Sensory input is a nightmare for autistics. There are five senses – hearing, smell, touch, sight and taste. In autism, these senses are heightened, or raised, which makes things more difficult in life.
How we found out about the role of Vitamin K and autistic sensory issues
We came across information about the role of vitamin K in people with autism who have sensory issues. It would seem that low vitamin K levels heighten sensory issues. We didn’t know about this, so we thought we would look into it, and run a little case study on myself to see if more vitamin K in my diet would have any impact on my sensory issues.
Hearing/sound is the sensory issue that is the most difficult for me in my daily life. Secondly, hypersensitivity in the mouth is the next sensory issue that I have great difficulty with. To investigate how much vitamin K I have in my diet, I Googled to find which foods contained vitamin K and discovered I ate none of them. Ever! 😬
How I made myself eat better
So for the next 60 days, I disciplined myself to eat 3 main meals and 2 snacks a day, every day for 60 days, that was a huge challenge for me, because I have never done that before in my life. Feeding has been a huge difficulty for me since birth, I have always preferred not to eat and just prefer to drink chocolate milk and still do, and my Mum has always put liquid vitamins into that milk, and has had to work very hard to find foods that I will eat and then hide pureed nutrition into it. 🥤
For 26 years this was a daily difficulty. The consequences of which my weight has always been on the low side. Surprisingly, my doctor found through blood tests, that my nutritional levels were better than she expected. 😮
Why it was worth eating adult-sized portions of food
I also committed to eating appropriate adult-sized portions rather than my usual toddler-sized portions. This was hugely challenging to me, and caused lots of hand flapping while eating my meals. I also found that I was using facial muscles that I possibly hadn’t used before, or were very weak, for example, chewing meat took forever (2 hours!), and my face hurt.
I am glad I persevered, and have now strengthened my muscles, which allows me to chew meat more easily and much quicker.
Effects that my new diet had on me
After a few days of the new diet with as much vitamin K foods as we could put into it, I started to feel physically, mentally and emotionally better. My brain fog disappeared, my sleeping pattern normalised (not so nocturnal, and toileting became regular).
My ability to focus improved, and we were pleasantly surprised I could cope through my day without the need to wear ear plugs, which I would insert into my ears immediately upon awakening each day and not remove until sleep time. I have done that for years.
I was not expecting the vitamin K to work, but it appears that it is working for me. I’m continuing to include high levels of vitamin K in my diet each day and have kept it up, and the adult-sized portions with consistent meal eating. It has been several months now, and I no longer wear ear plugs with all the other benefits remaining. It was the hardest thing I had ever done. 😁
I’m glad I did it though, and it also taught me that I can do hard things no matter what. 😊
Positive findings about Vitamin K and why I couldn’t properly eat food
A big discovery that I made in this case study that my aversion to eating was not the flavour of food or taste, but texture. The texture I cannot tolerate is pureed.
We think as babies always start with pureed food, this is why I never learned to eat properly as I couldn’t cope with the texture. Had this been realised, feeding solids could have been delayed until I had teeth and not been given pureed foods.
It seems that when you eat sufficient/high amounts of vitamin K, something else in the brain that causes these senses to go sky high is lessened to near normal found in those without autism, which is quite interesting, and needs to be examined further.
Vitamin K therefore must play something important that autistic brains either lack or have too much of, and vitamin K tries to reset this anomaly which in turn, lowers the abnormally high senses, in my opinion. Probably, better nutrition and more calories each day could also contribute to the benefits gained.
I have also gained 8kg and am now at the top of my recommended weight gain of my height and have also started walking each day, as exercise, which I previously did not have any stamina for.
If you have autism, and sensory issues are a problem for you, I recommend you try foods high in vitamin K.
Princess Lilli Lilac
Although Lilli has nothing to do with vitamin K, she does help keep me calm and relaxed. She and I are inseparable, and we love each other dearly. 💜