I've got something bothering me. I'm hoping it's die-off. Lately Shawn has been doing a lot of spinning around. The average person may say that all kids do this but this is not Shawn. He didn't used to do this. Sure he would spin around sometimes when he was playing around with Joshua or his friends but he wouldn't do it constantly. It's bothering me because when I did so much reading on autism, spinning around was a red flag. It is a way to self stimulate. He's been really hyper lately also. I'm really hoping he's having a flare and it's just die-off. Maybe I should start giving him Epsom Salt baths again.

I wanna pop!

I've been miserable for the last two weeks. I hope it ends soon! I've been having some terrible bloating and gas pains since Friday. I'm not sure if it was something I ate or if it is the EFA or Fermented Cod Liver oil I started taking. I'm not sure if they can cause more die off or not but I had a lot of bloating in the beginning of the diet so I'm just going to press on and see if it gets better soon. I've also been trying to drink lots of water. I should probably take an Epsom Salt bath to see if that helps but I just don't have the time. I had a really good bowel movement yesterday and this morning so at least I'm not constipated along with the bloating and gas.

Ugh, the 3 month flare!

I'm pretty sure I've hit the three month flare. Actually didn't realize it until I read a post from someone else that described how I'm feeling and then it was like a light bulb going on in my head.

What is the 3 month flare you ask? Well, a majority of people that are doing SCD complain about reoccurring symptoms around 3 months. Now these symptoms can range to all sorts of things but in my case, the most prevalent one is probably depression. I've just got the I don't feel like doing anything blues, lol. It's pretty bad right now. So bad in fact that I know I'm not eating right. I just don't feel like making anything, thinking about making anything, buying ingredients to make something, etc. I've seriously thought about quitting this week. Mostly because I haven't seen the changes I wanted to from Shawn but in all honesty, he has improved.

We did cheat one night this week. I ordered pizza. It was right after I found out that Shawn did ok with the cheese at lunch time. I got to the point where I didn't have anything ready to feed them at dinner. Plus, I was really craving carbs which by the way is another symptom of the 3 month flare. Supposedly, because of the food we are eating, the bad bacteria doesn't have food to survive so it starts to die off. When it dies off, you get all kinds of reactions. When some of the bad bugs die, some of the stronger bad bugs take their place. At some other point in time, they will start to die off also and it usually takes place at regular intervals the first one being the 3 month flare. Now that I recognize it, I'm trying really hard to not let ourselves cheat again (that just feeds the bad bugs). I probably need to take an Epsom Salt bath to see if that helps. I just don't think about myself; I'm usually worrying about the kids and their reactions.

I still don't know if it was die-off or a head cold.

Shawn got congested the day after my last post. He didn't have any sneezing though and he didn't complain of a sore throat. Even if he did have a sore throat, he probably wouldn't tell me. He just doesn't complain about being sick unless it's his stomach.

My congestion lasted almost all week. I did start sneezing and had a runny nose but it was clear. Later in the week I had a cough which I think has to do with the post nasal drip. I never really felt like it was a head cold even though I felt horrible. It was just different somehow so I don't know if it's my imagination or not. Two days ago, Shawn woke up with some cramping and had to use the bathroom. He had several bowel movements within an hour and the last one was borderline diarrhea. Today was the same thing - cramping, several bowel movements, diarrhea. I'm thinking that has to be from the bio-kult but Don thinks he was eating too many cookies that I just made. We are out of cookies so we'll see how he does tomorrow.

I'm still congested but not in the I can't breathe kind of congested. This is what I've been dealing with for the past 2 years. We just increased our Bio-Kult dose yesterday so we'll see what happens.

One thing I have noticed with Shawn is his lack of attention. Remember my post about positive changes? Well, you can just throw that out the window, lol. I read about how the diet and starting probiotics will make things worse before they get better. I hope that's all it is because I didn't realize how much Shawn has improved until these last few days. His attention is where it was before we started maybe even worse so I hope it's just the probiotic doing it's job!

Die off or sick?

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.

A Small Victory!

Ok, this may not sound like much to most people but...Shawn now likes orange juice. This is huge for two reasons. First off, he actually asked to taste it (he never asks to taste anything!) and second, he likes it. He's tasted orange juice in the past and even about a week into the diet and never liked it and now he does! I'm so excited! I just hope this is the beginning of new tastes for him. I'm going to make Salmon Latkes tonight for dinner and hope I can get Shawn to eat them. It's basically 2 cans of salmon, 1 carrot, 1 sm. zucchini, 1 onion, 4 cloves of garlic, 3 eggs, 2 T. almond flour. Shred the veggies in the food processor then add the egg and salmon, add salt and pepper to taste, and then add the almond flour to thicken. Form balls and fry. I'll let you all know how they turned out.

When we started the diet, I had read some things about die-off and one of them was little black specks in your BM's. Well, after 3 1/2 weeks (it's only been that long???), I finally saw some black specs in Shawn's poop this morning. It looked like black sand. Joshua also had some today which is a little weird they both had some on the same day. Both kids are now regular without the use of mineral oil so that in itself is a victory.

Extreme die-off!!!

After 2 days of SCD Yogurt and 1 day of SCD cheesecake, Shawn is going through some serious die-off. Wednesday and Thursday he came home from school with yellow in his agenda. Wednesday for not paying attention and getting his work done and Thursday for jumping on another student at pack up time. Today when he got off the bus, I noticed he was wearing different clothes than he had on this morning. When I asked him why, he told me that him and one of the other boys in his class got wet in the sprinkler on the way to speech. He told me he got on red but when I checked his agenda, it was green. Usually, if he gets yellow or red his teacher will put an X through the green dot and then give a yellow or red with a small explanation. I'm not sure if she forgot to mark his agenda or Shawn was mistaken but I think she probably forgot. His behavior was awful this afternoon. My voice was getting hoarse from yelling so much. He was very defiant, very whiny, argumentative, easily frustrated, and just plain mean. I had Don put him in the bath with some Epsom Salt and I made him soak for about 30 minutes. He was much better after the bath. I didn't give him anymore yogurt or cheesecake today. I'll see how his behavior is tomorrow and decide whether or not I want to give him any. If I do, I'll only give him a very small amount.