Diet Plan 2012

Jaden has been on Gluten Free Casein Free Egg Free (GFCFEF) dieDr t for almost 1.5 years now ever since we got his IgG allergy test back, followed with other forbidden food.

Sometimes we avoid soy if possible but most of the time, I close an eye and let him have some of these GFCF food that contains soy. He is not highly allergic to them, although if we would want to be safe, its best to avoid or have it on rotation and that is what I do. 

We have seen quite a change when we took him off gluten and casein initially. He showed signs of eye contact back again (it may be jut a little but it hit us on the positive note) and some imitation which he used to do and stopped.

From then on, we never looked back, and stayed on quite a strict diet only when we have to turn to KFC for treats and his love for fries. This, is cheating and BAD. Not advisable but since we have his Digestive Enzymes to help us break down these proteins, we got to cheat a little. 

I have mastered bit by bit GFCF cooking and now, I am thinking he has to incorporate in another diet which might help us push our luck further in recovering him.

You see, supplements and therapists are not going to heal him alone. It is connected to what goes into his gut daily and Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride stresses that a healthy gut means a healthy person and all these illness/diseases would go away when the cells inside the guts are newly-reborn again.

To do that, of course, we have to adhere to her GAPs diet. It means Gut and Psychology syndrome. 

One can read a brief introduction of GAPs here.

Short to say, it would be quite a challenge in the beginning as this means really really staying home and cooking and more cooking and really using nothing but organic and fresh produce.

This diet allows eggs in the second stage of the Introduction Diet but I am a little scared as Jaden's test results shows that he is highly allergic to eggs so well, we shall see. 

Some parents on the forum would be starting their children on this diet too, maybe from June onwards, so this would most probably have given me some mental preparation to face it. 

The sooner we start, the sooner our child might recover, of course, I still think I would be continuing supplementing Jaden with his supps and maybe chelation on the go too.

For now, I am just going to go on with his ABA and OT therapy, and I guess by this year, speech therapy and of course, diets and chelation.

Nobody says this is going to be easy but seeing all these positive things that Jaden never fails to show me drives me on to want to help him and be with him in this journey of his. 

Combatting Yeast

Everyone has yeast, and you can't get rid of all of it. So, if they are there for a reason, I am sure they also have a part to play in our body balance, just that the yeast I am talking about are the bad bad ones that causes trouble instead of helping out. 

Candida.

Jaden's DAN doctor, Dr Rina, could not hear his bowel movement properly. She suspected that his yeast is back, which explains his irritability that could just hit in a blink of an eye, restlessness, and yes, he is back to slightly walking on his toes again. 

So, here we are back at square one at combating yeast, even after we did his second round of Diflucan early this year. 

This time, we are going to be using Nystatin for 2 weeks, together with Oil Of Oregano drops. two drops twice daily for two months. From there, we are going to combat it with Candidase and .. wait, are you scratching your head already wondering what I am yabbing about? *sigh* Its all this mad mom talk about antifungals, drug-based and natural based. 

Of course, one just do not combat yeast easily with just antifungals. They need to have backup soldiers as well helping them out, such as a tough probiotic, which Jaden is taking -TherBiotik Factor 6 and his daily dosages of 500mg Ester-C Bio. 

I am already fearing die-off reaction before I am even starting out but it should be a small problem compared to what I was facing two years ago when he was absolutely on nothing but gluten and casein food intake. Epsom salt bath could help with the die-off partly so thanking my lucky stars, I have another soldier to help take on these nasty yeasts. 

Being on Diflucan the last round, and that being a very strong drug, we are advised to take him for another round of liver,kidney and complete blood count test to make sure he is still in the pink of health to carry on this fight. 

I have made an appointment with another mother who will be coming along with me and her son. So both of us will be there to support each other when our sons are being pinned down to draw blood. 

I hope my giving him Milk Thistle has help protect his liver and at this very moment, I still have not figured out what protects the kidney other than letting him drink loads of water. 

