First day jitters - introduction and questions!

[Guest guest]

Hi All! I'm Amy here along with my 3.5yr old ASD son, Mason. After

2 weeks of research (and hearing so many good things about SCD at

the recent DAN! conference) we are beginning today. Mason is a high

functioning autistic with toxic smelling mushy poops (1-6 times a

day depending). He is under the care of DAN! physician Dr.

Megson - although today we have stopped all supplements because the

majority we have been taking are illegal on SCD. We'll work on

adding legal supplements back in once we are past the intro.(at

least that is what I believe is a good plan?). Mason has been GFCF

for 4 months prior to today w/out much change. Definitely no

changes in BM's, and none of the " withdrawal " behaviors that you

hear so much about as kids wean off of gluten and casein.

As we begin I have a few questions. Mason is a very picky eater

with a lot of oral sensitivity and sensory problems - and on the ASD

intro diet I see only a few items he will readily accept - one of

those is eggs (scrambled only), and maybe some roasted chicken (it

will depend on his mood). How many eggs is too many eggs (he had 3

scrambled for breakfast)? I see that these can potentially be a

problem if diarrhea is severe (which I'm not sure if 1-6 times a day

is considered severe - probably not.) I tried to give him the

chicken soup prior to today to work on trying to get him to eat a

few bites - no go. I suspect we will do the intro diet through the

weekend and then move on to stage 1? Again, I'm not sure and just

trying to get through the day. I also did not have any luck

finding Welch's Grape Juice (white or purple) that wasn't made from

concentrate - so we are sticking with water for today? So the

homemade Jello is out, correct? I'm not sure he would eat that

anyway. I'm hoping to just stand firm and not give in and keep

offering him the intro list foods...he's a big guy (43lbs) so I know

if we lose a bit of weight it will be ok.

Am I on the right path?

Thanks,

Amy w/Mason - SCD 3 hours, 22 minutes.

[Guest guest]

Hi Amy!

Our family is only a few months into this too (4 months), and our DAN is Dr.

Megson as well.

Did Dr. Megson say it was OK to quit all of your supplements while you introduce

SCD? If she did, then I might try that approach because we are still struggling

here getting appropriate bowels.

To answer some questions . . . the chicken is supposed to be boiled at first.

It is MUCH easier to digest this way. Can you put off roasted chicken for 2 or

3 days? I was advised to do this when I started.

Once Mason is making formed stools he will be ready to move on to stage 1

(keeping in mind that the maximum amount of time on intro is 1 week, minimum is

2 days, most people go somewhere between 3-5 days).

I am going to advise against Welch's Grape Juice. There have been some posts

recently about many of us having trouble with this juice (even though it is

legal). R.W. Knudsen has a line of " Just . . . . " juices that are legal

(cranberry, black cherry, blueberry, grape, etc.). Read the back of those as

well, though, because some of them are from concentrate. The ones that aren't

(like black cherry . . . not tart cherry) are OK to use.

You sound like you are on the right path.

I don't want to scare you by saying we have been doing this 4 months and are

still having problems. My kids have shown incredible cognitive gains while

doing this. And my ADD daughter and at risk for ADD son showed impressive

behavioral improvements simply from SCD and their supplements.

But our continuing digestive problems stem from chelation (my opinion). And,

yet, I won't consider not chelating because I have seen amazing cognitive and

verbal gains with my infant due to chelation [ I know it has to do with

chelation because she would always make her " achievments " on chelating days and

not " perform " on non-chelating days]. Also, she is steadily dumping lead and

mercury as well as her other many metals, so we are pushing through with the

hopes of being done within 6 months.

My infant is chelating with td-dmsa. My other two are pulling metals with

PCA-RX spray. And I only recently got their supplements completely legal

(except that blasted Brainchild stuff that we need while we chelate). Anyway,

pulling metals stirs up their yeast and all, plus we do still have the

Brainchild stuff which only has the status of " allowed " not " legal " that could

be hampering our digestive progress. I thought I would share this so you get a

bigger picture of us and not be discouraged for yourself.

SCD is really a big piece to this puzzle for many of us. You are on the right

track.

Jeni Lynn (gastrointestinal problems)

mom to Margeaux, 6 yr. (heavy metal toxicity, ADD, gastrointestinal problems)

, 3 yr. (heavy metal toxicity, risk for ADD, gastrointestinal problems)

Elle, 19 mo. (heavy metal toxicity, leaky gut, eczema, was at risk for autism .

.. . but I think we are out of the woods with that one)

SCD 4 months

[Guest guest]

Hello Amy,

Welcome to pecanbread group and I'm sure you'll find that your son

will eat healthier than he ever has before, now being on SCD. My

son was GFCF and rotation and lots of foods he didn't like as he was

kind of picky too. Every item I've made on this diet, my son has

just loved. Yes, we are still working on getting more veggies in

him, but the fruits he never used to eat either. He lived on bread,

cheese, pasta and junk foods.

I'm not sure the limit on eggs allowed, but you are on the right

path. Keep offering intro foods and see just what he will eat for

you. If he won't eat the baked chicken, you could play around with

making a puree of chicken in your blender and mix some into his

eggs, even possibly a small amount of puree'd carrots into the

eggs? I don't know if he'll see the scrambled eggs change color

with the carrots and not want to eat.

Do you think he'd eat some cooked carrots for you? What about some

meatballs made from hamburger, 1 beaten egg, roll into tiny

meatballs and bake in oven for about 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees?

My son still likes this with mock spagetti sauce over it, made from

tomato juice cooked down with spices added.

You can hide some puree'd carrots in the meatballs if you wish.

I kind of look at the egg intake like this..Look at what your child

consumes in an entire week, not just that he'll eat lots of eggs in

a few days consecutive. You are following the intro diet, as close

as you can as it is required, and if scrambled eggs is all he'll eat

for you, then I'd suggest trying to hide things in his eggs or

meatballs and see what you can get him to eat. Long term, you

don't expect him to consume 6 - 10 eggs per day. Just remember,

he's not consuming sugars, artificial flavors, colors, starches and

grains, and things you can't even pronounce. Eggs are healthy!

We've been on the Welch's grape juice from the start. Even if your

son won't eat the grape juice jello, you can give him watered down

juice to get more carbs into him for the future. Just buy the plain

welch's grape juice from concord grapes. Do not buy any " juice

blends " that has the welch's name on it. I think all of us SCD'ers

have used the juice successfully for a very long time. My son did

not like the white grape juice from Welch's....kind of tasted like

wine to me. I can see why he didn't care for it.

I think you'll see positive changes in the mushy poos very soon, and

you'll be glad you are going thru the work to do SCD.

Best wishes...intro should be followed for 2 - 5 days. Use the poos

as a guideline as to when you move on to stage 1 foods. And go very

slow when introducing a new food. Applesauce would cause my son to

have " D " for quite some time, and we had to rely on pear sauce.

Eventually, he was able to handle applesauce, and now eats an apple

like anyone else, peeling and all. By slow, I mean maybe try out 1

tablespoon of homemade applesauce, and don't go on to 2 Tblsp of

sauce until you see next BM and analyze from that.

Best wishes!

(temporary moderator helper)

mom to Josh, 12, Aspergers, leaky gut, SCD 19 months