You are currently browsing the monthly archive for December 2008.
The Before
We keep things pretty simple around here for the holidays. Both my husband and I have small families, and each of our siblings lives out of town, so it’s usually just grandparents. One set on Christmas Eve, the other set Christmas Day.
Keeping it simple is the en vogue way to be these days. For once I think I was ahead of the trend on the simplicity during the holidays bandwagon. I haven’t gone overboard with gifts and I don’t pressure myself to buy for every single person that is involved in Chee’s education and therapies.
I kept the decor to a minimum as well. Ess is a lean, mean destruction machine. Our tree (so scantily clad above) has been knocked over more times than I care to acknowledge. I don’t have a ton of Christmas decor, but I like what I have and want to preserve it (and my sanity) for the future.
I did ask Chee this year if there was anyone she wanted to give a Christmas present to and she picked her OT and her piano teacher. I think she picked her piano teacher because she and I went shopping right after piano lesson where Chee had just received a token gift (a bust of Schubert which Ess has claimed as her own – hysterical).
She wanted to give each of them a Christmas tree as their present, but I pragmatically and frugally steered her toward a selection of ornaments instead. I loved watching her ponder her choices. Nothing impulsive and she chose two very cute ones that both recipients seemed please with (both are young and newlyweds and probably a bit scant on Christmasy schtuff).
Christmas has been so much more fun this year. Chee gets so much more about it than she ever has in the past. (By it, I mean the gift giving part; I haven’t even tried to explain the religious aspect yet. One concept at a time….) And Ess, my goodness, Ess gets everything. You cannot slip anything past her. Neither was able (or interested) in giving us Christmas wish lists. When asked what she wanted for Christmas, Chee’s usual response was “lots and lots of toys,” but sometimes she’d ask for a “book” and “Christmas cookies.” Ess’ responses varied from “Christmas” to “hair” to “Jingle Bells.”
I am off to dreamland. But I wanted to least take a moment to wish all my friends and readers in bloggy land a very Merry Christmas!
Last time I wrote about the GFCF et. al. diet we’ve been doing with Chee was 17 days ago. At that time, it had been 17 straight days of elimination/rotation.
I lasted 4 more days and cried Uncle. I appreciate the many kudos for sticking to the diet, but after awhile it got to be too much. There were also some concerning things.
First, her belly rash only briefly went away and then came rip-roaring back. Finally, I did 3 straight days of hydrocortisone cream on her belly, several times a day, and the rash left and has not come back. Hydrocortisone has not worked in the past on this rash, not sure what made it different this time, except maybe that I did it longer and more frequently. At any rate, it’s been gone for about 10 days now. Quite nice.
The other concerning thing was Chee’s beginning obsession with food, particularly fruits. Couple this with the lack of grains in her diet, and it seemed about all there was to snack on was fruit. What was especially concerning was the quantities she was eating. For example, one particular “apple” day, she ate 7 (seven!!) servings of apple. She couldn’t get enough. Seven servings in one day cannot be good for her. Four applesauces, 1 whole (large) apple and 2 apple juices. She refused other fruit options that day.
The next day was “strawberry” day and she was on her way to working herself through a 2nd quart of strawberries when I declared, Enough!
Common sense tells me that a variety of food throughout the day/week is healthier than loading up on one day. Doesn’t it just seem that 7 servings of apple over the course of one week would be better for the digestive tract and for our overall nutrition?
At that point I dropped the “rotation” part of her diet but kept with the elimination of the foods that she had tested as reactive to on her IgG test.
That didn’t last long either, though, and soon after I began to reintroduce many of the ones that I just didn’t feel were true issues. Like oranges, rice, corn and mustard. Over the next week I reintroduced just about everything, including eggs (which I previously thought might have caused her rash to flare up again), and saw no change in her behavior and no return of the rash.
My plan was to reintroduce dairy (casein) and wheat (gluten) while she was on Christmas break from school.
Chee had a different plan.
We were at my Mom’s and she had set out a plate of raw veggies and Ranch dip. Chee does love her some veggies and before you know it she’s got the dip and she’s ready to go. I just didn’t have the energy to say no to her.
No rash, no nothing.
Next day I let her have all the milk and cheese she wanted.
No rash, no nothing.