Things have not been that easy around in the house these few days.

Jaden is having his mood swings again, where he will suddenly burst into tears all of a sudden, as if he is overwhelmed with sad sad upsetting thoughts and then suddenly hes ok, acting normal and then the tears come back again.

The hubs suspected that I may be giving him supplements that does not agree with him or that I may have been overdosing him with some. Erm, well, to defend myself, I am only following what the doctor prescribed to me. The prescription is still sticking to the bottle. Then he accused me of getting myself confused seeing two doctors who gives two different prescriptions but hey, the supps that they recommend are the same, just the dosages differ in one or two but still when the positive shines through, you don't say your thanks to the doctors and me but when some things like these happens, the accusations are thrown in my face with utmost shit-talk and say its best that I should not even be doing this to my son. 

Like I previously mentioned, its a tango. One step forward, two steps back. Slowly but surely, we tweaked until we find the right comfortable dosages, supplements to work it out ... and hey, I am not the one that is good in science but I am trying my best trying to help my son. So, if you do not plan to help, don't even open up that gab of yours. 

and... drumroll.. best of all out of the consultation, Dr Rina sees a need in me having to upgrade his diet. 

Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD)

So what is so hard about it since I am already half mastered GFCFEGCF (free of gluten/casein/egg/corn) diet for Jaden right? Check out what is supposedly legal and illegal to eat on top that I have to consider his other food allergies, despite even if there are some foods on SCD list, like almond, milk, cheese and stuff are to be avoided. So which means like most probably out of 100 food out there, there are only really 10-15 food that I can play around to fit inside his food menu .. and to limit his carbo intake. 

TAKE AWAY RICE ??? NOODLES ??? but he is as Asian as he can be. His love for rice and that fills him up. 

You can imagine how I feel when I hear and read about this diet, don't you? But well, I am in no despair right now for there are other options such as the GAPs (guts and psychological syndrome diet) or BED ( Body Ecology Diet) that I can consider .. but its still almost the same when his food allergy list and GFCF is implemented. 

Shall end with this one song ...

GFCF Tomato Carbonara Pasta

Looking at how Jaden's GFCF food menu did not have much of a variety for months, I tried out a recipe I found on the GFCF Lady's blog and well, it turned out to be a hit with Jaden. OK, not exactly a hit but the taste was there, neither bland or too salty so I consider it a success.

There are a few recipes on GFCF Lady's website that I know I will definitely try in the near future. In fact, I think I am going to try at least 2 or 3 a week for Jaden. Kesian, he has to eat nearly the same food every day. No harm done to me anyway, it will just help better my cooking skills .. i hope!

I did not follow the recipe exactly but tweaked it to what I have in my kitchen.

I guess its a deed of paying it forward, so I shall paste my recipe and instructions on how to cook this dish. Simple, fuss free to the max.

Ingredients

• 6 Organic Tomatoes
• 1 or 2 Red Onion
• 5 pieces of garlic (skin peeled and mashed a bit) 
• Minced garlic (to fry with the minced beef)
• half a pack of the chopped basil leaves
• Minced beef (you can also use bacon)
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of xylitol ( sugar )
• a big sprinkle of sea salt (sprinkle to your common sense on how much its needed to make the sauce tasteful)
• 3/4 pack of gluten free pasta (spaghetti / fettuccini)
• Italian herb

