CB is 4 years old …
The biggest thing on my mind lately is CB’s diet & nutrition. We are currently in the beginning stages of limiting free glutamic acid from CB’s diet. So at this point, CB’s diet & supplements are as follows:
- Gluten-free
- Casein-free
- Soy-free except for edamame & soybeans in his multi-vitamin
- Artificial color free
- Preservatives listed as acronyms free
- High fructose syrup free
- Animalz Multi-vitamin (2 chewables a day)
- Nordic Naturals Omega Complete (2 capsules a day)
- Animal Parade Tooth Fairy (2 chewables a day)
- D3 drops (1 drop a day)
- Bluebonnet Probiotics (1/2-1 serving a day)
- Periodic liquid zinc supplement (10 mg) – was in his diet Jan-early March. Trying to determine if we should keep it in
- Animal Parade Vitamin C (2 chewables a day)
- Mulberry Juice (high in iron & Vitamin C – a few glasses a week)
- Epsom salt baths (a couple a week)
- Food & Vitamins free of free glutamic acid – implementation underway
When I type all of this out, it feels pretty overwhelming. At times, it feels like there is a small window where we can potentially make a huge difference in CB’s life. It feels like if we do not try enough things before he turns 6 or 7, then we will have lost our chance to make the biggest impact. We know that changes and progress will definitely continue after that age, but we feel certain brain pathways will be more solidified. Sometimes implementing all this is overwhelming and other times, it is comforting. Comforting, b/c we feel we are actually making changes to help CB.
Now we didn’t start off feeling we would be at this place, implementing all these nutrition changes and filling him full of supplements. It would be a good question to ask “how did we get here?”, especially since CB has been a good eater most of his life.
At this point, he eats many vegetables, almost all fruits, nuts, dried fruit, most breads, cheeses, various milks, some beans, and most meats. He wouldn’t eat eggs for the longest time, but he will now eat them on a regular basis. We told him that they would make his strong. (He now holds up his arms, makes fists with his hands, and makes an errrr sound after he takes a bite. We comment on how strong he is. It is so cute.) We have limited his sugar intake all his life and we have had a non-high fructose corn syrup home since before CB was born. He had fast food about 2-3 times by the time he was 2.5 years old. After that, it was primarily isolated to road trips. Most days he drank water as his main drink with a small cup of organic cow’s milk. It has always been a treat to get juice. Fruit was basically his dessert for many dinner meals. If he has ever tried soda, then it would have been just a sip (not sure this has happened though). From about 1.5-3.5 years old, we had a hard time getting him to eat meat. I think it was too much work for him to be able to chew it. He also was not big into noodle dishes. Fortunately, that has all changed. He just doesn’t like soups or really mushy food like mashed potatoes.
We started off implementing fish oil b/c of his limited speech. We later added a multi-vitamin and probiotics to help his digestive issues. The probiotics helped him to no longer have undigested bits of food in his poop (possibly TMI). He still continued to have really mushy, smelly poop though. We tried eliminating dairy a few times, but his poop remained the same. A few months after his 3rd birthday, we had a nutrition report done that showed he had
- selective IgA deficiency
- iron anemia
- low vitamin k
- odd blood levels
- very low zinc
- and a few other issues.
CB’s pediatrician said she didn’t feel too alarmed and didn’t really tell us much. She only mentioned that CB may be more likely to get sick b/c of the selective IGA deficiency or stay sick longer. It wasn’t until 2 months before CB turned 4 that I came across something on the internet indicating that he had a higher chance of being celiac based off the nutrition results. The next day, we started a GFCF diet. We heard that many celiacs or people with gluten intolerance do not show much improvement in the beginning if casein (milk protein) is not also eliminated.
So we started the diet and then a month later started seeing a nutritionist. She confirmed that she thought he was celiac and gave us some supplement suggestions and helpful info about food. She felt we would see big improvements with CB’s neurological issues. We have made some supplement changes, had another nutrition report done, and met with the nutritionist again since then. We removed more preservatives from his diet and became more aware of other unhealthy ingredients like carageenan. There were definite improvements on the nutrition report. Since we had the original nutrition report done back in April, started the modified diet in December, added supplements in January, and performed a 2nd nutrition report in February, we are not 100% sure whether the diet helped the report or CB’s diet expansion which included eating more meat. In December, we also noticed that CB started showing a food allergy. His cheeks started turning pink after eating. We determined he now has a food allergy to soy. It seems like it is just related to processed soy. He also still will get mushy, smelly poop at times and red cheeks. Plus, he has been having other allergy issues. So, we are still on the journey to really isolate what is going on with our son’s body. Well, it is now mid-March, and we saw something from the biochemist Katie Reid about free glutamic acid. Her thoughts and the science she shared really resonated with me and then with my husband. Her TedTalk and speaking sessions really got us thinking about whether free glutamic acid is causing additional issues. So that is how we got to the point we are at. We will see how this diet change goes.
Positive Progress: 1) CB, HB and I have really enjoyed spring break so far. I feel we have all bonded more and are all feeling positive. 2) CB jumped with 2 feet off the couch on to the floor semi-landing on 2 feet! He landed but then dropped to his bottom. He doesn’t know how to adjust to landing after jumping from that distance.