Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Gluten Free = anxiety free

Tyler and I have been gluten free for almost 2 months now ! What a differenc in his ability to function AKA ...Get Out The Door in the morning! I charted the first week- before and after going GF. It would take more than 10 reminders..."Your eating your breaksfast" to remind him to focus on eating. "your getting dressed" when he was twiring his underpants around" "Your brushing your teeth" when he was staring blankly in the mirror"
Well no wonder - I just poured him a big bowl of whole grain Gluten. It put the breaks on the morning. It would for you too if you just did some opiates.

Each day after GF, we went down to 5 reminders, 2 reminders,,, and by the 4th day in, I stopped charting. There were no reminders !!

I stopped eating gluten too, but cheated. One example of finding out how gluten affected him.. After two weeks of no gluten, I had a big sandwich on a fresh roll - two hours later I was passed out on the couch and felt groggy the next morning too. Last week, I had a donut - it killed the rest of the day for me. I definately felt like I had a hangover. I feel so bad for getting so aggravated with my kid for having to remind him, over and over and over, to focus! I thought of how I would feel if someone was hurrying me along while I was in that state. Now, we have much happier mornings. GF cereal is easy for kid.. even TRIX are made of corn.

Next is Casein Free. I have slowly started him- actually both of us on it. My grocery bill is $!!$$$ But not eating out evens it out and not being frustrated trying to get him focused is worth it for sure-to both of us. Hemp milk and 'Ice cream', coconut milk desserts, rice milk, Rice cheese.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Gluten Free Trial

SO, here's the very brief precursor to this blog. At the time, 10 year old Tyler Page has been diagnosed with Asperger's, psychotic disorder, anxiety, ocd, , No psychotic disorder then.. just being a child, then.."The highest level of psychosis every seen in a child", PDD...try this drug, that drug, oops, allergic to that one,, hospital etc. etc. etc. It's tough hearing something different about your child with each set of testing. ( because you just researched the daylights out of the last dx) It's tough diagnosing from a professional view because there is so little data to draw from. Bottom line, it is toughest being the kid - and that's where I come in.

GLUTEN FREE: was introduced to me at Camp K.. {I strongly suggest you Check it out http://www.cgcvt.org/programs/campkaleidoscope.shtml } There was a workshop .. but it was a fellow mom that got me to own it.

"Try this" she said "Go gluten free for a week.. restrict all gluten, then give him a dinner of gluten". 'How will I know, how soon ?' " Oh, you'll know before you finish the dishes." was her response. With that, we darted off our seperate ways to enjoy our kids laughing out loud while sliding down the most fantastic, huge slip and slide the camp 'kidville' coordinators had set up on the hill.
By the way, Camp K has a full gluten free menu, with the yummiest brownies I have ever tasted!

At home, we did it. With bribes-- good thing recess peanut butter ice cream is gluten free. Gluten free for a week. {I'll get into that stress later} I made Ty a big bowl of Mac and Cheese for dinner and afterwards sent him to wash-up while I did the dishes. He wandered back into the kitchen with a glazed look... of a person drugged out.. barely able to speak.."What's up buddy?" no response, barely looking in my direction. I had to skip the shower and help him change for bed. I couldn't leave him alone for a second and he ended up sleeping in my bed because the psychosis,,,, which had been almost non-existent for the past few weeks...was back like gangbusters and he not only had to sleep with me, but had to be sure we were touching all night.


Later, in Gluten Free for Dummies I read that in some people, Gluten acts as an opiate... the 'stoned' look I observed was just that. He was.