How is it working out for you the parent and your kids
I haven’t quite got to the diet yet…but i’m sure its on the list ofthings to do…It sounds stressful and exhausting how long have someof your children been on the diet…do they seem to mind or notice..is it hard to cope with with such restrictions…are the kids allowedany fast food…k hope to hear back from others soon…
Marisol Tua said,
Wrote on January 7, 2007 @ 2:54 pm
It can seem overwhelming at first, but the longer you’re at it, itjust becomes second nature. And yes, my daughter minded a lot notbeing able to eat all her favorite foods (pizza, mac & cheese,rolls, Cheerios - yeesh). She was 9 years old when we started 1.5years ago,& always high functioning, and had trouble accepting thatshe couldn’t eat “what the other kids” and her stepbrother ate everyday.
I made it my personal goal to try to come up with good-tastingreplacements for just about everything she was missing. It was alot of work and $$, and in the beginning a lot of wasted ingredientson “flopped” bread, or homemade chicken nuggets that she hated orwould just eat once and not want once they were frozen/reheated, andjust a lot of yuck-tasting stuff in general that I’ll never tryagain.
I will tell you the sweet treats are the easiest to replace, it’sthe “basics” that are hard, like bread, buns, pizza, milk,cheese… my daughter is lucky in that she’s not allergic to anyfoods so the soy cheeses like Tofutti and Follow Your Heart arestaples for her now.
We’ve been able to eat out by researching ahead as to the “safe”places, our McDonalds has dedicated fryers, we’ve found an Italianrestaurant that serves rice noodles, Outback is do-able if we informthe waiter we have food allergies and don’t bring any bread to thetable; we never order desserts out.
It is hard, can be exhausting, sometimes I felt like I was kitchen-bound every weekend, either that or researching the latest recipeson the internet or keeping ahead of class parties at school orlobbying for a freezer in my dd’s classroom (and microwave) so shecould always have something handy for parties.
BUT, the payoff has been that I have my daughter back. She has gonefrom being almost completely tuned out of the real world, spacey,getting very upset over the most trivial things, having trouble withschoolwork and needing many accomodations to keep her grades up, nothaving any friends, talking to herself and having a lot of strangebehaviors, not being a real part of our family… the list goeson… She now has friends, takes part in her mainstream classroomand has great grades (with NO accomodations at all now), takes onmore and more age-appropriate responsibilities every day, and mostof all is a well-adjusted part of our family now; she’s able toshrug off many many things that would send her into orbit just 1.5years ago; her teachers report none of the problems she had in thepast, she will still get upset if she doesn’t perform as well as shethinks she should (she’s a perfectionist like mom) but she hasclaimed her place in our family and in her little world, and I feelso very blessed for her recovery; a lot of prayers have been saidfor her as well!
Everyone’s child is different and that’s the frustrating thing aboutall of this, I wish there was a magic pill or formula that wouldcure them all, but each child reacts differently to treatments anddiets, and you can just hope and pray for your child to do the bestthey can with what you can do for them. In the end they are whothey are. We can’t take away the fact that our children have theseproblems, but we can do everything we can to improve their qualityof life. This diet and the DAN protocol have been Godsends, and Iwould recommend anyone giving it at least a 6 month try. It maysurprise you!
Shonta Labbadia said,
Wrote on January 7, 2007 @ 8:54 pm
We’re just getting into this diet with my son, who’s also 9 years old. Howinspiring to read all of the progress that your daughter has mad over the lastyear and a half! It truly gives me hope for this. So many of the kiddos onthis list are SO much younger, that I get discouraged that we, too, could havenice results despite Alex’s age.Thank you again!
Marisol Tua said,
Wrote on January 8, 2007 @ 9:15 pm
I believe the earlier you can start the healingprocess the better for the child, but back when Kaycie was firstdiagnosed in 1999 nobody could tell me anything to do about it otherthan group therapy this, inclusion therapy that, blah blah… oh,and ritalin… I don’t want to knock the drugs, but why cover upthe symptoms when you can get to some of the root of the problem (sosays Kaycie’s DAN doc, she was furious when I told her a previousdoc wanted to drug my child). I did let him put her on Stratterawhich helped not a bit!
It’s never too late in my opinion, and again, we are very blessedwith Kaycie’s progress, children are so very different and we canjust do our best for them, right? Sometimes it’s just a lot harderwith older kids because they’re more set in their ways and are usedto eating what their friends eat, and that can be very hard for themto take that away, because, at least in my daughter’s case, shealready felt “different” and singled out as it was.