Austin's Autism Journal

Austin turns 5!

2011-01-09T18:51:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy! This is us eating at Pizza Fusion - a wonderful organic place that also carries GFCF pizza. This is the first year he had an actual party with friends. We had a great day!

Delicious Lemon Sugar Cookies

2011-01-09T18:45:00.000-08:00

The fabulous cookies I made (filled with frosting) using a recipe from this cookbook. Did I mention I love this book? I've made several things and not one thing is bad! The donut recipe is such a treat for the kids especially now that I'm equipped with my very own donut pan!

What's an aebleskiver?

2011-01-09T18:38:00.000-08:00

So I got the most wonderful invention for Christmas - an aebleskiver. I found out about it from another mom who has her kids on the GFCF diet. She was making pancake puffs for breakfast and I thought how neat and different for the kiddos. She told me all about the pan and I instantly asked for it. You just pour your favorite GFCF mix in the cups and flip when they bubble up and come away from the edges and presto! These are extra good for kids because they can use their hands and dip the puff into syrup.

A new cookbook and baked donuts

2010-06-27T08:20:00.000-07:00

I was excited this morning to have some baking success. I received a new cookbook from my mother-in-law while we were visiting this past month. So far, we have tried a cookie, brownie, and donut recipe and all 3 are fantastic. The cookies are the best GFCF cookies I have ever tried so I think this cookbook is worth taking a look at. It's called Allergy-Free Desserts by Elizabeth Gordon. The recipes are all made to be GF, dairy free, egg free, soy free, and nut free. I'd say that its pretty perfect for us. Additionally, the author has her own baking mix but she does use a lot of Bob's Red Mill GF flour in her recipes. Anyway, here is a picture of my donut holes. I didn't have a donut mold like the recipe called for so I used a mini muffin tin. I actually filled them too much so they were pretty large but there was one that was perfect size because I had ran out of batter and only filled it about half way.

Birthday Cake!

2010-04-27T18:46:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Kaitlin's 2nd birthday this past weekend and I knew we needed to have something that everyone could eat. I really wanted to try a new cake mix and thought about Cherrybrook Farms but after reading mixed reviews on Amazon, I went with our favorite from Pamela's. I've only made cupcakes with her mix before but they are always excellent. This is more of a dark chocolate flavor cake. What is also great is that the mix can be made several ways all listed on the package including an egg free version which is perfect for us. Beside the egg replacer, all that is needed is oil and water. I made the frosting from earth balance shortening, confectioner's sugar, salt, water, and a tiny drop of red food coloring. I would have preferred not to use it but I haven't had much luck in locating the natural food coloring here. I thought the cake came out perfect - I baked it using the preferred method which said to do so in two 8in. round pans.

Switching to organics...

2010-04-15T13:01:00.001-07:00

I only wish we had it in our budget to do it completely. I've tried to feed Austin as many healthy foods (or at least in my mind) as possible. I have not always had the money to buy certified organic but I try to buy natural foods and foods with no nitrates/nitrites, HFCS, MSG, or basically anything with an ingredient I can't pronounce. However, the more I read and research, the more I've wanted to switch to organics. It disgusts me to read about all these processed foods and know that he's getting some of that in his food. I also don't know how it affects his body. Finally, we have a little extra grocery money to budget and I think with really careful planning and shopping I will be able to swing the most important organic ingredients. The plan is to first switch the fruits and vegetables we eat most with the most pesticides to organic. This link to the Environmental Working Group provides the list of fruits and veggies with the highest level of pesticides. http://www.foodnews.org/fulllist.php

Because apples is the second worst fruit, we are also switching to organic juice and organic applesauce. Other websites also talk about buying milk, meat, and eggs organic so we will also be going that route. While the milk and the eggs are not too much more expensive the meat will be the hardest to stay under budget with. I plan on trying to make meatless meals more often and making them the smaller portion of the meal when possible. For example, I have several recipes that call for a pound of ground beef but come out just fine when using either 1/3 or 1/2 of a pound.

Finally, I'm looking more into snack foods and cereal. Honestly, it's not one of those that are on the must buy organic lists but so many products have the GMOS or some of the other ingredients I listed earlier. Kaitlin is not gfcf so I haven't been as careful with her food though she does eat most of what Austin eats. She likes ritz crackers and when I went to pick some up a few weeks ago, I thought I'd just check the label and sure enough HFCS was in there. Seriously? How does HFCS get into a plain cracker? Annie's has some ritz-like bunnies as well as some that are similar to the flavor of goldfish.

Some other tips to help me buy organic while on a budget:

Comparison shopping: I get all the flyers to the natural food stores (I'm lucky to have 3 close by!) and can compare sales with other regular stores such as Walmart (yes they do carry some organic)

Walmart: Just mentioned, they have some organic products. Bags of organic apples there were $2.48 today compared to regular apples at $1.98. So not a huge difference in price for much better food! They have a couple of other produce items, several canned goods, some dried fruit, cereal, etc... Another good buy there is the Evirokidz products. My walmart carries all the cereals and crispy rice bars.

Local Farmers Markets - We are fortunate to have a market every Saturday morning and I know there are a few local organic farms with booths there. You spend less buying local because it doesn't travel and the you get the bonus of it being fresher

Join a CSA - You buy a share and get a box of food that's in season usually per week. This isn't really an option for us or anyone who is picky and not willing to make use of all the food because then it's just wasting $$$. For more information, visit http://www.localharvest.org/

Buy in bulk - when on sale (and you can either eat it all or food that has a long shelf/freezer life). Amazon has a lot of great organic gfcf products that you can buy in bulk. I have also found a few products at Sam's Club like the Clif Organic Twisted Fruit. I can buy 24 for $11 which amounts to around $.46 a piece compared to around $.70 a piece at the health food stores. I can also make my own fruit leathers but these are great to have around when I don't have time for those!

Coupons - They are not always the easiest to find and of course there are less of these than regular coupons but sometimes you find a good one. You can also visit the websites of products to see if they have any special offers that you can print out. One website - Mambo Sprouts often has coupons for organics. http://www.mambosprouts.com/

Buy in season - this of course only applies to produce but the in season goods will be a lot cheaper and more comparable to the non-organic produce.

Check out local grocery stores for store brand organics - Some stores are now carrying their own line of organics which are a little cheaper than name brand organics. I only know of a few around here but you can easily look around your stores next time you are out. Albertson's - Wild Harvest Organics, Vons (Safeway & Dominicks & a few others) - O organics, etc...

Any other tips???

Banana Blueberry Muffins

2010-03-01T16:49:00.000-08:00

Oops! Another 2 months went by without a single post! I made these muffins a while back and just kept forgetting to post them. These are by far, the best muffins we have ever had. I got them out of a cookbook called Eating for Autism but of course made changes for what Austin is able to eat. I also just received a 5 lb. bag of Jules Gluten free flour so I'm going to try to make them again tonight trying using that flour. On a side note, I made the discovery of Tofutti mozzarella cheese slices today so pizza may be on the menu very soon!

Banana Blueberry Muffins

2 very ripe bananas mashed
1/2 c. brown rice flour
1/2 c. sorghhum flour
1/2 c. canola oil
1/2 c. honey
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla
Egg Replace for 2 eggs
1 tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp. xanthan gum
1/2 tsp. salt.
blueberries

Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another. Add the wet ingredients to the dry. Fold in the blueberries and pour into muffin tins. I usually use a measuring cup to make sure I get them even. Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes. My batter was a little thinner than I would have thought but they rose and browned nicely!

Austin finally gets a chocolate chip cookie!

2009-12-27T11:06:00.001-08:00

A good chocolate chip cookie is hard to find when you are gluten and just about everything else free. I was happy to find a recipe from the gluten free goddess (glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com) and from Alton Brown that fit the bill. No pics today but they did turn out really well.

Mix & set aside:
2 c. brown rice flour
1/4 c. cornstarch
2 tbsp. tapioca flour
1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda

With a mixer, beat until smooth:
1/4 c. sugar
1 1/4 c. light brown sugar
1/4 c. ghee
1/2 c. canola oil

Add and beat until smooth

1 tbsp. Ener-G Egg Replacer beaten with 1/4 c. warm water
2 tbsp. warm water
1 tbsp. pure vanilla extract

Add the dry mix slowly and beat for 2 minutes.

Add in 1/2 to 1/3 c. of enjoy life chocolate chips and stir by hand to combine. Cover and chill the dough for one hour.

Preheat the oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with foil, parchment paper, or nonstick spray.

Form the dough into 2 inch balls. Place on your baking sheet and press down slightly.

Bake approximately 14 minutes.

Once the cookies have cooled you can wrap individually in saran wrap, place in a large ziploc bag and freeze for later.

Spartan Sparkles

2009-11-24T15:38:00.000-08:00

Wow..Wow...Wow. I just saw this on Oprah and wanted to share this. These wonderful high school teenage girls wanted to continue giving back to children with special needs after volunteering at the special olympics so they created the Spartan Sparkles. Mothers of the girls say that their children have just been given such a great gift and they have seen improvements in their confidence. I hope to see more things like this in the near future. They were also recently featured on ABC News as persons of the week. See for yourself by copying and pasting the links below:

http://www.oprah.com/media/20091118-tows-cheerleaders

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhTDWr6Sk94

http://www.spartansparkles.com/

Celiac Light Bread & Pumpkin Corn Muffins

2009-11-01T22:15:00.000-08:00

It was a busy and productive few days last weekend. Austin just started going to school a few more hours a day and that meant he needed things to eat for lunch. So far, I have not really experimented with bread because I haven't heard to many great things about bread but lunch times mean sandwiches. I started searching and found several blogs and websites raving about Tom's Celiac Light Bread. It was even listed on one website in the top 5 best GF bread recipes. The recipe below is exactly as I found it on all websites. I tried it the regular way and the bread machine way and both came out great. Also, I received a recipe for pumpkin corn muffins from my Jules Gluten Free Newsletter. They turned out fantastic. In both recipes I did substitute Ener-G Egg Replacer for the eggs in both recipes.

CELIAC LIGHT BREAD
by Tom Van DemanAugust 20, 2003
1 1/8 cup Chickpea flour, also called Garbanzo Bean flour (I grind my own)
1 cup cornstarch (I use Cream corn starch)
1 cup + 1 Tbs. tapioca flour3 1/2 tsp. xanthum gum
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3 Tbs. brown sugar(Make sure that there are no lumps)
1/4 tsp. creme of tartar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/8 cup warm water (uncomfortable to touch but not boiling)
3 Tbs. vegetable oil (I use peanut oil or canola oil)
2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast

Bread Machine Method
WARNING: Adding more liquids or flours or reducing same could cause the bread to not cook thoroughly on the inside or to be too heavy. Also, I am at almost 6000 feet altitude in Denver area which might cause your bread to be slightly different than mine. First try it as is and then experiment if necessary.Combine all of the dry ingredients in a medium size bowl except for the yeast. Mix dry ingredients thoroughly with wire whisk. Mix together the lightly beaten eggs, warm water, and oil in a separate bowl and thoroughly mix with wire whisk. Pour the liquid ingredients into your bread machine bowl (I use my Zoj). Immediately spoon in your dry mixed ingredients on top of the wet ingredients to make a mound in the center but covering all of the wet ingredients. With a spoon or spatula, make a small depression on top of your dry ingredients (must be dry for the yeast) and immediately spoon in your yeast. Place your bread machine pan in the machine correctly and turn the machine to regular wheat bread cycle and turn on machine. (This dough will need two kneadings in order to get its content to proper consistency.) Do not add any more liquids or flour. The dough will form a sticky ball. With a spatula, scrape down the sides of machine bowl to make sure all of the dry ingredients get into the dough ball. On the rise cycle, use your spatula that is wet to smooth the top of the loaf, if desired. Bake the bread using the medium crust setting. When finished, turn the loaf out onto your wire rack and allow bread to cool or you can slice it while hot (Do not squeeze the loaf too tightly while holding it to slice while hot.) Slice the bread thin with a serrated bread knife or electric knife and enjoy.

