Tuesday, April 23, 2013

In the beginning...there was gluten


Well, we are finally 100% GFCF (gluten free/ casein free)...it took us a looooonnng time.  I THOUGHT we were totally gluten free, but I didn't realize that all of our "little blips" were not so little.  It takes the body months to completely eliminate gluten, so each little blip would set us back a few months.  So I have never fully seen Alec without gluten running in his system.  Regardless, putting the blips aside, I have seen great progress regardless of our slip ups.  Pre-gluten free he was super hyper, very impulsive, it was difficult to talk to him because he was so "out of it and distracted"His eye contact was poor and his language was significantly delayed.  Even though he had all of these behaviors he was still a  very sweet and affectionate boy, just not in control of his body.  Now, he wiggles instead of rolling around during circle time.  His eye contact is fleeting instead of none at all and his language has progressed so much.  Initially the switch to GFCF was difficult, but it was just a matter of finding the right products.  Once we did that it became very easy.  I found a substitute for all of his favorite foods.  I would say that my life savers on the GFCF diet have been Udi's white bread (fabulous), Bisquick's GF baking mix (use it to make pancakes, biscuits, chicken nuggets, sugar cookies and pizza crust), and ANYTHING from the brand kinnikinnick (their stuff is so awesome I sometimes doubt it's really GFCF).  Now that we've been on it so long it's become second nature.  The part that I struggled with the most was when we were out and about.   Trips to the mall, movies, birthday parties, etc.  Now what I do is that I always pack a meal and snacks just in case we're out longer than expected.  I pack a peanut butter sandwich when we go to birthday parties as well as a GFCF cupcake.   It helps that he's such a picky eater because he wouldn't have wanted the pizza served at most birthday parties anyways :)

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