We have family who live in Saint Louis, MO so we decided to head out that way for a short weekend trip last weekend. This was really my first "trip" on the diet with Gabe. To make matters worse, Mike wasn't going along to help me. Yikes, I know! I luckily asked my mom to go with me and she gladly accepted. It took me two whole days pretty much to get all Gabe's meals prepared and ready to go. I thought I had it pretty well covered. Boy was I wrong!
We got to Saint Louis and met our family at a little farm restaurant called "Eckert's" and were planning to have lunch. I asked the waitress if she could make Gabe a PLAIN hamburger patty with clean utensils and no seasonings. She said yes that would be no problem and the rest of my family got a buffet style Fried chicken dinner. My aunt, who loves Gabe very much but isn't use to the diet yet, thought it would be ok to give him a piece of fried chicken without checking with me first. After he had already chewed and swallowed it, she asked if he could have a piece and when I freaked out and said no she told me that she had already given him one piece. Oh My Gosh..... I was scared/upset/sick/worried/etc. Everyone seemed to think I was over-reacting a lot about it I think, but it's hard when you work SO HARD to do this diet and then one little thing sets you back. It's really frustrating to Mike and I and we aren't sure how sensitive Gabe really is to things just yet. Has anyone else experienced anything like this? I was so upset. Needless to say, Gabe was fine that day and the next but right when we got home we noticed that his stool completely changed again (it had been the best it's ever been before we left!) and he has been acting crazy again. He is super hyper, pooping a lot, not talking as much, a lot less eye contact, he is playing with toys very inapropriately again, his yelling and stimming are worse than they have been for months....etc. It is soooooo dissapointing, but I guess it really has shown us that the diet WORKS for Gabe. So that is a light in this darkness! Now if only I could know how long this set back will last. I read in Jenny McCarthy's new book that Dr. Kartzinel's son could eat a crouton sized piece of gluten or casein and have a 2 week set back. That seems crazy to me, so I really hope that isn't the case for every kid! Speaking of which, that book is really good so far! If only I had more time to sit and read it. he he
From this experience, we have learned that we can no longer trust going out to eat. We are going to stay in from now on at least for a while. It won't be too hard to do as we have been staying in about 90% of the time we have been on Gabe's new diet anyways. I just think that the risk is too high for cross-contamination in restaurants, no matter how careful the people are. It isn't fair to risk Gabe's health just to go get a fancy dinner that we could make cheaper at home anyways. Lazy me! :)
I hope everyone has a great Father's Day!
Friday, June 19, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hi-I've read your last couple of posts and found them really interesting. Do you mind if I follow your blog? I have a son 2 1/2 (named Gabe also) who was recently diagnosed with ASD. We've just had our first visit with a DAN doc, and will be starting GFCF soon. Best wishes, Cari.
ReplyDeletehttp://snowdawegners.blogspot.com/
Of course! I am so happy that you are starting the diet early! I wish I had the last three years back...I would have done many things differently! Please let me know if you have any questions...I will try my best to help answer them if I can! Not sure if you've checked yet, but generation rescue has a spot on their website for Rescue Angels and I found a wonderful friend who lives close to me and I asked her a million questions. She was fantaztic and it was so nice to know that I wasn't alone in all of this! Just a thought! My email address is jadepjoseph@gmail.com if you ever want to email me! :) Good luck with the diet.
ReplyDeleteThanks SO much! You are so kind. I will def email you soon. Love the GR site, and have actually emailed a rescue angel, but have heard no response; maybe I'll try again. So glad you've seen results from the diet, I'm am guessing my Gabe is a good candidate too. I'll be in touch:)
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh...that's the exact thing that caused a Christmas blow-out between me and my in-laws. We no longer speak. No kidding. It's baaaad. Infractions suck!
ReplyDeleteNot overreacting about the fried chicken AT ALL ... if you told people your son was allergic to something and would stop breathing, everyone would check with ... GFCF seems to carry a different connotation to people
ReplyDeleteAs ThinkingGirl mentioned, tell people your son is allergic to things and you will run into less problems. A friend who is a celiac told me she tells servers in restaurants this all the time (and in her case, it's basically true!) and that we should do the same. We do not go out to eat a lot but I have learned to sometimes use this so that we don't get the comments/snide remarks or whatever other "input" people feel they have to contribute.
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone! It is so hard dealing with food issues. We do not go out to eat often either. Although, we have tried a few places locally and had GREAT experiences when we asked to speak to the head manager on duty, who then speaks directly with the cooks/chef. They are MUCH more trained/informed than the servers are and tend to put way more thought and cation in to the preparations. Just a tip! I'm going to blog about it I think in case I can help others! It's so nice to find a few restaraunts to go out once in a while! :)
ReplyDelete