Detox diet - Blogging our journey

[KevinInMA]

Doesn't the shipping & handling cancel out the savings? Try Asian Market rice pasta, made out from water & rice. It is about $1 per pd. & so many varities & it taste WAY better. It is great in soup.

 

Specialty organic food is soo expensive. I am always looking at different ways to cut our grocery bill.

 

Pat

 

 

We have Prime. Would probably still have Prime if we didn't buy his food there. Amazon is my primary source for virtually all goods.

If we didn't we'd probably still be able to get by with the free shipping over $25 thing that they do.

[KevinInMA]

Another visit to Thea, our nutritionist. Hoping we would be able to start reintroducing some foods but she strongly recommended against it for a little longer. She was very convincing as to why so we're going to stay the course for a couple more months. Surprisingly, Brandon was not particularly annoyed by this; which is nice.

 

So a few adjustments to his supps and we're back at it for 6 more weeks.

 

She did mention that we could TRY switching to regular gluten free bread. We may just do that when we dine out and stick with the millet at home.

 

Can anyone give me an idea of what restaurants do when faced with gluten free customers? Like, do you ask for a gluten free bun for a burger or gluten free chicken fingers instead of the regular breading or stuff like that?

[gators]

When we were doing gluten free (no longer since we found out he is sensitive to dairy) the only place we ate out was Outback. They have a menu online and they were so nice when we questioned a few things. They will allow you to bring in your own bun if you would like to order a hamburger. I found they had a really great selection of gluten free items. Best of luck.

 

Leslie

[KevinInMA]

Outback is great! We love it there! Thanks for the recommendation.

 

Ya know, as I continue to come to various realizations about this diet and what it's done for us, there's one thing I've completely overlooked until now-

Brandon has had absolutely no trouble sleeping since right about the beginning of the year, right about when the tics were considered officially gone.

 

No trouble at all.

 

There are a few really nice side effects of this elimination diet. That is a BIG one.

[KevinInMA]

Curious, coughing has picked up a BIT. Might just be hypersensitivity. Might be nothing at all.

We've been using a little cow butter since Whole Foods was out of goat butter when we were there last.

Also started using commercial (Cains) mayonnaise a few weeks ago. Might be time to back up a bit.....

[KevinInMA]

I just remembered, a week or so ago I went back to giving him raspberry-lemon flavored Natural Calm after a couple months on unflavored. Raspberry is a VERY high salicylate offender!

 

CONNECTION!?

 

Probably.

Bye bye, flavored Natural Calm.

[mommyfor4]

I just remembered, a week or so ago I went back to giving him raspberry-lemon flavored Natural Calm after a couple months on unflavored. Raspberry is a VERY high salicylate offender!

 

CONNECTION!?

 

Probably.

Bye bye, flavored Natural Calm.

Hey Kevin, the rasp./lemon Natural Calm caused increased tics in our son. Went back to the original and no issues. Just thought I'd add that, although seems you've already seen a connection as well.

 

megan

[KevinInMA]

Thats comforting, Megan. The increase is not substantial AT ALL but, as I've said a million times, we're hypersensitive.

 

UNFORTUNATELY, I just ordered a 16oz container of the raspberry lemon for $18 on Amazon. I usually pay $25 for the 8oz everywhere else.

 

I guess thats going back or something.....

[KevinInMA]

One thing we've never really associated with tics is the fact that he scratches the base of his nose very very frequently. He says it's itchy and it's never really been a major issue but he still does it a LOT. He used to do it to the point where it bled a couple times. It's not doing that anymore. I've started putting Gold Bond on it to see if the anti-itch properties make any difference. Can't seem to tell yet.

I hope it's not related... I REALLY hope it's not.

 

 

On the plus side, within a day or so of ditching the flavored Natural Calm the cough was gone, so THATS something.

[KevinInMA]

I received a bunch of questions from someone in a private message that I felt it might be helpful to post publicly:

 

1. Do you allow wheat and/or gluten?

Currently- no. It's not part of the diet at all.

 

2. do you allow any type of dairy

Yes. He uses goat butter when we use butter (which is relatively frequently) and cow milk in scrambled eggs and thats it. Dairy is the first thing I want to add back in mostly because I don't think it's a problem.

 

3. Do you still use unflavored natural calm - and if so, is it 2x/day

So here's the thing about that- When we started the diet we were using the raspberry/lemon natural calm so I wanted to use up the rest of it. By the time I used it up, the tics were at a minimum but still there a little (late december). Then we switched to the unflavored and mixed it with Pomegranate juice cuz it's gross alone. We just finished up that bottle about a week and a half ago so I tried to switch back to the raspberry/lemon flavored one and it SEEMED like the tics came back. After a couple days I bought the unflavored one again and within a day or so all was well again.

This continues to lead us down the salicylate allergy road since raspberries are high in salicylate and Natural Calm uses natural raspberry flavor.

It's also 2x/ day.

