Yes, I know I am WAAAAAY behind on the postings. Baseball came into our lives full swing (no pun intended). All things considered I put the blog on the back burner. Slap my wrist and lets move forward.
Lately, Ive been on the receiving end of several compliments in regards to my son's behavior. One person even went as far to exclaim that he was a "Whole new kid!"; well to all of you GFCF skeptics out there: With my tongue stuck out and hands on my hips, I told you so!
For years fingers have been pointed in all different directions; ADD, ADHD, Depression, Anger Management, every psychiatric term available. We've done counseling, workshops, testing, psychiatrist. The school has sent state agencies to my home concerned by my son's behavior. I have broken down into countless tears and fits of rage myself trying to determine where I as a parent went wrong.
My biggest mistake: Ignoring my own instincts and listening to everybody else. The bottom line folks in regards to any concern for your children of any matter. YOU ARE THE PROFESSIONAL. YOU know your child better than any other "professional" does and my eleven years of experience (plus those few years as a step mom and then the few years before that as a very active nanny) as a mother has taught me that your instincts will guide you in the right direction.
The Change:
When Austin was in Preschool he would constantly develop a migraine headache, at least 2 a week. I concerned myself with all of the possibilities and took him back to the pediatrician over and over and over again. Once demanding a C-scan simply to rule out a tumor. And another time asking if he could potentially be allergic to milk. At which point our (now fired ) doctor looked me up and down as though to say "You foolish young mom" gave me a chart to complete and sent me to the store for Benedryl concluding my child was getting car sickness. Looking back on this I am half inclined to send an email to this said Pediatrician and point out to him that he is clearly incompetent....but I wont. Five years later I have come to learn that I (as I so often am) was right.
The interim between the two events has been very difficult and painful but alas I decided to follow that gut feeling and took my son to a Naturopathic for some food-allergy testing. She took one good hard look at him, gently tugged on his lower eyelid and exclaimed that he was allergic to dairy. Talk about an Ah ha moment!
We have been committed to excluding any and all dairy from our diet for about 8 months now and the results have been jaw dropping. Now I am keeping in mind that my son is now a pre-teen and with that comes puberty and with that comes some what of an emotional roller coaster but for the most part his behavior is MUCH more pleasant. He laughs, sings, he's made a whole new circle of friends, he cooperates better and recently exceeded the state standards in his Reading and Science. And most of all I am a much happier mom!
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