Diet Update

Well we've successfully completed 3 weeks of the Feingold Diet! It's working. Big time. The last 3 weekends were totally enjoyable. We've had a couple slip ups, and they were doozies. I'm pretty sure that he's particularly sensitive to the preservatives added to foods. The first reaction we saw was to a couple pepperonis that had BHA & BHT listed on the label. I let him have them out of curiosity. That was a big mistake! He acted totally irrationally and out of control. The second issue we had was after he dipped some celery in some ranch at a friend's pool last week. I was getting Madelyn out of the pool and didn't realize he had gotten into it. I told him that he could have the celery, but didn't say anything about dipping in the ranch. By the time we got home he was totally out of control and aggressive. Of course, Heath wasn't home. So, for about an hour, I tried to deal with him while making dinner. It was a nightmare, and I hope that we don't see many more episodes like that. The good thing is, he seems to get it. He realizes that the food makes him act this way, and he doesn't like it.

Of course, it's not easy. Over the weekend I baked 2 dozen cupcakes to have on hand to take with us to birthday parties and send to school and daycare for times when other kids bring in birthday treats. We went to our first birthday party yesterday. We've been able to avoid a few others because we were at the lake. Luckily the party yesterday was my friend's kids, so I didn't feel too crazy telling her I'm bringing our own cupcakes...They did have a pinata, and I let Brody have 2 pieces of candy and prayed for no reaction. Luckily, he was fine. I know that I probably shouldn't even let him cheat, but it's hard.

We had one small victory over the weekend with him, too. He went to the neighbor's to play, and his mom offered Brody a snack. He told her that he had to go get a snack from his own house. So proud of him!

We always knew he was a really great kid, we just went through a rough patch there for a while. I'm hoping we can put that all behind us. Our new challenge is now sticking to the diet. As long as we eat at home, it's not a big deal. But of course that isn't possible all of the time, so we just need to be prepared and make accommodations.

Brody's doing great in school, too. I was really worried about how he would do, and the teacher has had nothing bad to say about him. I'm so glad we went with our gut to send him to half day kindergarten because he is tired when he gets picked up everyday! I'm so glad that we figured out the food issues before school started. I can't imagine how stressful it would be to deal with it all if he was having the same issues that he was having at daycare at school.