conversations

Derek: Mama?
Me: Yes, I'm mama (pointing to myself)
Derek: OK!
Me: OK!
Derek: Why?

He also had a conversation with daddy about a "ellow" (yellow) and orange
block. He even picked out the right colors.

I'm seeing leaps and bounds all the sudden with speech, seems like there is
something new everyday, and his patience level with wanting or needing
something is so much better. I can't remember the last time he was banging
his head into me, I'd say its been a week to two weeks at least.

Things are still going well. Derek had an off day earlier this week but we were able to bounce back to a more normal schedule in just a day, which was very nice.

We visited a friend in Seattle this week and went to the Wild Waves amusement park. Derek didn't do so well, it seems just as he might be enjoying himself something would happen and it would ruin it. I realized though, that with spending time with another 2 year old how much I want to get him better so that he can enjoy things and not miss out.

He had a banana again one day, and I didn't see anything negative with it, no red cheeks, and I gave it to him early in the day so I didn't see any sleep problems. I think I will add back in banana's and applesauce but in small doses and keep it to early in the day. If I see red cheeks or sleep issues I can pull them back out. The problem may have been is that some days he was eating 2-3 servings of the two items in one day.

He's still getting the Super Nu P5P but I'm keeping it a 2cc dose right now. I need to get information on how much he is really to be getting. Also the 2cc is what I can slip into a cup of yogurt. I need to find other ways to sneak it in slowly.

I'm also researching making or buying nut milk and replace some of the soy out of his diet so he doesn't develop a sensitivity to that as well. He really loves his soy yogurt so I wouldn't want his soy milk intake to cause problems.

Tonight while playing with Daddy he said "yellow" and "orange" and then correctly showed a yellow and an orange block to daddy. Not sure if he was just copying or if he really knows those two colors. I've noticed pointing more often, still not a lot but its coming out stronger.

I've ordered Special Diets for Special Kids, and Children with Starving Brains to read. Now that I know that going GFCF is working so well I'd like to see if I can expand Derek's diet some.

Things are about the same since the last update. Derek was a little off on sleeping patterns over the weekend, so that made for some long nights before he would go down. But it hasn't been hard to push that back some, which is a huge difference from a few months ago, something like this would take days or weeks to get him back on a more "normal" clock.

I've been using the mag sulfate cream every night on his back, but having troubles with the vitamins. Once I got up to about 3.5cc in some juice he could taste it and wouldn't drink it. I have the powdered vitamins too, so I will see if I can sneak those into some yogurt since he loves yogurt. He's still not getting his high phenol foods- applesauce, banana's and raisins. I need to look into when I could add them in, or how to rotate them in for him.

His newest learned and remembered word is "rain". It started raining here a few days ago, and he stood at the window and watched it downpour for a good 5-10 minutes one morning, he was pretty fascinated by it. He's also become very interested in his reflection, we have glass/mirrored fireplace covers on both fireplaces and you can watch him playing with his reflection often. He got a new toy over the weekend, its a truck with a car carrier and a car. Derek and his brother Tristan were playing with them yesterday together, I was so excited to see that!

We got his forms for admission for CDRC, I need to finish them up and send them in, and we wait for that appointment. Next is finding a DAN! doctor in our area, there are a few listed but I'm hoping to find others with some opinions on them.

yesterday

Derek had a blast at the beach yesterday, he loves playing in the sand and taking long jaunts (with mom in tow) down the beach. I need to find some new sunscreen for him, the stuff I have makes him break out when I put it on him.

I went with a friend who has a 6 year old son and 1.5 year old daughter. Yet again I had someone say to me something regarding Derek's personality. This time my friend mentioned that her son also would play alone and ignore other kids until he hit kindergarten. When he was around 3-4 my friend had mentioned that a doctor said he was ADD and put him on ritalin. I remember at the time Mothering Magazine had put out an article on ADD/ADHD kids and the Feingold diet, I copied it for her and mailed it to her, she poo-pooed it saying it wouldn't work and she didn't have time to implement such a diet. She also mentioned how hard her child was to handle until they met this doctor and all is well now. I'll make sure to take note of that name, and not be seeing him.

