us realize.

One of the core ideas behind the biomedical approach is that inflammation doesn’t just happen for no reason. If the immune system seems to be constantly activated, the question isn’t simply how to reduce the inflammation. The more important question is what’s causing it in the first place.

That’s where biomedical practitioners often think differently.

Rather than starting with the behaviour, they start by asking what might be keeping the immune system under stress. Is it poor gut health? Chronic constipation? Food sensitivities? Nutrient deficiencies? Environmental toxins? Chronic infections? Something else entirely?

Research has found that at least some autistic individuals have differences in immune function and inflammatory markers. Biomedical practitioners believe those findings may help explain why some children respond so well when underlying health issues are identified and addressed, although researchers are still working to understand exactly how these pieces fit together.

That’s also why two autistic children can have completely different biomedical treatment plans.

One child may have significant gastrointestinal issues. Another may struggle with allergies and eczema. Another may have multiple nutrient deficiencies or signs of mitochondrial dysfunction. They all share the same autism diagnosis, but from a biomedical perspective, the factors contributing to their symptoms may not be the same.

This is one of the biggest mindset shifts in the biomedical approach.

Instead of asking, “How do we manage this symptom?” practitioners are constantly asking, “Why is this happening?”

That question doesn’t always have a simple answer. But it’s one of the reasons biomedical practitioners spend so much time looking beyond the diagnosis itself and trying to understand what’s happening inside each individual child.

Reduce What You Already Know Isn’t Helping

You don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on supplements to lower your child’s overall inflammatory load.

If your child eats a lot of ultra-processed foods, artificial food dyes, or sugary drinks, that’s somewhere you can start.

If they’re chronically constipated, make gut health a priority by cleaning up the diet and adding in fermented foods.

Biomedical practitioners often focus on removing stressors before adding treatments. Sometimes the biggest improvements come from addressing the basics first.

Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Diet for Autism: Why So Many Biomedical Practitioners Start Here

If there’s one place many biomedical practitioners recommend starting, it’s food.

More specifically, gluten and dairy.

That’s because many practitioners believe these two proteins may contribute to inflammation, digestive issues, and other symptoms that affect how some autistic children feel and function. Rather than viewing food simply as nutrition, the biomedical approach looks at how it may influence the gut, the immune system, the nervous system, and ultimately, the brain.

One of the biggest reasons dairy receives so much attention is because of a protein called casein.

When most people digest casein, it’s broken down into smaller pieces called peptides and processed without any issues. Some biomedical practitioners believe that, in certain children, this process doesn’t happen as efficiently. One theory suggests that some of these peptides, sometimes called casomorphins, may pass through a more permeable intestinal lining and enter the bloodstream. Because these peptides can interact with opioid receptors in the brain, some practitioners believe they may influence attention, behaviour, sensory processing, communication, or sleep in susceptible children.

This theory is still being studied, but it helps explain why dairy-free diets have become such a common starting point within the biomedical autism community.

From that perspective, practitioners aren’t simply asking whether a child drinks milk. They’re looking at the bigger picture.

• Does your child crave dairy and ask for it constantly?
• Would they happily drink milk instead of eating a meal?
• Do they become extremely distressed when dairy is removed?
• Do they seem less sensitive to pain or temperature than you would expect?

These are some of the patterns biomedical practitioners may consider when deciding whether a dairy-free trial is worth exploring.

Gluten is often removed at the same time.

Many biomedical practitioners believe gluten and dairy can work together to contribute to gut dysfunction in susceptible children, which is why you’ll often hear the term GFCF diet, short for gluten-free, casein-free, or GFDF diet, which stands for gluten-free, dairy-free.

One thing I found interesting while reading the research is that most studies don’t remove dairy by itself. Instead, they remove both gluten and dairy together. That means the strongest research we have today isn’t on eliminating one food or the other. It’s on trying the combined approach.

