I thought buying the membership for the Feingold diet was going to be the answer to everything I was looking for. However, the last few days have been really tough, Tough, but great learning experiences. A little bit ago I strongly believed Jordan was having an issue with casein because when he was re-introduced to the macaroni and cheese his behaviors started to regress. No worries I thought, I would just remove it and any other dairy product he may get which was not much. But things continued to go south. Then I came to the conclusion that maybe giving him the supplements for calming was having an adverse effect on him because that is what the diet is supposed to do. But that did not resolve the problem either. There were a couple of things I added to his diet that he didn't consume at the time his behaviors were improved. Those were the french toast sticks with agave syrup, chicken fried in white flour instead of coconut flour and lemonade. To be honest, I was doing better winging the diet because most of the foods approved that he can have that he used to eat is not showing the results they should. But it's still good information to have.
Once I started to see regression, I thought I should remove the flour and juice, but one at a time. I noticed that after not having fried chicken for a couple of days, he had an extremely chaotic morning after drinking the juice. This is exactly the reason why I did not want to remove them both at the same time. I wanted to be sure I could pinpoint which one the culprit was. I will go on to say that even though I think the 28 grams of sugar per 8 oz. was the main issue, looking up the brand of flour I used has chemicals in it that requires those in the state of California to take notice. Proposition 65 alerts them that there are chemicals in certain products that cause cancer, birth defects and other reproductive harm. Chemicals are in the flour that is supposed to be free of the top 8 allergens. I'm not sure I would have found out that information if I hadn't of clicked on the first website that popped up to find out its nutrition facts. And being as though chemicals, cancer, defects and reproductive harm are all in the same sentence, this is something he will not ingest ever again
Getting back to the topic at hand, I felt it was just the best idea if I removed everything with high amounts of sugar in them. Which consisted of the juice, and the agave syrup at 16g. Because of that I removed the french toast sticks that had 3g of sugar which is just a little more than the oatmeal which contains only 1g. I found it was kind of odd that he did so much better on the oatmeal and coconut milk because the oatmeal wasn't on the approved foods list. Upon speaking with others on the FB Feingold diet page, I found that the list is a compilation of foods parents requested to be looked into. So something may be okay to give him, like the numerous supplements he took or the oatmeal, even though it is not listed. That information was good to know but somewhat of an inconvenience if I don't see something listed. The procedure to have the product in question researched is simple, but will take awhile to get results. I'm happy not giving him all of the supplements I was giving him before and to be completely honest he is doing better without them. I'll just continue with the enzymes, probiotics and cod liver oil until our next visit. Even though some of the supplements he took were on the list, I want to stick with just those because the other day I added in the yeast aid because of it being apparent in the past he had yeast overgrowth. After three doses of it I saw a major regression as far as his behaviors go so he won't be getting that anymore.
Admittedly, one of the best things to happen during this time is the fact that there is no delay in his body's response to what he is ingesting. It only took one dose of the yeast aid to see a reaction, but it just took me a little time to put 2 and 2 together. I'm not sure if this is an indication that his gut is healing, remaining the same or if taking the supplement for the biofilm removed it and he can get full use of what he is taking. I still haven't been able to reintroduce the bone broth to help heal the gut lining because Feingold is still working to make sure it can be put on the approved foods list. There are other things I can implement to help repair the gut, like the addition and slow increase of fermented foods, and not necessarily have to go with the GAPS diet. Ultimately I will just wait until we go back to the DAN doctor before I make a real decision on it. Hopefully she will be able to tell me what I can do or direct me to who can. So as of now he is still only getting the same few things to eat. Trial and error has guided me to what foods would be good and what wouldn't, however, finding recipes that I think he would like are not very easy. I did find a brand of hot dogs he could have. Two hot dogs on 2 buns with spicy brown mustard would make for a 8g sugar meal. That's less than the one banana per day snack he gets at school so I think it's something I can aim for. As much of a struggle as this is becoming, I can only be grateful for the information I am receiving.
"Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NIV), Not only am I learning more to pass on, it truly keeps me humble because the moment I think I got it, God asks me "Are you sure?"
