Success!!

William and I made a trip to the store this morning to replace some of our dairy products, with those which are non-dairy....We ended up purchasing Pacificfoods Chocolate soy milk (individual box was under 70 cents, so I bought 2 for "on the go" to see if he'd like them, he requested one on the car ride home and consumed it within 5 minutes, thus I will be returning to purchase more of those!) I also purchased some rice milk, some vanilla soy milk, some soy yogurt, one vanilla and one blueberry. I purchased one box of glutino gluten free crackers, and really they aren't that good, but maybe they will grow on us. I plan on making a trip to whole foods sometime in the next week and stocking up on many more cf and gf foods, but at least we are making steps in the right direction!

Nathalie's school Halloween Carnival and the awesome gluten free snack I discovered

Was last friday (the 24th) the kids had a great time running around playing games, it was fun for them, and even a bit fun for us. As a family of 4 it isn't often we get to do things together, with 2 working parents and a mama in school, the kids normally have one or the other of us at a time, so it really was a nice treat for us all. They had a raffle, and Nathalie asked if we could buy 3 tickets, 1 for her, 1 for William, and 1 for mom and dad to share, so we did. We actually won a great prize a Large Trader Joe's Bag full of goodies! In this bag of goodies were some things, giant spaghetti noodles, marinara sauce, some organic green tea conditioner (for mama :) ), but also was Kettle Corn, that is....GLUTEN FREE, and it is dELICious. William agrees, he has been snacking on it over the past few days, so I know this will definitely become a staple in our household under the new dietary restraints. Also were some gluten free thai sesame rice crisp bars that William enjoys a bit, but I think its more of an acquired taste, I personally loved them!

ok, so most likely, most of what you'll be hearing for a while from me will regard the food thing

Ok, so I spent a lot of time last night researching.and researching. and researching some more. And the approach I am going to take with William, is to become GFCF in 6 weeks. Why so long you may ask? Well the reasons are numerous, but the main number one reason is this, in kids that have developmental delays, speech delays, behavioral delays that will truly benefit from a GFCF diet, the foods that they are so addicted too actually act opiod-like to there little brains, so they truly are addicted. Due to this fact, things can actually get worse, before they get better, a risk I am definitely willing to take, given the results I expect we'll see in the end! So here is the "low-down" of the first 6 weeks, as is explained on the TACA website:

Starting on Saturday, November 1st (just so that its easier to keep track of,) William will receive no more casein (milk, containing products), this initial phase will be a 2 week elimination of all casein containing products. After 2 weeks, beginning November 15th, William will remain on a Casein free diet and be introduced to GFCF breakfasts, I hear that Van's GFCF waffles are good, he will still be allowed eggs, I will probably try a couple different gf cereal's, with soy or rice milk... At the beginning of week 4, November 22, the above mentioned eliminations will remain in place, and we will introduce GFCF Lunches, this week will be one of the hardest in our house, as for Lunch my son eats PB & J sandwiches, etc, and the suggestions on the TACA website for lunches aren't exactly things I want to be feeding him, although I will try these chicken nuggets, the kicker is trying to find them locally, or else find some friends who need some too? (ANYONE?) and then we could place a group order! Week 5, Which will begin November 29, will bring the introduction of GF dinners. In week 6, beginning Dec 6, GFCF snacks (although as we run out of the things that contain Gluten, I will be replacing them with gluten free). TACA goes on to list weeks 7-10, but I am happy to say that in the department of soaps, shampoos, lotions, sunscreens, toothpaste and laundry detergent we currently use products that do not contain gluten and Casein. I will replace all of my baking products with those that are gluten and casein free.

As far as Nathalie and the rest of us go, we will obviously follow these dietary restrictions in our home, not only to support William, but to benefit us all. However, I will allow Nathalie to mantain a normal diet at school, for now, but next year, I will be packing her lunches anyhow, so they too will be gluten and casein free.

Update on William, and the new diet that will be entering our house

Friday, I had the priveledge of attending the DAN (defeat autism now)! Fall Conference at the Town and Country Hotel in Mission Valley! I learned so many very interesting and helpful things. Although Willliam is not officially autistic, he does portray quite a number of "autistic" traits. From everything I have learned, both Sam and I agree that he will benefit greatly from a GFCF diet (gluetin and Casein free) which means, no dairy (milk, cheese, yogurt) and no bread (wheat, oats, rye)....no chicken nuggets, eliminating almost everything that he is so use to eating. An interesting note on that fact is that kids (and adults alike) crave that which they are most sensitive too, in William's case I believe this to be Bread, this boy loves bread will ask for it anytime he can see it..I invested in a great "kid-friendly" GFCF cookbook, and have found recipies to make our own chicken nuggets, that are gluten free....etc....I will also be adding some supplements in for him, he just received vitamin c chewables, that he will now take everyday along with his multivitamin. Furthermore, I have ordered him some melatonin, to hopefully help even out his sleep pattern (for those of you not intune to the lack of sleep William provides us, he usually does not go to sleep until 12 or 1, and Friday night I was actually up with him until 3). I intend to add Omega-3's to his diet as well, I just need to find him a chewable brand...... There are several other options in the form of supplements, but these will be the initial few we introduce to him. Rather than eliminating all of the restricted foods at once, I will initially begin with Casein/dairy, no milk, no cheese and no yogurt, of course no other dairy containing products, but those are the three biggies in our house. After 3 weeks of 100% elimination of dairy, we will remove the gluten as well. During the initial 3 week period as we run out of gluten containing products, they will be replaced with those which are gluten-free. So any of you that have ideas in the gfcf free category that will help me out please let me know!

our little soccer girl

Nathalie is thoroughly enjoying her first season of soccer! When Tuesdays role around (practice day) she is optimistic, and happy all day long. At practice she listens to her coaches and runs with her team. On Saturdays (game day) she gets so happy when putting on her oversized uniform! She loves it, and I'm glad

anna rose

long overdo, here is our precious granddaughter Anna Rose! The cuteness kills me, it kills me even more that she is 3000 miles away, these few momentary glimpses will have to do for now. Sams daughter, Briana who is Anna's mommy is doing great, she is such a proud mother who brags about every coo Anna makes. As a teenage mother it can't be easy, but I am so glad she is giving her little girl every fighting chance!

William

does not have autism, but just some speech and developmental delays. I am melancholy about it all, I'm glad he doesnt have a label to an extent, but at the same time I struggle that we will be able to get him all the help he needs/deserves.