Several clinical studies have reported improvements in communication, social interaction, attention, and repetitive behaviours after children followed a gluten-free, casein-free diet. Two of the best-known are the ScanBrit trial and a 2022 study by El-Rashidy and colleagues, both of which reported meaningful improvements in at least some children. At the same time, not every study has found the same results, and researchers still can’t predict which children are most likely to benefit.

That uncertainty doesn’t discourage me. To me, it reinforces one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned throughout this journey: observe your own child.

If you decide to explore a gluten-free, dairy-free diet, my biggest advice is not to overcomplicate it.

You don’t need to buy every gluten-free product on the shelf or fill your pantry with expensive specialty foods. In fact, many of those products are highly processed and aren’t necessarily healthier than the foods they’re replacing.

Instead, start by replacing the foods your child already enjoys.

If they love milk, try an unsweetened alternative like almond, coconut, oat, or pea milk and see which one they’ll accept. We eventually landed on homemade almond milk, and Zion still enjoys it before bed each night.

If yogurt is a favourite, there are some excellent coconut-based and almond-based yogurts available now that simply didn’t exist a few years ago.

Smoothies are another easy place to start. Blend frozen fruit with a dairy-free milk, dairy-free yogurt, avocado, chia seeds, hemp hearts, or nut butter to make something filling, nutritious, and easy to customize.

As you make changes, don’t just think about what you’re removing. Think about what you’re replacing it with.

If your child drinks a lot of cow’s milk, remember that dairy is also an important source of calcium, vitamin D, protein, and fat. Those nutrients still matter, especially for children who already have selective eating habits. Replacing dairy thoughtfully is very different from simply taking it away.

I also encourage families to make changes gradually whenever possible.

When we removed dairy from Zion’s diet, we did it overnight because we thought that was the right thing to do. Looking back, I wouldn’t do it that way again. The transition was incredibly hard on him, and it made it almost impossible for us to separate his reaction to the change itself from any potential benefits of removing dairy.

Now, whenever we introduce or remove something, we do it slowly. It’s easier on Zion, and it’s much easier for us to observe what’s actually changing.

Like so much of the biomedical approach, this isn’t about chasing a miracle.

It’s about running a thoughtful experiment.

If your child sleeps better, communicates more, has fewer digestive issues, or simply seems happier in their own body, that’s valuable information.

If you don’t notice meaningful changes, you’ve learned something important too.

Either way, you’re getting to know your child better, and that’s really what the biomedical approach is all about.

Looking for Nutritional Gaps

Many autistic children have highly selective diets. Some eat only a small rotation of “safe foods.” Others avoid entire food groups because of sensory sensitivities, oral motor challenges, digestive discomfort, or simply because those foods feel predictable and familiar.

A child can eat enough calories to grow and still have a diet that’s missing important nutrients. That’s one of the reasons biomedical practitioners spend so much time asking detailed questions about what a child eats. They’re not just interested in how much a child is eating. They’re interested in whether that child is getting the building blocks their body needs to grow, repair, and function well.

Rather than assuming every autistic child needs the same supplements, many biomedical practitioners start with a much simpler question: Is this child likely getting enough of the nutrients they need from food?

Sometimes the answer is yes.

Sometimes it’s not.

The challenge is that most parents aren’t trained to look at a week’s worth of meals and recognize potential nutritional gaps. If your child eats chicken nuggets every day, is that enough iron? What if they refuse vegetables? What vitamins might they be missing? If they drink large amounts of milk, could that be crowding out other important foods?

Those aren’t easy questions to answer just by looking at a plate.

Eventually, working with a nutritionist or dietician is a great step if you can. This will give you meaningful information about how to support your child’s nutrient needs. They’ll also help you create customized meal plans and give you plenty of insight and help implementing the changes.

But in the meantime, one simple exercise you can do at home is to keep a food diary for one or two weeks. Write down everything your child eats and drinks, including snacks, drinks, and the little bites they grab throughout the day. Don’t change anything. The goal is to get an honest picture of what they’re already eating.