Oven MethodTurn your oven to 375 degrees. Combine all of the dry ingredients in a medium size bowl or your mixer bowl including the yeast. Mix thoroughly on medium or low setting. Mix together the lightly beaten eggs, warm water, and oil in a separate bowl and whip with wire whisk until all ingredients are mixed. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with your mixer on medium speed (Use paddle or dough hook). When sticky ball forms, scrape sides to get all of the flours and ingredients mixed together and continue to mix for about 1 minute more. Scrape into a 9 x 5-inch lightly greased loaf pan. Cover with plastic wrap, set in non drafty warm place and let rise until at least double size (approximately 45 to 60 minutes). Remove plastic wrap and place pan in preheated oven. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped with a spoon. Turn the loaf out onto your wire rack and allow loaf to cool or you can slice it while hot (Do not squeeze the loaf too tightly while holding it to slice when hot.)

Pumpkin Corn Muffins

Ingredients:

1 egg (or egg substitute)
1 cup milk of choice (dairy or non-dairy vanilla soy, hemp, almond, coconut...)
1⁄2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
2⁄3 cup pumpkin purée
1 cup Jules Gluten Free™ All Purpose Flour
1⁄2 tsp. salt
1⁄2 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbs. gluten-free baking powder
3⁄4 cup cornmeal
1⁄2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
2 Tbs. flaxseed meal (optional)
Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F static or 325 F convection.

Mix the liquid ingredients and pumpkin until combined. Whisk in the dry ingredients until the lumps are removed. Expect the batter to be a bit thin, but not watery.

Pour the batter into an oiled 8 x 8 baking pan or into oiled or lined muffin pans. Bake for 30 minutes for the cornbread, 20 minutes for regular corn muffins, or 12-15 minutes for mini-muffins. Insert a cake tester into the center of the bread to test for doneness; they should be lightly browned around the edges and firm to the touch in the centers.

Halloween

2009-10-10T07:44:00.000-07:00

oops! I didn't realize it has been 2 months since I posted something! Time really does fly when you are busy. We have moved into our brand new house in another city so it's been a bit hectic around here trying to adjust and unpack.

However, I wanted to share this link of candy free of the top 8 allergens with Halloween approaching. I received it in my gluten free newsletter this morning. I scanned over the list and it seems accurate from other things I have read in the past but of course please read labels!

http://surefoodsliving.com/2009/10/06/gluten-free-allergen-free-halloween-candy-quick-list-2009/

GFCF & Egg Free Banana Bread

2009-08-10T10:10:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I tried a gfcf banana bread that a friend had made from a box mix. It was one of the best gfcf baked goods that I had tried but Austin couldn't have it because of the eggs so I decided that I should give a homemade version a try. I found several recipes all very similar that called for eggs. I decided to substitute with Ener-G Egg Replacer. I'm not sure what happened but the bread came out hard and very awful tasting.

Not one to give up so easily plus I still had more ripe bananas to use, I searched for eggless banana bread recipes. I found several on generic recipe sites and decided to convert to GFCF. Also, the hubby stepped up to plate and baked this batch because he is much better with baking. The result this time was awesome. The bread is really soft and moist. This is the second best GFCF baked goodie that I have tried (coming in second to the wonderful chocolate cupcakes from Pamela's).

3/4 c. All Purpose GF Flour (used Bob's Red Mill)
3/4 c. Rice Flour
2 tsp. Xanthan Gum (check to see if your GF flour blend already has this in it)
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Salt
3/4 c. Sugar
2 Large Ripe Bananas
1/2 c. Applesauce
4 tbsp. Melted Ghee (Purity Farms)
1/4 tsp. Vanilla Extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas well. Stir in the ghee, vanilla extract and applesauce into the bananas. Add the banana mixture into the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients. Mix gently by hand, just enough to form a thick, clumpy batter. Pour batter into greased loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes or until the bread is a deep golden brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

GFCF "Trail Mix"

2009-07-27T13:34:00.000-07:00

I was scouring the internet for snack ideas and came across several who make a "trail mix" for their kids. This is a fantastic idea and adds some variety for us because our snacks usually consist of chips, rice cakes, pretzels or fruit. I made a large tupperware container full of my trail mix and can now store it in the pantry for another great snack.

To make your own trail mix, combine your favorite GFCF cereal(s) with any or all of the following based on what your child likes and can have on the diet:

raisins and/or craisins
nuts
marshmallows
chocolate chips (Enjoy Life)
dried fruit
granola (Enjoy Life)

Computer Time

2009-07-25T12:55:00.000-07:00

Austin doesn't get to play on the computer any time he wants. My husband and I often tell him we are "working on something" when we are online and he wants on. This morning, I let him play while I got ready to take him to therapy. I came out of the bathroom and walked up the computer and was about to sit down when he said, "Austin is working on something."

Dorothy

2009-07-17T15:38:00.001-07:00

We got a betta fish yesterday as a present for Austin. He really loves fish and we thought a betta would be simple enough to care for. We brought it in and got everything set up and then brought him over. What name did he choose? Dorothy - like Elmo's goldfish. It was cute!

We are eating Mac n Cheez

2009-07-09T14:19:00.001-07:00

I found some products by Namaste at a local health food store here. Their products work great for us because they are free of wheat, gluten, corn, soy, potato, dairy, casein or nuts. After I checked their website and emailed their customer service to make sure the pasta's butter flavors were casein free, I picked up their "Say Cheez" which is a GFCF cheese pasta to try out with Austin. It was a huge hit with him. He thinks he is having macaroni and cheese. It's been so long since he's had the real thing, I'm sure he does not remember the exact taste.

My verdict: It's good for what it is. The cheese flavor isn't the greatest but it's not bad and the pasta is actually pretty good. He can't have soy for now so I'm surprised we've found any "cheesy" products. It also helps to add things. The first time I made it, I added ham. Today, I added ground beef. Broccoli florets might be good as well as chicken.

Homemade Mini Corn Dogs

2009-07-02T16:09:00.000-07:00

As I started searching for more easy meal ideas, I came across several recipes for mini corn dogs. I thought that they would be great not only b/c they are a finger food but they probably taste almost normal considering most of what the recipe calls for is corn meal which is in real corn dogs. After google searching, most recipes called for the same ingredients, the only difference being what type of gf flour people used and that some people added a few tbsp. of oil to the batter. I saw some that called for a general GF blend and others who used 2 or more type of other flours. I decided to follow the recipe from Kathi's blog at http://kathi-gfcf.blogspot.com/ mainly b/c I had her two flours on hand and the way she prepared the corn dogs seemed very easy and very little mess.

Mini Corn Dogs
1/4 C garbanzo bean flour
1/4 C white rice flour
1/2 C yellow cornmeal
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg (or egg substitute which we use)
1 c. milk substitute (we used Dari Free potato milk)

Mix dry ingredients then add the egg and milk. Here is where I loved Kathi's method. She says to cut the hot dogs into six pieces each and then put a piece on the end of a skewer to batter and fry. This was great and made virtually no mess. Fry to golden brown. I assume you could also make regular size corn dogs with this recipe using popsicle sticks.

I found that if I put 3 in the fryer, by the time I got 3 more skewered and battered, the other ones were ready to come out. My corn dogs were not as thick as commercial ones but they tasted great. I made an entire package (could've made 2 with the leftover batter) and froze the rest for lunches.

Also, my neighbor came over and said that when she worked at a corn dog stand, they used to fry all sorts of things in the batter but one of the better tasting things was bananas. She said it comes out like banana waffles. Interesting, I just might have to try that one soon!

Jules Gluten Free Flour

2009-06-29T18:52:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure where I first heard of Jules but I've read excellent reviews of her flour and how similar it is to white flour. I ordered a sample packet of the flour a while back but the only recipe included was one for blueberry muffins that called for sour cream. Being the savvy cook that I am (not!) I didn't know of any soy free substitutes so I put the flour away until I could find a recipe that called for the 2/3 cup sample.

Then I revisited Jules' website yesterday and saw that they've added 2 new recipes that can be used with the sample packet. One of those recipes is for pancakes and doesn't call for any ingredients that he can't have or at least that I can't substitute. I'll be making those later this week to review.

Also, I found some awesome information on Kathi's blog at http://kathi-gfcf.blogspot.com/ I was searching around for recipes so I can try out some new things for Austin when I came upon her post for homemade taco seasoning. Like Kathi, I just stopped giving Austin the seasoned meat when we have taco night b/c of all of the added ingredients plus soy in the McCormick's mix. Kathi came up with her own mix using basic GFCFSF seasonings and it comes out EXACTLY like the mix!! I don't want to re-post her recipe but you can definitely find it on her blog.

Recent Conversations

2009-06-12T11:36:00.001-07:00

These are all phrases that were used appropriately but we have never even heard him use them before.

Austin: (looking at something gross) eww, yucky!!!

Austin: (playing with cars) Lighting McQueen and Mater
Me: That’s not Mater. Where is Mater?
Austin: He is not here.

Daddy: Is it this foot that hurts?
Austin: No, this one! (pointing at other one)
Daddy: (kisses it)
Austin: All better

Austin: bye bye Daddy car (when he thought Daddy was going to work)
Daddy: No, Daddy’s car is broken (car battery was dead)
Austin: (looking at a hot wheels car that is the same color as our car) Daddy’s car is fixed!

Simple.Delicious.Chicken.

2009-05-28T19:24:00.000-07:00

Simple is what goes in our household. I'm not a gourmet chef and I probably never will be. I don't have the patience to cook a meal with 10 or more ingredients, half being ones that I've never heard of or are probably to expensive for my budget. Besides that, I have picky eaters in my household! I have seen the following recipe on many sites so there is not really a "source" that I retrieved it from; I just wanted a simple way to prepare chicken one day and I remembered reading about this. Sorry for not posting pictures but I never thought to take any. The outside of the chicken comes out beautifully golden brown and the inside comes out incredibly moist.

Honey Chicken

Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
Honey
Salt & Pepper

Layer chicken in a pan. Season with salt and pepper to taste and drizzle with honey. Bake at 425 for 25-35 min. until done. Enjoy!

Pretend Play

2009-05-20T12:11:00.000-07:00

Austin's therapists have started working with him on pretend play. For kids with autism it is a difficult to produce symbolic play (ie.. pretend that a cup is a telephone) although they may be able to do functional play things such as pushing a toy car or drinking from a play cup. We started with using the most basic things like pretending to eat or feed the baby but now the therapists have been wanting to introduce new concepts like driving a car by using chairs or just squatting or pretending to eat but with no play food. They haven't really done to much of this yet but today out of the blue, Austin took his play golf bag and told us it was a cup with pear juice and that he was drinking. Then he told us it was granddaddy's car and he pushed it around saying vroom vroom. Later he put it on his arm and said it was his back pack and that he was going bye bye. Finally, while he and his therapist were playing with blocks, he lined them all up and said it was a line and then a train, choo choo.

For us this is amazing!!! It was a really neat moment.

Convenience Items I DO buy

2009-05-12T11:50:00.000-07:00

I spent my last post writing about why I don't buy the prepackaged chicken nuggets. This post is dedicated to prepackaged snacks that I DO buy. I find most of these reasonably priced and buy them because after all my son does have to eat and a lot of times he needs to eat on the go. Not many of these products are organic and although I try to buy organic when I can, I don't always have the money to. However, most of the products have limited ingredients and all of them are pronounceable.

Gerber Pear Juice - I've been told and read that pear juice is very easily tolerated and digested. I've only found 2 brands - RW Knudsen at $4.99 a bottle or Gerber at $1.87 a bottle. We stick with the Gerber and as always half water and half juice.

Hormel Natural Deli Meats - It's not organic but there are not any nitrates/nitrites, no msg, no added anything and it says Gluten Free right on the box. They have bacon as well!

Motts Natural Applesauce - If the apples that motts used were organic then it would be exactly the same as Earth's Best organic applesauce.

Lundberg Organic Rice Cakes - I buy the lightly salted ones because I think they need a little flavor but still only 2 ingredients with organic brown rice and sea salt.

Organic Brown Rice Snaps - Organic brown rice flour and organic white rice flour make these. I serve them as chips or sometimes with a little organic fruit spread.

SunMaid Raisins - Like the commercial says, "grapes and sunshine".

Gerber Graduates Fruit Twists - Like a twizzler but with real fruit. I'm assuming these are similar in taste (not texture) to Trader Joes Fruit Leathers. Of course they have more than just fruit in them but no preservatives or artificial flavors and they are cheaper for one serving.

