I've been having problems with my sinuses for about 2 yrs now. When we started this diet, I read that an overgrowth of yeast can cause sinus congestion. I automatically thought that that was my problem since no doctor could find a cause or make it better. I've been on antibiotics in case it was bacterial but it didn't help at all. So I thought this diet might help my sinuses also. So far it hasn't really done anything. We started taking BioKult last Saturday. Today I woke up with a little irritation in my throat and was really congested. We increased our Biokult dose today and through the course of the day my congestion has gotten worse. I'm wondering if the congestion is getting worse because of die-off or is it just that I'm getting a head cold? I don't really have that feeling that I have to sneeze; I just can't breathe out of my nose and my throat is a little sore that I contribute to post nasal drip.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
More positive changes...
I'm in a bad place right now with this diet. I knew Shawn wouldn't change overnight but I expected to see more changes by now. On some of the SCD lists that I belong to, I see people post about how they have a completely different child just after being on the diet for a few days. Of course their kids were worse off then Shawn but I still wanted faster results. So far, he's more willing to try new things (but usually still doesn't like it), he is eating a few more things than he was before we started the diet, he is not constipated anymore, we found out that milk makes him hyper and that cheese makes him whiny and argumentative, we found out he was allergic to peanuts and he hasn't had allergy problems since then. I have thought about cheating on this diet several times this week. I'm craving pizza right now. I haven't had a ton of cravings since starting the diet except bbq sauce. However, I found a sauce that I can use as a substitute. There is a pizza recipe but I can't eat pizza in front of Shawn; that's just too mean. Anyway, I digress. The things that bother me the most about Shawn and was hoping the diet would fix is his eating problems (sensitivities in the mouth), his language (I say language instead of speech because he still mixes up words, leaves words out, says things out of order, etc.), and the whole attention thing. If you've read my previous posts, Shawn focuses on what ever he's doing and is not aware of the things going on around him. If I tried to talk to him while he was playing with his cars or watching t.v., he wouldn't hear me unless I walked right in front of him or tapped him on the shoulder. Well today, Shawn was playing on his computer in his room while I was getting breakfast ready. I yelled his name and said that breakfast was ready. The shocker is that he actually responded "ok" and then he came out and said he paused his game. Now that may not sound like much to some people but he has never responded on the first call, lol. Don was there when it happened and we both looked at each other in disbelief. So I guess the diet is working but it's taking soooooo long and I'm an impatient person!
Thursday, June 19, 2008
My experiments...
I decided to give Shawn a little bit of cheddar cheese two days ago to see if I still saw a behavior reaction. Don thinks I'm imagining it so I told Shawn that it was a test. If he wanted to continue to be able to eat cheese, he had to be on his best behavior or else I will think it is the cheese making him act that way and he won't be able to have cheese anymore. He only got half a slice. He did pretty good at first although he did seem to get a little more hyper but not enough for me to think he was having a reaction. However, about 2 hrs after eating the cheese, he got really whiny and argumentative. It's the same reaction I've seen before when he eats cheese so I'm not imagining it! I even tried to remind him several times to watch how he was acting because he won't be able to eat cheese anymore but he just couldn't control himself so for now he won't be eating cheese :(
Today was another experiment. I decided to give the homemade goat yogurt another try. This time I was going to start out with a very small amount. I gave him 1/8 teaspoon. I did see a reaction but it wasn't too bad so I may try him again at 1/8 teaspoon tomorrow and see how he does. His reaction to the yogurt today only lasted about 2 hrs and then he was back to normal. I just don't know if he's reacting to the goat milk casein or if it's the probiotics in the yogurt. I'm going to try and drip some tonight and give him 1/8 tsp. of the dripped yogurt tomorrow and see how he reacts. After that, I'll try to freeze some and give him some of that. Freezing kills most of the probiotic so if he still reacts, I'll know its the goat milk. If he doesn't react to the frozen yogurt, I'll know it's the probiotics he's reacting to.
Today was another experiment. I decided to give the homemade goat yogurt another try. This time I was going to start out with a very small amount. I gave him 1/8 teaspoon. I did see a reaction but it wasn't too bad so I may try him again at 1/8 teaspoon tomorrow and see how he does. His reaction to the yogurt today only lasted about 2 hrs and then he was back to normal. I just don't know if he's reacting to the goat milk casein or if it's the probiotics in the yogurt. I'm going to try and drip some tonight and give him 1/8 tsp. of the dripped yogurt tomorrow and see how he reacts. After that, I'll try to freeze some and give him some of that. Freezing kills most of the probiotic so if he still reacts, I'll know its the goat milk. If he doesn't react to the frozen yogurt, I'll know it's the probiotics he's reacting to.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Shawn ate an apple!!!
Prior to this diet, Shawn has asked to try eating an apple and would make some bite marks or sometimes even bite a piece off but that was enough for him. He would never eat the apple. Today he asked if he could have an apple when we were over my aunt's house. She said it was ok if he wasted it so I told him yes. My mouth dropped open as I watched him eat the apple skin and all. He didn't eat the whole thing but he definitely ate at least 1/4 of it. Anything more than 2 bites to me is amazing. So now that is 4 new things he has asked for and eaten since starting the diet - apple cider, orange juice, eggs, and apple.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Dr. Appts.
