I thought I’d introduce ourselves because I have rarely posted in this subforum before. I never thought nutrition was an essential topic for our family so I hung out mostly in the Parenting forums. I’m changing my mind! Warning, it’s a novel...
Ds1, 6 and in first grade, is probably 2e - Gifted and Something Else, though what the something else is we’ve never quite found out. ASD, ADHD, SPD have all been tossed around, but while he can be moody, rigid, anxious, obsessive, explosive, hyper, super-spacey, socially awkward and physically clumsy and has some mild stimming behaviours, he can also be sensitve, empathetic, social, intensely focussed in his areas of interest (but not to the exclusion of other things) and when challenged to his ability, cheerful and flexible. From professionals, we have had “mild autistic traits”, “concentration issues”, “mild vestibular issues”....stuff like that. Reacts intensely to low blood sugar, is rail-thin. However, he appears to function well in school, if not exactly learning at a challenging pace, and has friends.
He eats a limited number of fresh veggies and fruit, one of them (carrots) cooked, nothing cultured, several times a day. Tomato sauce on pizza. Likes nuts and seeds, will eat plain yoghurt. We try to remember daily CLO with vitamin D and E, a vitamin B complex, zinc and magnesium (the latter helped immensely with stims and sleep). Have recently started Kid’s Calm Multi. He drinks only water and milk, may have the occasional juice at a restaurant or soda at a birthday party. He will eat meat and fish, with some pressure. No sauces or thick soups, very little mixed foods etc (so no chance to hide stuff unless it’s in something really time-consuming like homemade bread or homemade pasta dough). One piece of candy as dessert. No clear signs of allergies or of sensitivities to anything. Was a mild preemie, had reflux as a baby, cleared up at around 6 months, probably due to mild hypotonia. (I cut back on dairy, caffeine and fish but did not really eliminate anything).
DD, 2.5, in daycare has been an extremely picky eater from infancy and is the most strong willed, independent child you’ve ever seen (both confirmed by loving but exasperated daycare teachers). Never took a bottle of EBM, never took a paci. Ha a hard time accepting purees after 6 months, kept trying to make me go back to EBF, every two hours round the clock! I had to start nightweaning at one because she bit my nipples at night until they were bloody and suppurating and fully wean her around 20 months due to being pregnant with DS2. Dove on her own into a bag of french fries and started eating without us noticing at the tender age of 9 months! Would still subsist on french fries if we let her. Will eat bread, pasta (even stuffed), sausages, freshly prepared fish, breaded meat, but NO fresh veggies, NO fresh fruit, except for the occasional banana and very occasional applesauce and the occasional baby jar with pureed fruits or veggies. Drinks milk and water.
DS2 is 4 months, EBF, has diarrhea and cradle cap. He was born with Spina Bifida, has had multiple surgeries and heavy doses of antibiotics and was on a maintenance dose of antibiotics until recently.
With all the stress with my high risk pregnancy and DS2’s birth and surgeries, we hadn’t noticed how bad DD’s diet was getting, with all those Christmas candies and cookies everywhere. We recently noticed she was so constipated we had to do something! Got a copy of “What’s eating your child”, asked her ped for a prescription of hyperosmotic laxatives and took it from there.
We started to make her eat baby jars, one fruit and one mixed veggies (organic, no salt, additives etc.) daily – we simply refused to give her anything else until those were eaten. Hide CLO in her veggies and are looking for a suitable multi to hide in the fruit jars. Are currently hiding one sachet of laxative a day in her drink which we hope to be able to phase out soon.
Insist on one protein source daily, for both kids. Only serve starch after fiber and protein are taken care of. Cook with (industrial) ghee and olive oil. We’ve always mostly bought whole-grain bread, but have now decided to cut out white flour completely for the time being. I reduce gluten by using buckwheat and almond flour where possible. We try to cut out candy for the time being (right now we have not yet insisted with inlaws and daycare to follow our regimen, so have no complete control at this point.) I’ve started buying organic goat’s milk. Insist of one trial bite of new food (for DS1 we have started with orange, for DD with peeled apple).
Are still living through daily hysterics.
The success part: DS1 is mostly on board, but not noticeably calmer yet.
DD, who so far has had a tiny toddler shape with short legs, a hugely protruding tummy and an increasingly pudgy face, has within the last few weeks suddenly started stretching out, growing real legs with the tummy flattening out, losing the fat around her cheeks,. She was speaking in sentences before, is suddenly speaking in paragraphs.
However, she is increasingly fussy and will still have 30 to 45 minutes hysterics on being asked to try her one bite of peeled apple. Yesterday, after being hysterical for a while and still not having had her bite at bedtime, she asked me to help her with taking off her overalls. I repeated the E.A.T. program mantra “When you’ve had your bite, we’ll start getting ready for bed."
2.5 yo DD, rather than take the bite, took off all her winter clothes by herself, took off her diaper, put it in the diaper bin, sat on the loo, wiped herself, put on a new diaper, put on her pyjamas – all this rather than take one bite of apple! She then disappeared into the kitchen. I followed her when I heard glass clinking and discovered her eating sugar straight from the jar! I threw her out of the kitchen, hysterics again. When she realized that we were actually all getting ready to go upstaris without her, she stopped crying, took her bite, pronounced (not for the first time!) that it did taste nice, and we could resume our nighttime ritual.
It struck me in the middle of the night (I am up a lot ;) that she was on sugar withdrawal!
I am not sure where to go from here. I have been circling the GAPS diet which does make a lot of sense to me but, with a special needs baby, am not ready to take on the tmie commitment right now, and DH, while hugely impressed with what our changes have already done for DD and accepting that I need to make changes myself to find out what might help DS2’s cradle cap, is not on board either, saying we have more pressing things to do with our time. I am ready to make lots of broth because the kids like it, but they won’t have it with veggies at this point, and I am not ready to cut out grains (or chocolate!) completely, culture my own veggies and yoghurt and make my own ghee. No way.
So I was thinking to edge closer and closer to full GAPS, without being too strict in eliminating, just reducing, and seeing what it does for us. Continue to make DS1 and DD expand in fruits and veggies. I have read that if you are very close to GAPS, you can move through the introduction and diet much faster until you can start adding stuff again. Maybe we can take on a few weeks of GAPS introduction next year, during summer vacation or so.
*takes a deep breath*. Anyone still with me? Thoughts? I’d be very grateful to have tips from fellow nutrition detectives!
Edited by Tigerle - 2/4/13 at 1:39am
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