Baby Boy

The arrival or our second child is only weeks away. It seems like it was such a short time ago that we were anticipating the arrival of our first child, who is now six years old. Little did we know of what our journey with him would be! It was like going to an unknown destination, and I have been thinking quite a bit recently about this story I once posted called "Welcome to Holland."

I do not regret that our journey with our son has been different. Holland is a nice place, after all, and he is so much more well than he once was. What I do regret occasionally is that I feel like I lost lots of time with him while he was little and not feeling so well. That is to say, our interactions were not what they could have been for quite a long time. He only appeared to be attached to me when he was little because he had serious separation anxieties. His dad and I were like extensions of him, and he did not call us mom and dad, or anything at all, for many years. We began to see a big turn around with him by the time he was 4. By that time he had been in the DAN! program for about 6 months and he had started ABA therapy.

Our second, yet to be born child is also a boy. I admit I have experienced some anxiety over this, (given that boys are so much more likely to have autism than girls are,) and in fact I really wanted a girl this time for that very reason. The thing about it is though, I have already been to Holland. Figuratively speaking, I already know some of the language, and I already have an itinerary, and I am already packed for the weather. If this second little boy is destined to have autism despite my best efforts to prevent it, he will feel better sooner, and both directly and indirectly he will learn many valuable things from his brother.

And so with that said, here is to the journey, and where ever it may lead us.

The Chocolate Effect, 14 years later

Once I wrote a little story about a teenage girl and her brother with autism who got his hands on a piece of chocolate. Although the story was fictional, the events and conditions in the story were based on my own experiences. Those experiences I had as a child really framed my mind for receiving the DAN! program as treatment for my son because I knew firsthand the effects that certain foods/toxins had on my brother. (Read The Chocolate Effect here.)

Now fast forward 14 or so years later, I am now an adult, (well...sort of!) and my brother is 18 years old and is spending some time staying with my family along with our mother. On Easter Sunday they both attended church with us. My brother received such great treatment and acceptance that he attended his Sunday School classes on his own. The teacher for his first Sunday School class approached me, saying that she had cupcakes for the class and she didn't know if my brother is in the same treatment as my son. I told her no, but thank you and PLEASE scrape the icing off of his cupcake. (Too much sugar is a HUGE trigger for bad behavior!) My brother seemed to do pretty well on Sunday, but on Monday, his behavior took a turn for the worse.

On Tuesday morning he was telling mom something like this: "In my class on Sunday I got a rice crispy treat shaped like an egg and it had m&ms in it. And I ate the whole thing! I was hoping that I would get to miss school! Too bad I was wrong!" A sweet teacher, (who did not know about the chocolate effect,) in his second Sunday School had given this to him. Mom was making him go to school, and this was his confession after he realized that all of his plotting, horrible behavior, and sabotaging his own gut came to no avail.

It has been a long week with the uptight, much more easily triggered teenage brother around. The chocolate effect wore off to a good extent by Thursday, and mom was actually able to get him to take a shower. (Thank goodness!) This morning I heard "Good Morning, Eli," when my son woke up and walked into the other room. In my story "The Chocolate Effect," I had the chocolate effect wear off in just one day. I was trying to make the story a good balance of positive as well as negative, but in reality, it takes many days to wear off.

My purpose in writing this is to point out that food can be a psychological trigger for abnormal behavior. Even for myself, I have food sensitivities and I can have altered, depressed moods if I eat gluten or too much of something else on my "no" list. Looking back, I just wonder at my son's old pediatrician, who is a very sweet man, but basically told me I should not take my autistic toddler off of milk. How much better our son's life is nowdays with special diet and biochemical intervention!

Happy Valentine's Day

There is something very novel about a decorated, themed cake. I worked in bakeries for several years and took hundreds of custom cake orders. There were those who would order for the wedding shower or graduation, and then there were those families that were "theme cake families." They were in ordering for every birthday.



