Tuesday, October 2, 2007

A fussy spell; what causes it?

Austin has been so whiny after nap today. Coincidentally, I just read on GFCF mommy's blog that when her prince does this (well more like not being his usual self), she has to look carefully at what he has eaten. Today Austin had two new (sort of) food items. He had a plum with his lunch today and for an afternoon snack, he had some apple cinnamon rice cakes. He has had plum before but only in baby food and he has had apples, apple chips, and cinnamon on toast and french toast before. Of course, since Ausin has shown no improvement on this diet it could also just be exactly what it is, a whining spell which he has been known to have from time to time. Tomorrow we will try a plum again and on Thurdsday we will try the rice cakes again. I really hope it is not either. One of my friends came up with a great idea for snacks or lunches. She suggested peanut butter and jelly on rice cakes which would be great for a toddler lunch. Of course I don't use peanut butter but I've heard peabutter is great stuff!

4 comments:

N said...

hmm I've never thought of food causing the fussy spells, but it makes sense. With Victor, he usually is fussier when he is getting sick, is sick, or is teething. Are all those ruled out?

Peabutter, huh? I was going to suggest almond butter but you are probably avoiding tree nuts as well. There's apple butter but thats more like jelly than peanut butter. Victor loves chocolate spread but its not very healthy! I give it to him on apple slices as a snack. (I have both the dairy and the dairy-free kind)

GFCF Mommy said...

Don't make yourself too crazy over identifying foods that might cause fussiness. My son has been GFCF for 3 years now, so if he starts acting differently, it is obvious to me. I've seen patterns with him, so I can tell. Your baby is still so young.

And food isn't always the cause of every behavior! That's what is so frustrating, isn't it?! Trying to figure out the cause. It still frustrates me!

I also wanted to say to you and your friends not to worry if you don't see an immediate effect. I think seeing "Eureka" results in 2 weeks or less is kind of rare. Sometimes you can see a "withdrawal" reaction that quickly, and if you had seen that you would know it, your child would resemble the Tasmanian Devil! LOL! But with my son it was more gradual.

We started going dairy-free first. His big trouble was diarrhea and that did clear up in about two weeks, as well as his continual nasal congestion. But having "the fog lift" didn't come until maybe one or two months of being totally GFCF.

Hang in there, give it at least a couple of months. Also remember it may not be something your child needs, and if not, at least you know you tried and you have ruled it out. That is just as much something to be proud of too.

Katherine

Unknown said...

"Eureka" results...LOL. My only concern there is if I see results in 2 months, how will I know it is the diet and not just progress that would have been made regardless?? I know, I know, I'm such a skeptic but I can't help it! :)

tcd said...

J,

One thing you need to remember is that with gluten, it can take up to a year for all the gluten to leave his system, so patience is a must. I agree with Katherine - the more experience you have with the diet, the easier it is to tell when a reaction is due to food. We have been doing the diet for five years now, and we can tell when Helena has eaten something she shouldn't have because of the way her behavior changes.

I want to suggest another therapy to you that may really benefit Austin, and that is hippotherapy. In fact, I think I am going to post about our experiences with hippotherapy later this week. We did this with both Helena and Olivia and it was really beneficial. We started with Olivia when she was around 2 or so, and it was instrumental in getting her back to age appropriate development. With Helena, we did it from both an OT and a PT persepctive, and it really aided in her development as well.

Hang in there. You have a lot of friends out here in blogland who support you.

Thomas