That continued all week. Thursday was her last day at school and so I decided to give her some gluten and see how it goes. She hasn’t had Chik-Fil-A in months, it was one of her favorite treats, so I figured it was a good place to start.
No problem. No reactions.
Friday she had several pieces of bread throughout of the day (she was so THRILLED to get to eat bread again!!).
No rash, no nothing.
Friday night she asked for a peanut butter sandwich for dinner, which I gave her. She did have bright red cheeks later and her belly felt bumply as well. I wasn’t thinking when I let her have peanuts which was, of everything, what she had the single highest reaction to on the IgG test.
My gut tells me that, if anything, it was the peanuts and not the bread. I’ll keep peanuts out for awhile longer just to make sure and then try her on them again and see if she has the same reaction. I’m not sure what red cheeks mean, but I’d like to avoid a recurrence of that awful itchy belly rash.
So what am I to make of this?
I can’t say I saw NO changes in Chee after we eliminated gluten and casein. We did. The non verbal language (head shaking and nodding), the conversations, the eye contact. It seemed to happen shortly after we eliminated those foods. The areas [we thought] we saw improvement were not dramatic right away. They were, in fact, already emerging. Could the diet have tipped the scales a bit to spring them fast forward? Who knows.
The changes we have seen in Chee in the last six months have been dramatic. Children who have the characteristics of Hyperlexia tend to experience dramatic gains in language between age 4 and 5. Chee turned 4 in July and we began the diet in September. Her gains could be just what was on the horizon regardless.
I have to lean toward thinking that it’s that since, upon reintroduction, there has been no regression of communication. Or anything.
Part of me wants to call this a failed experiment, but I am going to take a different attitude about it (if for no other reason than to console myself on the amount of money I spent).
My approach will be to focus on what we gained from our 3-month dietary experiment.
- We know Chee does not have any major food sensitivities.
- We broke her of her ice cream addiction.
- We have acquired a taste for many new foods we might not have otherwise discovered.
- We are much more committed to natural and organic foods.
- I got a new Cuisinart out of it.
I’m glad we’re back to a “regular” diet. We had pizza for dinner tonight. Chee was in heaven. We all were.
There’s a lot of context I could provide here. Like how I overheard Chee and Ess discussing making breakfast. How Chee tried to force me out of the kitchen so she could do it all by herself. How I insisted I stay but promised not to interfere.
But the only thought that ran through my head as I witnessed (and photographed) this breakfast making adventure was:
motor planning issues my ass.
It’s been a bit chaotic in these parts lately. My hard drive died and has been replaced but I can’t seem to re-install stuff so it’s being shipped off for THEM to do it. Whilst I think the heavens that I had recently backed up my pictures, I’m kicking myself for not doing my other important documents at the time. What, I couldn’t spare 45 more seconds to drag a few more folders over to my blessed, much loved external hard drive?
Sigh. I have some serious rebuilding to do. I am not happy about this. It’s my own fault. Lesson learned. Let me reiterate that I thank the heavens I didn’t lose the pictures. I can’t re-create those.
Nor can I recreate the wide-eyed joy expressed on Chee’s face last Sunday afternoon. I did not take my camera to this event, but how I wish I did.
The local dance center, you know the place where everyone sends their kid for dance lessons, does an annual production of The Nutcracker – All Jazzed Up. It’s different, but in a good way. And at 5 minutes down the street, and $8 a ticket, a low-risk way to introduce Chee to the beauty of The Nutcracker.
Chee loved the show, she watched intently, except for sometimes turning her face into my shoulder and saying, I’m a little bit shy of the nutcracker.
I’ve yet to figure out why she does that. She often will say she’s a little bit shy of her Daddy when he gets home from work, or of Grandma when she first arrives for a visit. Part of me thinks it’s the way she expresses that she’s so excited, almost over excited, and she’s trying to deal with her emotions. She is strongly attached to her Daddy so I could see her being emotionally happy at his arrival home each day.
She is also deeply affected by music, she doesn’t just listen, she listens. Perhaps the music was touching her. I don’t know.
I digress.
The 20-minute intermission threw her for a loop. It was unexpected and she was unprepared. She thought the show was over and that it was time to leave. I thought she was going to get upset, but when the lights dimmed she was content to keep watching.
As we left the auditorium after the show, the dancers were milling about meeting their family and friends.
And that is when I wished for my camera.
