Gluten free diet blog

For the past couple of weeks DD (age 2 years, 11 months) has been waking upin the middle of the night. She’s not particularly active when she does it,but she loudly babbles to herself, thrashes around in the bed, and laughsfor no apparent reason. This goes on for an hour or two. Then she is verygrumpy and tired when it’s time to get up in the morning. I’m trying tofigure out what the problem might be since she used to be a pretty goodsleeper. I have been tinkering with her supplements a bit lately. She is onthe Freeda B-12 lozenges (100mcg/each) and I raised her dosage in the middleof last week from 100 to 200mcg. Also three weeks ago I started giving herGSE because of suspected mild yeast issues. I’m reluctant to discontinueeither because we have seen significant daytime improvement in hersociability and learning (I want to get her B-12 even higher). Does thissound like maybe a phenol issue? Or something else I’m not thinking of?

Luca has been gfcf for 3 months. I saw an improvement in attention,eye contact, and verbal skills quickly, but only a smallimprovement. Since then he is doing ok but I attribute much of theimprovements to ABA. Anyway, the big problem I’m having is that heused to sleep 12 hours a night, now gets up at least twice andsometimes is just wide awake for hours on end at night. Any insightson this? I have also noticed an increase in stims (all kinds!) andsensory issues seem worse overall too.

Also - I started Super NuThera last week. Formed poops at last(Yay!), but lots of visual stims, spinning etc.

I am just starting to wonder if it’s worth it. It seems like for asmall improvement there’s a big price to pay. I don’t do wellwithout sleep! And of course when he has not slept well he is verywithdrawn, stimming a lot etc.

Would love if anyone has input.

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!

I was just wondering if anybody has the same/very similar symptoms as my boy. Ifso, maybe we could compare notes. I just think there should be a softwareprogram where we could enter our childs symptoms and match with others.

My son just turned 5, was diagnosed with PDD and is very high functioning. Hehas had his vaccinations and showed symptoms around age 3. They were hard tonotice because he was so high functioning. He had antibiotics once when he was 3days old (a lab error in weight caused them to put hi in intensive care).

Some days I think he is so, so neurotypical but other days it is clear he isnot. His symptoms are:

CurrentlyNever gets sick ! (if he gets a cold it is over in 24 hours)Bad eye contactDoes not respond to name (need to repeat, repeat)Slow language processing (great vocabulary but is slow getting it out)Chews his blanket every night (until totally wet)Mouths objects a lotHand flaps a littleStool is looseVery passive and neutralLow energyDoes not know what to do socially with peers, acts like a clown as a fallbackOn his own agendaDistracted easilyNot very responsiveHe is constantly hungry (always a good eater but more so on the GF/CF diet)He is a solid guy - 42 lbsDoes not appear sick looking (circles under the eyes and pale but not sickly)Good sleeper

In the pastQuiet (never said much but had a good vocabulary), with the current interventionhe is becoming chattyDrooled excessivelyToe wallked a littleAlways had loose stoolOnly one ear infectionAlways withdraws from social interaction with peers

Hair AnalysisAluminium - 14 (high)Arsenic - 0.12 (high)Lead - 1.5 (high)Mercury - 0.66 (high)Silver - 0.42 (high)Tin - 0.34

Total Toxic Representation - 90 percentile

My son has been GFCF for 5 weeks. He seems to be really itchy and can’t stopscratching (esp. at homework time).

For some time (before the diet) he has been very sensitive about anysensation against his chest. He literally caves in and covers his chest withhis hands/arms if I accidently touch him there, like helping him get dressedin the morning or drying off after his shower. Since school-age years, hehas never cooperated having lotions, sunblocks or powder being applied to hisbody.

Does anyone know what the scratching is a sign of, if anything? I keepthinking that I once read something about corn being an issue but I can’tremember.

Sometimes there is a reation to outside irritations that are non foodrelated, esp. bug sprays, paint, solvents, swimming pool chemicals,molds, pollen, dust. Does this happen at certain times of the year? Mychildren and myself react very badly to most of these items in the air,water. Is there anything new in the room? Carpet, paneling, furniturecan be toxic while new. If you can’t pin it down and as a goodoccasional emergency solution try melatonin, a hormone sold at HFS forsleep problems. The trick is to spray it in the mouth, a tiny amountand then within twenty minutes put to bed in a dark room. It won’t workin a lit room because it functions by telling the brain it is time itsleep but only in the dark. Many adults use this product to reset theirsleep clocks after traveling or shift changes, I do. It does work butuse a tiny amount of the adult dose, some people report deep vividdreaming on large doses. Make sure that you aren’t stimulating the brain or body the lasthour before sleep, some food additives and artificial colors causehyperactivity and abnormal excititory states, and I would use a epsomsalt bath before bed to relax. If nothing else works, you might try Tenex, a small dose is widelyused to help sleep and anxiety. It is a blood pressure medicine but hasbeen used a lot in the autistic population, even on very young children.

My 9 year old adopted son’s main prob is FASD, but he has alot of others aswell. He doesn’t have all the criteria for Asperger’s Spectrum because he isnot anti-social. Butttt, I say he has LOTS of “AS Tendancies”.

One thing he is doing right now that drives me crazy is…

Focusing on other’s bad language.As a family we don’t like bad language, but it’s all around us. He ALWAYStells me when he hears it and WHERE he hears it and WHO says it.

HOW CAN I GET HIM TO STOP FOCUSING ON IT?

My 4 year old son had titers checked for the following:Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Diptheria, and Polio.

He has titers for all of them and some of the levels are pretty high,especially the Mumps, Rubella, and Measles. Here are the results:

Mumps score was 3.14 where a score of 1.10 is positiveRubella score was 2.91 where a score of 1.10 is positiveMeasles score was 1.92 where a score of 1.10 is positive

Diptheria score was 0.54 where a score of 0.01 is positivePolio score was 1.12 where a score of 1.12 is positive

I am very concerned with the high levels of Mumps and Rubella,Measles, and Diptheria. I am not sure what steps to take. Is itpossible to bring these levels down? I’ve heard of using high dosesof Vitamin A for Measles but is there anything to use for the Mumpsand Rubella? Any guidance on what to do or treat this would be soappreciated. We have not had a lot of gains on the diet (8 monthsnow, and soy free for 4 months) so I’m wondering if it’s because ofthese viruses.

my son

Has 14 days already with a daily stool very loose; ithas the consistency of paint. DR recommend some testbut they will take a week to know what is going on,can you please recommend me any good way to make hisstool more normal.

I have been giving my son GSE (2drops with squash souce, twice/day) for oneweek, so far haven’t seen “die off” sympton. Any thought why?