This is a very not allergen friendly, gluten filled cake that I made for a neighbor whom I traded services with. (She gave me a very nice, professional haircut last week.) I thought it turned out pretty cute, even though I did not have all the professional tools I would have liked to have had. My dishwasher is now in functioning order, so that will help me to not worry too much about contamination in my kitchen. :)

I really got to thinking while icing this cake about those "theme cake family" members who perhaps have discovered an allergy/sensitivity that suddenly shuts them out from their family tradition. How fun it would be, to be a "neighborhood allergy-friendly baker" who makes allergy friendly cakes and delivers them to happy people who are celebrating in style, despite allergy restrictions? What a fun thought.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone. I hope you all get to spend time with those you love.

Kitchen Gadgets

Here are some recently acquired kitchen gadgets of mine:


manual grain grinder

I bought the hand grinder at the Provo Macey's for $50. Quite a steal, really. Orem Macey's in Utah Valley charges $69 and I heard the Pleasant Grove charges $79. The whole idea was to save .70 cents on white rice flour and 1 dollar on brown rice flour per pound. Quite a significant savings when taking into consideration the price I can buy the rice for in bulk on a good sale. This does take time and some arm, but for the money it is a great grinder. One day I will be getting a good electric model and using this manual one for emergency/back-up purposes.



apple corer/peeler/slicer

I also got this apple/corer/peeler/slicer gadget at the Provo Macey's grocery store. It was just under $20. I am really really hoping to make some apple sauce this year. I used one of these gadgets to make applesauce with a friend years ago, and have wanted one of my own ever since. Homemade applesauce is so very heavenly! Both gadgets are Victorio brand.

It seems as though I blog quite alot about food or related topics. What can I say? I am always thinking about food. I am always planning, cooking, and cleaning, all because of food. It really is the whole aspect of cutting gluten and other common foods, and then trying to eat this way on a shoe string budget. (Or at least as cheaply as possible, while doing my best to get good nutrition down my family. Trouble is, gluten free/dairy free can be an expensive way to eat.) I am always looking for ways to cut down on the grocery budget without compromising fresh fruits/veggies and without making us bored to death of our food. I have looked into several strategies.

Generally, couponing to save money on groceries does not work really well for me. Usually, coupons put out by manufacturers are not for food that we would normally eat, or for what we should on our diet. However, my husband does get sent to work with lunch food that I used coupons on. (He does not have the diet issues of our son and myself and it helps him resist the urge to buy extra snacks while on the road.)

GF/CF mixes are a no go for me. They are convenient, they save tons of time, but really, they are horrid for my budget, (very expensive,) and usually contain one or more of our "eat seldom and with care" list. (Corn, soy, and sugar are among the "eat with care" list.) I do not even buy flour mixes. I mix my own flours. If rice, I grid it myself, too.

Canning is something I have taken to this season. When you know people who can hook you up with free fruit for the picking, that is a great way to fill the pantry. True, it is not the same as eating fresh, but there are many wonderful, tasty, and nutritious things that can be made from my stockpile.

My ultimate solution for our diet/budget situation: eat simple food, and make everything from scratch. Eating simple is for my sanity, our health, and our budget. Making it all myself insures that I know what is in it, and that I am spending even less.

Personal Hair Dresser

Eli had a wonderful weekend. That is not to say that we did not have our moments. (I think when I woke up to the bathroom flooding this morning was my favorite part of those moments. Not. What can I say? I guess he will be a five year old boy.)

Eli has just been so happy. His tummy has shown no signs of bloating. He feels well, and we can see it in is smile. Today in church he sat on my lap and pretended to be my hairdresser, whispering to me about color choices, giving me a little trim around the bottom edges, and I think he said something about staples and glue. (!) Good thing it was pretend!

After these last few years of working on healing his gut, I think we may be at a good place now. That is not to say that he does not have bloaty days. There are times when we are not careful enough about his diet, (meaning that we have had times when we don't realize that too much GF yeast bread would make his belly bloat, and other similar instances.) The true miracle is that his belly will go back to normal on it's own in time when we go back to normal diet. I can't explain how huge this is. I feel such gratitude that I can't express.

On Saturday a man we met at the park said to us, "He is just a bundle of love, isn't he?" He just found Eli so very friendly and sweet. I hope I remember that forever.