Wylde Pretzels from Ener-G - These are the only GF pretzels I have found that are free of sesame in addition to being free of everything else. They also have a version with sesame.

Mission Tortilla Chips - As much as I would like to buy a different brand of tortilla chips, any that I have found are either made with soybean oil or have sunflower or safflower in them. Some of the Mission ones are done in corn, palm, or cottonseed oil. Other than that they are made with just corn, lime, and salt.

Last but certainly not least, I serve fresh fruit. He likes a little of everything except for bananas and oranges but we stick to apples, pears, strawberries, and grapes. Every once in a while I pick up pinapple, peaches, or mangos.

Why waste your money?

2009-05-05T09:09:00.000-07:00

I'll admit that I'm a sucker for some convenience items on the diet. I'm a busy mom of 2 children, one who is a toddler, and the other who has several hours of therapy and school every day. I need meals that are quick and easy to make. Almost every time I headed to the store, I used to pick up a box of Ian's chicken nuggets. The awesome thing is that these nuggets are free of gluten, casein, soy, eggs, and nuts. The bad thing is that they are about $6 a box and only have 9 nuggets which amounts to a measly 2 servings. When I finally got around to trying more homemade recipes, I discovered a recipe for "McDonald's" chicken nuggets on gfcfrecipes.blogspot.com. The author takes no credit for the recipe as he found it somewhere on Yahoo but I must say these nuggets are great, simple (calling for only 6 ingredients), and much much cheaper than $6 for 2 servings. The downside is that these are fried. However, I don't serve these every day so it works for us in moderation. You'll have to adjust the serving for your child but for my son who is 3, I can make 8 servings on a regular package of chicken tenders. I divide each package into 4 and freeze. Then when I'm ready, I make 2 servings (each about 6-8 small nuggets) out of each quarter and then Austin has 2 ready to heat meals for the week. I could easily make all 8 servings but like I mentioned, they are fried so it's a treat. I also don't know how good these will taste or how long they last if frozen once made. But it's simple so it's easy to do a serving at a time. Here is the recipe:

Chicken - cut up into small nugget size pieces (mine are about the size of chick-fil-a)
1/3 cup gf flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 tsp vinegar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup water

Mix the flour and salt in a bowl. Then, combine the vinegar and soda in another small bowl, quickly dumping it in the flour as it reacts. Then, quickly add the water. Whisk well. Let this sit for about 5 minutes. It thickens. Meanwhile, heat some oil in a frying pan. Mix your chicken pieces in the batter and let them sit in there while the oil heats. When hot, fry until golden brown and cooked through.

Pizza Crust

2009-04-29T18:35:00.000-07:00

Here is another mix that just became a good one for us. I'm not quiet up to the task of cooking from scratch and trying to figure out what substitutions work best so for now I'll stick to trying mixes. I followed the directions on the box for the pizza crust and used egg replacer and a soy free oil. Instead of making one large crust, I made several mini crusts. They don't brown well so I had a hard time making sure they were done but you can't over cook them because you'll end up with a tough crust. The end result, for me, turned out like sourghdough bread on the outer layer and a slight taste resembling a pita pocket (which I have been known to make mini pizzas with so that was perfect). Austin is tomato free right now so I couldn't actually make real pizza but I did try a cannellini bean spread recipe idea that was posted on gfcfmommy.blogspot.com. I added a little bit of spices to the beans and it actually turned out really well. My neighbor even added that she wanted to be invited over for dinner the next time I made them. I froze the extras in vacuum sealed bags but they didn't turn out as good as the first one from the oven.

Pancakes and Cupcakes and Muffins, Oh My!

2009-04-20T20:14:00.000-07:00

We recently got back from visiting our family in the great state of Texas. Both Austin and Kaitlin had lots and lots of fun seeing and playing with everyone. I know trips might be stressful to some on the gfcf diet because it means planning and packing lots of food and/or making sure the place you are going has food or places you can get it. But for me, I was not stressed at all. I have a wonderful mother-in-law who just so happens to be great in the kitchen and she was very excited to cook and experiment with some of the foods for Austin. I'm sad that I didn't get pictures of everything but I would still like to share some good food that we enjoyed.

First are some blueberry pancakes. I'm sure for those experienced gfcf dieters, pancakes might be easy but I had no idea where or what mix to start with. We found Organic Arrowhead Mills Pancake and Baking mix. Most importantly this mix calls only for simple ingredients (egg(substitute), canola oil, honey, water). Our main problem with some of the mixes is that they have soy, sunflower, and/or safflower, or they call for so many ingredients that it is hard to substitute all of them without changing the taste of the finished product. These were great with blueberries, pure maple syrup, and Hormel Natural Choice bacon.

Second are the chocolate cupcakes you see above. Kaitlin was celebrating her first birthday and we did not want Austin to be left out when it came to the cake. We picked up Pamela's Chocolate Cake Mix. Once again, no ingredients that Austin couldn't have and very simple preparation. There is also a frosting mix but I think it called for several tablespoons of butter and I didn't know if ghee would substitute well so we just decided to sprinkle with powdered sugar. All I can say is wow! These cupcakes were awesome and everyone who tasted them agreed that the difference was not noticeable. Austin's cousin even wanted a cupcake instead of cake but of course that could have been because he was eating one. If anyone has had bad cake gfcf cake experience, I encourage you to try Pamela's and I am NOT a spokesperson - they really were that good! One side note: Pamela's products are made in a factory that does process things that have dairy, eggs, nuts, and soy so there is a disclaimer on the package for those who avoid any possible traces.

Our final experiment was for muffins. Again, we used the Organic Arrowhead Mills Pancake and Baking mix. The same ingredients that are added to make pancakes are added plus baking powder, vanilla, and xanthan gum. You can add pretty much anything to the muffins but my mother-in-law chose grated apple (for moisture) and then she made a streusel topping out of brown sugar, cinnamon, ghee, and rice flour. These were pretty good and were frozen for extra breakfasts.

Now that I have a couple of go-to recipes, I feel better that I am able to serve Austin a wider range of food! I also find that the more I experiment, the more comfortable I am with the gfcf diet as a whole.

More Cooking and More Updates

2009-03-15T22:04:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to find the time to sit down and make some muffins with the gluten free pantry muffin mix but with school and two kids, time is not really on my side. Finally I put my foot down and made them tonight. The recipe came from Beth Hillson's gluten free newsletter and was supposed to be for chocolate cherry muffins but I omitted the cherries b/c I didn't have any on hand. The results were so much better than my last attempt even with all our substitutions so I guess I will need to swear off baking from scratch and stick to prepared mixes for now. I can definitely still taste a difference b/w these and regular muffins but these came out so much more moist and cake like than did the other ones. Bottom line, both me and my husband agreed that these were edible for everyone in our family. See recipe at bottom.

Also the other night, I was surprised to see a recipe on Austin's tortilla chip bag. It called for dipping chicken in crushed chips and seasoning and the best part about it was that you dipped the chicken in water, not eggs or milk, before coating so we tried that. I would have to say it tasted like a faux shake and bake and was not too terrible but in my opinion there are lots of better recipes for GFCF chicken. No picture because I didn't think about it. For kicks the recipes is posted at the bottom. I served it with GFCF mashed potatoes and corn.

As for improvements, the only thing I can say is wow! At first, the husband and I didn't know whether or not we were imagining it but several people including some who did not know about the diet have commented on how well Austin is doing. The two major things that we have noticed is a lot less stimming and way more spontaneous language. This is my little boy who a few weeks ago had lots of words but had to be prompted almost every time to say just one or two of those words. He is now using 2-3 word phrases unprompted most of the time and every now and then we will get a 5-7 word phrase with a little modeling. Some of the things he has said recently are: "bye bye daddy", "Love you daddy", "all done diego bubble bath", and "eat dora(cereal)please mama". There are so many more and there seems to be something new each day so we are thrilled with his progress.

Beth Hillson's Chocolate Cherry Muffins

1 box Gluten Free Pantry Muffin Mix
1/3 cup vegetable oil (I used Canola)
1 1/4 cup buttermilk (I used potato milk with vinegar added)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg (I used Ener-G egg replacer)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (enjoy life)
1/2 cup dried tart cherries chopped

Mix oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and egg. Add to muffin mix. Stir until well mixed. Gently fold in chocolate chips and cherries. Scoop into lined muffin pans. Bake at 350 for 20 min. Let cool for 10 min in muffin pan. Makes 16 (or 14 in our case) muffins.

Mission Crunchy Chicken Dinner

2 cups Mission Tortilla chips crushed
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp oregano
1/8 tsp paprika
2-3 pounds chicken (we used tenders)

Add crushed chips and seasoning in large ziploc bag. Dip chicken in warm water and then place in bag. Shake to coat until well covered. Bake in lightly greased dish at 375 for 60 minutes or until cooked and tender. Serves 4.

Baking is hard!

2009-03-06T10:00:00.000-08:00

Grrr... So I've been trying to find some good muffin recipes to start baking so that Austin can have something else to eat for breakfast. I scoured the internet and found a rice flour muffin recipe. I checked and I had all the ingredients so I decided to make blueberry muffins. What a disaster. I think the recipe did not call for enough liquid because I followed everything to a T and it was like dough instead of muffin batter. Then I though well this is GFCF baking so maybe it is supposed to be this way. I went ahead and baked the dough in muffin cups and they were terrible. They stayed the same shape, did not cook well, and of course were awful tasting. To the trash they went and back to the internet I went. I found a good looking banana chocolate chip recipe from GFCFmommy.blogspot.com and once again I had everything to make it. These ones actually turned out well for us but the taste is very different than regular muffins. I almost think they taste like banana chocolate cardboard but I'm not sure if that is how most GFCF bread products taste like since we are new to baking. I made them from scratch and plan to try again with gluten free pantry muffin mix. I'll be back to report!

Gluten Free Playdough

2009-02-22T19:52:00.000-08:00

Now that we are GF, I need to provide Austin some playdough that he can take to school with him. Why does he need GF playdough one might ask - well most of time playdough gets under your nails when you use it and kids stick their hands in their mouth. So I set out on a search for the perfect recipe on google. I found a basic recipe on several sites but when I tried it out, it was very sticky and was not at all like real playdough, even after adding a couple more spoonfuls of the rice flour. So I started searching some more and found the basic recipe but tweaked a little to make the perfect playdough. One mom even commmented that it was better to use than real playdough and I have to agree. So here is the recipe courtesy of http://www.vydor.net/playdough.html

Ingredients:

1/2 cup rice flour

1/2 cup corn starch

1/2 cup salt

2 tsp cream of tartar (we used McCormicks)

1 cup hot water

1 tsp cooking oil

food coloring

Mix all ingredients together in a saucepan. Cook on low heat for 5 minutes or until dough starts to form a ball. Remove from heat and let cool for 10 minutes. Scoop into a large bowl and add at least 1/4 cup more rice flour and 1/4 cup corn starch. Kneed until well mixed and no longer sticky. Store in an airtight container. If it gets dry, add a few drops of water. If it is too sticky, add a little more cornstarch and rice flour in equal parts.

And if you are really feeling creative, my friend had a great suggestion. Instead of storing it in a ziploc or tupperware container, you could wash out the old playdough containers, take off the label, and then create your own labels on the computer.

The Long But Hopeful Year Ahead

2009-02-17T15:21:00.000-08:00

We finally got all of Austin's test results back in and had a long but informative visit with his doctor. Unfortunately, not only are we having to be GFCF again but we are having to be SF/NF/TF/SF/SF and the list goes on... His IGG test came back with several possible intolerances and for now we are cutting them out of his diet and will try to add them back in one at a time in a few months to see which ones are actually causing a problem. We will stay GFCF for a year before doing any challenge with those foods. Additionally we are starting a few supplaments, mostly vitamins to help with deficiencies but some other things as well. We don't expect for him to be recovered any time soon but we do hope to get some of his gut issues healed therefore making him feel better inside and out.

