A Few Bad Days Can Change Our World

A few bad days is what Ben has had. He's been very volatile and quick to throw tantrums. The yelling increased, and he was difficult to take out yesterday. Surprisingly, this kind of behavior has now become uncharacteristic of Ben. However, it has lead us to conclude that yes, indeed, these changes ARE related to the fact that we've been feeding him "regular" food and not gluten free/casein free food. Hard to believe that diet can be such an influence but it obviously is. I'm sad for Ben, but maybe he'll become more tolerant of regular food as he gets older. I can only hope. All this thinking about food has led Rob and I to a conclusion that we've only toyed with before. We need to find out if altering Ben's diet even further will help him even more. The Specific Carborhydrate Diet (SCD) is basically free of all preservatives, and artifical colors or flavors. There really is no pre-prepared food that Ben will be able to eat on it. No conveince foods, just a lot of cooking for me. It's really strict. I'm planning on starting it the day after Christmas. I will do it earnestly for one month and if we see a lot of improvement we'll keep going. If not, it's just back to the GFCF diet. Right now I have a 4 year old boy with at least moderate autism with not functional words at all. I don't want him to be severely handicapped for the rest of his life. So I have to try all my options, and concerning diet, this SCD diet is my last one. And that's how I feel about it. 'Bye.

The Classic Halloween 2005 Picture

Update At Last!!!!

Hello Everybody, thanks for being patient with me. I finally got my laptop back from the repair shop and my O key is fixed at last. I plan to be updating my blog multiple times weekly, as I think it really helps me think through my feelings about Ben and my situation in general. As for Ben, the IEP meeting went okay, though not as well as I had hoped, but about as well as I expected. As usual, the administrative official was not very receptive to my pleas about getting more help in Ben's classroom. The Occupational Therapist and Speech therapist both seemed kind of pessimistic in regards to Ben's constant stimming and although they agreed that his cognitive skills have seemed to improve and he definitely works better than he ever has before, if left on his own, he will stim almost nonstop. We interviewed for a place at a different school called Frank Porter Graham, but Ben was one of seven students applying for a single spot in one of their classrooms and I am not even really confident it would be a good fit for him anyway, because of his desire to stim over doing anything else. Ben is off the gluten free, casein free diet, with the help of the enzymes, at least for the holidays. Then I will reasses any regressions that I've noticed or any digestive problems he has and decide what to do in the new year. He had macaroni and cheese for lunch for the first time in four months. He was in heaven. I think I got him to say "nana" today for banana, but boy, it's like pulling teeth to get him to say anything. He really has almost no words at all, although he's definitely improved in other ways. I will write more soon I promise!