Once you’ve done that, try copying the food diary into ChatGPT along with the prompt:

Here’s my child’s food diary from the past two weeks. Please analyze it like a pediatric nutrition coach. Don’t diagnose deficiencies or make medical claims. Base your suggestions only on the foods in the diary and established nutrition guidance.

• Which nutrients appear to be well covered.
• Which nutrients may be lacking based on the foods they’re eating.
• Which foods are overrepresented.
• Which whole foods I could realistically add or substitute to improve the diet while respecting that many autistic children have sensory challenges and selective eating.
• If food alone may not realistically provide enough of certain nutrients, explain which supplements are commonly used to fill those gaps, why they’re used, and food sources that provide the same nutrients.

Please explain your reasoning for each recommendation.

ChatGPT can’t tell you whether your child is deficient, and it should never replace blood work or professional advice. What it can do is help you notice patterns that might otherwise be easy to miss.

Maybe almost all of your child’s protein comes from dairy, or they haven’t eaten an iron-rich food in several days. Maybe they’re eating very few foods that naturally contain zinc, magnesium, or vitamin C.

Those observations become useful information, and information helps you ask better questions, whether that’s with your family doctor, a dietitian, or a biomedical practitioner.

Reducing Everyday Chemical Exposure

One idea that comes up frequently in biomedical autism is reducing a child’s overall exposure to unnecessary chemicals. This doesn’t mean living in a bubble or believing that every product in your home is harmful. It’s simply the recognition that we’re exposed to thousands of synthetic chemicals every day through the products we use, the food we eat, the air we breathe, and the water we drink.

Biomedical practitioners often ask whether reducing some of those exposures could make it easier for the body to do what it’s already trying to do.

For many families, this becomes less about chasing “perfect” and more about making reasonable choices where they can. If you’re already buying laundry detergent, choosing a fragrance-free version is an easy switch. When it’s time to replace old plastic food containers, you might decide to buy glass instead. You don’t have to renovate your house or spend thousands of dollars replacing everything you own. In fact, most biomedical practitioners would probably tell you that’s unnecessary.

The goal is simply to reduce unnecessary exposures where it makes sense.

Some families also choose to pay closer attention to food. Washing fruits and vegetables thoroughly, reducing ultra-processed foods, and limiting artificial colours and flavours are common starting points because they’re changes that can benefit the whole family, regardless of whether they influence autism symptoms.

Like many parts of the biomedical approach, this isn’t an area with simple answers. We don’t have studies showing that changing your laundry detergent will improve communication or that switching to glass containers will reduce meltdowns. Instead, it’s part of a broader philosophy of removing potential stressors from the body whenever it’s practical to do so.

Where You Can Start Reducing Toxins

Walk through your home with fresh eyes. You don’t need to replace everything. Instead, make a short list of products you’ll naturally buy again over the next few months. Laundry detergent. Dish soap. Shampoo. Food storage containers. As those items run out or wear out, consider replacing them with simpler, lower-fragrance, or lower-chemical alternatives.

We set aside a monthly budget to replace items, looked for sales, new (in-package) products on Marketplace, and even asked our families for some items as Christmas gifts.

It’s a gradual process, not a weekend project.

Looking Beyond the Surface: Digging for Root Causes

This is really the heart of the biomedical approach.

Up until now, we’ve talked about changes almost any family can make. Improving sleep, supporting gut health, looking for nutritional gaps, experimenting with a gluten-free, dairy-free diet, and reducing unnecessary chemical exposures are all relatively inexpensive places to start.

Eventually, though, many families reach a point where they ask a different question.

“We’ve made these changes. What’s next?”

This is where biomedical practitioners often begin looking beneath the surface.

Instead of focusing only on an autism diagnosis, they ask whether there are other underlying issues that might be affecting how a child’s body functions. The goal is to identify health issues that may be treatable in their own right.

