Happy Birthday Hayden Grace!!!!March 22, 2010... a new beginning for Hayden!
Not only is today her 2nd birthday, it is the beginning of a whole new adventure for Hayden. Today, Hayden celebrated her first day being gluten (which includes all wheat, oat, barley), casein (dairy - milk, cheese, and yogurt), peanut and soy-free. We celebrated with tasty GF brownies! Yum! They were a hit all around the McCurdy household.
Hayden had blood testing that determined sensitivity to 96 common foods. On a scale of 0-3 (3 being most sensitive), Hayden tested a 3 for gluten, wheat, rye, peanut, cow's milk, cheese, and yogurt. She rated a 2 for lamb and soybean and a 1 for barley, beef, coconut, egg whites, baker's yeast, green peas malt, and mustard.
Why are we testing for food sensitivity and dramatically altering her diet? I read a book called "Disconnected Kids", written by the creator of a program philosophy called "Brain Balance". The thought process is that certain people have challenges fully digesting nutrients in the stomach. These foods, not fully broken down into usable nutrients, enter the bloodstream and travel to the brain. They cloud the brain like opiate drugs, causing the individual a myrad of negative effects, including lack of concentration, comprehension, processing and verbal expression. The gluten free/casein free diet has proven quite successful with many autistic, ADHD, Asperger's and other sensory processing disordered children.
While still not fully accepted by the medical community, we are fortunate to have an amazing pediatrician on our team who thinks outside the traditional box. She, like us, is learning with Hayden. We decided per her recommendation and my interest in testing Hayden for her sensitivities, esp. recognizing that Hayden's condition, albeit different, shares many similar characteristics of autism. Needless to say, the results of the bloodwork excited me. Finally I feel like we are being proactive rather than reactive with her condition.
Hayden was quite ill last week, suffering a head cold that developed into bronchitis and sinusitis. She didn't sleep for days because of her struggles with breathing and not feeling well. Her fever climbed to 104.7 by Friday evening and although the congestion finally loosened up a bit on Sunday, blood drained from her nose all day yesterday and today. The positive in the past week is that Hayden began eliminating milk products from her diet before we officially began the diet (milk and congestion are not the best of friends).
The amazing observation with this cease of milk (casein): Hayden, for the first time we can remember, tried to really play with Hailey in the bathtub last night, focusing on 1 toy rather than grasping at whatever was around. Later, she truly played with mommy, holding eye contact and laughing with me. Today, even more improvements - when Aunt Kelly came over and walked into the living room to say Hi Hayden, Hayden looked right at her and gave her the biggest smile! Even Aunt Kelly was amazed! My favorite moment, one which I will cherish forever, is when Hayden crawled over to me while I lay on the floor, rested her head on my shoulder and closed her eyes. She opened them, smiled at me, then closed them again before taking a nap. The sweet gesture of my little birthday angel made my heart melt even more for my little girl.
Is it worth the 2 hours I spent wandering the aisles of the store today, reading every label of each item I picked up? If I can continue to have moments like today, I will read every label of every item in every aisle of every store I enter. Do I believe this new diet will cure her? -no, but do I think it will help bring Hayden out of her little world and be more a part of ours? - I have to believe it with my whole heart.
So, happy birthday my little Angel! I can not wait to see what we learn this year!
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