Cool Summer Salad

The other day I had a need to develop a recipe for a "summer salad" to share at a potluck. This was the result. I was very happy with it. What a great allergen-free treat that is nice and cool-- great to have on hand in hot weather when you're craving ice cream, popsicles, and jello!





Healthful Pineapple-Orange Gelatin Salad

1 box Knox unflavored gelatin (1 oz, 4 envelopes)
1 can frozen Dole juice concentrate, Pineapple Orange Banana flavor
2 tablespoons sugar or honey
3 cans mandarin oranges in mandarin orange juice, (not corn syrup,) 10.5 oz each
1 can pineapple tidbits in pineapple juice, (not corn syrup,) 20 oz each





Prepare juice as directed on frozen juice can package. Open cans of fruit and drain juice into prepared juice, (optional.) Use prepared juice to prepare 1 recipe “Fruit Juice Knox Blox” on the back of the package of Knox gelatin, cutting knox blox to 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch squares instead of 1 inch as package directs. (Gelatin will take 3 hours to set in the refrigerator before it is ready to cut.) Scoop little blox into bowl and stir in drained canned fruit. This recipe is way versatile. Experiment with your own juice and fruit combinations, or try embedding fruit in the gelatin. Your family won’t even know it is good for them!

Little Lifesaver in a Jar

I'm not talking about the candy. I'm talking about the little jar of stuff pictured above--- Ghee! This great stuff has been a lifesaver for me with my son's GF/CF diet.

I went to my local Good Earth store one day looking for this because it was the mysterious ingredient in some of the recipes in this book. One of the managers knew what and where it was... it ended up being clarified butter. I almost passed it up... butter is not ok on my son's diet. She explained that clarified means that all proteins are removed... meaning no casein is in it.

Why is this so great? Well, on top of GF/CF my son limits his own diet quite a bit. Margarine, even canola marg is out of the question. No one should eat hydrogenated fats. Bottom line is that this Ghee stuff helps my son accept some foods he normally wouldn't. I stir a teaspoon of it in his GF noodles with some steamed veggies and some salt. He won't eat spaghetti, but he will eat this. (I love it that I can get some veggies down him this way!) At $8 a jar it sure is not cheap, but this little jar has lasted a long time and has flavored many meals of pasta and vegetables and some of brown rice. :)

Yet Another Book I'd Rather Not Live Without

It's about time I updated that book list of the books I have found helpful. So far I have posted them in the order that I acquired them.

To keep a running total of my book list, the first was Changing The Course of Autism, by Dr. Bryan Jepson. Read my post here.

The second book I blogged about was Life Tastes Good Again, by Kristi Kirkland and Betsy Thomas. Read my post here.

The third book I got my hands on was The Kid Friendly ADHD and Autism Cookbook: The Ultimate Guide to the Gluten-Free, Casein-Free Diet, by Pamela J Compart, M.D. and Dana Laake, R.D.H., M.S., L.D.N.



I found this one day while browsing Amazon.com and decided I had to have it. I have been very pleased! Only half of this book has actual recipes. The first half of the book contains these chapters:
Chapter one: Food Reactions: What they are and how to test for them
Chapter two: The Culprits: Glutens, Casein, Soy, and others
Chapter three: More Culprits (this chapter explains diets and who they help)
Chapter four: Eater Beware! Improving your nutritional IQ and shooting down myths
Chaper five: Yes-there is plenty left to eat!
Chapter six: Getting started and bumps along the way
Chapter seven: Dealing with the diet and common concerns

The second half of the book covers the practical side of the diet... what and how to get the right nutrition down our kids! It features ideas, strategies, and recipes straight from parents. I have found it very useful.

I'd have to say that my favorite part of this book are the "blue boxes," the little tidbits here and there that are quotes from the parents, or the children themselves. From those I learned that for some kids there is dramatic, almost instantaneous improvement, and those are the ones I often hear about in many sources. That has not happened in my house, however. But from those parent quotes I learned that many parents also see steady improvements that happen over time... that is what I have been seeing! It has been very encouraging to see others having the same challenges but seeing results as they stuck to it.

My son started on the diet in July of last year. Now he is starting to say 2-3 words together... functionally!