For one child, that might be chronic constipation that has quietly become their normal. For another, it could be iron deficiency, low vitamin D, or poor nutrient absorption. Another child may have ongoing allergies, eczema, recurrent infections, disrupted sleep, or gastrointestinal symptoms that deserve further investigation.

The biomedical philosophy is that every child is different. Rather than assuming the same treatment will work for everyone, practitioners try to understand what might be unique about that child’s biology before deciding what to do next.

That often means asking a lot of questions.

• How is your child sleeping?
• What do their bowel movements look like?
• How often are they sick?
• Do they have eczema?
• Do they crave certain foods?
• Do they seem to regress after illness?
• What are their biggest day-to-day struggles?

Those questions help build a picture of the child as a whole, not just a list of autism symptoms.

As you learn more about biomedical autism, you’ll also hear people talk about specialized testing. This might include nutritional testing, organic acid testing, stool testing, genetics, food sensitivity testing, or heavy metal testing.

Some practitioners use these tests regularly. Others use them more selectively. Some have stronger scientific evidence than others, and some remain controversial within the medical community. You don’t need to do all of them. My family hasn’t, at least not yet.

The most valuable information often comes from the basics: understanding your child’s history, paying attention to patterns, and addressing the obvious issues first. Specialized testing should answer a specific question, not simply create a long list of numbers that nobody knows what to do with.

What’s Next?

You’ve probably noticed that the biomedical approach isn’t about finding one magic supplement or one miracle treatment. It’s about asking good questions, making thoughtful changes, and paying attention to how your child’s body responds.

If you’re just getting started, here’s where I’d focus next.

Keep a Symptom Journal

One of the most valuable tools you have is your own observations. Track sleep, bowel movements, behaviour, diet, illnesses, medications, and any changes you make. Over time, patterns often become much easier to recognize.

Don’t Ignore Constipation

Many autistic children struggle with constipation, and it isn’t always obvious. Even children who have daily bowel movements can still be constipated. Because digestive health affects so many other systems in the body, it’s a good idea to discuss any ongoing concerns with your doctor, naturopath, or nutritionist.

Be Thoughtful About Supplements

Supplements can be helpful, but more isn’t always better. Before adding another bottle to your cupboard, ask yourself what problem you’re trying to solve and whether you’ve addressed the basics first.

If You Choose a Biomedical Practitioner

Not every practitioner approaches biomedical autism the same way. Look for someone who listens carefully, explains their recommendations, and works with you to build a step-by-step plan, rather than trying to fix everything at once. If you have a local Facebook group for parents of autistic children, you can ask for recommendations.

Remember That Every Child Is Different

One child may thrive after changing their diet. Another may respond to improving sleep, treating constipation, or correcting a nutrient deficiency. Whatever you try, remember that the goal isn’t to follow someone else’s protocol, it’s to understand your own child’s unique needs and respond thoughtfully.

Final Thoughts

The biomedical approach isn’t about chasing perfection; it’s about becoming curious. Ask questions. Observe carefully. Make one change at a time. Celebrate the small wins, learn from the things that don’t work, and remember that no one knows your child better than you do.

How To Make Easy Homemade Almond Milk

Want to learn how to make my 5-minute, chemical-free almond milk? You’ll need:

• 6 cups of filtered water
• 1/2 cup almond butter (I buy Costco’s Kirkland jars – definitely the best deal!)
• 5-6 dates (I also buy a bag at Costco)
• splash of organic vanilla

Place everything in a high-powered blender and blend for 1-2 minutes, or until the mixture looks cohesive. Some granules from the almond butter will always remain. You can strain the milk if you need to, but my Vitamix does a pretty good job, and I don’t strain mine. Store covered in the fridge for up to a week.

Your almond milk might separate – that’s ok, just give it a good stir or shake before serving.

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