the diet and other stuff

This past week or so has been busy, but we've managed to get some things done. Our ABA program is progressing nicely. Lewis has gotten very used to the routine of it, and he mastering his tasks step by step. He's able to work 4 and 5 piece puzzles (with non-peg, connecting pieces) and he's imitating some basic nonverbal movements like "arms up" and "rub hands" so we are encouraged.

We also went to the DAN! doctor last week. He took some notes about Lewis and then encouraged us to try the gluten free, casein free diet (also known as GFCF). He said that 65% of kids with autism respond well to the diet, and because it's not invasive, it is a good place to start. After trying it for 3 months or so, we can try adding back in some dairy and eventually wheat to see if it makes a difference. Many kids have leaps in speech though, so we figured we have to give it a try. The diet eliminates all milk, wheat, oats, barley etc. which is tough, but not impossible. Thankfully, Lewis can still eat beans which are by far his favorite food. We are also supposed to avoid soy.

Here's what Lewis ate yesterday:

Breakfast: GFCF cereal bar and rice milk.
Snack: Juice with liquid vitamin added.
Lunch: Gorilla Munch cereal (dry), potato sticks, pureed fruit (apples & bananas) with a GFCF cookie and marshmallows for dessert.
Dinner: Veggie crisps (Trader joe's version of veggie chips), GFCF pretzels, a good size helping of black beans(which he mostly ate himself with a spork!), and marshmallows for dessert. Rice milk.

Other things he can eat (all different brands much be checked to be sure): french fries, corn chips, rice cakes, any fruits or veggies, a version of Cheerios called PerkyO's and I'm working on a recipe for chicken nuggets. Besides crackers and cookies it's relatively easy, although somewhat expensive! We'll have to train him to eat more potatoes.

Personally, I'm loving the gluten free granola I bought at Whole Foods. It's outrageously expensive, but since Lewis won't eat it I have really enjoyed helping myself. Yum!

We were delighted to get Owen into the sib study with Vanderbilt! He and Lewis will be seen around their birthdays this summer, and then Owen will go back every 3 months or so for progress checks. Full diagnostic evals will be done at 24 and 36 months. The best part is they pay us to participate--not much--but still, it's something!

Our First Steps record review came back and our units doubled. We were hoping for more, but we now have 3 therapists per week for an hour each. I'm really thrilled to have our OT start coming. Our First Steps 'team' seems very solid now, which we're so grateful for.

We have our HCB waiver assessment tomorrow afternoon--another big answer to prayer. Hopefully that will go well.

The other thing I wrote about was the CDC at WKU. We had our first appointment today and it was not impressive! We'll give it a little more time to see how it goes, but it was just short of a waste of time. I did run into another mom of a child with autism that I've been getting to know via Facebook so that made it worth the trip!

So this got really long. But thanks for your prayers. We have really made some headway and will keep you posted. We crammed some other things in this week too, and we'll save that for another post!