Chee was wide-eyed and beaming looking at the girls. She said, Oh, Mommy, can I say Hi to her?
The teenage girl she approached with, seriously, a mile-wide smile on her face, handled the adoration beautifully.
It was spectacular to watch Chee so connected and engaged after the show. I’m seriously considering taking her to the Real Deal next year.
Despite my computer mishaps, we are enjoying the festivities this Season.
I hope you are too.
Chee informed me she wanted to buy a small, little Christmas tree. I needed some things at Target anyway, so off we went.
Once inside, we found a table top Christmas tree. Nearby was a display of small ornaments. I told Chee and Ess they could each select two ornaments for the small Christmas tree.
As I busied myself removing the handfuls of ornaments that Ess kept tossing in the cart, Chee quietly studied her options.
Here is what she chose:
Life has been moving along steadily of late. We made it through a lovely long holiday weekend that included not only Thanksgiving, but Ess’s 2nd birthday (and a small party), and Sunday my Mom and I took the girls to see the Radio City Rockettes Christmas Extravaganza (touring show). Chee loved the show. Ess loved the chairs.
Some interesting (to me at least) things to note.
Chee has begun this weird little questioning thing. Sometimes it’s cute, but usually ends up annoying. It goes like this:
Chee: Is it morning out, or not morning out?
Me: It’s morning.
Chee: Can I have breakfast, or not have breakfast?
Me: Breakfast.
Me: Chee, time to brush your teeth.
Chee: Is it time to brush my teeth, or not time to brush my teeth?
Chee: Does Ess have a poopy diaper, or not have a poopy diaper?
Chee: Can I play with my dollhouse, or not play with my dollhouse?
Me: Yes.
This goes on all day. No matter what she asks to do, or what I tell her to do, I get this question, or not, response. Today I asked her, Chee, what is up with all these questions? She responded, Are these questions, or not questions?
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Ess got a new baby doll and all the accompaniments for her birthday: bassinet, stroller, carseat, etc. SInce Saturday, all I’ve done is listen to them fight over that damn doll. Generally I allow whomever has something first to play with it, but since this is a brand new gift I’ve been defaulting to saying the doll belongs to Ess and Chee has to let her play with it. (To which of course I hear, Is it Ess’s turn with the doll, or not Ess’s turn?)
When it’s one kids birthday, I don’t buy the other kid a gift. I don’t think recognizing that today is your sibling’s special day is too difficult of a concept. The grandparents feel differently, however, and as I can’t micromanage every little thing (try as I might…), I just let them do it. My only request is that they don’t make a big deal of it.
Well, I have to admit, I’ve never been so grateful for the gift that Chee got from one of her Grandma’s. It’s a new Barbie (Wedding Barbie, no less) because whenever Ess takes it I get to say that it is Chee’s new toy and Ess has to let her play with it. Believe it or not, this is working. It seems to diffuse the battle royale, at least temporarily. I have to say that about 42 million times a day though.
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We’re eating a lot of fish. With rotation dieting, there is a chicken day, a pork day, a turkey day, and a beef day. Every day is fish day, though, as long as we don’t eat the same fish every day. So as not to eat beef or chicken or whatever at all 3 meals, I’ve been cooking more fish. I’ve learned tilapia is yucky, fresh is usually better than frozen (at least with white fish), and as long as you call it flounder, Chee will eat it. Unless it’s salmon which is acceptable called salmon. Anything else must be called flounder (aslo known as Ariel’s friend: Is this Ariel’s friend Flounder, or not Ariel’s friend Flounder?)
Along with eating all this fish I have learned that I’m sick to death of eating so much fish. I mean, I like it, but EVERY DAY???? No, I cannot handle it every day. Tomorrow we’re having pork roast. I need a break.
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It’s been about 17 days of elimination of the “offending” foods from Chee’s diet. We are pleased, and impressed, with the changes we’ve seen in her language and behavior. I really could write a whole post just about that, but my heart’s not in it. I just don’t want to go on and on about how much “better” she is. Maybe the word isn’t better, I don’t know. I just know that she is something different in a good way. But she’s still Chee. Saturday I made a birthday cake which contained eggs, and Chee tested as reactive to both egg yolks and egg whites. Her rash came back nice and robust the next day. Fortunately, there was no other side effect.
That is all the randomness that I have for one day (or is not all the randomness?).
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