Well, I said that if you were bored with yesterday’s topic to come back today ’cause I would probably talk about something different. There are a few things that I still want to get out of my brain, and so “I lied” and I’m going to keep talking about Jeremy and his food issues aand how we are dealing with it all. Then……THEN I should have something different to talk about.

So, there are a few different things that I wanted to talk about.

One is that even though Jeremy is the only other person aside from myself who has been tested for food intolerances; we, as a family, are all eating the same things. I didn’t think that it was particularly fair to him that he not get to eat anything percieved as “normal” while the rest of us pigged out on whatever we wanted. I also feel that there are certain foods that will for sure show up on my girls tests (as in, I’d be SHOCKED if they weren’t intolerant to these items) and decided to give the girls a head start on their diets and health. We will be taking them in (and Jon), but at $104 for the initial test - I’m not doing them all at once. Gotta space that out a little, so it doesn’t “Ding” the pocket book so much! So while I’m being extremely religious about Jeremy’s diet, the girls are not allowed wheat, dairy, and sugar. There are somethings that they are eating like these brown rice crackers that I buy, but Jeremy doens’t like them, so it’s no loss to him for the girls to be eating them. It’s those kind of things that make the difference between the diets. Oh and other things like, J’s not supposed to have peanuts, so no peanut butter, but the girls took a peanut butter wrap to school for lunch the other day. Just little things like that. So, I am “concentrating” on Jeremy and his diet right now, but we are including the girls into our new “LIFESTYLE” as we are calling it.

It’s definatly harder to do this when your kids are older. I think that once this new little baby arrives, and this is all he knows - it won’t be so difficult for him to adjust…….well…..cause there will be nothing to adjust to….this will be just normal life and normal eating habits.

That’s another thing that I want to talk about. For us, this is not just a quick fix. Yes, there is a HUGE list of intolerances right now (for J), and that list will change and decrease as he gets healthier which means that we will be able to add a wider variety of foods into his diet, but I have no intentions of eating healthy like this for a few months, and then going back to the “normal” way of eating. Far as I’m concerned, this way that we are eating is our new “Normal” and while it may seem difficult right now…..soon it will be no big deal.

I mentioned that I’m trying to change our outlook from one that it centerend around food and eating and snacking to one where we eat good foods, but the reason that we are eating is to feul our bodies, not for confort or just because it tastes good or because we are bored. This does NOT meant that I think that food should be a nasty bland experience. In fact, it’s exactly the opposite. I think that we are eating more flavorful food now than we were before. Yes it takes more effort, but it’s SO WORTH IT in my estimation.

I don’t personally understand how if you know that certain things are harming your child that you wouldn’t do whatever it took to take your kids out of harm’s way. I’m not just talking about bullying or drugs or unsafe activities - this also applies to what your kids are ingesting every day. I don’t think that I can sit here and say that just because I don’t know about something that I don’t have to take responsibility for it’s affects on those around me, especially my kids. I think that it’s my responsibilty to find out as much information as I can, when it comes to the health of my children and to go forward from there, always looking for new information, and new ways that I can help them to succeed in every area of their lives.

Having said that, and running the risk that it may sound or come across as judgmental - let me also say that while I don’t agree with all decisions made by others, I am only “responsible” for my own decisions and the lives of my kids. So, of course I am trying to do a good job, but I really have no right to make a judgment call as to whether or not you are doing a good or bad job. That’s not my place. So, these are my thoughts about how I think and try to live my life. You and your kids are your responsibility - not mine!
I hope that’s all cleared up - now moving on!