Cleaning Up & Update

2009-01-24T19:11:00.000-08:00

This morning Austin spilled some of his strawberry milk on the kitchen table. I didn't know until I saw him wiping it up. Turns out he spilled it, then went to the bathroom, got some toilet paper, and came back to clean it up. Such a big boy now :)

In other news we go back to our DAN! on February 10th to discuss our initial test results. We already got the gluten/casein peptide test back and it turns out he is having some sort of reaction with the casein so we will most definitely be going CF again but not sure about GF until we talk to the doctor. We just started CLO again today. It's a little difficult because the fishy oil taste seems to be a little strong for Austin. We have lemon lime from Kirkmanns for now but I'm researching what other moms think is the best flavor/brand and the best way to give it. Suggestions?

Potty Success

2009-01-08T19:33:00.000-08:00

Well not quite but we are getting there. DH has been home on a mini vacation so we have been hitting the potty hard. Austin goes every couple of hours and sometimes even requests to go by himself using his potty PEC. He is having 2-3 accidents a day (mostly bm) but today he even had one of those in the potty!! Hopefully he will be trained in a couple of months if not sooner.

Horseback

2009-01-08T19:29:00.000-08:00

This was taken yesterday at hippotherapy. The pic can be enlarged by clicking on it.

Bath Preference

2009-01-03T08:07:00.000-08:00

Last night Austin came up to me and said "ba" several times. This is actually a common word that can mean many things so I said car? nope. go? nope. up? nope. bath? yes! He pulled me upstairs to the bedroom because he was ready for his bath. Then I told him that we had to go get some towels from downstairs. Once we got down here, I said okay, do you want mama to give you bath? His response, "NO! Dada."

:)

Holidays and Updates

2009-01-01T18:35:00.001-08:00

I know I've really been slacking at this blog thing but life has been busy busy busy for us ever since the beginning of December. Austin will be 3 on Monday which meant eval after eval after eval for after 3 services and the school district. The good news is that we will still be keeping some hours of in home ABA after school. Also his academic skill are at a 3 year old level for the most part as well as his receptive language skills. To us, it is just the expressive language and behaviors that are still a concern but he is getting much better. He has many labels now and will at least give an approximation of a word when asked anything. I was happy with the school that I chose and Austin will be receiving ST, OT, and APE during school hours. We also were able to finally get an education consultant who was really happy with the IEP. I did my research, attended a seminar hosted by a special ed. attorney, and wrote up our own goals which ended up being almost identical to the IEP team's goals so we are going to sign it this Monday and Austin should be in school at the end of the week or the beginning of the next week. It is very difficult for us to leave him somewhere for a few hours a day but we hope that this is going to be very beneficial for him.

As for other news, Christmas was nice. For the first time ever, Austin opened most of his gifts. He would get distracted and want each toy opened right after but the fact that he opened them was just wonderful. Any other time he's had gifts, he hasn't shown interest in opening them.

We are still researching biomed information. I have needed to go get Austin's blood drawn for a while now but the place the dr. requested we use usually only has one staff member on site and it is incredibly difficult for me to take Austin to do that and also taking Kaitlin. DH has been off on his ship most days but he is taking vacation right now so we will be doing bloodwork next week. Also for Christmas, I received "The Kid-Friendly ADHD & Autism Cookbook" which imho is turning out to be a good resource for going GFCF. There are several recipes that seem to be quick and easy and it also shows if the recipe is free of other main allergens such as eggs, soy, corn, and nuts. I assume we will be going GFCF again in the near future and I plan to do much better at feeding Austin a more nutritious and natural diet.

I guess that is all for now. I hope everyone had a safe and wonderful holiday!

PJ Questions

2008-11-22T11:11:00.000-08:00

Last night as I was putting on Austin's pjs.

Me: Austin, look! Who is that on your shirt?

Austin: Bubbob

Me: Really! What color is spongebob?

Austin: Wewo

So cute and totally unexpected since I didn't prompt him or remind him before hand. :)

Update

2008-11-20T18:18:00.000-08:00

Here's just a small update as to what all Austin is doing and what we are currently working on:

Words:
Blue, Green, Yellow, One, Two, Three, Bubbles, Juice, Bye

Animal Sounds:
Moo, Woof-Woof, Quack, Cluck, Gobble Gobble, Nay, SSS

He also has tons of word approximations and imitation going on. We are also working on safety rules outside (crossing street/holding hands/stopping), and other outings such as parks and stores so that Austin learns to wait and also has the oppurtunity to be around other children.

He is also able to use PECS effectively and knows all the pictures.

Halloween Pics

2008-11-02T19:56:00.000-08:00

Walking for Austin

2008-11-02T19:09:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, my husband and I participated in the Walk for Autism. It was so amazing to see everyone there and just pulling together for such an important cause. This is the first time that either of us have gotten to do something for autism on the big level so we were really excited about it and it was just so great to feel like we were making a difference. Together we raised a little over $500 which isn't much but it is a contribution nonetheless. We also visited several booths and found out about an free surfing camp and a couple of places that provide advocacy services which will come in handy since our IEP is in less than 2 months.

I know it is dissapointing but being that it was at 8:00 am and I had to get 3 kids (husband included) and myself ready, I forgot the camera! I was so upset but hey there is always next year. For now, you can have a pic of the shirt we got for fundraising. Thanks so much to everyone who supported us! We hope to do it again next year.

October

2008-10-22T18:32:00.000-07:00

Wow! It's been a while. I didn't realize how much time had gone by. We are just so busy here with therapy. We have it 2x per day, each session almost 2 hours or more, except for Friday. We actually just started speech therapy again which I think is probably a perfect time since Austin is trying to make many many sounds now. He has some word approximations and will try to say anything we ask of him even if what comes out is nothing like the word. It's still pretty fantastic though.

His new favorite word is no! Although it is quite a bad thing, we love it. It's just that every time we ask if he want to go potty or come inside from playing, the answer is no. It also comes complete with a nice head shake. It really is adorable. He knows how to nod his head for yes too but not appropriately yet.

Also we just had his transition meeting from early intervention to the school district. Nothing formal and no IEP yet but Austin will be getting an evaluation in December. Shortly after that, we will do the IEP and I will be touring and sitting in on a few classes to see what our options are like. We are going to look into getting an advocate so that we get everything that Austin is entitled to. Wish us luck! I know it can be a long trying process and I'm not looking forward to it.

What does a cow say?

2008-09-12T21:28:00.000-07:00

Austin will now answer "moo" spontaneously and consistently!!!!! As well as saying "moo" when presented with a cow picture.

He also answers "what does a snake say" with "sss"!

Our first DAN! appointment

2008-09-12T21:22:00.000-07:00

Our appointment was yesterday. The doctor looked over Austin and I answered the same history questions as always. Then he wrote up the paper for lab work. It will just be one needle prick but probably a few tubes of blood. He ordered 17 tests - all but 2 are done at the lab. 2 test kits will be sent to me from Great Plains Lab at home and I will do one urine test (they give you bags to put in diapers to catch it), and one poop test. The urine tests for gluten and casein and the poop tests for yeast. He felt his tummy for bloating or constipation but said his gut feels pretty normal but the tests may show different. Then once I get the lab work, I call the doctor's office and they'll see me about 3 weeks later when the results should be in and we'll discuss what Austin's specific plan will be. Also for now we will be starting the cod liver oil (1/2 tsp) per day, then in one week if I have the poop test done we will start him on probiotics, and then one week later on Super Nu Thera(1/2 tsp 2x per day). I will also give him a few calcium supplaments just to try out to see which form he likes better - caplets or powder. I won't start him on it yet but just get a feel for what he tolerates better. Also he gave me a few trial sizes of the Super Nu Thera. He said to try those and which ever one Austin likes better and doesn't get too hyper on to go ahead and buy a big bottle. So basically for now he'll be on 3 supplaments until the test results come in. He said at that time he'll probably tell me to go GF/CF/ and soy free but I can wait for now.

I am quite happy and excited to be going forth with this. I know nothing may happen but at least I will have tried it out.

Showing Some Sibling Love

2008-09-08T19:40:00.001-07:00

Ok, so I had to prompt him to kiss her but a kiss is a kiss!

Blanket

2008-09-08T19:30:00.000-07:00

Ok well here it is.. I think this might be the first word!!!

I'm trying to not get too excited b/c I don't want to get my hopes up but today was the 3rd time Austin has said it and it has been while playing with the blanket. The therapists wrap him up in it or play peek a book while also using the blanket PEC. It's very random and unpredictable right now but he says it. I disagreed at first but after 3 times, 3 different days I think he really is saying it.

There have been sounds before like the "buh" with bubbles and the "buh" for boo and "sss" when he sees a snake, and "mm" for more but when he says this it sounds like "baaatdit".

Hooray! Hooray!

2008-09-08T19:23:00.000-07:00

Therapy has really been working well for us. Austin is making certain sounds now like "mmm" for more and "sss" for snake (pictures in books, imitation, or plastic snakes). He also loves circle time where we sing "If You're Happy and You Know It". One of the versuses in the song is, "If you're happy and you know it, shout Hooray!". Austin really loves that part and will raise his hands above his head to the lyrics. Soon after he got used to the song, he would go find his Dr. Seuss ABC book and flip to the page shown in the picture above just so I would say "Hooray! Hooray!" and he could do the hand motions! He also brings me the letter "H" from our refridgerator magnets and likes me to say it then as well.

Our Week

2008-08-22T15:13:00.001-07:00

Rode the carousel on the boardwalk

Played in the ocean with my cousin Shenay

Finally let someone give me a haircut; no clippers though!

Went to Chuck E. Cheese and loved the pizza but hated everything else

Went to Seaworld and fell in love with Shamu

Snuggled up with my family at the end of the day (wish Daddy was here!)

NVI & VI

2008-08-15T08:30:00.001-07:00

DAN!

2008-08-12T19:27:00.003-07:00

I talked it over with my husband and we have decided to go to a DAN! for a consult. Austin's appointment is September 11th.

To gear up for it, I'm currently reading Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies by Kenneth Bock, M.D., and Cameron Stauth. It was recommeded to me by Molly over at Zavier's Journey. It's a great book and has given me some great information on why the DAN! approach can and does help a lot of kids with any of the above mentioned disorders. I see why healing the gut and providing supplaments can help and it's exciting to have something to look forward to and have some more hope although I know it is not a magical cure by any means. Dr. Bock himself says that it is a combination of diet, supplaments, therapy, etc.. that will help our children. Also it is not an overnight cure but rather a marathon instead of sprint.

A Big Surprise

2008-08-12T19:15:00.002-07:00

I went away for a few days to meet up with my husband in Baltimore. I took Kaitlin and had my grandma fly in to keep Austin so he wouldn't have to miss any of those therapy sessions I worked oh so hard to get. And when I came home, I got the best surprise ever. Austin is now doing some nonverbal AND verbal imitation!!! This is so huge to me b/c I am so hopefull the sounds will one day become words.

For the "ba" and "mm" sounds they are just asking him if they are using objects or looking at pictures that begin with those sounds, like the Monkey book or playing with balls or getting him to say book. Then they'll say "ah", "oo", "ee", "ssss" and ask him to do the same and he is getting those expecially "ah" and "ee" and he is really trying to do they others. Then for the nonverbal imitation, they do things like patting their heads, touching their lips, opening and closing mouth, and sticking out tongue and he repeated them all CORRECTLY when asked. It's so very exciting!!!

Round 2?

2008-07-28T15:05:00.003-07:00

I've been thinking about Austin alot (well actually I'm always thinking about him) but I often wonder if I'm doing a good enough job as a parent especially when it comes to him. I wonder if I need to at least try to see a DAN! so I can make sure that I gave it a shot even if it doesn't work for us. Lately I've really been thinking about going GF/CF again. We did 3 months last time and saw zero improvements but then I always tell myself I should have waited 6 months and I should not have given him soy milk but by time I found out that soy wasn't so great either, we were already 2+ months into the diet. Another reason I've been thinking about it so much is the fact that he has been having little spells of diarrhea ever few days. I'm still debating what to do from here but for now I'm keeping a food journal to see if I can pinpoint a food culprit.

ABA from EI starts tomorrow so now we will be in full swing. 14 hours per week! I wish it was the recommended 30-40 but 14 is more than I ever expected he would get so I am just really thankful. Last week he started PECS both the book and a schedule. He understands checking the schedule but has yet to realize the picture is representative of what is coming next.

Oh and before I forget, Thomas over at the autism experience tagged me to write about 5 of my favorite things so here they are:

1. Spending time with our families back in Texas - I just love it when we are all together. It may sound cheesy but it really does give you that warm cozy feeling inside.

