Another day, another person claiming they've 'cured' autism.

In the news today, the mother of an autistic child has claimed to have cured her son’s autism through a special program that includes a strict clean-eating diet.

Susan Levin said she tried all kinds of therapies to help her son, Ben, who was diagnosed with autism at age 4. She says Ben – now 12 – improved almost overnight after trying the Body Ecology Diet, a yeast-free and pro-grain regime, the New York Post reports.

Related: “Oh, so it’s my COOKING that has caused my son’s autism?”

And now Susan is a family wellness coach working exclusively with families with autistic children and has written a book about her son’s apparent recovery, called Unlocked: A Family Emerging From the Shadows of Autism.

Alarm bells, anyone?

Autism expert Associate Professor Kylie Gray told Mamamia there is no cure for autism – and she says that to say otherwise is sending a dangerous message to vulnerable parents of autistic children:

“There is no evidence to say that dietary intervention can cure autism,” Prof Gray, Director of Monash University’s Centre for Developmental Psychiatry & Psychology, said.

“Anyone who is gluten intolerant or does have any kind of allergy, if you take that allergen or intolerance out of their diet, they’re going to feel better. And in the case of children, that’s going to improve their behaviour. That’s true of any child.”

Paleo diet advocate Pete Evans was widely criticised after linking the modern Australian diet to a rise in autism in a Facebook post late last year.

Prof Gray said both these stories were disappointing and potentially damaging because families affected by the developmental disorder were often “desperate to try anything”.

“Many families have said to me, ‘Even if we know and understand that this is unproven and there is no scientific evidence for it, we sometimes still wonder what if it is right and we just haven’t found that link yet’. And so they’ll try these things, just in case. And that’s an awful burden to put on to families.”

She said strict diets were labour-intensive and expensive, could make parents who are not able to provide them feel guilty. They could even have a negative nutritional impact on children.

“These are very vulnerable families and when these kinds of stories get a lot of traction in popular media, it’s hard for families,” Prof Gray said.

“We don’t have a cure… there is no silver bullet.”

Ms Levin told the New York Post that she initially panicked at her son’s diagnosis of autism.

“I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God. What are we going to do?’” she said. “Everyone knew autism was a lifelong disorder and couldn’t be cured.”

Except, she claims, she was able to cure it.

Ms Levin says she implemented the Son-Rise Program – a home-based educational and behavioural program created by parents who claim to have cured their own son of his autism – but Ben’s diet was the key.

Related: The 5 reasons nutritionists and scientists hate Pete Evans.

She tried eliminating various foods from Ben’s diets, including anything with gluten, casein (proteins found in milk) and soy.

But it was when she tried a fad diet high in grain-like seeds such as quinoa, millet and buckwheat, that she says to have noticed a difference almost overnight.

She said Ben calmed down and began making eye contact.

According to Ms Levin, he is now more compassionate and studying for his bah mitzvah — a transformation she says was nothing short of a miracle.

“It doesn’t matter what people say,” Ms Levin says. “I have my kid back.”

New York Families for Autistic Child president Andrew Baumann told the newspaper that while diet may have a positive effect, it was not a cure.

“You can’t cure something [when] you don’t know what the cause is,” Mr Baumann said.

“Over the years I’ve been privy to a million parents, a million cures. Parents are willing to try just about anything.”

And that’s the fear – that stories like this will send concerned parents off on quests for ‘cures’ when experts agree that this will only lead to disappointment and may even be damaging.

For more on autism, try these articles:

“I’m autistic, and believe me, it’s a lot better than measles.”

The extraordinary challenge and joy of raising a child with autism.

“I finally know what caused my son’s autism”.

The incredibly scary thing Australian parents are doing to “cure” their kids of autism.