Summer Activities

These are some pics of some outings we have had this summer.




Hogle Zoo: comparing his size to the apes

These were all so fun! The zoo and Children's Museum were both in Salt Lake and both class field trips with his school. The zoo wore me out, it was so overstimulating for him that most of the time he was just running around everywhere. Once he wore himself out alittle, he really enjoyed looking at the animals.



On a hike in the canyon with Daddy

Hiking is something we are working with him on this summer. We would like for him to go on short hikes with us. Here you see his dad had to pack him out. Next time we will let him play in the water at the falls, and that will give him some hiking motivation!




Children's Museum

The Children's Museum was really nice. He loved the activities there that involved large soft blocks and cranes, water, balls, and digging. This was alittle easier than the zoo because it was in a more confined space. (And yes, he was wearing a bright orange vest so he would be easier to keep track of.)

Soon his summer program at school will be over, and I am compiling some fun educational activities for him to do for the rest of the summer locally and at home. Please let me know if you have ideas! I will post mine. :)

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!

Daytrana

This situation happened afew months ago, and I am still shaking my head in disbelief. The school district where my son attends has a psychiatrist. As part of assessing him for the next school year, we had to go in and see her. She spoke with us, and then observed Eli. She did not interact with him, or test him, and she was speaking to us most of the time he was in the room.

Diagnosis: Eli has autism and also has a hard time focusing.

She was waiting for the word to write on her little pad a prescription for him.

Daytrana, she said, was a ritalin patch. It is easy to control the dose and when he gets it, she says.

I have to admit, I was alittle taken in at the time. My husband was rightfully skeptical with the whole idea. At that time, for afew months there, Eli was getting frustrated extremely easily. I looked back on how I took ADD meds through college, but we said no thank you at this time. I discussed this with my sister later who said, "Ritalin?! I had some of that, never took it because I hated the way it made me feel."

Holy cow was that the slap in the face I needed. I remembered the similar meds I took when I was in high school and then college. I could focus on everything, right down to the way the girl's shoes in the front row didn't match her outfit. However, I felt like I was watching a show or something. I felt like I could not interact with the world around me. Do not even get me started on the "let down" effect. I could never do that to my son, my little son who does not even have the words to tell me that he feels strange.

Now that I have discovered that my inattention can be taken care of in large part by nutrition, I will never be on attention meds again.

Now just months later, Eli's general frustration level has gone down. He has been bringing home raving reports from school, without the aid of Daytrana.

I have to say that I am very concerned over the whole episode of the school psychiatrist, and I fear for families who may not be aware that ritalin is one of the most overly prescribed drugs in the whole nation.

Moving Up!

While we always have our ups and downs, things with Eli are generally moving up and it has been way exciting. Yesterday he brought his weekly note home from school saying that he followed almost all the directions and had only 4 minutes of non compliance during the previous week. (That is down from anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes.) Yipee!

He has been saying more small sentences. "I don't like it," and "No bath today," were two of the more recent ones I remember. So like a boy! And they were used functionally, too. The "I don't like it" was in reference to a shower, which he liked once he got in, of course. He had been watching Signing Time the day before, and it is so visual, I think that is where he learned that one.

He is just growing in understanding everyday, and "What is that?" is something I hear just about everyday!

I read a blog post yesterday that I thought was great. She really got it right on! Read Chef Penny's post here: Our Crazy Adventures in Autismland

The GF/CF Lunchbox

I had a really wonderful opportunity last month to teach a little class about food sensitivities. I shared our family's stories, (see food sensitivities part 1 and food sensitivities part 2,) and demonstrated some really delicious chicken recipes that we have run across and found helpful with our son. One of the moms that was there asked me what I put in my son's lunches that he takes to school. I had a couple of ideas ready, and I thought I would post them here, along with afew other things I have sent him with. Some of these things will seem odd, like the pasta with peas stirred in, but since this is the main way that I can get green things down him, I take advantage of that, for sure. Every child will tolerate different things of course, but I hope that this list helps some parents out with ideas.

* I should probably mention that my son's lunches are more than just GF/CF. They are also corn, soy, sugar, additive, preservative, and coloring free.


Special things I make for his lunch

pizza
brown rice or Lundberg's brown rice couscous cooked in veggie broth, salted, with peas added
rice flour tortilla with filled with flavored re-fried beans
falafel
chicken nuggets (recipe adapted from eatingglutenfree.com)

Leftovers from dinner
making extra dinner is a great way to have an easy ready made lunch

chicken soup made with rice
chili
tortilla soup
stir fry
brown rice pasta (he won't eat spaghetti sauce, so he gets earth balance spread on his noodles with salt added, often with green peas or mix veggies stirred in.)