2. Reading - I don't get to do very much of these days, in fact the 3 library books I checked out have been renewed once and they are all over due as I type this and I only made through half of one! But I digress...I love true crime books the most.

3. Going on vacations - Usually just the vacation part though. I hate getting there and leaving LOL. I just enjoy getting to do stuff away from everyday life and love seeing new places.

4. Mexican Food - There is some good places here in California but I still miss Tex-Mex food very very much!!

5. My children - Thomas is very right; There isn't anything better than being a parent. I just love watching them grow, learn, smile, laugh, everything.

ABA update

2008-07-16T18:25:00.002-07:00

We start ABA next week, Tuesday to be exact. ABA through EI hasn't started yet; this will be through our special insurance. For now, we will be working with a BCBA named Maryann 2 hours and 15 min. every Tuesday and Thursday. This weekend I'll be working on rearranging Austin's room to be more of a therapy room. Here's hoping to see lots of new progress. I already know that she is planning on introducting him to PECS and will be working with me on how to get those oh so terrible tantrums under control.

We are still horseback riding and Austin is loving it every single time. I think it is still too new to see any results but I'm just happy that he enjoys it for now.

We Love Horses

2008-07-03T08:13:00.004-07:00

Today was Austin's first day at hippotherapy and he did so good!! He was a little cranky when we first got there but once he saw the horses he was happy. He didn't even try to take off the helmet! He rides a little pony named Pancho. They start out by taking him riding on a little trail so he gets used to the movement and I get to walk with them. Then they go into an arena and do activities with him and I'm not allowed in there. He has 3 people around him at all times and they do things like blowing bubbles, stacking rings, and tossing balls in buckets and he has to do all those things sitting and keeping his balance. He also has to ride sideways and backwards and laying down. They also work with signs and teaching him go and whoa. He did the go one a few times when they stopped. It's a good motivator since he really really likes riding. And then at the end, he gets off, has to put his helmet away and goes and gets carrots to feed the horse. It's really nice and I'm happy and hope to see some good benefits!! Thanks so much to Thomas over at the GFCF Experience for introducing me to this wonderful type of therapy!

Psych Eval

2008-06-14T18:00:00.002-07:00

Austin had his psych eval on Thursday. He's been evaluated by a neuro-developmental pediatrician in the past who diagnosed him but the regional center here in San Diego won't provide autism services unless you see the child psychologist. She didn't do any formal testing but did bring out several toys to see what he did with them. She also watched his eye contact with me and noticed that several times when he was signing, there was no eye contact but he did look at me when she was approaching him and he also responded really well to praise. She said that he was stimming a lot - hand flaps, toe walking, running, and climbing. And then he also had a few of his tantrums and even hit the dr. during one. I was dissapointed that he tantrummed while we were there but later realized I'm glad. As much as I would like for him to be the perfect angel during dr. appointments, I know it is important for the dr. to get an accurate (or at least as much as possible in a short time) picture of who he is so they can recommend exactly what he needs. The result of all this is we are getting ABA 2 hours per day and 5 days a week!

In other therapy updates, the therapeutic horseback riding center that I enrolled Austin in called and his first session is July 2nd!

I finally feel like we are getting somewhere now and I have something to look forward to.

updates!!!

2008-05-28T11:08:00.004-07:00

Oh wow! It's been forever since I last posted but I haven't really had much to report either.

We moved to San Diego finally and got all settled in here. I'm trying to get Austin set up with EI here which is a real big pain in the you know what. Hopefully it won't be too much longer before services start. He has to see a child psych within the next two weeks and they have to determine what therapies he will get. I'm hopeful that we will at least be getting some ABA. I've also taken the first steps to getting him enrolled in hippotherapy. I'm really excited about that from what I've read online about the program and from what Thomas wrote in his blog about his children improving with it.

Also, I had my baby. 9 months went too fast and then too slow at the end. Kaitlin Adrianna was born April 28th. So far Austin really hasn't warmed up to her. He kisses her goodnight at nap and bedtime and that's about all he wants to do with her. He also tantrums whenever she cries. I'm sure it is due to all the changes and a little bit of jealousy and hoping to get some good ideas from therapist on how to help him handle this major change.

Using that fork and spoon sure is hard work!

2008-03-05T15:06:00.002-08:00

We are currently working on getting Austin to use a spoon and a fork regularly. He knows what the fork is for and can do it but it has been difficult to get him to use it consistently b/c he is so used to using his hands to eat anything and everything. He is also going through a phase where most of the time he tantrums if we even put a fork near his food :( Other times when he is in a patient mood, he will let us help him eat his entire meal with utensils. Tonight, for instance, he let me help him eat spaghetti with a fork and then he had a small pudding cup with a spoon! The pudding is supposed to help him b/c it is so thick, it just sticks to the spoon automatically. I can see how frustrating it is though when food doesn't always just stay on his fork!! Slow and steady....we will keep on making progress :)

Interesting and inspiring news story

2008-02-19T18:49:00.002-08:00

I saw this on ABC news tonight and it is really inspiring although a bit sad that our kids may be feeling awful things when they stim and that is the only way they can express it.

If you have time, copy and paste the link to read about Carly and her story.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Story?id=4311223&page=1

An update on us

2008-02-19T13:59:00.002-08:00

Just a little update on us. We are moving to San Diego in a little over a month! I'm so excited because I have heard wonderful things about EI there including ABA. I am really hoping that we get an ABA therapist soon and that Austin will get more intensive therapy and following that, more progress. :)

Currently Pi$$ed @ CBS!

2008-02-14T14:48:00.002-08:00

Received this via email today and needless to say CBS shouldn't have aired the comment. I read that CBS is not responsible for the opinions of their contestants but nevertheless, they are responsible for editing and showing what they do. I'm glad someone has brought this to attention even if I don't watch this particular program. I am truly disgusted. I hope this guy ends up having to leave the show and gets fired from what I am told is a PR manager position for the United Autism Foundation. He should be definitely not be working for or anywhere near our children. See Below:

Hi everyone. The new season of Big Brother has begun on CBS. One of the players, Adam, works in public relations and claims to work with autistic children. On last night's show, he was telling the other houseguests about a haircutting place he wanted to start for special needs kids. Sounds great, right? He then said "So all the retards can get it together and get their hair cut". Yes, that's right, he referred to children on the autism spectrum as "retards". When later confronted by another houseguest, Adam was completely unapologetic and, in fact, stated he works with "them", so he can call them whatever he wants. As the parent of a special needs child, one with autism who is not mentally retarded, I cannot put into words how that comment cut through me. To think that someone involved in working with or for our children would laughingly refer to them as retards makes me sick. Even worse than the comment, however, was CBS's decision to air it on television, with no regard to the feelings of people living with autism. It was a decision surely made for ratings and controversy and one they should be made aware was wrong. I've already written to them and if you have a moment and feel some outrage, would ask you to do the same and to pass this message along to anyone else you think would care.

To do it online you can follow this link: http://www.cbs.com/info/user_services/fb_global_form.shtml.

To mail a letter, you can use this address:
CBS Television Network
51 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019

And to call you can use this number 212-975-4321

A nice day for a walk

2008-02-05T14:20:00.000-08:00

WOW! Today was actually higher than 50 something degrees so we went for a walk to the park and just around our neighborhood. We haven't really been out like that for a few months due to the cold weather and I can definitely see some improvements in Austin. Mere months ago, he didn't really pay attention to things around him outside but today he got really excited about the birds, squirrels, dogs, and even cars driving past us! He looked everytime I pointed out something which is just amazing. I can remember trying to point out squirrels when we lived in Illinois but he just didn't really follow my pointing. Also, at the park, I let him just run around and play and he actually was interested in the park equipment. A few months ago, he would have just tried to run off but he stayed near me and in the park the entire time! YAY!! I can't wait for warmer days!

Martha Stewart

2008-02-01T17:00:00.000-08:00

I saw 2 posts on GFCF mommy and GFCF mama about this and just thought I would take time to blog on it as well. The more people who see it & vote the better! And even though we are not GFCF anymore doesn't mean we won't be in the future.

So here is the scoop: Martha Stewart had a company wide competition for employees to come up with ideas for new project. It has come down to 7 finalists and one of them is an editor who wants to create a magazine that caters to people that have food allergies such as nuts, dairy, wheat, gluten, etc...

Please copy and paste this link and vote every day to help out! BTW, when I voted tonight, this was the idea in the lead!

http://blogs1.marthastewart.com/martha/2008/01/the-big-idea.html?rsc=todaysidea_Homepage_Homepage

Not a word but a sound!!!

2008-01-21T13:37:00.000-08:00

Austin is making the "B" sound for simple b words that he knows such as bubbles and bite. I haven't really heard him do it for bubbles until Friday's session with his OT but bite has been pretty consistent for a few weeks.

It is very odd though b/c he takes his fingers and rubs them on his lips to make the "buh" sound. I did get it on video so maybe if I can manage to get technically savvy, then I can upload the clip.

I am very happy and we give him what he is asking for when he does that but at the same time I don't want him to think that is talking and a word and never learn the real way to ask either!!

Some other really great things that he has learned to do recently is blow kisses and clap his hands when we say "yay!". He is also doing the signs "more", "drink", "all done", "please", and "book" pretty consistently which is extremely nice.

Austin is 2!

2008-01-11T16:19:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to my little one! I am a little late on my blog b/c he actually turned 2 on 1-5 but we were in Texas visiting some family so I didn't post. I just wanted to share two adorable pictures. The first is him enjoying his cake and the second is of him sharing a book with his cousing Chloe. During our trip, he was not very fond of her but on his birthday he was really good and let her look at the same book that he was looking at. :)

Time Outs Work for Us!

2008-01-11T16:04:00.000-08:00

Austin's tantrums seem to have gotten really bad. He doesn't do them alot but when he does, he hits anything in sight (including me) and he will also throw things. I had been reading on how to redirect or what else I can do b/c simply saying no or ignoring the behavior was not helping. I also tried to take his hands and say "gentle" while showing him how to stroke with his hand and not hit. That works sometimes but if he is too mad, he continues to hit. I decided that we would try time out and very very thankfully it has worked. He is only 2 and I don't think he understands time out but what I have been doing when he starts to hit is, tell him no hitting. If he hits again, I say no hitting, we are going to time out. I then take him over to the wall in our living room that has nothing against it (so he can't play) and I sit with him while holding his hands down so he can not hit and I count to 10. After I reach 10, I get up and he is also free to go. We have only done this twice in the past few days (that is all that was needed) and both times, he was much more calm afterwards and did not hit again.

New stuff & a few set backs

2007-12-27T09:16:00.000-08:00

DH and I were talking last night and we agree that Austin has really been showing some good improvements. We hope that he is getting closer and closer to saying that first word! I think I mentioned it before but he can point to his own toes now. That is huge considering he used to know the word "nose" but would only point to ours. He is also consistently pointing to his own ears now and we are working on "mouth". It is hit and miss with that one. We also feel like his receptive language is stronger than ever. We can tell him what something is at the beginning of the day and he will remember it.

The set backs we are encountering are the loss of signs. It seems like he really gets used to one sign and then forgets all the ones he previously knew. He knew "more" for a really long time but then he learned "book" and used "book" for everything. Now, he has really picked up "eat" and is using that instead of "book" or "more". If we try to make him do "more" or "book", he will but it is now hand over hand instead of him doing it by himself.

Happy Holidays!

2007-12-20T16:27:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to tell everyone who read this blog Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas! I have been really busy xmas shopping, wrapping, and doing a bit of light housework because we are getting to go home to Texas shortly after xmas and I don't want to leave a dirty house!

We have added back most of Austin's old food and still haven't noticed anything different. He actually has been much happier - no reason I guess.

We cheated.

2007-12-16T13:45:00.000-08:00

Yep, that's right. We gave Austin gluten and casein. It has been 3 months and since we have not noticed significant improvement we decided to reintroduce gluten and casein to see if anything changed. Austin had some pasta and cheese yesterday for lunch and a biscuit this morning.

We were disappointed to see that nothing changed. In fact, he had a great day yesterday. We took a car ride for about 2 hrs. to Virginia Beach to go shopping at the mall and drop a friend off at the Norfolk airport and Austin was just peachy. He was in a great mood and babbled tons. He slept well last night, has had a great day today, as well as a good 3 hr. nap.