We did sit down and had a chat with all the kids about the changes that we are making. I think that talk really helped. Unfortunatly, we started implementing the changes before we fully talked it over with the kids, and that resulted in quite a bit of stress for Geli. All she heard was that we wree depriving her ’cause J was not as helathy as he could be, and she resented that and freaked out about everything that she was missing all at the same time. NOT FUN, let me tell you! So, one night over dinner we sat down and talked. She got to ask all her questions, and the biggest one was about her birthday coming up on April 4th. This “new way of eating” meant that she didn’t get to have the cake that she so desperatly wanted. I explained that if she eat really good between now and then, that I’d make the butterfly cake that I was going to and I wouldn’t even mind if she had a BIG piece. We did talk about how that her actual birth date was on the 4th of April, and her party was going to be on the 7th, and that Easter was also that weekend. I explained that she needed to make some good choices, as we weren’t going to eat a bunch of crap just because all those days were special, but we could have a special pork chop, gravy and yorkshire pudding dinner with peaches for dessert to celebrate her birthday on the 4th, and then we could have her party with the cake on the 7th, and then for Easter, I’d give them a “special” Easter Basket, and they might get one piece of candy or chocolate, but that I’d make the rest of the basket special without it being full of junk food. She understood that, and was at peace with it all. Then I made each of the kids sit down and we listed out a few of their ailments. That might sound kinda strange ’cause my kids are actually quite healthy, but there are signs.

There are things that indicate that their bodies are not working at optimum levels of healthiness. All my kids have wicked bags under their eyes, rough bumpy skin; and although they sleep about 10 to 11 hours or more a night on a regular basis, they have a hard time waking up in the morning. They all complain about waking up in the night (restlessness), and about stomach aches and headaches. They crave sugary things, dairy, and cracker/pretzel/bread wheat type things. I’m not saying that I have weak sickly kids who complain all the time, but these are things that they mention from time to time and/or that I’ve noticed.

I was reading about dairy and wheat intolerances and allergies, and most of these fall under those categories. If you throw a yeast imbalance into the mix……..between the big 3 (wheat, dairy and sugar) and the yeast - you basically have a wicked cocktail waiting to blow up.

I was reading in a book about autism that I picked up at the library. It intruigued me because I’ve had people mention to me about 2 of my kids that they’ve observed autistic tendancies, and we had a friend who had a child that was very typically autistic, and when we startedt talking - I was shocked and appalled and in some ways relieved to be able to relate to her and her struggles on so many levels. It was the first time ever that I felt like someone understood what I was dealing with. The differences were that she obviously had it way worse than I did, but she was also getting help…..I felt like I was on my own. In a lot of cases, I felt like I was drowning under the pressure of dealing with Jeremy. I’m not saying that he has autism, but they don’t call it the Autistic Spectrum for no reason. It is a HUGE spectrum, from very mild forms with extremely high functioning children to those that can’t function at all. It is also very much a “social” disorder, and the social aspect seems to be one things that J struggle with terribly. Not that she’s not a social kid, but he doesn’t understand and grasp social aspects and boundaries that most people just learn as a part of life.

Any way, back to what I was going to say. This book that I picked up at the library - the reason that I picked it up was because it mentioned on the cover about dietary intervention and the affects of yeast. It said that when you remove dairy from a child diet, that you should see changes quite quickly - like starting to notice things within a week. The wheat, they said could take up to 8 months before you really start to notice a big a change. Now take into consideration that they were dealing with a more noticible case of autism, and I’m just looking for any helpful and positive changes.

We started thinking that we might be seeing some positive changes after the first 3 or 4 days. When J came home from school yesterday and the teacher had siad that he had had a really good day that was amazing. We’ve not had any of those in a quite a while. What we did notice was that his cheeks were flushed, and that he seemed to be really scattered and all over the place, very unsettled compared to how he had been the past few days. At dinner, Geli informs us that one of the kids at school had “shared” 2 Oreos” with him at recess. That evening was a lot more chaotic than it had been the previous 2 nights. This morning he seemed to be a littl ebetter, and when I showed up at school to monitor for lunch time, once gain, he had had a good day so far.

We did talk to him yesterday in the middle of the madness about how he was acting. He recognized that he was acting crazy. He said that he was feeling kinda crazy, and honestly he really didn’t like it. That is part of the way that we have to deal with this. We can’t monitor him all the time, and he has to recognize and not like the effects of these things on his body. The only way for that to happen is for us to be diligent in the beginning so that he has the opportunity to feel what feeling good and calm and peaceful feels like.

I have more to say about this all, but I feel like this is getting long so I’m going to stop for now. I’ll collect my thoughts, try to find something funny to post about, and then do another post continuing on with my thoughts on this all. Hope you are all having or have had a great day. It’s beautiful here right now, and we are so happy to see some sunshine. It was no jackets, sweater weather today. Sunny and gorgeous! YAH for the sun!