Music to my ears

There is mischief afoot in my bedroom. I can hear giggling, laughing, squealing, and loud thumping. If my Mommy radar is correct the kids are jumping off the bed and I believe having a game of chase. (Mommy radar knows what is happening just from the sound) Having Gage has changed my views as a parent. If Gage was your typical child I would probably be back there right now scolding the kids for jumping off the bed and telling them to calm down since it is so close to bed time. But I'm not. Instead I am sitting here smiling enjoying the ruckus, because the kids are playing TOGETHER. Gage is never really interested in playing WITH anyone, and Makinna is always looking for someone to play WITH. Ironic that my children are such polar opposites. One of the deficits of autism is social skills. So Gage lacks the ability to know how to play with other children, how to share, how to take turns, how to interact with others appropriately. The kids end up fighting a lot because Gage lacks these skills. So as I sit here in the kitchen and listen to laughing and playing together, I smile. It is music to my ears. Bedtime will just have to come a little later tonight, for there is sibling bonding going on!!

Macaroni and Cheese Withdrawl

We are all suffering from this illness at our house. You see we have decided to take the plunge. We have decided to try the Gluten Free Casein Free diet for Gage. Now you may ask "What the hell is that?" In real words it means "No wheat No dairy" Not just no wheat or dairy but no wheat or dairy derivatives either. And let me tell you almost everything you eat has one or the other or both in it! We just came back today from my 5th trip to a grocery store of some sort this week. I have been to 3 natural foods stores and 3 grocery stores in 6 days trying to find replacements for Gage's favorite foods. Luckily he has accepted Chocolate Almond milk in place of cows milk and Ovaltine.
You may ask "Why would you commit parental suicide by taking out all of the staples of child hood meals, like mac n cheese (yea just when some incredible genius found a way to make it in the microwave!), chicken nuggets, cheese, yogurt, pasta...." Well I have heard many personal stories from real people about the improvement their autistic child made on the diet. I've heard anywhere from amazing increases in speech to small changes in eye contact and socialization. I have not been able to find any "scientific research" (because we all know that scientists know so much more about kids than their mothers) mostly because there is none. After all there is no big drug company that will make a bazillion dollars off of it so why fund it? But polls of parents of autistic children that have tried the diet show that about 60% of the parents saw some improvement. I thought this was good enough odds to justify paying $7.00 for a bag of GFCF pretzels.
Wes is being a trooper. He totally supports trying the diet. He is even being patient while I try to make mashed potatoes and gravy with out using flour or dairy. (I'd like to give that assignment to the Iron Chef!) What matters the most is if Gage likes it. The mashed potatoes turned out pretty good but gravy is another story. The first time I tried I bought a pouch of GFCF gravy mix and followed the directions. Well Gage was not impressed and I don't blame him. He took one taste and started gagging and rubbing his hand all over is face. The stuff was really gross! Tonight I had success with organic chicken broth ( the regular stuff has dairy in it) and cornstarch and a lot of salt. Everyone ate it and liked it. Phew!
We are starting slowly. The first 2 weeks are dairy free than we move into the gluten free stage. I know we can do it, lots of people do. But having your children part with macaroni and cheese is a big sacrifice. ( I think Makinna and will sneak it in when Gage is at school on Mondays but don't tell him!) All I can say is that this family will be eating lots of rice and potatoes. No more eating out. We have to pack lunch if we visit someone. But if this helps our son it will all be well worth it. I think we are already seeing some small improvements in language and awareness. He is now following directions almost all the time (or should I say like most 3 year olds) and he is saying a lot of new words. Just last night he took me over the the fish tank and pointed at the fish, looked right at me and said "Dor-tee". Dorothy is Elmos pet fish. I was shocked.
Well I want to finish this post out by giving a great big "hug" and "thank you" to Kathi. She is a member on the autism forum I post on and she has a fantastic GFCF blog. Her blog has given me oodles of ideas for easy foods that are GFCF and has lots of recipes for them too. She is a wonderful mom and an inspiration to me. Thanks Kathi. (I have a link to her site on my blog)

Ladies Man

Gage has always loved the ladies. He is much quicker to acknowledge a female than a male. Well, according to reports, this is also the case at school. Gage's main social skill is saying "hi" to get someones attention. At school the other day during free play in the gym he must have taken a fancy to the "older women" in his class, the 5 year old girls. He went up to one of them and said "hi" repeatedly the tried to hold her hand. When she finally figured out what he wanted the little girl (there are typical kids in his class) walked along with him holding his hand. He did this again with another girl. His therapist told me that before long he was walking through the gym (very proud of himself) with 2 little girls on each arm. (He must be taking after his Uncle Lee) And the girls evidently had some little tiffs over who was going to hold his hand next. I wish I had been there in person to see my little Don Juan in action. But I'm not all that surprised. He has a 5 year old sister at home whom he adores and he has always liked females. I'm hoping that maybe some of these older girls will take an interest in him and try to include him in social situations and games. I guess it good he's so cute!