I think for the rest of the holidays we will just continue to add back in more gluten and casein and monitor the effects. If nothing bad happens, I guess we can assume this diet is not for us but we also may end up retrying it in the near future as well. I will continue to keep everyone updated.

So our camera broke :(

2007-12-05T16:26:00.000-08:00

I was going to wait to write this blog until our camera got fixed so I could take a picture but it looks like that won't be happening any time soon.

Austin has colored, and I mean really colored!, for the first time!!! This has been an ongoing process for months. He started out wanting to eat the crayons, then he realized what they were for and had no interest in them after making one small mark. And then he finally tried to color but didn't put enough pressure on the colors so no marks were made. But After I bought some flat tip crayons, he colors and loves it! He colored one whole sheet of white paper and then cried when I put the colors away which was sad but the best thing ever! I will save that picture forever :) Too bad I could not share it with my fellow readers.

Also, he is now pointing to his own toes when we ask which is HUGE! He has pointed to other body parts before but only on us not himself because he lacks self awareness. Not sure what brought this on except that I play with feet all the time but we are really excited and are still trying to teach him other body parts as well.

Say Hello to Rice Milk

2007-12-03T05:08:00.000-08:00

We have decided to switch to rice milk after reading some more about the similarities b/w soy milk structure and regular milk.

In fact, TalkAboutCuringAutism.org states the following, "To replace milk, use Rice Milk or Almond Milk. Soy is so close in molecular structure to casein that it should be avoided in the replacement of milk and yogurt. It may have to be eliminated all together later but at least avoid it as a total replacement for milk. An overuse of soy is linked to the erosion of the esophagus, stomach and upper intestine."

Great... So basically I probably should have been using this a long time ago. Oh well. Live and learn. So far he doesn't seem to enjoy it nearly as much as the vanilla soy milk but I don't think it's too bad. We are also going to start some Super Nu Thera as soon as it arrives (I ordered it on Friday).

More Tests and More Negativity

2007-11-30T15:07:00.000-08:00

We had our follow up appointment with our developmental pediatrician today. Earlier this month, I did post that all of the genetics testing (FISH, Angelman's, Fragile X, etc...) that we had done came back negative but now the doctor is asking us to come in for an MRI and Urine Organic Acid test. Not that either of these things have a high chance of revealing the cause of all this but just to have a better understanding.

The doctor also did his normal spill about how diets, supplaments, etc... will not work or be worth my time. Which is fine that he has that opinion but I don't know why in heck he has to be so very anti biomedical. I don't understand why most doctors are not even open to giving these types of things trial periods. Which brings me to my next point.

I have been posting on a developmental delays/concerns board since March of this year. There is also an ASD board with a lot of good information but some of the stories make me very sad so I try not to read too much there but there is a plethora of information regarding GF/CF, Feingold, supplaments, and therapies. If you have read my blog lately, you know that we have not seen any dramatic or really even subtle changes in Austin during these first two months on GFCF but I can't help but wonder if there are more things that we can be doing to help. Unfortunately seeing a DAN! dr. is just not in the cards for us right now but I am seriously considering eliminating soy and doing Feingold in addition to GFCF. I am also thinking about ordering a few supplaments. From what I have heard, Kirkman Labs has trial portions that are around $3 so that you can see if they might help your child out before you buy a large bottle.

It's still something that DH and I are talking about but I honestly don't know if I can just give up knowing that there is other things that I never gave a shot. I would always be wondering what if.

I've been tagged!

2007-11-26T13:10:00.001-08:00

My blog was tagged so I have to post 8 random things about myself and tag 8 other blogs. So here ya go:

1.) I love Harry Potter books/movies. They may be for kids, but I'm hooked!
2.) McDonalds is one of my favorite fast food places. No matter what kind of horror stories there are about their food and restaurants, I will always eat there.
3.) I'm a t.v. addict. I seriously have at least 2 or more shows on every night of the week that I MUST watch.
4.) I love to read although I never get much time to do it these days. I'll read almost anything but true crime is a favorite of mine.
5.) I do not watch horror/scary movies. When things jump out at me, I literally feel like I am having a heart attack. This is one of DH's pet peeves as he loves scary movies and would love me to watch them with him.
6.) I would much much much rather be in sweat/pajama pants and t-shirts then normal clothes. I do get dressed to go out to the store and such but I pretty much live in comfy clothes whenever possible.
7.) My family is everything to me. I'm sure that is pretty much standard as a mom, but I would do anything for them. The best thing is just spending time with them.
8.) I'm pregnant with baby number 2. I have not mentioned that on this blog yet but all my friends and family already know. My due date is May 1, 2008 and we are really excited!

2 months in

2007-11-25T07:39:00.001-08:00

So yesterday was 2 months on this diet. We still have not seen any results and are more and more frustrated each day. I have read about the gluten taking up to 3 months to leave the system but to not see ANY change in behavior is not encouraging me. There has been little developments like riding on his car and learning "book" sign but those are things I really feel he would have picked up b/c we were doing those things on a daily basis.

DH and talked briefly about it and we are not sure whether to continue on for another month, try to eliminate more items such as soy, or to give up. When I started I knew that the diet may or may not work and it's possible that it just may not be for Austin but it is just crappy to see that this hasn't worked so far b/c we were hopeful after most of our therapists said that he would be a good candidate for the diet do to some possible food allergies.

It's been a while!

2007-11-16T12:59:00.001-08:00

I haven't posted in a bit but I haven't really had much to report. We are finally starting Occupational Therapy again on the 26th but we still don't have a new Speech Therapist which is terrible but we are working with Austin at home using techniques that we have learned with previous therapists.

When we went to the developmental pediatrician, Austin had bloodwork done to see if his Autism or delays could be attributed to genetics. He was tested for FISH, Angelmans, Fragile X, and some other DNA general stuff and we just found out all of tests came back negative. We were pretty sure that would happen but the doctor did wonder about Fragile X and that has had me on edge for a few weeks b/c Austin does have some signs of that. I can honestly say that it is a relief b/c now I still feel like I can hope that one day he will just catch up to others his age especially with therapy and possibly with being GFCF.

Other than that, not much has been going on except that we are getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas and doing a bit of shopping. And I am planning to make a Austin a GFCF Thanksgiving meal! We would not want him to miss out on all that goodness!

New Food!

2007-11-07T15:31:00.000-08:00

So if you have been reading my blog, you know I live in the middle of nowhere and I hate venturing off but today I had to get out for a doctor's appt. so I finally located the massive health food store!! I am so impressed. The only other store like that that I have been to was Whole Foods Market when I lived in Illinois and then we weren't really looking for GFCF foods so I had no idea how much these other stores carry.

I found so much goodies that I have read about like Toffuti cheese, all sorts of pastas, even pizza, cookies, bars, cereals...I could go on and on! Anyhoo, I stocked up for Austin and now he can have tons more variety. Tonight he had bean and cheese nachos. Not much but I was excited to use the cheese :) I am planning on trying a version of mac and cheese at some point so good luck to me.

I have been just finding one or two items at the local grocery store and my MIL actually sent me the only pasta I had. So if you are trying this diet for the first time, a visit to a good health/natural foods store is a must!

He's telling me he's thirsty!!!!!

2007-11-05T15:33:00.000-08:00

Austin is now leading me to the kitchen on a consistent basis and while at first I had no clue what he wanted, he is now finding his cup and bringing it to me before he takes my hand!!!

This may not sound as spectacular as I'm making it out to be but before this, Austin has never communicated to us when he is hungry or thirsty. So I think it is pretty awesome that he has figured out a way to tell me what he wants/needs!

On another good note, he really seems to be picking up the sign for "book". For a few months now, he always brings us books that he wants us to read to him and puts them in our lap but I know he needed a word so I've been teaching him book. He has been letting me do it hand over his hands but yesterday he did it for the first time by himself. It will take a while but at least I know that he knows what it means and he knows he needs to do it in order for us to read to him.

Halloween & some other progress

2007-11-02T10:34:00.000-07:00

Halloween was fun for us. We almost didn't go b/c we waited until the last minute to get a costume hence the lack of creativity but we found one 15 minutes before time to go (literally) and went out with two other couples and their kids. We stayed only on our block but we hauled in plenty of loot. Austin held my hand the entire time (which is good, b/c sometimes he wants to run away) and we walked up to the doors together. He didn't understand the concept of holding his bag out and he picked out candy a few times but ended up putting it back but it was still fun for me to get to do that with him. He also was not scared of any other kids; there were lots of them and some of them were loud so that was nice. In general, he was probably just happy to be outside.

Yesterday was a great day. Austin was in a very happy mood and he had no temper tanturms which was really nice b/c they seem to be increasing daily. And then this morning, I was sitting on the couch and he came over, grabbed my hand, and pulled me really hard like he wanted me up. So I got up and he continued pulling me until he had succeeded in getting me to the kitchen!!! Once we got there, he didn't really do anything but kinda wimper so I assumed he wanted to eat b/c he had just had juice. So I gave him a snack size serving of cereal and all was good after that. I really do hope he was telling me that he was hungry!!!

A DX for Austin

2007-10-30T07:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a difficult day for us. We went to see the dev. pedi and Austin was diaganosed as having a global development delay and autism spectrum disorder. He said that Austin was too young to be specific on how mild/moderate it might be or to dx him with a specific disorder on the spectrum. We did get some lab work done to see if this is genetic but that chance is very low.

As a parent, this is not the news I wanted to hear. I have told others that I thought Austin could be on the spectrum but to hear it from a doctor, a good doctor who knows what he's talking about, is a completely different thing.

I know that this is not a bad thing but I am not going to say that I am not upset because it does hurt and it is not what I wanted or expected to hear. I also know that my baby is still the most wonderful and perfect baby to me and DH but that does not make it hurt any less. The wonderful thing though is now my baby qualifies for OT and 20 hrs. weekly of ABA. The only thing now is for us to find a program with openings near us.

Also, I have recently been researching sensory diets. The dr. said that although Austin has sensory issues, they are at the bottom of the list when it comes to his issues. However, from what I have been reading, these diets incorporate a routine and structure into a child's day. By doing therapeutic activities throught out the day, every couple of hours, you can help your child out. We are going to give that a try because right now, Austin does not like/can not handle structure. He pretty much flies off the handle if we try to make him do an activity with us unless he is the one in control.

Egg Chalk!

2007-10-28T10:27:00.001-07:00

One of the things Austin has trouble with is coloring/drawing. He doesn't quite get the concept of holding the colors and making marks on the paper. We have worked with a magna-doodle before and his therapists have also recommended that he try to use egg shaped chalk. With this shape of chalk, he can just hold the entire "egg" and draw. The only problem is you can't find egg chalk in stores unless it is Easter. Yes, I could have took the easy route and ordered a box off of crayola.com but I wanted to get creative after my MIL found a recipe to make your own egg chalk. I thought it would be a neat idea to share. If you have older kids, this is fun craft that you could do together and if you really want to get creative, you could make this at Easter and put them in little goodie bags to pass out at their school. The picture above are the ones I made. The only thing that I did different from the recipe is I took the chalk out of the plastic eggs a few hours later and then let the chalk finish drying by setting it out. It really does take about 24 hours before you can use it.

Below is the link that you'll have to copy and paste since I can't figure out how to link yet:

http://skiptomylou.wordpress.com/2007/03/12/egg-shaped-sidewalk-chalk/

Also I found that the website actually has alot of other neat craft ideas if you want to take a look.

It's been one month and counting

2007-10-24T14:41:00.000-07:00

Officially today, we have been GFCF for one month. Has it been as hard as I first thought? Not really. But I have a toddler who doesn't require a gazillion different menu ideas and he doesn't really like bread. We've been eating lots of hot dogs (hebrew national), gf pastas, gf fish sticks, beef, pork, and tons of veggies and fruits. Anyhoo, we have 2 more months to go before I officially decide to scrap the diet if I don't see any improvements.

In other news, my ST quit this morning. Actually she quit on Monday morning but that day I just thought she called in sick. Her reasons were personal but it sure sucks. First of all, I have no idea how long it is going to take to get a new one. And second of all, this will be the 3rd ST Austin will have to adjust to since July. The only good thing is, once we do get a new ST, they will make up any sessions lost.

