Journal Entry from April 18, 2008

On Tuesday night, Thomas somehow found an oreo or a piece of one. Wednesday he never had a BM but was super gassy and smelly. Then yesterday morning, I got a call from daycare to say I had to pick him up because he had diarrhea. My night he was just about back to normal. It’s been a while since he’s had diarrhea. I think it’s only happened once in the past two months since he’s been on the diet. But of course the daycare’s policy is two diarrhea diapers and he is sent home, can’t come back for 24 hours and have to have a doctor’s note. This really sucks because he’s not actually sick. He never has a fever or any vomiting along with it. He eats just fine. And I’ve told them that a lot of autistic kids have GO problems. We got a name of a GI doc from our developmental ped. He specialized in autistic kids and the related GI issues. I figured that we would wait and see because Thomas has been doing so much better. But I think I will make an appt. It would be good to at least hear from a professional if we are on the right track or if there is anything else that we can do or have tested. It’s frustrating though. Sam was sick himself yesterday and he stayed home today. I really hope it doesn’t get him in trouble at work. They’re really picky about calling in sick. I called around and couldn’t find anyone to watch him today. It just sucks because we pay so much for daycare and it’s not like he is actually sick or anything, but we have to miss work and pay for a doctor…. Grrrr. But I appreciate their approach to keeping the other kids well. I just need to get a good doctor’s note. The last time I got a note, but did not keep a copy myself and they don’t have it anymore. Oh well. I’ll get another one and keep a copy and we’ll go see the specialist. We’ll get it figured out. I was kind of hoping that the diet was not working because it is a pain in the @ss to do all his meals for daycare, and it’s hard to do meals on the go. But it does seem to be working. It’s been two months so far. They say to give it three months and then one day give a couple crackers and see how he reacts. And then a week or two later, give him some cheese or a glass of milk and see how he reacts. I figure I’ll still do that in another month or so.

I was kind of proud of myself for making ravioli. They actually turned out OK. Thomas really likes them and the pasta is gluten free and actually tastes better than the ones we buy. I did not get it rolled out thin enough, so they were a bit doughy, but I will do them again. I used a recipe found on a celiac website for the pasta and a allrecipes.com recipe for the filling (squash). Next time I am going to try a mushroom recipe I found. It calls for cream cheese, and I found a tofu cream cheese (yuck). Hopefully mixed into the recipe it will be good. We also found a gluten-free bakery in S. Minneapolis (Madwoman Bakery). They are a bit expensive as all gluten-free things are. We tried a individual sized pizza that was really good. They also have these tea cakes that, again, are really price but good. They are kind of like a muffin. You wouldn’t know by the taste that they are gluten free. Very tasty. I will be going back to try more.