Gluten free diet blog

I am a newbie parent to the GFCF diet. Been gathering informationabout it for a little while and officially started my son(4) GFCFthree weeks ago shortly after returning from the DAN! conference inLong Beach.

I have seen some improvements in him (better focus, betterenumeration skills and more use of the pronoun “I” are some), aswell as some worsening behavior (more stimming at home and morepronounced unmanageability and tantrums in the evening at home andin public places like stores anytime). In school, teacher says heis calmer (thought he never tantumed or really stimmed at school)and more focused, yet he is talking less (he used to talk and babbleto others and himself almost constantly).

I am not convinced that I have him totally GFCF yet (for example, Ibought original fritos as a snack he LOVES after reading the GFCFDiet Shopping List, yet just read on this group that they arecontaminated in the manufacturing process). So, I see that I willhave to do more checking with the manufacturers before tryinganything.

Now, I have read several posts today here about phenols and I havebecome concerned. My son goes nuts over apples, red/purple grapes,and raisins. He’ll eat one apple, and then ask me for another oneright away. He can eat a whole bowl of grapes in one sitting, and Ican get him to do almost anything I need him to do if I use raisinsas a reward. He also LOVES peanut butter and if he could, he’d liveoff apples and peanut butter for ever!

Unfortunately, I cannot tell if his occassional red ears is due tophenol sensitivity or to the fact that he often has his hands andfingers in and around his ears (he has many sound sentivities andtries to block them out). He does wake up with puffy eyes, butdoesn’t really have them the rest of the day. Also, basicallyeveryone in my family has permanent dark circles under our eyes,including him.

My question: Will/would/can kids sensitive to phenols crave thephenol foods in the same way that they crave gluten/casein foods?Is there a test to determine phenol sensitivity? We just hadbloodwork done that included the “Ig” tests - waiting for resultsnext week - can these tell us? Has anyone out there had actualsuccess in not elminating phenol foods, but helping the sensitivitywith supplememts and/or epsom salt baths. Does the craving forphenol foods diminish as the sensitivity is addressed?

Any information would be greatly appreciated. And thank you all whopost on this site. You are all my heros!