Bye-bye cheese

[celticdragonfly]

The week before last, Jamie was having a very rough week. Acting difficult, communicating poorly or not at all, lots of stimming, and lots of awful diapers. Speech therapy with Kathy last week was pretty bad - mostly did some PT for him and discussed prospects for him needing continued help after age 3. Sigh.

I kept looking at these awful diapers and thinking I *KNOW* I'm not letting him get anything with eggs in it, what is the problem? It occurred to me maybe it was something else in his diet. Started thinking about taking dairy out, as the first step of seeing if he needs GFCF like Brendan does. Oh, I hope he doesn't, that was such a pain. Started thinking how can I do that, he eats SO much cheese - then realized oh no, it's exactly the mental train of thought that most parents use to explain why their kid can't go on GFCF, but generally means they really need it. Well, not as bad as some of them are, but still.

So for a week Jamie has been very low dairy. I'm not scrutinizing labels on everything the way I did for Brendan, but no cheese, nothing with cheese in it, avoiding anything with obvious milk.

His diapers are significantly improved. His speech is improved. I think his behavior is improved - he'll take the thumb out of his mouth more often, I'm getting kisses again - whole clusters of them. He's easier to be around. He's taking more interest in early potty training.

I'm having very mixed feelings. Glad of the improvement, annoyed to think I'm going to have to keep ANOTHER major ingredient out of his diet. Although really it's too early to be sure - it *might* just be he had a bad week, and is having a good week, and it's not connected. Need to keep him off it for a while longer, then maybe test it. Gah.

We're out of bread, and between needing it for more nondairy food options (please please don't let him need to go wheat free...) and wanting to avoid the usual buttermilk bread we buy, I'm baking today. It's a dairy-free three-rising batter rising bread, a lot of work but it's supposed to produce a very fine loaf. We'll see how it does.

I'm tired - in addition to being halfway through bread baking, today I made hot breakfasts for Karl and the kids, took out trash, am doing laundry, did dishes, cleaned and vacuumed the living room, bathed and dressed the kids, swept the kitchen, and got Jamie through speech. Which went pretty well, LOTS better than last week. Now I'm making their lunches.

Comments

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

Poor boo, I appreciate you!

My mother's on wheat free right now so therefore so am I. Right after I had made a boatload of the Family Spaghetti Sauce, good timing. Rice noodles are our friends! But both of us seem to be having significantly less tummy trouble so it's worthwhile.

Holding the good thoughts for Jamie here!

[castiron.livejournal.com]

Oh, bleah. Yeah, hopefully it won't extend to gluten too.

[shadefell.livejournal.com]

Oh, dang, that's such a hassle!

Do they like wraps at all? A lot of tortilla recipes are just flour/water/fat/little bit of salt. Just roll up the sandwich and go.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

I remember trying to use tortillas to wrap around things when I was first working out Brendan's GFCF diet. Totally did not work. They crunched and crumbled. I don't know from Mexican cooking, and since I don't like it, I don't really want to learn.

And I'm still hoping that the kid just needs minimal dairy, and I can make lovely wheat breads.

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

"burrito-size" flour tortillas might be an option if you want to try doing a wrap with a filling they already like. They are larger than the usual tortilla, and thus a LOT easier to actually wrap around the innards.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

It wasn't the size, it was the crack and break. And really, I'm not into Mexican style foods.

[joyslin.livejournal.com]

When using Tortillas, if you heat them, they are less likely to break and crumble. Try about 3 seconds in the microwave. Put them on a microwave safe plate or paper towel.

[tepintzin.livejournal.com]

Or you can do as we Mexicans do and roast them for about 10 seconds each side on a gas range!

[tepintzin.livejournal.com]

Try soy milk. Most kids really like it and the only thing I don't like it for is putting in coffee because it emulsifies--but that's not an issue for little kids. I put it on cereal, cook with it, etc.

I'm lactose intolerant. I can handle aged cheeses, but that's it. Ice cream is OUT, no amount of Lactaid pills can handle it for me. Soft cheeses I can deal with to a certain extent with Lactaid. I use Lactaid milk for cereal if I don't have soy around, and even in my coffee and tea. I was allergic to milkfat as a kid, and grew up on skim milk. (Ugh) Soy's a better option.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

The thing is, the kids don't drink milk. We cook with it some, yes. But not drink it. Mainly they eat a lot of cheese and a lot of mac-n-cheese. They don't even have it with cereal much, although Jamie occasionally will be willing to do that. Generally they have cereal dry.

[coalboy.livejournal.com]

Oh, no!