 

4. If you do still use natural calm - does your son have constant diarreah and or mildly upset stomach? I know I did....

This happened once when we were trying to tune in the dosage. Once it did we backed off to 1 teaspoon twice a day and it's never been a problem since.

He's 62 lbs.

 

5. do you find that salicylites are a big no-no - or can some foods work?

This is what we're thinking is the problem so we don't do any foods in the VERY high salicylate category and very infrequent foods from the high category as seem here:

www.salicylatesensitivity.com

 

6. did you find an issue with tomatoes and other night-shades?

It's not so much that we found an issue with them, it's that his diet limits nightshades to NONE. They may not be a problem at all but we won't know until we try to add them in. HOWEVER, many nightshades including tomato is high in salicylate.

 

7. what about Soy

No soy in his diet.

 

8. do you still only buy organic meats?

I've determined that if I were to buy only organic meats I would be bankrupt. Whole Foods meats are HORRIBLY expensive. We have a local butcher we go to that we trust. It's better than grocery story beef but not quite Whole Foods.

 

9. does your son eat sugar - such as organic cane sugar. I add that to decaf coffee - along with half-and-half - but have been questioning that move.

He's not supposed to but he does. Processed sugar and cane sugar are very low in salicylate, as is maple syrup. The kid eats way too much maple syrup. It's the only thing we're bendy on because it hasn't affected him at all and it's a low salicylate food. He eats VERY LITTLE sugar, but when he does its in the form of a singe medium-sized gluten free cookie from whole foods.

Maple syrup is for pancakes.

 

 

10. I know you posted a list of your sons vitamins/supplements before - is that still your general formula? I read it, and wasn't familiar with a number of the items, but probably because I just use the Bontech program that many on this site are using.

Yup, she makes tiny changes here and there but what he's taking is still pretty much that. Some things are digestion aids like enzymes and probiotics, others are just straight vitamins. She changes it up a little bit every time we go but so far nothing major.

[KevinInMA]

Smart people of the internet- I need your advice.

Today I went to see a play in Boston. There was a girl sitting behind me, about 12 years old, with her sister and her father.

She had what seemed to me to be a pretty pronounced throat clearing tic throughout the whole show.

I wanted to approach her dad after the show and tell him what we're doing for our son and that she may be ale to help but I just couldn't come up with a way to say something that didn't seem like it could be taken as offensive.

 

How do I even start something like that? I hate to see people going through this when there may be an answer for them, and in this case, pretty close to home?

 

How would YOU want someone to talk to you about this? Or would you not even want unsolicited advice?

 

I can't figure out how I'd want to hear it, or if I would....

[KevinInMA]

Does anybody want to buy a 16 oz bottle of Natural Calm w/ Calcium Raspberry/Lemon flavor for $25 shipped? Thats what I paid for it and thats half the price you pay pretty much anywhere.

It's unopened. I wish I could have cancelled the shipment before they sent it.

[mommyfor4]

Smart people of the internet- I need your advice.

Today I went to see a play in Boston. There was a girl sitting behind me, about 12 years old, with her sister and her father.

She had what seemed to me to be a pretty pronounced throat clearing tic throughout the whole show.

I wanted to approach her dad after the show and tell him what we're doing for our son and that she may be ale to help but I just couldn't come up with a way to say something that didn't seem like it could be taken as offensive.

 

How do I even start something like that? I hate to see people going through this when there may be an answer for them, and in this case, pretty close to home?

 

How would YOU want someone to talk to you about this? Or would you not even want unsolicited advice?

 

I can't figure out how I'd want to hear it, or if I would....

 

Hi Kevin, I've been mulling this over since I've also been in similar situation. But there are so many variables. The biggest being are the parents even open to the term tic? So many people recoil from this term and it sends fear rushing at them. My husband's mother for one still argues that he did not have tics and if he did they were not anything like our son's. My husband strongly disagrees! A very close friend has a son with tics and a toddler recently diagnosed with autism and SPD issues with all her kids to some extent yet is uncomfortable with labelling tics...

There is so much fear involved for many people so you never know the reaction you may get unless you know the person is searching for answers and even then unfortunately in my experience unsolicited advice doesn't always sit well...but what if they are the few who would jump at it and feel relief at an avenue that could work? I just dont' know. Sorry not too helpful...will have to take each case as it presents I guess and go with our guts.

 

Megan

[mythree]

Thanks Kevin for the link to the foods with salicylate's in them. My daughters have been doing well - and I went out and bought two tubs of rasberries ( I hadn't thought of the salicylate connection). They have been eating tons, and I have noticed my older daughters breathing tics have increased and she has started a wrist snap. My younger daughter is rubbing/picking her nose constantly. I never would have thought of the rasberries possibly being the culprit - thanks!!

[KevinInMA]

Thanks Megan. I guess it's one of those things you just need to gauge when it's happening and go with your gut.

 

@mythree- Your post has me wondering if we're not as out-of-the-woods as we think we are with respect to the nose scratching.

I'm going to have to put some more thought into this (in other words- worry about this) and maybe discuss it with Thea. There might be more to it than it seems.