The scary part is that once I realized this I was feeling all enlightened. Then I realized it again and then I felt even more enlightened. And then I stopped and asked myself - is my current realization the final one? How deep is the rabbit hole? This is some seriously scary stuff.
A carefully designed study,
http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html
rather than anecdotes, doesn't support a conclusion that gluten-free diets are helpful for autism. Nonetheless, the study reports,
http://www.asatonline.org/suggreading/reviews/elder.htm
"even after being informed of these disappointing results, some parents opted to keep their child on the GfCf diet."
Patient human interaction with autistic children does seem to be helpful, and my cheers to anyone who is providing that.