Other
things I add to above listed main courses

apple slices
carrots
raisins
peas
green beans
olives
cucumbers
green pepper strips
all natural potato chips
GF/CF muffins
GF/CF crackers (homemade 'fake' graham crackers or store bought rice ones)

I'm sure I am forgetting some things... I will add as I remember. I always send my son with his little klean kanteen full of filtered water as well as a healthy "suits his system" meal.

The Potato Starch Caper

We use potato starch ALL the time in our gluten free baking as opposed to corn starch. Our local health food store is called Good Earth, and we can buy potato starch there in the bulk section. When we buy flours/starches in the bulk department, I always worry that the flimsy little bags will get holes. I am happy to be creating less waste, and so I am just careful with them and normally we don't ever have a problem.

One day recently our little Eli was helping us shop at Good Earth. He had a child sized cart that the store provides, and he was pushing our items all around the store. When it was time to put the items up at the check stand, he had to do it unassisted. (He is going through a big "I do it myself" phase.) That was fine, until he decided to grab all three of our bulk flour bags at once. Two of them made it to the check stand, and one of them made it to the floor. The potato starch bag broke open, sending it all over the floor, and even on the black boots and the bottom of the pant legs of the woman in line.

I explained to the checker that our son had made a mess with a flour bag while trying to help, and I apologized to the poor woman in line. They were all really nice about it. It was cleaned up in no time, and we got another bag of potato starch. The woman in line was making comments about how cute our son is and seemed completely cool with everything. That is when the checker asked me if the woman was my mother! I don't know what she was thinking, but I guess the woman was about 30 years my senior and was being extremely nice about the whole thing.

"No, just a poor woman we covered in potato starch," was all I could say!

Food Sensitivities part 2

Last summer I was ill. The ache in my stomach was constant, although sometimes it was just a "dull" ache, and sometimes more stabbing. Often I was very tired. I didn't seem to have the energy to do much of anything.

I went to a specialist that calls himself "The Gut Whisperer." After moments in his office he ordered a full endoscopy procedure. I think the gallon or so of nasty stuff I had to drink was the worst part. It was hard to keep down. After the whole thing was over, he told me that it looked like possible celiac disease, so he would send the biopsy he took to the lab and I would see him in his office later to see the results.

I went home and for the next week or so I tried to avoid gluten. I thought I felt myself starting to get better. Imagine my shock when I went in to see "The Gut Whisperer" again the next week, and he says that the results of the test were negative. I told him about my dietary experiment, and he said that "non celiac gluten intolerance" may be the cause. He did not seem to think that eating gluten free was a good treatment method. He sent me home with a recommendation for probiotics and some little pain pill prescription, and the advice to "eat whatever I wanted."

I was so confused. I did not want to put a band-aid on an inner wound that he would not seem to fully acknowledge. I went home angry and drowned myself in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that caused me to spend hours in bed that afternoon. That is when I decided to ban gluten and "The Gut Whisperer."

I ate gluten free for months, and I was mostly doing great, but I started noticing those little crampy aches at times. I was starting to suspect dairy as the cause.

It was at that time that I heard some interesting stats from friends. (Of course I do not have sources for these, they were by word of mouth, but they made me think.)

-45% of people with celiac disease also have a dairy intolerance.

-People with celiac disease are 40% more likely to have a child with autism.

As mentioned in Food Sensitivities part 1, my son did an allergy screening, and I decided to do the same.



My results were practically identical to my son's!!!

The exceptions are that he has strawberries and celery on his, while I had cantaloupe show up on mine.

Now Eli and I eat mostly the same. (Gluten free, casein free, banana free, peanut free, and as much corn, soy, sugar, and additive/coloring free as possible.) I have to say that I am feeling the best I have ever felt, and I am thinking so much more clearly. When I say that I am thinking more clearly, I mean that my ability to control my focus is improved. I have had trouble with attention my whole life because of ADD.

ADD and autism appear to be related genetically in many families, and in this case I would venture to suggest that in my family the relationship has to do with food sensitivities.

I think that this little "discovery" of mine is NOT an isolated event. While many parents are aware of their child's food sensitivities, are they having themselves tested for the same food intolerance? It would be a good idea. On my new diet, I feel empowered with greater energy and focus to help my son recover, and I wish that for other parents, too. Oh yeah, and I also urge parents to take a lesson from my experience and find the right professional to do the testing, like one that actually believes in food sensitivities and offers alternative allergy therapy for long term treatment.