Recipe

1. While you are preparing the ingredients, bring the water in the pot to boil to cook the pasta.
2. Make sure the water is boiling hot, put in a teaspoon of salt or whatever that is reasonable enough to make the pasta tasteful.
3. Add the pasta -cook accordingly to the time instructed.
4. Cut the tomatoes and onion into quarter and throw them into the blender together with the mashed garlic and chopped basil leaves.
5. Pour olive oil into the blender, not too much and sprinkle a generous amount of sea salt and blend.
6. Next, drizzle a little olive oil into the pot and fry the minced garlic till it nearly turns brown.
7. Put in the minced beef, sprinkle salt, black pepper and italian herb and fry them till its cooked.
8. Next, pour the blended sauce into the pot and bring it to a boil (medium heat)
9. Put a teaspoon of xylitol into the sauce and taste to see if its a nice combination of saltyness and sweetness. Not too sweet of course. If not salty enough, add a bit more salt.
10. Once the pasta is cooked, pour away the water and pour in the cooked sauce.
11. Toss the pasta so that it will be coated in the sauce evenly.
12. Let the pot of pasta cook over the fire for a little longer while you toss from time to time.
13. Now you are ready to serve.

Sounds simple, no frills right? I appreciate simple recipes like these, for I am really a noob when it comes to cooking so ingredients and recipes require a bit more thinking just doesn't work for me.

Do share with me if you decide to try this recipe out. :)

Rejection #1

We failed at the rice milk attempt. Even when it is in vanilla. Jaden rejected it at the very first taste of it. 

Curious to know what his food will taste like, Mr and I both tried them out too. Sad to say, the chocolate flavored cookies we got for him tasted like cardboard. You have got to eat more to get use to the taste. I felt so bad for Jaden instantly.

The vanilla-flavored rice milk, however, tasted just fine to me. Although it only did not felt as full as the real deal is, but it was not that bad. I even tried making half dairy-half rice milk to mask the taste but the smartypants realized it in an instant. He totally refused the milk, screaming as if we were going to behead a chicken.

Mr and I were scared that he will get really hungry in the middle of the night and there was nothing else in the house that could be given to him. In the end, he ate 4 organic bananas and off we all went to bed. 

The bananas, too, did not taste as sweet as the normal commercialized grown bananas. They were less sweet but luckily Jaden ate them without any resistance. *sigh*

When he woke up in the morning, I gave him dry chicken hor fun and he happily ate all the hor fun. For lunch, we had bah kut teh and he finished his whole plate of rice too. His dinner before bed time is a bowl of chicken porridge cooked with carrots and potatoes. The porridge, I hope, will be able to last him through the whole night... I wonder if he misses his milk?

Thank our lucky stars, he actually ate the choclate cookies and asked for more. Its a small step to a start, ain't it? I hope he will continue to accept all these new food in his menu.

Mr and I went shopping today for more organic stuff for Jaden. We bought extra virgin olive oil, gluten-free pasta, more organic beef, organic chicken and organic cucumber and brocolli. It will be quite enough to last us through the whole week for Jaden's food menu.

Its time to start drafting out his menu, which I hope will one day be back together the same as us again.

Time to start monitoring his behavior and see if there are any changes then to this start of GFCF diet for the boy.

First Step ...

When Jaden started spinning round and round and moved on to spinning wheels and whatever that was round, we were told that that was one red flag to look out for but the Mr and I was adamant that nothing was wrong. We were in denial.

Jaden started to look at things from the corner of his eyes. Others who does not know him, think he was arrogant but then, we as his parents felt something was wrong.

Other children started talking and wants to play with their peers but Jaden rather play alone and can only says Daddy. That also, I really wonder if he meant the word he said or just something that sounds like Daddy to us because we badly wanted him to speak.

Finally, after 3 years of waiting for some improvements, we knew we had to seek help for Jaden. We need to get him diagnosed by a specialist for his situation.

After researching on the Internet, I found a psychologist to review Jaden's condition. Alas, that was rather a rip off by this psychologist. Who charges RM600 to talk to the parents and then another RM600 to observe the child? AND then wanted another RM600 if we wanted him to give us a report on Jaden.

Mr blew his top and got really upset because the prices that the psychologist listed down was way out of our budget. Yes, he too, wanted Jaden to run some tests and take the supplements but the charges were crazy. He quoted us about RM20k a month just for the supplements. Who can afford such expenditures even if it meant it could cure the boy?

