No Gluten No Dairy....No really

So, it was a fateful day that I learned about diet, hope and how they tied together.
 

I will continue to tell you that God put the right people in my path - He and he alone is directly responsible for all of our success and everything we have learned.
 

On this particular day, I was still reeling from learning Lindsey's diagnosis less than 24 hours earlier, and I was conducting interviews to fill a sales spot on my team. The person that I met was over qualified for the position, but like me was chatty and we instantly found many things that were off topic to talk about.

When I mentioned that my daughter had been diagnosed ASD the day earlier, her response was shocking "Oh, my son too". Her son was a teenager and she had learned many truths that helped her son thrive. She went on to explain that Lindsey likely had food allergies that were causing many of her issues- this dumbfounded me. I learned that Gluten and Dairy (Caisen to be more exact) were issues for many kids with Autism and that those foods lead to many of the symptoms.

 

I'm going to be honest- my very first reaction to this was "What? How? What do you eat?" All I could think was no grilled cheese, pizza, hot dogs, cheerios, yogurt, goldfish, Milk..... yikes, her entire diet was no longer available. It definitely took some adjusting to think about what I could buy. I knew it would be hard but I had watched close friends of mine deal with many food allergies with their kids. Those friends provided inspiration that we could be successful in this new diet.   

  

I was definitely intrigued, I promise within hours I was reading a stack of books at Books-A-Million. To my shock I learned this had actually helped these kids. I was ready to go grocery shopping and my newest mission was to create a gluten free/ dairy free home.

Now the truth of the matter is that making her diet GFCF wasn't all together that hard, but our family is not on her diet, changing my habits, my husbands habits and  my sons habits - that was much more challenging. But Lindsey- she was only 3 and would eat whatever I gave her, I had full control and a willing participant. Grocery shopping took longer, planning meals became more difficult, and going to restaurants often meant I needed to prep something for her to snack on or supplement her meal with, but all of this was doable. Society today is VERY accommodating to the gluten free cause and food allergies in general, over the last 2 years the market has become quite expansive in options, heck even cheerios are now made in a Gluten Free variety.

Now this is the "cool" part, within 2 weeks Lindsey started recognizing her name again and responding to single word instructions. She would occasionally have lasting eye contact and I could see progress. And the turning point was when she felt pain. I realize that sounds odd, but I had a three year old that never cried, she could bloody her knees playing and then just get up and keep going without flinching. I had always thought it she was just a tough little girl, but in my massive binge reading helped me learn of the opiate effect. These foods often metabolize into opiates for these kids - leaving them with a much higher pain tolerance. So three weeks into our diet change Lindsey walked across the living room floor and stepped on a toy, when she did she lifted her foot, looked at me and said "hurt me". My daughter was on her way to getting better and those two words proved it. She said these words at a time where she wasn't talking and they made sence, they were a reaction to a cause and effect moment and I knew that we were on the path to her recovery.  

 

 

This is the first GF CF Cookbook we bought,

there are so many but here is a starting point if you want one.