Comparing her 1.5 year old and Derek was such a stark contrast. I know I shouldn't compare but to get and idea of where he should be makes me shake my head. I have two older kids but I've long forgotten their milestones and when they reached them. She was much more sure of her mobility, and just seemed more "sturdy". However, her at dinner compared to Derek made me very glad. Derek is happy to sit and color through a dinner most times as long as the ambient noise is low. Her daughter wouldn't sit still, kept climbing in and out of her booster and onto the table, throwing things down to be picked up again, and just all around acting like a perfect toddler :-)
I will admit its nice having a low keyed child in that situation.

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Derek had his haircut today and it was not fun. He's had thick curly hair from birth and we really only get it cut when its getting very out of control. I had him on my lap and he cried most of the time, I feel so bad, because I'm sure he doesn't understand why this is being done. After it was done, he was fine and got a sucker out of it, so all was good. He always looks so different with a cut, so cute too!

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He slept very well last night, after only about a half hour nap yesterday, he did wake once for a bottle but right back to sleep. Last time we had a busy day like that he was up and down all night.


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Wed. Night
2.5cc of super nu liquid
forgot to use the mag sulfate cream
5mg melatonin

adding in minerals and vitamin

Things are going good. After this past weekend I was concerned when I found out that a visiting relative gave him 3 bites of mac and cheese, but it had little to no effect on him that I could see. Yesterday we started vitamins and minerals, we're using Kirkman Labs Super Nu P5P in a liquid, and I also picked up some magnesium sulfate cream. Just a tiny tiny little dab is equal to what he was getting in the bath with the epsom salts, and since its a cream it doesn't wash off like it does in the bathtub. I'll keep a record of it and his reactions here for comments on it. He's still on no phenols but has taken to eating pears! Any new food is good news. I think we'll give peaches a try next. Then maybe he can consider adding in vegetables, that's a big maybe. I've been a bit concerned about his speech, I'm not sure what to make of it. He has these long drawn out conversations with us, but I can't understand but two words maybe. I feel like he's really trying to tell us something. Last night I was sitting with him while watching Blue's Clues and he was mimicking the program, yelling out "a clue!" or "right there!" and "notebook". He would look at me to tell me about it, and its almost like it was serious work to get that to come out of his mouth. Almost like he had the thoughts in his head but he couldn't formulate them into words. I wish I knew how to make it easier for him. We're heading to the beach today, last time we went he did good, he really likes sand. Hoping today will be a good one as well. --------- Tues night 2.5cc lemon-lime super nu P5P- no reaction that I could see 1 gram mag sulfate cream- got extremely hyper right after I put it on, could have been since he was over tired too, will see how it goes tonight

Its been a long time

But I'm back! Things have been going well, it really has been amazing seeing how well the GFCF diet is working out. Derek adds 1-2 new words a week, though still doesn't always use all of his learned words often. Last night he sat on my lap and had a good 5 minute conversation with me, all in babble! Its great to see him doing that but I just wish I knew what he was saying to me. For the last two days we've pulled high phenol foods from his diet as well. He still has the red cheeks and dark circles under his eyes and those both usually indicated high phenol issues. So right now no more grapes, raisins, bananas, and applesauce. Of course the only fruit he was eating. *sigh* But they say that the foods they crave could very well be the ones that they are allergic too or have problems with. Next would be soy, and that will be interesting. Derek took to soy milk very well, I was surprised. But he just loves soy yogurt. Since cutting out the high phenol foods two days ago he's slept through two nights. He had been doing great then started waking again, or waking up around 5-6am only after 5-6 hours of sleep. We are still in waiting for an appointment at CDRC for an evaluation. Plus I need to get a list together of testing he should have done and present it to his pediatrician and cross our fingers that his insurance will at least cover a good portion of it. I'd much prefer he only get stuck once for any needed blood tests, rather get them out of the way now. That's where we are at now, I'll try to keep this more updated.