I already posted this on my other blog, but since it has to do with the diet I thought I would re-post here.
Shawn and Joshua had their annual check ups on May 29th. I had lots to discuss with Dr. Tappan. We talked about Shawn's appointment with the neurologist and Dr. Tappan wants us to see someone else. However, the doctor he recommended is not in our insurance network so I'm going to have to call him and ask if there is someone else he can recommend. We discussed multi vitamins (not all vitamins are SCD legal) and he recommended the vitamins that we already have, yea! I will have to crush them up to give to the kids because they are big horse pills. I'm currently taking 3 a day. Shawn will be taking one a day and Joshua will be taking 1/2 a day.
When I told Dr. Tappan that we started SCD, I was happy to find out that he was familiar with the diet and had no problems with the kids being on it. I can't tell you how much grief I've heard from some of my family members (Don included) about how they don't think the kids are getting all the nutrition they need when they aren't drinking milk or eating bread. So no problems with the diet!
Joshua weighs 23 lbs now and Shawn is 44 lbs. I can't remember their height and I didn't write it down. I was more concerned with their weight.
We checked on Friday to see if the neuro psychologist that Dr. Tappan recommended was in our network and of course she is not. We called her to find out if she accepts United Health Care and she said that she is not in any insurance networks but most of the time the insurance company will reimburse you. So we called our insurance company and after a $300 deductible, they will pay 60%. So needless to say, we are on hold with this for the time being. I called Dr. Tappan Friday afternoon to see if there was someone else that he could recommend but he already left for the day. I will call on Monday to see what he recommends. Don wants to just pay out of pocket but even though I really would like to get Shawn a proper diagnosis, I'm not willing to pay that much money when we don't have it to spend. I do think it's important to get him diagnosed though especially since Charlie Crist signed a bill that would force insurance companies to cover therapies for children with Autism. Even though it won't go into effect for another 2 years, it would be nice to have the diagnosis for when it does go into effect.
Shawn and Joshua had their annual check ups on May 29th. I had lots to discuss with Dr. Tappan. We talked about Shawn's appointment with the neurologist and Dr. Tappan wants us to see someone else. However, the doctor he recommended is not in our insurance network so I'm going to have to call him and ask if there is someone else he can recommend. We discussed multi vitamins (not all vitamins are SCD legal) and he recommended the vitamins that we already have, yea! I will have to crush them up to give to the kids because they are big horse pills. I'm currently taking 3 a day. Shawn will be taking one a day and Joshua will be taking 1/2 a day.
When I told Dr. Tappan that we started SCD, I was happy to find out that he was familiar with the diet and had no problems with the kids being on it. I can't tell you how much grief I've heard from some of my family members (Don included) about how they don't think the kids are getting all the nutrition they need when they aren't drinking milk or eating bread. So no problems with the diet!
Joshua weighs 23 lbs now and Shawn is 44 lbs. I can't remember their height and I didn't write it down. I was more concerned with their weight.
We checked on Friday to see if the neuro psychologist that Dr. Tappan recommended was in our network and of course she is not. We called her to find out if she accepts United Health Care and she said that she is not in any insurance networks but most of the time the insurance company will reimburse you. So we called our insurance company and after a $300 deductible, they will pay 60%. So needless to say, we are on hold with this for the time being. I called Dr. Tappan Friday afternoon to see if there was someone else that he could recommend but he already left for the day. I will call on Monday to see what he recommends. Don wants to just pay out of pocket but even though I really would like to get Shawn a proper diagnosis, I'm not willing to pay that much money when we don't have it to spend. I do think it's important to get him diagnosed though especially since Charlie Crist signed a bill that would force insurance companies to cover therapies for children with Autism. Even though it won't go into effect for another 2 years, it would be nice to have the diagnosis for when it does go into effect.
Frustrated
I'm so frustrated right now. Yesterday, Shawn had his end of the year award ceremony for class. When he came over to me and said hi, he told me he ate some ice. I told him that's ok, ice is just frozen water. Then he told me it was colored ice. I'm assuming it was some sort of snow cone/snow ball (if your from MD) or popsicle or something similar. When I started questioning him, he said he was just kidding. I don't know if he was lying (he's been lying a lot this past year) or if he really did have some colored ice but his behavior was off last night. I tried to ignore it thinking I was imagining it because I suspected he had an infraction but this morning he was very argumentative and trying very hard to get yelled at. I did not write a note to his teacher because today is the last day of school. I'm so happy I don't have to worry about packing his lunch for a while. I wonder how much improvement we'll see now that I'll have complete control over what he is eating. I'm thinking about starting the intro with Shawn again and progressing through the stages with him. I'm not seeing the kind of results I would have liked to see by now but I'm thinking that I didn't allow enough time for his gut to heal. We'll see though because I don't really want to take away the almond flour. I'm going to start experimenting with Stage 1 recipes to see if I can find enough variety that Shawn will eat.
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