Re: Re: When does the clock start ticking?

[Guest guest]

At 01:52 pm 7/13/01 +0000, you wrote:

> is 4 (turning 5 next month). He is doing pretty well on the

>diet, but is far from self-policing. You're lucky that is so

>cooperative.

He used to cheat a lot. I think at this point he is happy himself with the

progress he's made and more concerned than anyone. I can't know yet whether

he's actually aware of the effects of gluten and casein on him or just

listening to what we're telling him. In time I think your son may be the

same way. I'm finding that six months on the diet is a world of difference

from a couple of months.

>The diet is getting easier to follow, but I'm worried that we are

>missing something. NEVER had problems with loose stools until

>we started the diet. He's also started to have problems with sleep,

>language seems to be more difficult for him and his stims have

>increased. In the last month he's started to have a BM at least

>every day, if not 2-3 times a day and they are very loose (to say the

>least). Before starting the diet he only went every 3-4 days, but

>was not constipated.

I find that hard to believe, that a little kid has about 2 bm's/week yet

isn't constipated; but that's just a personal impression. About two weeks

ago I noticed acting intoxicated. That's the best word I can find for

it... he seemed obviously 'off' but not like we'd seen in times of known

diet infringements. Suddenly he's gotten much better. His ABA pre-school

wrote us some long notes about all the progress they've noticed. Other

parents wrote that bad periods precede big gains. Maybe that's what's

coming for your son; I hope so.

Personally I'm finding the hardest thing of all is seeing on the one hand

how much progress my son's made, and on the other just how far he has to

go. He'll be kindergarten age in a year and of course I'd love to see him

ready for a regular class rather than a special ed class.

I am also convinced that he knows he's behind. Which is very important

because it motivates him. With the proper support.... well everyone on this

list can fill in that blank at least as well as I can.

>Did you notice any negative changes when you started the diet?

I have to fess up that our only kind of diary is his ABA pre-school home

book. But it's all hand-written and hard to go through since my

handwritting is awful. had some intestinal troubles a year or so ago

but never anything too severe. And never had sleeping problems. We've been

blessed in many ways.

My wife is perhaps thankfully far more questioning about the diet than me,

and what finally made her agree about it was seeing 's behavior after

cheating. This was particularly true during winter and spring breaks. He

finally stopped peeing on the floor, now goes to the toilet himself and

proudly tells us this in the morning. The changes are so many, and ongoing,

and with two other kids, a business I'm working on during hard times (I'm a

web programmer... talk about a depressed industry right now) etc..

On a side note, if you bake we just got sorghum flour from Twin Valley

Mills and from the cupcakes and blueberry cobbler my wife, younger daughter

and son made yesterday I'd agree that it is the best substitute for wheat

flour by far we've seen. My wife was impressed that the cupcakes rose well.

I love crumbs, like in crumb cake? If I didn't know, I would've thought the

cobbler was made with wheat flour.

Funny thing; had half a cupcake last night and then acted like he was

high - for several minutes. I was a psych major and even worked in a hunger

research lab back then. And I'm wondering if this was a learned behavior,

i.e. if he was so fooled by the taste of the cupcakes that he thought it

contained gluten (WHICH I'M SURE IT DOESN'T) and acted as though he'd just

eaten some gluten out of force of habit.

Sorry to go on like this. Really, stick with the diet is what I'd do and

just keep your eyes open. Talk to your son about it and get him as involved

as possible. Let your family and neighbors know too. Create a social,

supportive environment for your son. I think our kids develop alot of

maturity for their age because of the problems they've got.

Marty