What a difference a Day Can Make

Maybe I shouldn’t be celebrating so soon, but this morning is so much better than yesterday morning.  Yesterday morning Kevin woke up at 5am going through all kinds of fits.  I got him his medicine and had him go out in the living room, so he wouldn’t wake his brother.  I had no idea what had caused this mood swing.  He did sound stuffy to me, so I gave him a sinus pill and made him something to eat.  After an hour or so he fell to sleep on the sofa.  I weighed all the ideas in my head as to why he woke up that way.  Maybe he didn’t sleep well and was just cranky, but this was too much like the old days before going gluten free.  I have reduced his Risperdal by ½ a pill and I felt sure it wasn’t that.  I can usually tell within a few days if a new dosage is going to work for him even though the doctor always says two weeks and it had been a full week on the new dosage.  Then I remember a conversation with a mother years ago at Coffee Time, which is a get together for parents with autistic children.  She had made the comment that it can take a few days to see the effect of casein or gluten proteins.   She was talking to me about the diet her sons were on and I just brushed it off.  I wasn’t interested in going that route with Kevin.  After remembering that conversation I went to the internet and double checked what she had said to me years ago.  Sure enough it can affect him two days later.  What happened was my brother made cinnamon rolls Sunday morning.  Boy, did they smell wonderful.  Kevin was still sleeping and the last one up.  There were two left and I was feeling guilty for not wanting him to have one.  So, I decide to give him half of one (they were small).  I thought it can’t hurt; it’s such a small amount.   He’s had no gluten for a week and half.  I had been reducing it out of his system again, because he had trace amounts earlier in the month.  He had been doing so well once I’d reduce the gluten out, so I can’t help but wonder if the ½ cinnamon roll was the reason for yesterdays fit in the morning.  I’ll just have to watch him and see how he does the rest of the day.  So far he seems fine.  On a lighter note, Kevin’s respite/teacher worker stopped by to have me sign papers.  He was in the hot tub relaxing.  Yes, a hot tub.  I have it turn down in the summer for him to relax in and if I want to use it I just turn it up a little.  Anyway, she left and when I turned around and look at Kevin he had this odd look on his face.  He looked at me and said “Well?”  I laughed and explained that she would come by another day to take him out.  He seemed fine with that and went back to floating around in the hot tub.

The most balanced diet in my house

I just found out that a friend of mine has to go Gluten Free, because of medical issues.  I’m hoping that if I write about what Kevin eats it will help her with her own changes that she has to make to her diet.  Kevin probably has the most balanced diet in my house.  In the morning he’ll generally have fruit (banana, apple or orange) along with toast or waffles if I’m not fixing a big breakfast.  I try to get blueberries or strawberries when they’re on sale for his waffles just to make them more fun for him.  The boy loves his fruit.  Everything here is gluten free and I found that the gluten free bread has more protein than the old white bread I use to give him.  If I fix a big breakfast its eggs, pancakes (Gluten free again) and bacon or link sausage.   I was so happy when I found out he’d started eating eggs at his Dad’s house.  It makes it easier when we go to breakfast.  I just make sure he doesn’t get any toast when we’re out for breakfast.  When lunch time rolls around it’s about 11:00am in my house that’s if I don’t make a big breakfast and it’s usually sandwiches or hot dogs with chips or French fries.  The reason for the early lunch is because of the boys lunch hours at school.  Kevin’s has been around 11:00am for as long as I can remember.   Now, I have to say that Kevin doesn’t eat large meals.  It’s more like he eats small meals throughout the day.  Around 3:00pm it’s snack time.  That can be more fruit, Greek yogurt, ice cream or popcorn, which I make on the stove top.  I made it that way once for him and now it’s the only way he wants me to make popcorn for him.  I start dinner about 5:00pm and just before I start I’ll make Kevin and myself a salad.  Lately our salads have been with lettuce, tomatoes, carrot chips and sunflower seeds.  One night I added strawberries.  Talk about a salad that was good.  Dinners have become a lot easier now that Kevin eats beef.  Growing up it was always chicken.  I introduced pork one night.  Just sat back and waited to see if he’d eat it.  Ha!  He did without even blinking.  Then one night I found out he’d had steak while visiting his father.  Thank you! He still won’t eat hamburgers, but that’s ok.  At least he’ll eat roast beefs or London broil.  For the longest time he’d gag looking at cooked green beans, but a few weeks ago I put them on his plate without saying anything to him.  After dinner I realized they weren’t on his plate, so I tried it again a few days later.  He ate them.  Dinner’s use to be the hardest time for me trying to figure out what to give him.  Kevin did not like any cooked vegetables at all.  Corn was it!  Fresh green beans out of the garden were fine, so long as they were not cooked.  And because of the fact that he wouldn’t eat cooked vegetables I’d try my best to come up with something good for him to eat with his dinner like grapes.  But you can eat just so many grapes.  I’m so thankful his taste buds are changing and I think they’ll change even more with this diet.  After dinner no more snacks and no caffeine drinks for Kevin at all.  They will keep him up at night.  I don’t even buy any drinks with caffeine in them for the boys anymore.  I like my sleep and if Kevin isn’t asleep I can’t sleep.   No, hard fast rules here other than the caffeine and no gluten.  Just lots of fruit and vegetables and one more thing no multi-vitamins.  Several have gluten in them from my understanding.  Watch out for gravies, soy sauces and malt vinegars.  Good Luck! 

Mistakes, Trails and Tribulations

Mistakes, trials and tribulations are the only words that come to mind for the past couple of days.  Saturday Kevin had a meltdown.  One of the worst ones he’s had in a long time.  It took a while but my brother and I got him through it, but I needed to know or understand why it happened.  I hate just saying it’s his Autism when there was nothing different for him that day.  Usually I can find a reason if I look hard enough, so Sunday morning I did some more research.  Everything I have been reading has been based on Celiac Disease and trying to understand gluten.  Not a lot of the Autism & Gluten issues are covered in the book I have.  I found a book for Autism and ADHD going gluten free and discovered that I was suppose to remove the gluten slowly.  You treat it like an addiction which was my mistake again.  I had read about the addiction in the book I have, but never thought about how fast I was removing the gluten from his diet.  So, the trails on Sunday were giving him pancakes with gluten.  It was unreal.  All day long he was fine.  Monday rolls around and he had no gluten all morning.  Around 1:30 that afternoon he started to have another meltdown.  I saw it coming and gave him his medicine a little early.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to get into his system in time to help him, so I gave him a handful of croutons with gluten.  Before I knew it he was his normal self.  Again today at the same time he was starting to go downhill.  I gave him only 3 croutons and so far he’s been able to manage with just those 3 croutons.  I guess that’s my tribulation.  What I don’t want is for him to figure out that if he has a meltdown he’ll get gluten.  Tomorrow I’m going to try to give him his afternoon medicine an hour early and see if we can get by with just a little gluten on Friday.  Keeping my fingers crossed.   The good news is I just found out that Kevin can start with his Respite worker any day now and she just happens to be his teacher.  So, we’re going to sit down, go over the calendar and see what days she has available to work with Kevin this summer.  One prayer has been answered.  Thank you.