We're a gluten for punishment

Alternately titled:

Soy ya later

or

Don't you dairy eat that

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Jello makes me gag. Not the taste but the texture. One day when I was in elementary school, I had a stomach ache. Some kid sitting beside me at lunch one day scooped all of his red jello into his mouth, looked at me and squished it through his teeth, spitting it onto his lunch tray.

I puked my own red jello all over myself and the table. To this day the texture of jello makes me queasy.

My point is, food affects us. All of us. Though my example above is a trivial one, you see my point. Nearly 25 years ago a simple thing changed the way I interact with a specific food.

We have a precious child who brings life, laughter and joy into our home. However, with her comes DRAMA. And I'm not talking about your typical drama where someone hits her or takes her toy and she looses it (though that happens as well). I'm talking about IRRATIONAL DRAMA.

Like, "THERE'S AN ANT!!! I'M GOING TO DIIIIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!! THE ANT IS GOING TO KILLLLLLLL MEEEEEEE!!!!" (Insert screams likened to those of someone being seared by hot coals repeatedly.)

Granted, our little treasure doesn't say those specific words because she's usually too busy drooling, screaming and clawing her way to the furthest corner of the house to use actual words. But you get the idea.

Bugs freak her out to put it mildly. She can fall down and scrape her knee open to bleeding and have a normal response. But if she bumps - or possibly barely scrapes her leg - on something much less painful, wails and thrashing ensues and our treasure LOSES HER EVER LOVING MIND.

Sand goes directly into her hair and impulse control? It's non-existent. She's been loosely diagnosed with sensory processing disorder, though I'm sure none of her medical charts say those exact words. But our sweet girl is certainly sensory seeking. Screaming, yelling, hammering, loud clapping, whooping and slapping are just a few of the (more annoying) ways our princess seeks sensory input.

Her impulsivity goes beyond the normal irrational impulsivity of children her age. If I directly ask her not to do something, she will look at me, smile and then do the exact thing I just told her not to do, despite knowing the consequence of her disobedience. She was drumming on the couch one afternoon near where Abigail was laying. Casually, I said "Please be careful or you will hit Abigail and hurt her." Our girl looked at me, looked at Abigail, a sly smile crept across her face and before I could yell "NO!" she hauled off and slapped Abigail in the face. Which is NOT in character for her. She loves her baby sister, all of our girls do. And they all dote on her endlessly with kisses and coos.

I feel like we are very consistent parents and we administer consequences for disobedience quickly and routinely. In fact, our little sweetie can often tell us the result of her disobedience when we sit down to talk with her before her consequence is administered.

Our treasure goes to one hour of Occupational Therapy per week and gets weekly adjustments at the chiropractor. Even still, our sweet baby girl just continues to display the behaviors listed above, plus a few that I've omitted.

I am quickly coming to the end of the knowledge that I have.

In December/January I read this book on child discipline (and I recommend it highly!) and through a series of events and conversations, realized that one of our pediatricians has done quite a bit of research on diet and how the food our children (and adults) eat can impact ADD/ADHD, sensory processing and host of other commonly diagnosed disorders.

We had some blood work done on our sweet girl and while none of it was absolutely, without a doubt conclusive, our pediatrician has suggested we do a two week trial period where we exclude all gluten, soy and dairy.

So, we're going to give it a try. I went grocery shopping today and MAN it was hard to find things without gluten, soy AND dairy. Usually eliminating one wasn't difficult but all 3 is very hard.

So, my friends, what do you suggest? Have you ever lived gluten, dairy and soy free or any combination of those?

We are a fairly healthy eating family and I typically cook the vast majority of our meals. But I know this trial period will not be easy. Our prayer is that we try for two week and either see a MAJOR improvement or none at all. At least then we can know where to go from there.

Thank goodness Jello isn't a staple food of a gluten, soy and dairy free diet. Or else, I'd be a gluten for punishment, wouldn't you say?

Ba doom ching.