We've gone natural . . .

I have put off writing this post for fear that putting it in writing might jinx us. After a solid two and a half weeks though, my confidence is growing. Most of you know about Grant's PDD-NOS/ADHD issues (if not, scan through my old posts and you'll find it). Any parent will tell you that if something hindering your kid from being all they can be, you will do just about anything to fix it.

When your kid is on the Autism Spectrum, you hear of a new cure, treatment, or cause just about every week--mega-doses of vitamins, mega-doses of therapy, just wait it out, get rid of dairy products, get rid of gluten, get rid of (fill in the blank). So when my mom told me about some success that a friend of hers had with the Feingold Program, I listened, but some what skeptically. After several conversations, I was more intrigued and even held out a reserved hope (sounds bad, but you kind of don't want to go all out in hoping, for fear of being let down and losing confidence in trying to find something that will help your kid). When my mom volunteered to buy the necessary materials, I decided that we were willing to give it our best.

Very simply put the Feingold Program is a system of dietary and environmental changes that eliminate artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, and certain preservatives. (The environmental changes are in terms of cleaning products and self care products such as shampoo and sunscreen.) In the beginning, certain fruits and vegetables are eliminated because they have a naturally occurring chemical that is problematic to some people. Once you learn if you (or Grant)reacts to that chemical, these fruits and veggies may be put back into the diet.

The night before we were going to start the program, I cleaned out our kitchen. I threw away any opened packages of food that contained any of the forbidden substances and donated any unopened packages to a local food pantry. Let me tell you that while we eat a relatively healthy diet anyway, I am still amazed at how many things in our cabinet contained artificial additives. Seriously, do we really need our pasta to be neon orange and our toothpaste bright blue?

So, long story short . . . two and a half weeks later, we have a different kid. We started to notice a change in Grant's behavior about three days into the dietary change, but we told ourselves that he's had good days before so we tried not to get our hopes up that it was the diet causing the change. (We are pretty fortunate, because from all I've read it can take some people up to six weeks to notice a change . . . we appreciate the almost immediate gratification.) When people who did not know that we were doing anything different started commenting on changes they were noticing in Grant, we were thrilled. Some of the changes we are noticing: he's more calm, he seems happier, he is more interested in social interactions, he is asking more social questions than ever before, he is able to follow directions much better, he is able to attend to a task longer than before, and he is having far fewer meltdowns. It's really amazing. So . . . while I don't think we've necessarily found a cure for his developmental issues, I do think we are doing something that is helping him cope and focus. I have to believe that being able to focus and handle social interactions better will help him catch up with his peers in areas where he's behind. It feels good to feel like we have some more control over all of this . . .