And finally one more note: Austin is feeling better. Still icky and coughing but getting that yucky stuff up!

the culprit

2007-10-23T07:36:00.000-07:00

Good news : Austin's sick so that's why he was fussy. Bad News: Austin's sick.

Last night was miserable for the both of us. He hardly slept and was up every 45 min. He also has a really bad cough and with all the news about cold and cough medicines not being safe for kids under 6, there isn't really a whole lot I can do for him. We are using a humidifier, vicks, warm liquids, and steam baths to make him a little more comfortable.

I wish I had something new

2007-10-22T15:07:00.000-07:00

So nothing new here but just a quick check in. Austin has been very fussy the last few days. Everything and anything sets him off for no reason so I am hoping that he either is feeling slightly under the weather or he is teething. He has some new k-9s (sp???) but I have no idea how long they have been there so it is possible that they are the culprit. Meanwhile, I am just trying to be patient with him.

Oh and on Friday evening, he decided he was going to tear off a piece of his foam blocks and jam it up his nose. Yeah, that was real fun but luckily I have long nails and was able to dig it out with out too much trouble.

The new signs are going ok. So far, we are working on "book", "drink", and "eat". He did "drink" once by himself but all the other times he only does it as long as I am holding his hands.

Terrible Twos and he's still ONE

2007-10-17T15:05:00.000-07:00

I told my friends that therapy has become a nightmare. Austin has decided that he doesn't want to be forced to do anything (ie..sign for "more" or "all done" or complete tasks). When we try to get him to do things in sessions, if he doesn't want to than he throws temper tantrums where he lays on the floor screaming and kicking his legs. This really has me worried and I don't like it but for now I guess I am going to chalk it up to those terrible twos. Going forward, we are going to implement more structured routines daily and incorporate more signs into his "vocabulary".

Also, not to be pessimistic but we have seen no big improvements on this diet either. Things like this are hard when you are not having a good day.

YUM-O!

2007-10-16T17:12:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to making those Mexican chalupas (See Sept. 28th post for recipe) and they were so yummy! They had great flavor and literally took less than 30 min. to cook. The original recipe did not call for corn but I had a small can on hand so I mixed that in. I really think they would have been even better if I had topped them with either guacamole or just plain avacado slices and lettuce but I didn't have that on hand so maybe next time. This is just easy for the little ones to eat and puts a little variety into ground beef.

Austin did not have a whole chalupa though; he had smaller tortilla chips mixed in with his. But mine was prettier so that pic is what you get!

Still scared of the vacuum

2007-10-15T15:19:00.000-07:00

So last night I vacuumed our living room while Austin was in his bedroom playing. Any time he is around the vacuum, he screams until it is turned off and put away unless he is in another room or he is in his high chair. However, he came out of his bedroom and played in the same room that I was vacuuming in with no problem. It was strange for him to do this but I figured that maybe since he came to the noise on his own terms, it was okay with him. Then today I pulled out the vacuum to do the dining room and he was back to his old screaming self, but while he was screaming he still came near the vacuum. Weird...
Maybe he's getting used to it and wants to explore it.

A failed experiment

2007-10-12T15:28:00.000-07:00

So tonight I tried the grinch fries shown by Kimmy Krocker as you can see. Did NOT go well. They were bland and I think I could taste the flour. I'm not sure if I didn't fry them long enough, did not add enough seasoning, or if I am just too used to TGI Friday's version. Probably a combination of all three. Next time, DH is going to cook them and use our Fry Daddy.

On a good note, Austin is making a new sound! All last night and today he has been saying ni ni na na sounds. We haven't heard him really use the "n" sound before this so it is nice to hear something new for a change. I thought I heard him say "ni ni" (night night) to a book with a picture of a baby in a crib but of course he said it once and never again so who knows.

Also the ST has been working with him on the sign for "go" with a push car and she thinks he did it 2x today during therapy but the sign is kind of an arm up and down movement so I am not sure if he was just flapping b/c he was happy that the car was going or not. Either way, he played more today with the push car than ever before. He kept pushing it around and he did not turn it over to spin the wheels except for when she first got the car out.

Another good dinner...

2007-10-11T14:49:00.000-07:00

It cooled off where we live today so instead of Mexican chalupas we had homemade jambalaya. I love jambalaya and we actually used to eat the box kind from Zatarins but it is really too spicy for my taste. After I had Austin, I went on the South Beach Diet to lose the baby weight and I found some really great recipes in their cookbooks. The jambalaya recipe is taken from their Quick and Easy Cookbook. An added bonus was that it is GFCF so below is the recipe. The original recipe calls for chicken but b/c of DH's allergy, I add shrimp or sausage. I also use onion instead of scallions. If you have a good GFCF cornbread recipe, it would be a great side.

Jambalaya

1.5 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut into small pieces)
1 tbsp evoo
2 bunches scallions (reserve 2 tbsp for garnish)
1 green bell pepper chopped
2 garlic cloves minced
1/2 cup minute brown rice
1/8 tsp cajun seasoning or cayenne
2 cups low sodium chicken broth (I use beef or veggie - Also read your label)
1 can diced tomatoes (14oz)
Salt & Pepper

Heat oil in skillet. Add seasoned chicken, scallions, bell pepper, and garlic. Cook until veggies are tender. Stir in rice and cajun seasoning/cayenne. Add broth and tomatoes with juice and bring to a boil. Simmer until liquid is absorbed about 30 min.

An additional note: I use Swanson Beef Broth 99% fat free. I called the company to verify that it is GFCF and they sent me a list of all their GFCF products. But it does have MSG & yeast extract in it for those limiting or avoiding that.

I got nothing!

2007-10-10T16:16:00.000-07:00

Nothing new here but I am just writing to check in as my family reads my blog almost daily. Our ST brought us this massager/vibrator tool that we are going to be using on Austin's face every day. We have a bumble ball and a little vibrating teether that Austin likes to put in his mouth when he is craving oral stimulation but this tool is supposed to actually strengthen his mouth muscles. He mostly keeps an open mouth posture and especially has one when he is trying to focus but today during our session, the ST massaged his face and his mouth stayed closed so that was good.

On another note, I am getting better with his meals. He had spaghetti (well, penne) with meat sauce last night. And tonight, he had roasted zuchinni and squash on the side rather than green beans, corn, or peas and carrots. I've also been giving him more variety of fruit. Before it was just grapes, pears, and plums. He has had peaches, cherries, apricots, and pineapple the last few days. Tomorrow we might be making the Mexican Chalupas from the recipe I posted on Sept. 28th. If that happens, then expect a pic :)

All Rice Dream is gluten free???

2007-10-08T16:15:00.000-07:00

*ugh* Another frustrating day on the GFCF diet. Although I looked at plenty of websites and blogs when researching what kind of drinks were GF, I was still confused when I went to the store and saw that Rice Dream regular milk was made with barley. Originally, I wanted to try rice milk instead of soy but after I saw the ingredient barley, I was confused as to which varieties of Rice Dream were actually gluten free. So I wrote an email to the company asking them for more information. They wrote me back and told me that even the barley they use is gluten free and probably has always been although their testing methods did not allow them to say so. From what I read during my research, barley is a form of gluten so I am still confused. Any insight would be helpful. As for what I buy next time, I am not sure. If I am correct, I think the Rice Dream organic variety actually says GF on the label. Below is the email that I received back:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for taking the time to contact us regarding our Rice Dream Beverage. We apologize for the delay in our reply and appreciate your patience. We strive to maintain the highest quality products and we appreciate your patronage.
Analytical testing methods and detection limits have improved over the years. Recent testing shows that the Rice Dream Beverages (as well as the barley protein used to make the product) meet gluten free requirements. This has probably been true historically, however analytical testing methods did not permit us to make this claim. We have always maintained a conservative stance regarding gluten in the beverages. The same rigorous standards now allow us to declare them gluten free. The formula and processing methods for Rice Dream beverages have not changed. Each batch will be tested appropriately.
Thank you for your continued support. If we can be of further assistance, please feel free to contact us at 1-800-434-4246, Monday through Friday from 7AM - 5PM Mountain Time.

Sincerely,
Consumer Relations Representative

Hippotherapy and yummy potato soup

2007-10-07T16:14:00.000-07:00

Thomas from gfcfexperience.blogspot.com recently wrote to me to tell me about Hippotherapy and how it really helped with his dcs development. It seems really neat and I can see from his latest blog how this technique can work for children especially with balance and coordination. Unfortunately, I looked up therapists in my area at americanhippotherayassociation.com and surprise surprise there are none :( I am still planning to ask my ST about it next week though just in case she knows someone involved in it.

DH and I had a very delicious potato soup for dinner and while Austin couldn't have any this time, I am planning on trying to make a GFCF version in the future. I'll have to experiment though with milk substitutes though b/c from what I heard, not everything is equal. If you have any suggestions, please let me know! Here is the recipe:

2 cups cut potatoes
1 cup cubed ham
3 cups milk
1 small onion chopped
3 tbsp melted butter
3 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp sugar
salt
pepper

Boil potatoes until soft. Drain, reserving one cup starchy water. In pot, combine butter, flour, onion, salt and pepper. Slowly add potatoes, reserved water, milk, ham, and sugar. Simmer for 30 min, stirring frequently.

Additionally, this recipe called for cheese but I know in the future that I will have to omit that.

Is pork OK?

2007-10-05T17:10:00.000-07:00

I made carmelized pork slices tonight for dinner and went ahead and gave some to Austin along with some veggies and fruit. With all the information on this diet out there, I was wondering if pork is okay for him to eat. I know that some people on this diet strictly avoid or minimize the amount of nitrates eaten. I know that nitrates can be found in most hot dogs, ham, and bacon so I wonder how much if any are in pork ribs, pork chops, etc. With DH's allergy to chicken, we only eat pork and beef in our household. If you read this blog and are already following the GFCF diet, please give me your feed back on this situation. Any info will be appreciated!

Grocery stores are frustrating!!!

2007-10-04T17:41:00.000-07:00

When we moved to Virginia, we found out that we were going to be living an hour away from basically civilization :) Anyhoo, it's not very often that I get to venture out to health food stores so I have to try to rely on the local grocery for Austin's basic foods. I friend of mine said she was feeding her toddler some risotto with veggies and so I go to look for the risotto and the grocery store doesn't carry it. It's risotto, basically rice and I can't even find that here. But I did buy some bananas and some more fruit. Austin hasn't really liked bananas as a whole food. I think it was more the texture than the flavor that he didn't like b/c he would always stick them in his mouth and then right back out. But now that he's had so much more foods and textures, I'm going to introduce them again. Then I went to go look for the Silk yogurt and the store had some other strawberry fruit drink in it's place. So I guess I can't count on this store to carry anything long term. So frustrating!!!

One other item off topic was just the fact that I have been giving this diet a lot of though lately. Even if this diet doesn't work for us, I now realize how much crap is added into many foods and at least I feel like Austin is eating really really healthy now. He is eating so much more fruit and veggies every day and that's is one thing that I would like to continue doing.

All is good with rice cakes and now a new worry

2007-10-03T15:48:00.000-07:00

I know that yesterday I was kind of worried that there was a reaction with some new foods. I didn't necessarily think it could already be a reaction with the diet (although I didn't want to rule it out) but I was definitely worried about an allergic reaction given DH's allergies and history. But there was no rash and no diarrhea, just fussiness and a little bit of eye rubbing. I gave him a few more rice cakes today and everything was all good. So yesterday was just a fluke day and Austin was just whiny.

I now have a few more things to research because my ST brought up verbal apraxia as a possibility. From what little I have read, I know that Austin exhibits 3 of the signs of apraxia but that a dx usually isn't given until about age 3 b/c of the difficulty to tell with little ones. He has low muscle tone in his mouth and is almost always using the open mouth posture and drools especially if he is trying to focus on a task. Another thing that I read is that sometimes with apraxia, you will hear the child say a word but then never say it again and that is because they can not make the words form. Something from the brain to the mouth does not connect when they want/need it to. There have been several times where DH and I have thought Austin said a word but have never heard it more than once or have heard it randomly. He can also say "mama" and "dada" but just does not use them appropriately even though if we ask him to point to a picture of mama or daddy in a photo album he can usually pick out the correct person. Finally, with apraxia, the child's receptive language is usually stronger than their expressive language and I must admit that I feel like Austin understand a lot of what we say and do.

