Little S, the Little Parrot

As mentioned in a previous post, our family is now on a new diet called the specific carbohydrate diet (SCD). So far so good with the progress Little R is making. He's been crying a bit every day for not wanting to eat certain things we put in front of him, but we've noticed (and others have mentioned) an overall improvement in his listening, awareness of others and even in speech and language.

Having said that Little R is initiating a lot more communication. The last two days when he's had to go do #2, he's been closing the bathroom door to keep others out. In his privacy, he does his business. When I walked in and sat in front of him while he was on the toilet, he grabbed my fingers and tugged them as if telling me to leave. "Do you want me to leave?" He pulled my fingers and tugged them toward the door, "lea," he said. Wow! He told me to leave.

As well, last week during his pink eye days, I was drawing a picture of a house with clouds and then some flat "m"s in the air. "Boods," he said. "Yes! That's right, they are birds," I replied. He's been making quick progress lately, and I believe nutrition and environment have much to do with it. Of course we also need to give credit to his hard work!

Little S has been repeating things like crazy... in which ever language. As we were waiting to use the toilet at a gas station on the way from from Cornwall this weekend, a woman complained, "come on, guy." Now, I let this woman go ahead of us, and after she went into the washroom, Little S said "come on, guy." It was pretty funny. She's a little parrot that walks around and talks... except these last two days as she's been feeling quite poorly.

Some new independent sentences I've heard from her in the last week have been:
"I got the hiccups."
"No, you eat it!"
And a whole bunch of sentences in mixed languages like "cha face" "cha me". In this instance "cha" means to apply cream, oil, etc. to wherever.

Some phrases she's been saying for a while now:

"Dadda cookie."
"Mm, I like it!"
"Watch TV?"
"GaoGao shower."
"Moi moi turn."
"Ma Yi go seep."
"Come back!"

One thing is for certain, we really don't want to say anything that we don't want repeat!

A blessing in pink... eye

Last week Little R contracted a case of pink eye. It wasn't bad, but it made him contagious, so he was not allowed to go to school and be around his worker.

The weather was wonderful, and we took some long bike rides. He sat on his new bike with training wheels and pedalled as I pushed him. It was so much nicer than sitting in front of a computer screen inside an office building in a room with no windows. What a blessing it was.

As he rode, he would sometimes look at me and hold my hand. Such a cute little guy. His pedalling has improved a lot since he first started riding the bicycle over two weeks ago now. He especially goes really fast when there is a downward slope. Then that when I have to run after him to make sure he's safe.

Poor Little S is now sick. She was fine going to Cornwall on the weekend (both kids were amazingly good), but Monday (before Tuesday morning) night she was very irritable. She vomited, then went back to sleep for a couple of hours. When she got up in the morning she vomit ted again. By breakfast time she barfed out her supper followed by unpleasant watery smelly diarrhea. Poor kids. She's all hot, red, dry and weak right now. But again, seems like a blessing for me to be able to take care of her... and not be working in the windowless office room.

It's times like these that I can slow down to the basics, not focus on making money (although, we all know how important that is in our society) and just concentrate on comforting the little ones.

The weather is beautiful, and I'm glad that I'm in my naturally sunlit kitchen typing to you about the enjoyment of life! The kids will be sick here and there, but they'll grow up to be stronger. So, I take the time now to hold, nourish and make them feel better while I can.

SCD - let another diet

Many changes again are underway chez SHAKER family. One of them is Little R's new diet. In fact, it's a new diet for all of us.

A year ago, Little R was diagnosed with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) which led us to try many interventions to "recover" our little guy. First, we were vegan (pre-diagnosis), then we changed only Little R's diet to gluten-free and casein-free. Well, that didn't seem to be enough so the doctor suggested a low phenol diet. After seeing no difference with this diet, we just continued with the gfcf (gluten-free casein-free) diet. We gave Little R an igG test that revealed MANY food sensitivities. So, we were then on a rotation diet. Luckily for us, we used BIE (bio intolerance elimination) to "clear" his sensitivities/allergies, so we abandoned the rotation diet.

So here we are today on the diet that the doctor didn't want to put him on a year ago for reasons that no longer matter. Little R's language and speech has seen little improvement yet his bodily health is superb. The doctor asked himself "what can we do to unlock the speech?" He was concerned that Little R was still just making a few sounds that were intelligible. He turned to us and said "SCD."

SCD stands for specific carbohydrates diet. The GAPS diet is closely related. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OHJt0_wrFs

http://gapsdiet.com/

http://www.pecanbread.com/

So, what are we eating? Traditionally raised animals (like Mennonite meats), steamed vegetables, nuts and fruit. There are NO MORE GRAINS and potatoes in our diet. Of course we don't have to eat like him when we're out without him, but to support Little R in getting better, we are eating the same things at home. Once Little R can stray away from the SCD then we can start getting the meat out of our diet again. We are very grateful to those animals that are sacrificed for our nourishment.

Some children have seen remarkable improvements from this diet. The people at his school also mentioned that there was improvement in the last week. I commend DH on his new role of steamer and breakfast fruit salad maker. He's doing a great job!

Because of the limited foods Little R can have, visiting people and just not eating at home will be the most challenging it's been. Even eating at home can get a little boring with the same types of foods over and over again. We're trying to invest in a very heavy duty blender so that we can make raw cookies, raw nut butters, raw juices, etc. for Little R:

http://www.upayanaturals.com/Vita_Mix_5200_New_Model_p/vit-5200.htm

This year for Little R's birthday, would you consider making a contribution to his blender? Please understand that I am by no means asking for a contribution! It's just that in past years Little R has received many thoughtful gifts from many of you (birthday and Christmas), and many times we would be asked "what do you does Little R need." Your kind thoughts alone are enough, but if you really wanted to give him more, I just put the idea out there. Little R is also always in need of pants and new puzzles.

Again, no birthday gifts are necessary. Just thank you for remembering! :)