Monday, November 24, 2008

A New School Year/ GFCF diet

School is in full swing now for Sam and for me. I have a great groups of juniors this year and Sam is very happy to be back at his pre-school program.

We had a TERRIBLE summer. Sam seemed to develop some behavior problems when he first started school - throwing, yelling, jumping on furniture - but when school ended for the summer, he just went crazy. He was constantly wired and trying to take care of him and the newborn baby left me in tears most days. I just couldn't see any hope. Sam was so out of control I couldn't take him to other people's homes. In addition, Sam stopped sleeping properly. There was one night towards the end of the summer when he bounced on his bed and screamed (for fun) pretty much ALL night. His receptive language skills were so low that I couldn't tell him things like "it is time to sleep" or "stay quiet while the baby is sleeping".

I am SO relieved to be back in the swing of a school year. Sam does so much better when he has a structured day.

I also put Sam on the gluten free casein free diet. I resisted for so long because I thought it would be too hard and I wasn't convinced it could really make a difference. Why did I change my mind? I kept meeting people who said they felt it helped. I started noticing gluten free foods at the grocery store. I started slowly by getting him interested in Van's Waffles and substituting rice pasta for his regular stuff. ABout 3 weeks ago, I committed to it completely.

Do I see a difference? I think so. Sam has always had a crusty weepy rash behind his ears. I was comstantly treating it with creams. It has almost completely vanished. Was it a food reaction? Sam's spacial planning and climbing ability reall jumped about a week into the diet. Has the brain fog lifted? He is also sleeping better but that was starting to improve the deeper into the school year

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