She also is positive that all of Austin's sensory issues are one of the causes for his delays. I can't imagine what is going through his mind but I can only hope that this diet will lessen some of those sensory issues so that he can feel more calm and focus more on his therapy and the things that we are trying to teach him.

A fussy spell; what causes it?

2007-10-02T14:08:00.000-07:00

Austin has been so whiny after nap today. Coincidentally, I just read on GFCF mommy's blog that when her prince does this (well more like not being his usual self), she has to look carefully at what he has eaten. Today Austin had two new (sort of) food items. He had a plum with his lunch today and for an afternoon snack, he had some apple cinnamon rice cakes. He has had plum before but only in baby food and he has had apples, apple chips, and cinnamon on toast and french toast before. Of course, since Ausin has shown no improvement on this diet it could also just be exactly what it is, a whining spell which he has been known to have from time to time. Tomorrow we will try a plum again and on Thurdsday we will try the rice cakes again. I really hope it is not either. One of my friends came up with a great idea for snacks or lunches. She suggested peanut butter and jelly on rice cakes which would be great for a toddler lunch. Of course I don't use peanut butter but I've heard peabutter is great stuff!

GF Pasta brand #1

2007-10-01T17:02:00.001-07:00

I finally tried out some GF pasta. The brand: DeBoles; The verdict: Austin ate all of it :) From what I tasted, it really tastes like rice but in a different form but if Austin likes it, then all is good. For a different meal (finally!), I made some pasta and tossed it with veggies, garlic, and a tiny bit of pepper for him. I have to make it to the grocery store this week before I can really try anything else out. I still haven't noticed any huge changes in him. He is still stemming (hand flapping & toe walking) the same amount as usual and the temper tantrums are normal or at least the same as always; He only whines or gets mad when told no. He did let us put a hat on his head and kept it there for a minute or so but we were playing a "my turn", "your turn" game so I'm not sure if that was the only reason he did that. Before he has let us put a hat on his head but then he immediately pulls it off.

A Sunday morning breakfast

2007-09-30T06:41:00.000-07:00

I'm really bad in the kitchen. I can do okay with dinner as long as it simple but forget breakfast and anything that has to do with baking. A friend sent me this recipe in an email forever ago and I love it. I like omelets but I always always mess up when it comes to flipping/folding them. This recipe is simple and can be fun especially if you have guests over or your child(ren) is having a sleep over. The omelet I made for Austin is above. I only used one egg for him (because he won't eat any more than that) so it is smaller than what you would normally get. In his, I only put ham and seasoning this morning. But if I had some veggies on hand, I might have tried some diced cherry tomatoes and spinach as well. He also had some fruit on the side.

ZIPLOC OMELET

(This works great !!! Good for when all your family is together. The best part is that no one has to wait for their special omelet!!!)

Have guests write their name on a quart-size Ziploc freezer bag with permanent marker.

Crack 2 eggs (large or extra-large) into the bag (not more than 2) shake to combine them. Put out a variety of ingredients such as: cheeses, ham, onion, green pepper, tomato, hash browns, salsa, etc. Each guest adds prepared ingredients of choice to their bag and shake. Make sure to get the air out of the bag and zip it up.

Place the bags into rolling, boiling water for exactly 13 minutes. You can usually cook 6-8 omelets in a large pot. For more, make another pot of boiling water.

Open the bags and the omelet will roll out easily. Be prepared for everyone to be amazed.

Nice to serve with fresh fruit and coffee cake; everyone gets involved in the process and a great conversation piece.

A heartbreaking yet inspirational read

2007-09-29T15:26:00.000-07:00

I started and finished "Louder Than Words" today. It made me cry several times because I know personally what it is like to be going through some of those same situations. No, we don't have a dx and we may or may not at some point but it is hard to read about the things your child is experiencing and knowing that it may be autism. However, I really did find inspiration and hope in the book; Knowing that if it does come down to Austin being on the spectrum, there is possibly a way to treat him and make him feel at his best. I am already on my way down that path by starting the GFCF diet, having him in EI therapy, and by seeing a developmental pediatrician. A must read for parents who have children with Autism and want to try or believe in an alternative treatment for our children.

Yummy Mexican Food!

2007-09-28T12:02:00.000-07:00

I am so happy! My MIL sent me 2 boxes of rice penne pasta b/c I haven't found any yet and she also sent me some Red Mill flour so I can try those grinch fries I have been wanting to make. Next week Austin should finally get some variety! She also sent me the Jenny McCarthy book so I am really looking forward to reading it.

Nothing new to report today, except the potatoes I made for Austin at dinner for a different side. I just cut up some red potatoes, drizzled them with oil and seasoned with garlic powder, salt, and pepper, and baked for about 15 min.

I'm not sure where this recipe came from but my MIL sent it to me via email today and I'm going to try it with Austin next week after I make it to the grocery store. It is GF and you can make it CF by not using cheese at all or by using the veggie cheese/toffuti, which I still have not found btw. And if everyone is lucky, I just might post pictures ;)

Open-face Mexican Chalupas (serves 4)

2 Tbs. veg. oil, divided
1 lb. lean beef
1 15 oz. can black beans, drained & rinsed
1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes with green pepper and onion, drained
4 corn tortillas
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (not essential since you are not doing dairy)
chopped iceburg lettuce or romaine
1 red pepper, diced
1 green pepper, diced
Other Topping Options: guacamole, corn or other veggies

1. Heat 1 Tbls. oil in large skillet . Add ground meat, and cook until evenly browned. Add black beans and tomatoes, and simmer 5 minutes.
2. Heat remaining 1 Tbls. oil in another skillet. Cook torillas till golden and puffed then flip. Repeat with remaining tortillas add more oil if necessary. (Actually, I left the tortillas soft)
3. Place one tortilla in middle of plate. Top with generous amount of meat mixture --sprinkle with cheese and lettuce and toppings.

4 days down; so far, so good

2007-09-27T16:16:00.000-07:00

Not much new regarding food here today. Austin didn't eat much of anything he hasn't been eating except for breakfast. He ate a Van's GF blueberry waffle and loved it. I would like to give him some more fruits besides grapes but he loves them so much, plus he only eats like 8 at a time so I am trying to hurry and get rid of them before they go bad.

However, there was something new that happened with one of his toys. He has 3 riding toys and has had them since last Christmas but he has never really known how to ride them/make them go. Every now and then he'll sit on one of them and I'll push him around for a minute or move his feet for him to show him how to do it but if I stop, then he loses interest and gets off the toy. This morning, he was looking at his car so I asked him if he was going to ride it and he got on it and started moving his feet and made his way across the living room and into our entry way! WOOT! I am excited that he finally learned how to ride it.

Now, ask me if this is the diet's progress and I'll tell you I'm not really sure. I don't think it could be effective this soon and I'm a skeptic by nature anyway.What I think is that he probably would have learned soon if not today, just like with the waving and the "more" sign. But whatever it was, it was funny to watch him scooting around. :)

Am I boring ya'll?

2007-09-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I guess the pictures were cheesy or so my friends said! :) But I really wanted to give moms of toddlers some ideas and show ya'll how I'm feeding my little guy. When Austin first started eating solids, I literally had no idea what to feed him or how to serve it to him. I even got on message boards looking for ideas on meals. My plan all along was to post a picture or two of the first few meals and then going forward to only post pics of new recipes I come up with or try out.

Speaking of, if you are reading this blog and are already pretty familiar with GFCF, you probably have heard of Kimmy Krocker. But if not, I posted a link to her you tube videos on the right hand side of my blog. I read about her in a few other blogs and decided to check it out. She makes videos of herself trying GFCF recipes that she gets out of books or that people send to her. Since I'm a fan of food network, this is great for me. It lets me see how the food is actually cooked and I get to decide if it looks easy enough for me to try.

Today, the only new thing Austin had was baked beans with cut up hot dogs in it and for a morning snack he had the envirokids organic rice bar. I pictured those being more like a granola bar of sorts but they are more like a rice crispy treat and Austin loved them!

Tantrums, Tantrums, Tantrums...

2007-09-25T14:26:00.000-07:00

On my friend's blog, she noted that her son has had increased tantrums and wondered if it could possibly be due to gluten withdrawals. Today, Austin had 3 tantrums but could this be the cause already? Or was it a combination of that and lack of nap because huge, loud trucks kept driving down our street and woke him up early?

Today's menu was about like yesterday except for dinner. He had yesterday's dinner leftovers for lunch today and will probably have them again tomorrow for lunch or Thursday for lunch. For this morning's snack, he had 100% grape juice watered down and 1/2 cup of applesauce. For an afternoon snack, he had 100% apple juice and Mott's all natural fruit snacks. I have always bought 100% juice and have always watered it down. Regular grocery stores carry the Motts and when I found out that they were GFCF, I was really excited b/c those were already one of Austin's favorite snacks. Dinner (above) was Ian's GFCF fish sticks, Ore Ida french fries, peas and carrots, and grapes. And once again, his plate was emptied!

Our First Day GFCF

2007-09-24T15:47:00.000-07:00

Above are pictures of lunch and dinner.

Today went really well and Austin didn't turn any food down except for the Glutino pretzels. He actually gulped down the vanilla soy milk so I guess that was tasty. I'm not sure what the deal is with the pretzels but he just didn't want to eat them. He's had pretzels before but the little sticks so perhaps he really wasn't sure what they were with the shape. Today he had:

Breakfast: 5oz soy milk & 1 bowl Gorilla Munch
Snack: 1 cup 100% apple juice (watered down) and a few pretzels
Lunch: 4oz soy milk, diced ham, peas & carrots, and grapes
Snack: Juice again and 1/4 organic apple
Dinner: 4oz soy milk and a meat mixture that I made using meat, rice, & tomato sauce, green beans, and grapes
Bedtime Snack: 4oz soy milk
Also had bottled water in between

I mentioned this before, but I have a toddler who is not picky at all regarding food. I have looked at many GFCF recipes online and I'll admit that many of them seem too difficult and time consuming for me especially considering the fact the DH and I are not going on this diet. The dinners I currently cook for DH and myself are very simple but good and don't require many ingredients or time. I'm going to try to do the same for Austin with this diet. For tonight's dinner, I made him the same thing that I use for stuffed bell peppers minus the cheese. And, if I would have thought about making this a few days ago, I would have picked up a bell pepper and sauteed it and chopped it up as a side for Austin instead of the green beans. Anyhoo, I had some leftover plain ground beef from last night's meal of nachos so I just cooked up a cup of rice, mixed in the ground beef, and added about 4oz of tomato sauce for flavor. His plate was empty after dinner :)

Day 2 Grocery Shopping

2007-09-23T09:28:00.001-07:00

Today I went to another grocery store in our area called Bloom. They are a normal grocery store but they do have a small section of organics so I decided to see what I could find there. I was going to go to a Healthway store but we are new to this area and I didn't really know if I could find the way there. Anyhoo, today I picked up:

2 boxs Vans GF frozen waffles (1 regular, 1 blueberry)
1 box Envirokids Gorrilla Munch Cereal
1 box Envirokids Koala Crunch Cereal
1 box Envirokids Crispy Rice Bars (Berry Flavor)
2 boxes Ians GF fish sticks
1 bag Glutino pretzels
2 cartons of Silk soymilk fortified for kids (vanilla)

Total Cost: $43 (ouch!) Cha-Ching! Wow, I don't know if this stuff would be any cheaper at the Healthway or any other health food store but I'll have to make my way to those stores next weekend to compare prices. If not, it doesn't matter really. If this diet works, every penny is worth it :)

The only two things that I really wanted to pick up today that I couldn't find were the GF pasta, preferably the Tinkyada brand and Vegan cheese. I talked with a store associate and they are actually supposed to carry the Tinkyada but she helped me look and it was not there. She said that maybe it is a new product to their store and something happened with warehouse shipping and hopefully it will be there next time. For now, Austin will have to do without the cheese until I can find it somewhere. The store also carried several GF baking mixes and flours but like I mentioned earlier, Austin just isn't picky enough yet for me to have to experiment with those, although I would like to try the GF brownie mix some time soon for a treat.