Well, at least just one thing we learnt out of that lesson was that Jaden was mildy autistic. He might just be suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). It was really so disheartening to know that there are people out there who take advantage of such situation just to make money. I, personally feel that this center is quite a scam for their rocket high charges.

So, I went all out to make a thorough research on where I can seek help, whom I can talk to and which doctor best that can help me help my son.

I thank Marissa for her blog that was out there for helpless soul like me, who did not know where to begin. I emailed her for help, to question where I can seek the best possible help I could give Jaden and by reading her blog, I felt hope when other sites on the Internet tells me that there is no cure for autism. Her eldest daughter has recovered from autism and I pray mine, too, will, with the help and support and determination I pour in to make it work.

I made that call to Singapore and book an appointment with the infamous Dr Erwin Kay, who is a DAN! Doctor. DAN! stands for Defeat Autism Now! The Defeat Autism Now (DAN!) project, created by the Autism Research Institute, created an approach to autism treatment called the "DAN! protocol" based on the biomedical theory of autism. Many parents believe that DAN! doctors are the best choice to treat their children with autism, and there are many testimonials to the effectiveness of the treatments. DAN! doctors, however, do often prescribe treatments and diets that mainstream doctors question or even denounce. 

Most mothers in KL BioMed Forum recommended him and through that forum, I learnt things I never thought I would again -Science and the variety of names that would soon be a part of our daily lives. I read about the tests that Jaden has to take and asked for a rough estimation of the costs our family is going to face.

I invested in my first book, Jenny McCarthy's 6th Book on Healing and Preventing Autism: A Complete Guide, whom she collaborated with Dr. Jerry Kartzinel, the doctor who recovered her son, to write the book. Their new book provides helpful guidelines on how to best protect their child from developing autism. The book, too, proved to be very helpful in this journey of mine to battle out Jaden's condition.

This morning, was Jaden's last sip of dairy milk.

Finally, I went over to Village Grocer at Sunway Giza to buy him his first Pacific Rice Low Fat Milk in Vanilla flavour. Mind you, I learnt that organic things do not come cheap. So does GFCF food. This 1ltr of rice milk costs RM10.90. There are of course another brand out there on the shelf by Pure Harvest Aussie Dream but that comes only in plain flavour. That too, 1 ltr, costs RM10.90 and that infused with Calcium, costs RM11.90. 

Almond milk was also sold on the shelves but that came up to about RM23-RM25 for 1 ltr. I dare not let Jaden take almond milk yet in case it triggers off the allergy for nuts in him. 

Jaden will soon, have to go on a strict Gluten Free Casein Free Diet (GFCF). I thought I might as well start off somewhere by buying Orgran Outback Animals Chocolate Cookies for him to munch on as treats and Orgran Rice O's Wildberry cereals which are totally GFCF. The cookies costs me RM10.90 for a small box and the box of cereals, RM15.90.

Thankfully there are a few of these supermarkets that carry a variety of organic and GFCF food. Village Grocer even carries organic beef at their beef section. I bought a tray of stir-fry cuts of beef to cook for Jaden. A small step to begin his journey.

When the parents of these autistic children mentioned that their children's behavior became totally uncontrollable when they have casein or gluten in them, I didn't really understand what they meant until I saw Jaden acting out after having a few slices of the 6 Cheese in 1 pizza by Pizza Hut.

That was when Mr and I decided to do away with Casein (Dairy) stuff, and the timing just came nicely that Jaden's Enfagrow milk powder was finished. 

There will be quite a lot of changes I forsee.

There will soon be no more going out to eat, hiding from Jaden if we ever wanted a snack and well, going organic in everyway we could think of.

I look forward to Dr. Erwin Kay's help this coming Tuesday when we meet up with him and hope the tests would show us more to what we can do to help reverse this evil that lurks within our precious child.