Since diving into the gluten free casein free diet for O 6 weeks ago, I don’t know what to think. Behaviorally speaking, I see no change. This is where I had really expected to see significant change. Where I do notice change is in his focus and also language acquisition. Quite significant actually. I am really going to have to consider how much of a difference it has made because the food situation with O has gotten out of hand. I honestly don’t think that it is because the restricted aspect of this diet. We have done a very careful job of allowing him to eat the foods that he wants. Peter’s new trick is to take a gluten free hamburger bun to Dick’s and swap them out in the front seat before O catches wind of it. I took his lead and have been carrying gluten free hot dog buns in my bag when we go to the Museum of Flight or to the Children’s Museum.

We’re figuring out that trying to get O to eat a proper meal is kinda out of the question at this point. So…I’m trying to pack calories and nutrients into him during snacks. And earlier in the day he will eat more. Come dinner, forget it. It’s enough of a struggle just getting him to sit in his chair, furthermore putting food into his mouth, chew, swallow and digest. There are days when I think that the only thing that he will eat is apples and peanut butter. Not any apple and not any peanut butter of course. The apple must be fresh from the fridge, cut into wedges, peeled. The peanut butter must be the extra country JIF that has the blue cap from Costco. Just writing this makes me cringe. I have learned that one should not ever try and substitute a different, perhaps better quality, organic peanut butter, nor should one even consider leaving the peels on the apples. On the upside, the calorie content is good and there is iron and protein in the peanut butter. The apple is 80 calories. The peanut butter is about 190 calories/2T. Over the course of a day he’ll probably eat 3 apples (240 calories) and more than a half a cup of peanut butter (760 calories). That’s 1000 calories. In a web search, I found that a child of his age and activity level should consume approximately 1400 calories. So, that’s not bad. I’ve been telling myself over the past couple weeks that Temple Grandin would ONLY eat pudding and jello for the longest time and she’s now over 60 and a functioning member of society.

I spoke to our doctor about this and she said that we should have seen the benefits by now. This is food for thought as we decide what to do moving forward. If we were seeing huge differences, I would stick to this diet like glue. I just don’t know if it’s worth it. The time, energy, cost, brain space. I’m know that there is going to be a happy medium for us, but I don’t know exactly what that is going to look like.