8.05.2003

Reduced Sugar Dieting

Leelo is on a reduced sugar diet today. The goal is to weed out all yeast-feeding sugar sources by Sunday, when we put him on anti-yeasty drugs. He was okay with it for the most part, and had significantly fewer 'nutter' outbursts.

Spent a good long while at Whole Foods today looking for things that he can potentially eat. Today's candidates and reactions were:

-Pear juice (low sugar juice recommended by his DAN doctor): Qapla'!
-Raspberries: Good for smushing and making things indelibly red
-Whole Foods Veggie Chips: Satisfying crunch when smushed, lack sufficient heft to qualify as projectile
-Pine Nuts: Did not register

So at least we've got a juice source for mixing in the supplement/medication cocktails he'll be taking soon. Dr. Prattle and all those books assure us that Leelo will not starve--if he gets hungry enough, he will eat the food we give him. Seymour questions whether or not this is true for autistic kids since they're out of touch with themselves in so many other ways. I haven't heard or read of any truly difficult kids' adjustments to the GF/CF sugar-free diet, and so am going on faith here. He already looks a lot slimmer, and not just because of the haircut.

Avoided dealing with Dr. G, our traditional pediatrician, by cancelling both kids' appointments for now. I claimed that Leelo was ill. See, Dr. G's office manager/gate keeper is also his wife, and I suspect she will be most unpleasant in hearing that we want to explore DAN methods for dealing with Leelo's autism. Why: the day after Leelo was diagnosed with autism, I took him to Dr. G because of yet another ear infection. Dr. G was not available, but kind sweet Dr. N was. I wanted her to know about his diagnosis to see if she knew of any resources, but didn't make it through my rehearsed shpiel--I broke down and started sobbing. Poor Dr. N got wide-eyed, patted my shoulder and gave me some niceties about a possible high-functioning or Asperger's condition, and bolted for the office. A few minutes later Dr. G's wife came in and gently tried to calm me down, but in the course of doing so mentioned that I shouldn't listen to a lot of these people who will want to put Leelo on crazy diets or send him into therapy for 40 hours per week. I really don't think she is going to want to hear about me expecting her husband to be responsible for Leelo's general health while we delay important vaccinations for at least 6 months. Oh, and restrict his diet severely and whack him out with all these supplements. And slap him with 30 or so hours of therapy per week. I believe I will schedule a debriefing with Dr. G himself if I can get past the guard. (To be fair, from a liability perspective I wouldn't blame him for dropping Leelo. I just want to hear this from him, not his wife).

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