Day 16

Another fabulous day! He sat with me for an hour playing different board games, including Chess. He actually said, "Mama, will you play with me?" Of course he didn't play the way adults play, but he made up the game as we went along and was content simply moving the pieces around. He took the balls for the Chinese Checkers game and arranged them into different patterns. He got a really good fine motor workout in! I've never seen him sit still for one whole hour and stay entertained playing games. At one point I leaned over and kissed his head. Normally he would squirm away from me, and then wipe his head where I touched it. This time he looked at me and said, "Thank you, Mama." How lucky am I to get my Mother's Day gift a week early? He melted my heart. What a gentle soul!

Ryan's appetite has returned. He ate well all day, and did not have a meltdown when he asked for something he wasn't allowed to have and we didn't give it to him. In fact, he already knew he wasn't allowed to have it, but he half-heartedly asked already knowing the answer. And it wasn't like he was devastated or felt deprived he couldn't have it. He drank the rice milk again today, but we tried pear juice and he didn't like it. For dinner he ate a hot dog (no bun), an entire boneless chicken breast, and a bowl of rice. He's still not interested in vegetables, but we'll take whatever victories we can get.

DC

Day 3

First day of the diet at school. We spent an hour last night packing food for Ryan to take to day care and to nursery school. We purchased yet another type of "milk", a soy-based almond milk and sent that to one of his schools with him. We were able to get his theraputic nursery school to make a GF diet for him so that will help out a lot. Now we'll just have to worry about his daycare. They are not at all equipped to provide Ryan with a special diet. And it seems like every other day they are having a party for something. They use a lot of carbs for snacks with the kids and we're worried how Ryan will handle having to eat different foods than everyone else.

We did get him a little excited about his "special" foods. We put things that he can eat on a separate shelf in the pantry and we let him pick out what he wants to eat. He really enjoys Glutino pretzels. My husband tried them and said he likes them better than regular pretzels. Yes, the pretzels have salt on them and are probably not the best thing for him to eat, but that is not the battle we are fighting right now. In an effort to get him used to the taste of GF/CF foods we may need to bend in other areas until we get better at this.

I shared the "you're welcome" and "scissor" story from yesterday with a colleague at my job. She is one of the people who gave us the push to start this diet and has been very helpful sharing her knowledge and own experiences with us.

Two positives to share...Ryan's skin was smoother/softer and noticeably less irritated, and his teacher wrote us a note that he didn't drink the almond milk, but that he was calm in school today! Yay!

DC