Folinic acid is a bioactive form of folic acid. Some of the newer more higher quality prenatal vitamins have folinic acid or methyl folate which are bioactive forms of folate rather than folic acid (certain population cannot fully use folic acid). There are three reasons why more bioactive forms of folate such as folinic acid are used by some doctors in ASD:

1) Chronic folate deficiency and folate receptor antibodies - there are studies published on this but CFD test is invasive. If there is such a deficiency, it is best to catch this when very young as that warrants very high doses of folinic acid supplementation. CFD can present with autistic symptoms. We did not test for this as too invasive.

2) MTHFR C677T - With this mutation, methyl folate is recommended instead of folic acid. We did do this test and use methyl folate with positive results. My wife should have been taking this form rather than synthetic folic acid during pregnancy but we didn't know.

3) To improve methylation - There is controlled study published by Jill James on this with MB12 combined with folinic acid to significantly improve methylation markers in ASD to almost normal/control values. Impaired methylation and oxidative stress is a known issue in ASD shown in multiple studies.

With (2) and (3) indicated, just need very low dose that one can find with multi-vitamins but use bioactive form of folate(folinic acid or methyl folate) and avoid synthetic folic acid (which may be hard given lots of foods are fortified with the synthetic version). For (1), obviously need to consult specialist, do testing and if appropriate, get prescription.

same here, we recently had his vision checked with a dr who specializes in autistic children and he mentioned it. It was the 1st we heard of it.

It looks as if it is, but i saw some of the results coming out and it looks promising. I also saw that there are some drs using it now, i guess as an off-label use and it seems like it is getting some results as well. Just don't know if i want to put my son through the testing